Hey Nathan I know its tough, but make sure your taking a little time and rest for yourself. I can hear a bit of defeat in your voice on this video. Thanks for taking the time on these as always!
Great video as always Nathan. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into your channel each week in addition to your bee business. I look forward to your video each week, especially as it is moving into winter here is Aus and I can’t get into my bees.
I like your dip tank Nathan, I wana build myself one so bad I think I'll go single chamber. I have really learned a lot watching your build your business thank much Nathan. You and your family have a wonderful Lords Day...
I know this may be frustrating at times, but your Bee Business Vlogs are teaching me what do to for myself I'm currently at 2/3 hives (not sure if one will make it) and slowly trying to make it either a sideline business or main job 5 years down the road so thanks for showing us all the pros and cons so people like me can learn before we make a mistake that you could or have warned us about :D
I don't know if you have tried this or not, but if you know which hives have swarmed a lot of times you can get anywhere from one to 10 virgins running around in that hive. I always carry Queen cages with me so If i run across 1 of them all i need to do is make however many mating nucs as i need. that will make up for some of the honey you might have lost. That way you have spare Queens all the time. Good luck.
It’s been a tough year for TN beekeepers it seems. Kamon is having a bad year. Going to see skipper today for some equipment, but last I talked to him he didn’t have a great flow either. I’ve been slightly average maybe a little below and I’m 30 miles south of skipper. Right on the border of AL and TN. My south AL yards have done alright though. Great video as always bud.
Have thought about getting a 1980s sweat band to wear to fight the sweat dripping off my face. And I sweat enough my glasses fall off in my veil fortunately I can see up close without them. Lol
I’ve caught 2 swarms this year and 2 swarms last year that were in hazelnut trees next to my apiary. They must like those because of all the shade. Very easy to capture since they are low growing too
Nathan your doing great following you from Ireland.. All that equipment is a massive investment i wish you luck for the season .. you should try clipping your queens
Would love a clip of you dipping a couple boxes to see that tank in action. Nice build! And yes, the rain is certainly a-plenty this year seems everywhere…. ❤🐝🐝 in Northern IL. Take care.
At 11:17 you discuss the likelihood of queen returning. With 3 chances at 75% each, the probability of 3 good queens is 42%, 2 good queens is 84%. Getting at least one good queen out of your stack of 3 is 98%. I like your redundant efforts.
I’m curious about the swarming. Do you know what the circumstances are that resulted in many swarming off and causing you grief? Or is this something that’s unavoidable as you target your honey crop during the swarm season?
Deep topic, it’d make a great discussion topic with me, you, and Bob. Some context - maybe 10-12% of my production colonies tried to swarm, about 5% of them did swarm, and I lost swarms from 2-3%. So overall I don’t think it was that bad, I just lost some honey production capacity and ended up with more nucs. The why behind it can be a lot of things. Some years are worse than others. I saw more swarm impulse in the bees this year compared to last year. I also ran out of drawn comb before the main flow hit, which limits options. Some I misjudged as too small to split hard. Good topic!
Did you make your wax tank out of stainless steel. Or out of hot or cold rolled steel. I'm going to make a tank this winter. The price of paint and the painting time has got me wanting to build a wax dip tank. any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and great videos. Jody Gucwa From Michigan
I’ve been following for about a year now. I understand you want to max out your business, but you don’t want to have the business grow beyond what you can do solo. I am wondering if you have already grown past that point. Can you do a video explaining your 3-5 year plan? My guess is that you want to develop methods where you can single handedly manage 700 hives. But, perhaps I have misunderstood some of your past comments about your vision for Duck River Honey.
Hey Nathan I know its tough, but make sure your taking a little time and rest for yourself. I can hear a bit of defeat in your voice on this video. Thanks for taking the time on these as always!
Great video as always Nathan. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into your channel each week in addition to your bee business. I look forward to your video each week, especially as it is moving into winter here is Aus and I can’t get into my bees.
I like your dip tank Nathan, I wana build myself one so bad I think I'll go single chamber.
I have really learned a lot watching your build your business thank much Nathan.
You and your family have a wonderful Lords Day...
Always enjoy your videos 😊 Bees 🐝 are looking 👌 I think your doing a great job 👍 Thanks for sharing with us
That was cool when you put the queen between the boxes the camera looked cool with the sun and the angle it went!
Feels good at the end of a LONG day
The older I get the more I look forward to going to bed. 😆
Lol
Its a good feeling when you put supers over new nucs and you have a nice row of them.
I bought one of those around the neck fans that I wear inside my beesuit on hot days, works well for me
I know this may be frustrating at times, but your Bee Business Vlogs are teaching me what do to for myself I'm currently at 2/3 hives (not sure if one will make it) and slowly trying to make it either a sideline business or main job 5 years down the road so thanks for showing us all the pros and cons so people like me can learn before we make a mistake that you could or have warned us about :D
Worse when that sweat drips into your eyes... man that burns!
Don't know what's going on this year. Did my splits, supered the big hives, same thing. Every other day I find a swarm in the bee yard. #6 tonight.
I don't know if you have tried this or not, but if you know which hives have swarmed a lot of times you can get anywhere from one to 10 virgins running around in that hive. I always carry Queen cages with me so If i run across 1 of them all i need to do is make however many mating nucs as i need. that will make up for some of the honey you might have lost. That way you have spare Queens all the time. Good luck.
It’s been a tough year for TN beekeepers it seems. Kamon is having a bad year. Going to see skipper today for some equipment, but last I talked to him he didn’t have a great flow either. I’ve been slightly average maybe a little below and I’m 30 miles south of skipper. Right on the border of AL and TN. My south AL yards have done alright though. Great video as always bud.
Have thought about getting a 1980s sweat band to wear to fight the sweat dripping off my face. And I sweat enough my glasses fall off in my veil fortunately I can see up close without them. Lol
😆
I’ve caught 2 swarms this year and 2 swarms last year that were in hazelnut trees next to my apiary. They must like those because of all the shade. Very easy to capture since they are low growing too
Nathan your doing great following you from Ireland..
All that equipment is a massive investment i wish you luck for the season .. you should try clipping your queens
Would love a clip of you dipping a couple boxes to see that tank in action. Nice build! And yes, the rain is certainly a-plenty this year seems everywhere…. ❤🐝🐝 in Northern IL. Take care.
Thanks!
At 11:17 you discuss the likelihood of queen returning. With 3 chances at 75% each, the probability of 3 good queens is 42%, 2 good queens is 84%. Getting at least one good queen out of your stack of 3 is 98%. I like your redundant efforts.
I’m curious about the swarming. Do you know what the circumstances are that resulted in many swarming off and causing you grief? Or is this something that’s unavoidable as you target your honey crop during the swarm season?
Deep topic, it’d make a great discussion topic with me, you, and Bob. Some context - maybe 10-12% of my production colonies tried to swarm, about 5% of them did swarm, and I lost swarms from 2-3%. So overall I don’t think it was that bad, I just lost some honey production capacity and ended up with more nucs. The why behind it can be a lot of things. Some years are worse than others. I saw more swarm impulse in the bees this year compared to last year. I also ran out of drawn comb before the main flow hit, which limits options. Some I misjudged as too small to split hard. Good topic!
Oh!! So you are right on the target 👍
I got the impression that they all swarmed ha ha ha
I tend to focus too much on my mistakes.
So do I, it helps us time into the processes
Did you make your wax tank out of stainless steel. Or out of hot or cold rolled steel. I'm going to make a tank this winter. The price of paint and the painting time has got me wanting to build a wax dip tank. any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and great videos. Jody Gucwa From Michigan
Mine is just mild steel. 1/4” bottom and 1/8” sides.
gotta love the rain,,, we sure have are share
Wet year for sure.
I’ve been following for about a year now. I understand you want to max out your business, but you don’t want to have the business grow beyond what you can do solo. I am wondering if you have already grown past that point. Can you do a video explaining your 3-5 year plan? My guess is that you want to develop methods where you can single handedly manage 700 hives. But, perhaps I have misunderstood some of your past comments about your vision for Duck River Honey.
I expect to end up with 200-400 if I’m by myself. Honey packing is much easier to scale than beekeeping.
What is your wax formula? Parafin/micro ?
Roughly 50/50.