Hurricane Prep & Pollen Traps
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- Well, I was going to prep for the hurricane so that my supers don't get knocked over, but it appears the storm is moving east of us now. Hoping and praying that Mississippi and Alabama come thru OK. So now I will take you thru my way of trapping pollen.
Thanks for joining me in my 2020 beekeeping season as I share how I maintain my beehives from winter through the following fall. My videos are not meant to be 'How To' videos, but simply me sharing my experiences in beekeeping as I learned it from my mentors, teachers, and studies.
Meanwhile over here in Texas we were wishing the storm would come this way...we need the rain! God bless all you people in the path.
Even without the storms, I'm amazed at how we can get 2 to 4 inches of rain a month and then Texas and North Florida will, at the same time, be in severe droughts. Hope y'all get some soon!!
Thanks a bunch for the well wishes Mike. We're ready to ride. Those bees of yours were loaded up with the pollen!
Thinking of you and yours Rooster, including fur-friends and winged-friends. Stay safe.
Hi. I'm almost at 1k followers. I have like 13 to go.. Good video 😊😊 I watched the full video. Lots of pollen. Thanks for sharing
I noticed that the other day. Hopefully in the next few days!
And I thought my girls were bringing in pollen! I'm going to collect some next season to avoid getting pollen bound. Hope all of those in the storm path stay safe.
Thanks for the comment John!
That is so so cool watching the pollen traps but for ease I really like that plastic one too bad they can't re-engineer it for rain.... An I don't run any medium or brood boxes I run 100% honey supers for all my boxes... Only because of my age and because of the weight factor.... Instead of two medium brood boxes I'm running four honey super boxes... It's a little easier for me to handle them....
Joe, those front end traps are perfect for ease. As far as the rain, I noticed after I had the video exported that I made it sound like it can't be used effectively due to rain. But it can. You just have to be sure to empty it daily of at least prior to a rain event.
I agree on the supers. I am not ready to convert, but the deeps are beginning to get hard to handle. I could see converting down the road when deeps become too much. Just pulling honey in mediums is tough for me.
@@MikeBarryBees cool then I know what ones I want to buy then, the plastic one an maybe try making a big plexiglass range shield to put above it. We hardly ever get sideways rain here.. I built some tops but extended 4 inches over the bottom board landing as an experiment. Makes like a rain trough. Keeps dripping rain off the landing board and melting snow.. y'all gotta put up with tropical storms and hurricanes but thankfully you're not blessed with ice storms and snow storms on the beehives it can be a real pain coz after every storm or high windy day you got to run all the hives to make sure they're open...👍
Irony....I’m from TN and was on vacation at Gulf Shores. Sally looked like it would hit you, then moved directly to us. We cut the trip short and got out yesterday. Now in Folsom to visit relatives. Stalked by a turtle is right!
Glad you got on out of there! No reason to stay for those things that close up. I know Folsom well. We’re actually going to have our first beekeepers meeting in months just north of Folsom this evening.
Wish you well on storm Sally. Hope you don't get to much rain.
How do you sort out the SHB from the pollen? I hope the SHB never get bad up here in the north.
I'm just finishing up feeding my bees before winter. Not many days left for the bees before winter lock up here in MN.
I looked at noon the other day on my weather app and it was 48 in Duluth!!! It was 92 at that time here!! And we haven't even seen the golden rod bloom yet. So yes, I hope too you never get the beetles. Major pests. I freeze the pollen and the sift them out. I blow the dried pollen and that will take out any of the ants or chaff, and any beetles I miss. But I freeze it immediately after gathering it. You all are getting to see a very bad year though, for beetles. While they are bad, this year is a bit worse than normal I need to drench the soil to stop the reproduction of them once the rain passes.
I converted my generator to propane because of the shelf life of stored propane.
My goal is a generac with a propane tank setup. But just need to plan out the finances. Well, glad all is well with you.
@@MikeBarryBees Yeah a generac would be nice but most folks retrofitting a generac to an older homes has to have the natural gas lines replaced to provide the volume of gas needed to power the generac correctly.
Great video Mike what do you do with the pollen after you get it? Be safe and God bless
Well Dave, I sell it. My wife uses it in her smoothies, but for me, I just sell it. Not a huge market for it where I sell at, but enough to get rid of a pound or two. Little here and a little there and the bee operation pays for itself. So I sell a bit of everything..LOL Thanks for the well wishes and the Blessing!!
Good luck with the weather. God bless.
Thanks so much Gary!
Does it look like you will be getting some Fall Honey?
Not sure Chris, we won't bloom for another couple weeks. But history says no. I mean, they might fill residual empty cells in some existing comb that I have on in some supers. But I've not seen a flow yet in my area that would fill a box if placed on. Time will tell.
Mike Barry from talking to my local mentor our fall bloom can fill a Super on good sized hives quite often.... my farm right now has a strong fall bloom right now fingers crossed 🤞 we are in the bloom right now
@@ECP I saw the last video, and you have a ton of stuff blooming. We have it like that sometimes, but then it seems that it is dry. Just not a flow we can count on here, not even one strong enough some years for the bees to have enough and then we feed.
Best of luck, Mike. I've been following the storm, because I have family throughout your area. Good video.
Thanks Santo. We have been spared as the storm has moved well east now. The folks in Alabama are now dealing with the rain and hopefully it will not get stronger but will weaken. These storms are very disruptive and destructive.
Mike Barry.... BEST BEE 🐝 YOU TUBE CHANNEL ON YT.... MY OPINION BUT CORRECT
Thanks Chris!!
When the golden rod blooms I would think that would be a good flow to put on the pollen traps.
I believe so too Justin. I opened them all up and I'll start cycling them on and off once we get through the rain this week. Golden Rod normally yields a decent amount.
@@MikeBarryBees Our golden rod and Asters have not bloomed yet.
private bubba good to hear from you!! Wasn’t sure how far west you lived and wasn’t sure if you were heavily affected by Laura. Yea our main bloom hasn’t started yet either.
@@MikeBarryBees All we got from Laura was some rain The max wind speed I read on the ground was 12 mph but up in the tall trees it was kicking. My little yard is pretty well protected.
Hi Mike, wow mate great to see so much pollen going into your hives mine where doing the same today when I went out to check my hives lots and lots of ivy blooming here in Liverpool seems to be everywhere this year, I’ve never used one of those pollen traps before but they look good. Thanks mike for sharing your vlog with us mate.
Thanks for the comment Peter!!
Stay safe buddy I will be praying for you all down there.
Thanks Mark!!
Good to watch you we in Oregon r smoked out
Seattle Washington is smokey too. This weekend, the smoke was so bad, we postponed our club's gathering for RC fun!
Dang! Poor California! And it's getting all the way north to the border! If the neighbors start complaining about the smoking done in California we'll have a dilemma! Y'all hang in there - we are trying to send a hurricane your way - rains would help - but they aren't cooperating.
Wesley, I saw that. Wow! The pics I saw of you all and Washington were something else. Visibility down to nothing. Hoping it clears soon!
@@MikeBarryBees It has started to clear in the Seattle area, but we still have a LONG way to go. HOPEFULLY tomorrow, it'll be good enough we can go back to work again!
Mike, that inexpensive noise reducer on your microphone seemed to do a pretty good job this time or the wind wasn’t blowing very much. The way your bees we’re bringing in pollen at 25:40 in this video I thought that you would harvest a pound each day off of each trap but I was definitely wrong. I think Rooster’s dad is having better luck with his. I’ve never tried harvesting pollen but maybe I should. It may cure some of my age ailments if I consume a little each day. I definitely need something because I seem to be falling apart. I hope old Sally isn’t mean to you or anyone else on or near the Gulf. We’re predicted to get 5 to 9 inches of that liquid sunshine here in central AL. Good luck don’t get blown or washed away!
Don, it was quite breezy. I was very happy with the way it worked! Yea, that day was the last day of something that was blooming as best I could tell. It will pick up again when the golden rod hits. I believe that what Dirtroosters dad was getting was off that same early bloom of whatever that was. He definitely did better. He has much more bee wisdom than me, that's a fact. You folks in Alabama are getting the brunt of the rain. Mobile is being hammered with steady rain. Ain't their first rodeo though, so I know they're diverting water as best they can. Thanks for the comment Don!!
I mean, the intro Bees. Can you say Pollen. Wow. I need to start using pollen traps. Seems like a waste to not use them.
Yea Brian, but then they seemed to shut down. I think the rain the next day shut down the pollen. But it'll be back. But like I mentioned to BackyardNC, might want to be sure you have a market for it or you're taking it from the bees for nothing. I have some areas that won't buy it at all.
@@MikeBarryBees I was thinking i could save enough that when i need to supplement i could just give it right back.
I’m wondering if your pollen trips are allowing a decent amount of pollen to go through and that’s why they aren’t collecting a lot?
Could be Justin, but the screen is pretty tight. Slightly larger than 1/8 inch, but smaller than 1/4 inch. I think whatever they were on finally ran out or they had what they needed. It was every hive bringing it in that day. Then we had a couple days of rain, so I think the pollen was done and has not had a chance to come back with off an on rain. Who knows, it's hard to tell sometimes when you see nothing blooming yet nectar and pollen are coming in. Those bees keep me guessing...
once again thining about you once i heard about sally
Thanks Vince. We're clear now, but Alabama is in the danger area now. So now we hope the best for them. Hopefully it begins to weaken rapidly tomorrow when it comes ashore.
@@MikeBarryBees no problem you're the first one I thought of it's all over the news this morning keep me posted