Fixing my Queenless and Laying Worker Honeybee Hives
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2023
- Over the course of this spring I ran into queen issues with a couple of my hives. By utilizing available resources I was able to address these queenless situations and make the most of hives that would have been doomed, otherwise.
I grew up on a farm on the edge of the Nebraska sandhills. A cattle ranch that bears our family name, founded in the late 1800s by my ancestors, is still owned and worked by my cousin. Life events have put me in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area in middle America, where my wife and I have raised our two kids. It's in this environment that I work to make as sustainable a life as I can, converting much of our backyard to grow food, including a garden, fruit trees and bee hives.
I attempt to use natural methods, as much as is possible, in my gardening and beekeeping. I garden organically and continue to learn to work with the soil and the plants, without the use of chemical supplements, herbicides or pesticides, to improve our harvest. Our honey bees are sourced from local colonies through swarms, trap-outs and cut-outs, and are kept, using treatment-free, natural methods, in Layens horizontal hives.
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Great video. Keep up the good work. Videos like yours are very helpful as i have ventured into keeping bees in layens hives this year.
Thank you so much! I hope to continue to provide information that will be helpful for you.
Great video, I'm looking forward to troubleshooting my own Layens hives. I think the insulated Layens will work better in our area, our temp swings can be crazy. Don't think I remember 4 seasons of the year that went to plan since I was a kid in the late 70's.
I think the insulated hives are beneficial in about any environment. They reduce the usage of honey resources in cold winters but can also temper the effects of hot climates. And, of course, they can help to moderate temperature swings as you mention. In general I like them because I think it's a better thermal approximation of a hollow tree trunk.
@@SuburbanSodbuster I 100% agree!
Letting the bees make their own queen to me just makes sense, It costs no money, doesn't take any more time than the other methods and plus most of the problems I have had have been with commercial queens.
I agree. I'd rather work with the bees' nature as much as I can.
@@SuburbanSodbuster I did notice in one of your videos how small your bees are. I guessed by that that you allow the bees to make their own comb too.
That's correct. In the Layens hives I usually provide a starter strip of foundation but beyond that the bees build their own comb.
A VERY useful video, just like your other ones. Here is a question: I combined two Layens colonies that were in the same box but one was queenless. I modified the divider to have a wire screen at the bottom to (hopefully) allow pheromone transfer. Just today, after four days, I removed the divider. there didn't seem to be any fighting. Please give me advice on the entrance discs: should I close one and, if so, which one. Many thanks, Paul
Many people wonder about how to combine colonies in a Layens hive; it sounds like you took a very good approach and it worked out well. I would close the entrance on the "queenless" side, leaving open the entrance on the side with the queen, which will have viable brood. The entrances are close enough that the foragers will all, eventually, orient to the one entrance.
@@SuburbanSodbuster Many thanks - looking forward to your next video.
On what date did you do this fine work?
This was actually done in mid June. It took me a while to edit, plus was waiting to see the outcomes.
I hear a lot of English Sparrows in your vid. I’ve eradicated them pretty much in my area with my elevator sparrow trap and also my 22. I haven’t seen one this year and I used to be infested with them. I raise Eastern Bluebirds with 9 bluebird houses on my farm. English Sparrows and snakes are the 2 worst enemies to bluebirds. They’ll kill the parents and their baby’s and eggs to take over their nest box. I killed a big bull snake last month within a foot of their box after the babies. The parents were raising up a ruckus and I knew what it was. That’s the 4th time bluebirds have warned me of snakes after their babies. Grasshoppers are out of control here in Texas and my bluebirds eat a lot of them. I have 100s of pecan and fruit trees that those grasshoppers strip. They’ll start eating bark and buds off twigs after they eat all the greenery and kill trees like peaches. They’ll even eat the rinds off my watermelons in my garden. Some years they’re really bad like this year.
Eurasian sparrows, actually. There's an overabundance of them here.