Brett, as my experience the further away the hives are from home the less attention they get. I can’t imagine driving 45 minutes to inspect hives and you will normally need something that you failed to bring! They do look good!
Yeah they look good. I always make some stupid concession at the start of the year, failing to look at the realities of it. I just sort of thought being in the UP it would be tough to get yards in a nice 20 mile circle, so I took the first good looking offers I received, including this beautiful yard in Hancock. Had I thought about it a bit more I think I would have kept looking. After I moved bees to this spot I found a really nice Mennonite family that owns a crap ton of acreage for their cattle business. I now have bees on two of their properties, and they have more I could access. In retrospect I shoulda just done that. Next year I'll make a new mistake, lol.
Man look at all those boxes of goodness .... I am looking at my two deeps and saying to myself .... man I can’t wait till I can buy more boxes and bees
How do you handle broos comb when they pull out the top honey way into the other frame? Im relatively new and am trying to get a bunch of combs drawn and all my hives did this to some extent this year...
I'd just scrape some of that honey off and jam it right next to another drawn frame. It'll look messy for a bit but those bees will clean it up and make it look nice.
Ok thank you for that, its a problem ive been having in all my hives this year since ive grown soo much. Ive also had some robbing issues. So should i wait to do this until fall flow, or just go ahead and do it now?
so i have been making boxes so i can try to get into beekeeping next year and I have a question or two.... First: How much gap between boxes when they are stacked is too much? i notice some of my first boxes have about 1/32 of a gap between them maybe 1/16 on the worse one and I feel like I need to fix them. Second: When I start to set out my boxes in preparation for bees, should I just use 1 - 2 boxes then add another over time as they build up?
To question 1: there are lots of plans on the internet for boxes. I honestly don't know the specific measurements but I do think it is important to get as close to the recommended spacing as you can. Question 2: Start with one box, or a size that adequately encompasses the bees you're installing. Add boxes as necessary, as they build up.
hey brett i opened my hive and noticed queen cells were open and i found i had 2 queens running around my hive an original and a new queen. so i scooped up the old queen and made a walk away split. the odd thing is there are hardly any baby bees in my hive now its all honey pollen and bread.... i saw maybe 3-4 eggs. why is that do you think? was old queen going to swarmn quit laying?
Yeah she could have stopped laying for a few reasons, #1 and most likely is just that it's the end of summer, she's an older queen and has slowed down brood rearing in line with the prep for winter. This is one reason why mid season or pre-fall requeenings can be a good idea, you'll get a more robust brood nest later in the year. I don't do every year requeenings though, so lots of my older queens start to slow down considerably at the end of July/beginning of August. #2, she could be getting ready to swarm. #3 she's old or damaged and the cells are for supersedure. I would try to ask myself are they swarming? Are they cramped? Do they have the right conditions to swarm (lots of bees and brood) and backfilled frames? If you think the answer to that is yes, make the split like you did. If the answer is no, or probably not, I'd let them figure it out. If they're superseding you don't really want to make a split with resources devoted to the queen that the bees deemed unworthy.
@@BKBees ty for replying! i ended up spliting them. the old queen after a month still did not lay. so i merged the hives back n removed the unlayiing queen. there was lots of space in hive so im guna assume she was old she came in a package from georgia. i have a new queen laying lots of new bees and oa helping bring mite lvls down! so we see if i make it through the winter!!! ty again
So when doing a split do you do your split in the early morning mid-morning late afternoon I have to do a split so I don't over queen and plus it's time for a third I am in Michigan I thought now would be the best time there is plenty of bees to keep them warm.
How you have the patience for those inner covers is remarkable. Those went after my first year. I have 3/8 space above the frames for pollen sub in the spring on my insulated covers that stay on all year; the bees build a lot of comb on top of the frames. I'm thinking I need to add a plastic sheet on the frames under my cover to stop the bees from building on top of the frames. I see bubble wrap used but its expensive.
Reflectix. If I didn't sometimes need the inner covers for fall feeding I would probably just run reflectix on every hive I have. It's meant for water heater insulation but it works great.
I have just a few questions, I bought a nuc this spring and they have already filled out two deep boxes. I don’t expect to take any honey from them this year so I put the super on without a queen excluder. That seem like a good plan? Also if they make it through the winter (my climate is about like yours which is why I was drawn to your page!) I plan on taking those deeps and splitting them while adding a mated queen, again am I making the right decision? Lastly I saw you didn’t space out your splits very far from the parent hive. One of the local keepers said he spaces his out about two miles from each other, is that needed? Been watching a ton of your content and have learned a lot! You’re doing a great job. Keep it up!!
There's nothing wrong with adding the super without the excluder. However, if she lays in it or if you leave it over winter you might have an issue next year with them moving up into it during spring. I'd recommend pulling the super at the end of the year (now if you're at a similar latitude to me like you said). Harvest what's harvestable, feed back what's not. Then feed to get the brood areas heavy for winter. Your plan for next year is great. Adding mated queens to your spring splits will get those colonies up and running in time for honey production. That's a solid idea. There's no real right or wrong about moving your splits, but I have videos that discuss this idea in detail (one is called "The Importance Of Nurse Bees"). The idea to understand when making this decision is that the foragers are going to return to the original location if you don't move the colony around 3 miles away. That isn't an issue in my opinion, you just have to be aware of that and check your splits population 24 hours later, or stack them with their original queen and more than enough nurse bees to be able to withstand the migration. Here's a couple of videos that touch on the split stuff: ua-cam.com/video/jmCh1sF2kDg/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/YE7GqfsJmAo/v-deo.html
Hey Brett, I started this year with two Nucs. There's some concern that one of my hives might have AFB. Some say it is, my inspector says he only saw it once but he thinks it's chilled brood and not AFB because the hive doesn't smell like it (currently I'm waiting for results from the lab in Maryland)... What would you do in this case? I have grown to 4 hives now (made two splits and bought them queens). Try to save those that are ok? Or burn all 4? Hate to euthanize that many bees, I've also heard that there's no cure and I would be hitting my bees constantly with antibiotics... Not sure what to do. Hate waiting.
Is the goop ropey? Have any pics? Shoot 'em to brett@bkbees.com and I'll take a look. Don't burn anything until you find out for sure. I'd bet without looking that it's chilled brood, efb, or parasitic mite syndrome, as those are way more common.
It means something was wrong with the current queen and the hive decided to re-queen on their own, superseding her. She could’ve been damaged, died, or just left.
So the earwigs are bad around here too what you do is if you want to build a trap for them you get a metal can cat food can put two tablespoons or so of molasses syrup and about two tablespoons of vegetable oil I would say three just to make it safer and those earwigs love it and they get in there and then they drown and they will leave your plants and your bees alone
Wow I can't say I've ever had this kind of comment. If you are looking to donate, you can paypal us at kozbrett@gmail.com , otherwise, shoot me an email at that address and let me know what you are thinking. Either way, thanks very much!
Thank you so much for the support. Please shoot me your address and what sizes you'd like a couple of shirts in. Your support is going directly to fall sugar.
Do you and Katie do all the extracting your self, or do you have to hire people in to help. I ask because it’s just the two of us, and we do far fewer hives than you do, and it’s a pain. Lol I can’t imagine doing it for the amount of hives and honey you have.
Yes, we do it all by ourselves. That's not the crazy thing though, lol, the crazy aspect is that up until this year we did everything in our kitchen with a 3 frame hand crank extractor. Last year it took two weeks with one of us working on honey all day to get it done. After we got done we immediately looked for a bigger extractor, and it happened that our old bee mentor was selling his 18 frame electric. We were able to get that from him for like $500, so this year should be a bit easier in that regard. It'll still take forever though, the new extractor just made the bottleneck another issue, in this case it'll be uncapping.
@@BKBees I'm assuming your old 3 frame extractor is still getting good use. At last months meeting it was brought up that you and Katie donated it and was available. I'm sure the club members will appreciate it for years to come.
Brett, as my experience the further away the hives are from home the less attention they get. I can’t imagine driving 45 minutes to inspect hives and you will normally need something that you failed to bring! They do look good!
Yeah they look good. I always make some stupid concession at the start of the year, failing to look at the realities of it. I just sort of thought being in the UP it would be tough to get yards in a nice 20 mile circle, so I took the first good looking offers I received, including this beautiful yard in Hancock. Had I thought about it a bit more I think I would have kept looking. After I moved bees to this spot I found a really nice Mennonite family that owns a crap ton of acreage for their cattle business. I now have bees on two of their properties, and they have more I could access. In retrospect I shoulda just done that. Next year I'll make a new mistake, lol.
@@BKBees Brett, it’s fine to make mistakes, just don’t make the same one over and over like me…
I use a liner. I HAD the same problem. Healthy looking hive brother.
Great yard! Can't wait to see your honey crop!!
Honey harvest videos to come out each day for the next 5 days! Spoiler: we got a lot of honey.
I was just complaining about having no boxes leftover as well. I guess it’s a good problem to have! Best of luck to you.
It sort of became a problem this year, lol. I need to put some of this honey money into another pallet of boxes.
Man look at all those boxes of goodness .... I am looking at my two deeps and saying to myself .... man I can’t wait till I can buy more boxes and bees
How do you handle broos comb when they pull out the top honey way into the other frame? Im relatively new and am trying to get a bunch of combs drawn and all my hives did this to some extent this year...
I'd just scrape some of that honey off and jam it right next to another drawn frame. It'll look messy for a bit but those bees will clean it up and make it look nice.
Ok thank you for that, its a problem ive been having in all my hives this year since ive grown soo much. Ive also had some robbing issues. So should i wait to do this until fall flow, or just go ahead and do it now?
I was just wondering, if you have too many brood boxes will it cause the hive to swarm?
Nope, they'll just occupy whatever portion of it suits them. Too few boxes will cause a cramped swarm.
do you sell queens
Yes. This year was ephemeral, but we'll be back to full queen sales next year.
@@BKBees Ephemeral. Great word! Check out the big brain on Brett! 😉
so i have been making boxes so i can try to get into beekeeping next year and I have a question or two.... First: How much gap between boxes when they are stacked is too much? i notice some of my first boxes have about 1/32 of a gap between them maybe 1/16 on the worse one and I feel like I need to fix them. Second: When I start to set out my boxes in preparation for bees, should I just use 1 - 2 boxes then add another over time as they build up?
To question 1: there are lots of plans on the internet for boxes. I honestly don't know the specific measurements but I do think it is important to get as close to the recommended spacing as you can.
Question 2: Start with one box, or a size that adequately encompasses the bees you're installing. Add boxes as necessary, as they build up.
How many stings that day?!
I have 2 40 frame hives one is a little wider then the other ( 1/2 vs full thumb width at the side) would this be an issue?
No. The thinner hive might go through a bit more food staying warm in the winter but I don't think that's a problem.
@@BKBees Sorry I meant hive is 10 frames plus say 1/2 " the other is almost able to put 11 frames in it
hey brett i opened my hive and noticed queen cells were open and i found i had 2 queens running around my hive an original and a new queen. so i scooped up the old queen and made a walk away split. the odd thing is there are hardly any baby bees in my hive now its all honey pollen and bread.... i saw maybe 3-4 eggs. why is that do you think? was old queen going to swarmn quit laying?
Yeah she could have stopped laying for a few reasons, #1 and most likely is just that it's the end of summer, she's an older queen and has slowed down brood rearing in line with the prep for winter. This is one reason why mid season or pre-fall requeenings can be a good idea, you'll get a more robust brood nest later in the year. I don't do every year requeenings though, so lots of my older queens start to slow down considerably at the end of July/beginning of August.
#2, she could be getting ready to swarm.
#3 she's old or damaged and the cells are for supersedure.
I would try to ask myself are they swarming? Are they cramped? Do they have the right conditions to swarm (lots of bees and brood) and backfilled frames? If you think the answer to that is yes, make the split like you did.
If the answer is no, or probably not, I'd let them figure it out. If they're superseding you don't really want to make a split with resources devoted to the queen that the bees deemed unworthy.
@@BKBees ty for replying! i ended up spliting them. the old queen after a month still did not lay. so i merged the hives back n removed the unlayiing queen. there was lots of space in hive so im guna assume she was old she came in a package from georgia. i have a new queen laying lots of new bees and oa helping bring mite lvls down! so we see if i make it through the winter!!! ty again
So when doing a split do you do your split in the early morning mid-morning late afternoon I have to do a split so I don't over queen and plus it's time for a third I am in Michigan I thought now would be the best time there is plenty of bees to keep them warm.
I don't pick a time of day. Whenever I'm working that yard.
Formic with honey supers on no problem?
Correct. There's no issue with formic and honey.
All fall flow aka golden rod you let them keep for winter?👍
Yep.
How you have the patience for those inner covers is remarkable. Those went after my first year. I have 3/8 space above the frames for pollen sub in the spring on my insulated covers that stay on all year; the bees build a lot of comb on top of the frames. I'm thinking I need to add a plastic sheet on the frames under my cover to stop the bees from building on top of the frames. I see bubble wrap used but its expensive.
Reflectix. If I didn't sometimes need the inner covers for fall feeding I would probably just run reflectix on every hive I have. It's meant for water heater insulation but it works great.
I have just a few questions, I bought a nuc this spring and they have already filled out two deep boxes. I don’t expect to take any honey from them this year so I put the super on without a queen excluder. That seem like a good plan? Also if they make it through the winter (my climate is about like yours which is why I was drawn to your page!) I plan on taking those deeps and splitting them while adding a mated queen, again am I making the right decision? Lastly I saw you didn’t space out your splits very far from the parent hive. One of the local keepers said he spaces his out about two miles from each other, is that needed?
Been watching a ton of your content and have learned a lot! You’re doing a great job. Keep it up!!
There's nothing wrong with adding the super without the excluder. However, if she lays in it or if you leave it over winter you might have an issue next year with them moving up into it during spring. I'd recommend pulling the super at the end of the year (now if you're at a similar latitude to me like you said). Harvest what's harvestable, feed back what's not. Then feed to get the brood areas heavy for winter.
Your plan for next year is great. Adding mated queens to your spring splits will get those colonies up and running in time for honey production. That's a solid idea.
There's no real right or wrong about moving your splits, but I have videos that discuss this idea in detail (one is called "The Importance Of Nurse Bees"). The idea to understand when making this decision is that the foragers are going to return to the original location if you don't move the colony around 3 miles away. That isn't an issue in my opinion, you just have to be aware of that and check your splits population 24 hours later, or stack them with their original queen and more than enough nurse bees to be able to withstand the migration.
Here's a couple of videos that touch on the split stuff:
ua-cam.com/video/jmCh1sF2kDg/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/YE7GqfsJmAo/v-deo.html
Awesome! I have been working my way through the videos just haven’t made it to one that explained those topics. Thanks!
Is your Goldenrod and Aster finished by the middle of August or do you just leave that for the Bees?
I leave it for the bees.
Hey Brett, I started this year with two Nucs. There's some concern that one of my hives might have AFB. Some say it is, my inspector says he only saw it once but he thinks it's chilled brood and not AFB because the hive doesn't smell like it (currently I'm waiting for results from the lab in Maryland)... What would you do in this case? I have grown to 4 hives now (made two splits and bought them queens). Try to save those that are ok? Or burn all 4? Hate to euthanize that many bees, I've also heard that there's no cure and I would be hitting my bees constantly with antibiotics... Not sure what to do. Hate waiting.
Is the goop ropey? Have any pics? Shoot 'em to brett@bkbees.com and I'll take a look. Don't burn anything until you find out for sure. I'd bet without looking that it's chilled brood, efb, or parasitic mite syndrome, as those are way more common.
@@BKBees than you Brett! I sent you an email with all the pics I have
Hello, i am horacio from mexico, what breed of reynas do you handle?
They're mutts. I've had buckfast, vsh, italians, and wild bees in my operation.
Sorry I just started bee keeping this year im not familiar with the term superseded what does that mean?
It means something was wrong with the current queen and the hive decided to re-queen on their own, superseding her. She could’ve been damaged, died, or just left.
@@TabAtl Oh okay thank you for the quick response
Thanks, Tab.
@@BKBees Guess I should let YOU answer questions on your own page. Lol
@@TabAtl nah, I appreciate the help.
I'm going to have to pull again because I'm still two boxes on each
Heck yeah.
Those earwigs are bad here in northern Maine this year
Horrible here. I thought it was a UP thing, as I've never seen 'em this bad, but it sounds like maybe it's a 2021 thing.
So the earwigs are bad around here too what you do is if you want to build a trap for them you get a metal can cat food can put two tablespoons or so of molasses syrup and about two tablespoons of vegetable oil I would say three just to make it safer and those earwigs love it and they get in there and then they drown and they will leave your plants and your bees alone
Brett, I would like to support the channel but not the Patron method. How can I do it?
Wow I can't say I've ever had this kind of comment. If you are looking to donate, you can paypal us at kozbrett@gmail.com , otherwise, shoot me an email at that address and let me know what you are thinking. Either way, thanks very much!
Thank you so much for the support. Please shoot me your address and what sizes you'd like a couple of shirts in. Your support is going directly to fall sugar.
Also, how do you pronounce your name?
Looking good buddy!!! Can't wait for those extracting vids✅😁👍👍🏴☠️🏴☠️
I can't wait to be done with that, lol. Thanks for the continued support dude, I appreciate ya.
@@BKBees Always 😎👍
Do you and Katie do all the extracting your self, or do you have to hire people in to help. I ask because it’s just the two of us, and we do far fewer hives than you do, and it’s a pain. Lol I can’t imagine doing it for the amount of hives and honey you have.
Yes, we do it all by ourselves. That's not the crazy thing though, lol, the crazy aspect is that up until this year we did everything in our kitchen with a 3 frame hand crank extractor. Last year it took two weeks with one of us working on honey all day to get it done. After we got done we immediately looked for a bigger extractor, and it happened that our old bee mentor was selling his 18 frame electric. We were able to get that from him for like $500, so this year should be a bit easier in that regard. It'll still take forever though, the new extractor just made the bottleneck another issue, in this case it'll be uncapping.
@@BKBees It was annoying enough for us last year that we invested in a 8/20 electric extractor and a bottling tank this year.
@@BKBees
I'm assuming your old 3 frame extractor is still getting good use. At last months meeting it was brought up that you and Katie donated it and was available.
I'm sure the club members will appreciate it for years to come.