@@kamonreynolds Yep! Sorry about the Alabama and LSU game last night :-{ Enjoying Arizona for now a good break from N.E. Ohio :-) Your smoker clip sparked my interest in your channel just FYI.
I got my first nuc in July, so they haven't had the advantage of building up a lot in preparation for winter. I ended up consolidating them into a 7-over-7 arrangement: two ten frame boxes with a dividing board vertically, closing off their access to the unused space.
Thank you. This is exactly what I was thinking I needed to do to one of my packages and two days later I see this video. I'm in Virginia so the climate is very similar.
I use many of the same methods you use. We did lose two hives this fall, one about two weeks ago, they just absconded. I had the blue shop towel treatment on all and plenty of resources, although there were three replacement cells and one was chewed down the other two had the queens still in them. All of the bees left except maybe a couple hundred. Lots of honey left. I guess I'll just process it and bottle.
So is it fair to say, despite all the best intentions, that the packages were a bust and the Nucs are the winners /Way to go. I have followed this from the beginning, and it would seem that you have no queen from the original packages left and you have had to spend your time trying to keep the packages alive to get them through winter. The Nucs on the other hand you have split and boosted the packages numbers from them as well as have a fair more viable number of bees to over winter. That was my observation, please fill in the blanks if I have missed some important info. Thanks for the video Kamon. Remember you can write to Santa for a request for longer arms....
Exactly. We really had to baby the packages. If we would not have had anything but the packages we likely would have 2 hives max at best case scenario and more than likely 1 hive left. Our nucs spent valueable brood to keep the 2 poor packages afloat until our new queens could raise a round of their own. Queen quality was 100% of the issue.
Is there an upper entrance to vent moisture on your inner cover? The entrance should be up I think in winter so the air coming in has to pass over the cover and get warm before it enters the hive.
Hey Peter, thats what many say you need to do but I am not using a vent on this colony. I don't use ventilation on 99% of my hives and perhaps it is more of a cold weather thing.
I got my insulation put on yesterday and now you've got me thinking again! LOL I'm new to beekeeping and don't yet have a good feel as to how much honey is needed for the winter. So I went with more is better and put a second box of honey (really sugar syrup) on top of 2 colonies and a nuc. The bees will fit in their bottom box, even the nuc. So would you recommend moving those bees to one box and just hang on to the frames for feeding if needed? Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!!!
In the deep south,a single frame of capped honey and a frame of open will be enough in winter for a 5 frame nuc. I need double that for an 8 or 10 frame hive. Simple logic of more bees need more food. My best single box colonies have 6-7frames of honey and patches of brood and water/nectar.
@@George-nx5lo I was hoping for a more exact answer!! 😁LOL It's 14°F this morning and I decided to leave the 2nd box on my colonies. I purchased some pro sweet and will feed them as often as I can. We typically have some decent weather here in Louisville, KY before winter sets in. THANKS!!
Yeah those crazy cats are everywhere around here! I don't think so WR in regards to the cozys. I just don't think with my mild winters I could test them very good at all.
How do you keep your bees from building twacky comb on the bottoms? Your frames are so tidy and clean?! I feel like we're constantly scraping comb and sometimes she's already laid in it. 🤕
D0 you have an opinion on using Better Bees Better comb in new packages with new foundations. I started with a package this year and only had foundations with no comb. They were all summer to get all frames covered with comb.
I am sure they would help the colony if it was a good one. I have had packages that drew all of the combs and did phenomenal so I personally think it is a queen quality issue more than anything.
Start packages in 4 to 5 frame setup they will perform much better. Add frames as they build. If you want to start packages in 10 frame you need more than 3 lbs of bees. Put in 2 packages of bees with 1 queen or add 1 or 2 frames of capped brood when installing if available and your packages will grow much faster.
I have always wintered over with two brood supers. This past winter I lost a strong hive to starving with one of the supers still full of honey,. I was told that the queen likely laid brood in the lower box as it warmed and the bees moved to keep it warm overnight. I am wondering whether your system of only one super would keep that from happening. I do live in a colder area, Spokane, WA so maybe I need two supers, but often have plenty of honey left in the Spring.
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees I asked because I’m in Illinois and as I was preparing my hives for winter I noticed there was very little brood I was worried. This is my first winter. Thanks for answering
I do a 2:1 sugar syrup myself. May be a little heavier overall. I don't have a problem with it crystalizing in the feeder buckets. The bees seem to get it gone fairly fast. Once in the hive I don't look back. I do semi boil the water, pour it in, then mix well. Let it stand overnight covered, then feed. Hope this helps.kamon may have better idea on this, as he has years of experience, me... going into my 3rd season of beekeeping. Rich
Don Beissel 230 is way too hott, doesn’t need to get any hotter than 165, it is hard to keep it from crystallizing but most wont if it’s 3:1. If exposed to oxygen the top thin layer will but rest won’t. You have to remember you loose a lot of moisture by the time it cools down, cooling it down as quickly as possible and not exceeding 165 will help a ton
You mention another video about dealing with frame storage and that some of the frames require extra prep. I couldn’t find that video…can you post a link?
Thanks Kamon, great video. Love your thoughts. I live in Louisiana. Warmer/wet winters. Rarely have 3 days in a row with temperatures below 50 f. This morning it is 34 f. What do you think of giving a hive like that an ultra bee pollen patty. Or a patty and sugar water mixture. If given enough nutritional support will they pull those frames out. Thanks.
Hey Wilmer it is a old Walter t Kelley veil. They make a new on at Kelley's bees that is similar but not quite the same thing. Still the new one I have purchased off greater visibility over many of the models available.
Maybe a little. I have bigger fish to fry than that but it is a bummer! Hey I got a thermal mite treatment dealio for next years tests. A MMK model. Thanks for the idea 😎I can't wait to try it out
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees Yup Certainly not for your production hives, but for your personal stuff should be interesting?? I cant wait to try it myself 👍😀
I check them in fall and feed them if they are low. The bees do better this way in my opinion and then I don't have to worry about emergency feeding bees.
I would like to know how cold it gets there in the winter. Interesting that you don’t use ventilation. It’s mid November here in the Adirondacks and temps have been to 5 degrees above zero with windchills to 25 below already. Wondering if I should try a hive or two without ventilation but it must be that you are much warmer there in the great state of Tennessee. Sure would like to know. We have trouble with ice forming in the hives without venting but I’ve actually never tried it. Thanks for the great video.
We are very mild here. We only get a handful of days that in the single digits if that. The bees are flying right now and they were yesterday as well. We are very mild here.
This gotta be best Beginning Beekeeper Channel out there, and Beekeeping in general-really,you covered ALOT this year Good Job
Thank baddest bees
@Adrien Mason yeah.. don't think normal people care, maybe stalker may see this and be delighted..
Thanks for the content Kamon... appreciate how often you drop vids!
Thanks for the encouragement!
Good, useful video. Most discussion of prepping for winter don’t show anything about reducing hives, Thanks for all you do ! Stu
Well planned informative video Kamon. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kamon, now I have a video to show my newbies student so they understand how to do the condensing down of a hive for winter.
well done colleague, I subscribe to your channel. Good luck with your business.
Good morning it is before 4:00 am in Arizona a good way to wake up with morning covfefe!
Bees and coffee 2 of my favorite things.
@@kamonreynolds Yep! Sorry about the Alabama and LSU game last night :-{ Enjoying Arizona for now a good break from N.E. Ohio :-) Your smoker clip sparked my interest in your channel just FYI.
I got my first nuc in July, so they haven't had the advantage of building up a lot in preparation for winter. I ended up consolidating them into a 7-over-7 arrangement: two ten frame boxes with a dividing board vertically, closing off their access to the unused space.
Great camera work!!
Wow! I can't believe how much capped brood you had for this time of the year! Great bees ya got there!
Hello from the UK
Thank you. This is exactly what I was thinking I needed to do to one of my packages and two days later I see this video. I'm in Virginia so the climate is very similar.
Thank you Again
I use many of the same methods you use. We did lose two hives this fall, one about two weeks ago, they just absconded. I had the blue shop towel treatment on all and plenty of resources, although there were three replacement cells and one was chewed down the other two had the queens still in them. All of the bees left except maybe a couple hundred. Lots of honey left. I guess I'll just process it and bottle.
So is it fair to say, despite all the best intentions, that the packages were a bust and the Nucs are the winners /Way to go. I have followed this from the beginning, and it would seem that you have no queen from the original packages left and you have had to spend your time trying to keep the packages alive to get them through winter. The Nucs on the other hand you have split and boosted the packages numbers from them as well as have a fair more viable number of bees to over winter. That was my observation, please fill in the blanks if I have missed some important info. Thanks for the video Kamon. Remember you can write to Santa for a request for longer arms....
Exactly. We really had to baby the packages. If we would not have had anything but the packages we likely would have 2 hives max at best case scenario and more than likely 1 hive left. Our nucs spent valueable brood to keep the 2 poor packages afloat until our new queens could raise a round of their own. Queen quality was 100% of the issue.
Thanks so much for showing this. I believe my failure to do this is what caused me to lose my hive during a winter- I was new and had no idea
instablaster.
Thank you for the great advice!
Great teaching! just did that this weekend. Smart!
What do you with those frames you pulled off?
Good informative video.
Thanks !!
Thank you for your videos. I really enjoy them. I was also wondering how you dip, paint or treat your boxes to keep them from rotting. Thank you
Hey Ron here is a video on how we do it. ua-cam.com/video/HX9T7j8dfnc/v-deo.html
Kamon: when combining boxes for winter, is it possible to have too many bees? Would your box be honey bound? Newbie question, thanks for your patience
Did you find an answer anywhere to this question?
Is there an upper entrance to vent moisture on your inner cover? The entrance should be up I think in winter so the air coming in has to pass over the cover and get warm before it enters the hive.
Hey Peter, thats what many say you need to do but I am not using a vent on this colony. I don't use ventilation on 99% of my hives and perhaps it is more of a cold weather thing.
Nice video
Don Willam’s love me too night
Just did this today on a few of my hives
That have done great this year and I was actually in that colony today
I got my insulation put on yesterday and now you've got me thinking again! LOL I'm new to beekeeping and don't yet have a good feel as to how much honey is needed for the winter. So I went with more is better and put a second box of honey (really sugar syrup) on top of 2 colonies and a nuc. The bees will fit in their bottom box, even the nuc. So would you recommend moving those bees to one box and just hang on to the frames for feeding if needed? Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!!!
There is no set number it will literally vary by hundreds of lbs from bee type, some use very little some use 150 lbs
In the deep south,a single frame of capped honey and a frame of open will be enough in winter for a 5 frame nuc. I need double that for an 8 or 10 frame hive. Simple logic of more bees need more food. My best single box colonies have 6-7frames of honey and patches of brood and water/nectar.
@@George-nx5lo I was hoping for a more exact answer!! 😁LOL It's 14°F this morning and I decided to leave the 2nd box on my colonies. I purchased some pro sweet and will feed them as often as I can. We typically have some decent weather here in Louisville, KY before winter sets in. THANKS!!
Kevin Wright 2nd box full of syrup/honey or empty ??
@@George-nx5lo Mostly syrup and everything from our poor fall flow.
Right on cue, the photo bomb cats make their appearance! LOL! Think you might try adding some Bee Cozy's other hive wraps?
Yeah those crazy cats are everywhere around here! I don't think so WR in regards to the cozys. I just don't think with my mild winters I could test them very good at all.
“Redneck engineering” … too funny!😂
How do you keep your bees from building twacky comb on the bottoms? Your frames are so tidy and clean?! I feel like we're constantly scraping comb and sometimes she's already laid in it. 🤕
D0 you have an opinion on using Better Bees Better comb in new packages with new foundations. I started with a package this year and only had foundations with no comb. They were all summer to get all frames covered with comb.
I am sure they would help the colony if it was a good one. I have had packages that drew all of the combs and did phenomenal so I personally think it is a queen quality issue more than anything.
Start packages in 4 to 5 frame setup they will perform much better. Add frames as they build. If you want to start packages in 10 frame you need more than 3 lbs of bees. Put in 2 packages of bees with 1 queen or add 1 or 2 frames of capped brood when installing if available and your packages will grow much faster.
@@sourwoodbranchbeefarm6515 Starting a package in a smaller box makes since. Thanks
Canned foam spray for windows or gaps will do want you need.
I have always wintered over with two brood supers. This past winter I lost a strong hive to starving with one of the supers still full of honey,. I was told that the queen likely laid brood in the lower box as it warmed and the bees moved to keep it warm overnight. I am wondering whether your system of only one super would keep that from happening. I do live in a colder area, Spokane, WA so maybe I need two supers, but often have plenty of honey left in the Spring.
Why isn’t there any brood in the hive and are you worried about it.
Very natural to have little to no brood here in November. Right now our colonies are really gearing down on brood production.
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees I asked because I’m in Illinois and as I was preparing my hives for winter I noticed there was very little brood I was worried. This is my first winter. Thanks for answering
I am having trouble with your heavy syrup recipe. The sugar keeps crystallizing out of solution. Help!
I do a 2:1 sugar syrup myself. May be a little heavier overall. I don't have a problem with it crystalizing in the feeder buckets. The bees seem to get it gone fairly fast. Once in the hive I don't look back. I do semi boil the water, pour it in, then mix well. Let it stand overnight covered, then feed. Hope this helps.kamon may have better idea on this, as he has years of experience, me... going into my 3rd season of beekeeping. Rich
Richard Thomas yeah. I have no trouble with 2:1 at all, but when I cook it down to 230 degree boiling point it falls out of solution in a couple days.
Don Beissel 230 is way too hott, doesn’t need to get any hotter than 165, it is hard to keep it from crystallizing but most wont if it’s 3:1. If exposed to oxygen the top thin layer will but rest won’t. You have to remember you loose a lot of moisture by the time it cools down, cooling it down as quickly as possible and not exceeding 165 will help a ton
Don Beissel but I prefer 2:1, I’ve feed down to 29f and they were feeding away no problems
keeper01 see Kamon’s video on heavy syrup. That’s what I was trying to do.
so for winter bees have to bee as clustered as possible and you have to give them as little space as possible?
You mention another video about dealing with frame storage and that some of the frames require extra prep. I couldn’t find that video…can you post a link?
Thanks Kamon, great video. Love your thoughts. I live in Louisiana. Warmer/wet winters. Rarely have 3 days in a row with temperatures below 50 f. This morning it is 34 f. What do you think of giving a hive like that an ultra bee pollen patty. Or a patty and sugar water mixture. If given enough nutritional support will they pull those frames out.
Thanks.
No they won’t draw right now, a little pattie can help but should have been fed patties last 6-8 weeks though, my hives are pattie free now
Kamon: thank you for the videos. I would like to know what type of veil you are using. It looks like one that I think I would like to have.
Hey Wilmer it is a old Walter t Kelley veil. They make a new on at Kelley's bees that is similar but not quite the same thing. Still the new one I have purchased off greater visibility over many of the models available.
Here is what the new one looks like. ua-cam.com/video/vXhxrvjSxUo/v-deo.html
I figured you would be in mourning today??😜😜
Maybe a little. I have bigger fish to fry than that but it is a bummer! Hey I got a thermal mite treatment dealio for next years tests. A MMK model. Thanks for the idea 😎I can't wait to try it out
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees
Yup Certainly not for your production hives, but for your personal stuff should be interesting?? I cant wait to try it myself 👍😀
How do you know when there is enough feed? In general that is, realize there are variables.
Hi Kamon, how do you store the frames that have a little honey?
On the bees.
Kamon, how long do you let the paint dry on your queens when you mark them? For some reason the paint always gets rubbed off my queens.
Have a colony with one full deep and a second one only half full
Should I ditch the second?
Do you put on candy boards or no bees in your warmer winter climate as compared to NE Ohio.
I check them in fall and feed them if they are low. The bees do better this way in my opinion and then I don't have to worry about emergency feeding bees.
How many honey frames does a single need to over winter !!
I would like to know how cold it gets there in the winter. Interesting that you don’t use ventilation. It’s mid November here in the Adirondacks and temps have been to 5 degrees above zero with windchills to 25 below already. Wondering if I should try a hive or two without ventilation but it must be that you are much warmer there in the great state of Tennessee. Sure would like to know. We have trouble with ice forming in the hives without venting but I’ve actually never tried it. Thanks for the great video.
We are very mild here. We only get a handful of days that in the single digits if that. The bees are flying right now and they were yesterday as well. We are very mild here.
weather.com/weather/tenday/l/8bc5d2789dc90402eeb8c89731cccfaae25da3de31eff238e5f8ccd0a673f390 checkout the next ten days
Migratory cover = wet bees around here (PNW)
Top entrance?
How thick is your styrofoam
it is rated R-5 it is an inch thick