This is my first year beekeeping and there is a learning curve. Don't ask me about the expense. I had zero expectations about a return other than getting experience and learning what the processes. Started out with two colonies and I now have five. One is rather weak and I think I know why. We'll see if I can keep them alive over the winter. I have found that I am paying much more attention to the weather and flora and fauna around me. My dad was a biology professor and we lost him in 2019. I feel closer to him as we move on. I live in the south and saw a lot of spring activity and I'll be better prepared for this next spring to catch more swarms. I am having fun and learning new things is wonderful. I love the fascination. Keep up the good work and I'll see you in January. Persistence is just patience in motion.
My wife and I have kept bees for 5 years. She just quit keeping bees because of anxiety. She was anxious about keeping them alive through winter, keeping them mite free, swarming, etc., etc. I stayed with it because I enjoy solving problems.
Having a year or two of training before getting your bees, and ongoing contact with members of a local beekeeping group helps IMMENSELY. It helps you maintain sanity and keep from quitting when you face curveballs throughout your first year. Speaking from experience, and in the midst of my 1st year keeping my own bees... Did a rescue from a friend's compost bin in April, dealt w/hive beetles galore, did a split, requeened, had 2 absconsions, re-requeened, dealt with intense robbing, uneven mite loads... finally getting to a calmer place. Will be adding a 3rd colony (Randy Oliver nuc) in spring... I must be crazy!
Another super video, you are on a roll David! You definitely have the pulse of what your audience is going through. I'm a big fan, and get a great deal out of participating in your programs and watching your videos. I'm not thinking of quitting at all, but my bees have worn me out this summer. Haha, I'm absolutely exhausted. Beekeeping is a lot more work than meets the eye.
15 minutes into a Beekeeping class a man got up and said "This is to much work ". Out the door he went. A lot of folks think it's going to be easy. They seem shocked at how hard it is and how much work is evolved. Also it's not a cheap endeavor. Then there is the emotional factor. One minute you are elated, everything is wonderful. OH happy day! Next second you drop into the dungeon of sadness and can't seem to do anything right. Then BOOM 💥 Your hives swarm out or abscond. Yikes. They give up. I refused to let it whip me but can't say I didn't think about it a couple of times. 8 years in. Addicted 😂
I love the way you describe your experience with learning beekeeping. I was really surprised as well that the hobby was quite different than I thought it would be, but somehow I prefer the never ending learning process of beekeeping. As a fifth year beekeeper myself I fully understand now how you can be be a Master Beekeeper and still be learning more about them every time you open a hive. In time my favourite hive inspections became the ones where I would open up a hive and see something completely unexpected that I had never learned about in my courses.
Hi David, I really love your new video and the way it was shot. Very cool to see the unedited parts! It just reinforces that we all make mistakes and you inspire all of us beeks to keep on learning and improving!
Thank you Mr. Burns...this was quite helpful and encouraging. I am a second year beekeeper, and it has been quite discouraging...you nailed it in this video. It almost sounded like you were speaking about me!
I appreciate your comment. We all go through discouraging times. We just have to find something, ANYTHING to hang on to, and keep going. If you're gonna fall, fall forward. 😀
If at first you don't succeed, try try again! 🐝💜 So glad I didn't give up after losing 2 out of 3 hives. Just dug my heals into my beekeeping education and joined my local beekeeper club. So far this year has gone pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go this winter. 🤞🐝💜
I always appreciate your videos, I learn so much. This is my first year and lost my hive after 4 months (started with only one to learn...which I did.) I will be continuing. Kind of focusing on cut outs to get up and running next spring, after I build more equipment and prepare better for best season. Thanks again.
I do believe our bees in the north are feisty and in the south calm. UA-cam bees are always calmer than any hive ive ever had. Smoke makes them edgy as well. Daytime temps chave been 11celcius and 8/ 9 celcius at night. When we harvested our last hive they were really angry lol. I was stung in both feet, and in my abdomen. I had 4 bees in my doubled pants, and 2 bees up my sleeve. I had a bee jacket with hood on and gloves. I told myself that i was going to work out how much id sell everything. Two days later i offered the bees food and they were calm. I will keep them for now lol. There is an icecream parlor at the end of our street . Couple days ago i stopped to talk to the owner and a bee was flying around my window. Im 99% sure that was one of mine. It was a wonderful site. Freinds are also mentioning about seeing our bees in the community. There hasnt been any bees seen in our community for years until we got into beekeeping. This is our 2nd successful year of 3 yrs of beekeeping.
So, what can be discouraging is that you are pulling frames with beautiful full brood patterns going into winter, and my 3 hives have very little brood, if any, this time of year. I'm in Canada with roughly 60-65 degree days and 45-55 degree nights F. Next week we will probably have our first freeze. Is there something wrong with my bees? I'm not the greatest at finding the queen but I've replaced 2 this year. I probably spent $580 on bees, just this year. It's rough getting started
I got into it for the declining bees and my garden. I find it relaxing and fun but they do like to toss in a curve now and then. I rapidly got a few hives (it addicting) lost 30% first year ( mites and robbing) but stayed with it learning and now have 100% hive count with spare Nuc's for insurance. The one thing I never counted on /thought of was all the honey. Now I have more to learn
The learning curve with honeybees is huge. I studied about all I could on line for about 4 years before I got my first hive. I took a beginners course, helped out in the club apiary and even had a good mentor. there was still so much I had to learn by doing it. Nearly lost one of two hives this year to EFB then did lose it to robbing by ants. replaced that with one that I still haven't concluded the cause of spotty brood. the other hive superseded half way through the year. this is only my first full season. Hope to do much better next year.
At year 3 I’ve seriously considered giving it up. I love the bees, studying for the journeyman cert. and watching their organization. However, lifting a 10 deep is very painful and buying 8s to replace 6 double deeps is not financially feasible. My state limits the hives by acreage and 6 is my limit so now I have to get rid of any splits or swarms. I enjoy telling folks about bees and will advocate for them till it’s over for good. Great video you made for what I needed
Move your colonies to horizontal hives. Long Langstroth or Layens style. No super lifting required. After initial set up, the maximum lift weight is 1 frame full of honey. Use a wagon or cart to transfer frames to or from a super frame for transportation.
Make, buy, borrow or steal(jk) a langstroth longhive. Your frames will work may even be able to join your deeps together with access holes between to make one as I've seen on youtube. Only have to lift 1 frame at a time. Just an idea.
@@beek It's just 4 left out of the original 100 after four years. After one year 20 are left. 20% of those 20 makes 4; that's how many are left after four years (the other 16 gave up).
I didn't know that you could just add a box from another hive with those bees in it, will they fight with the bees like they are robber bees and concern with the queen, this is only my 2 winter with my hive.
Yes he did, you can do this as long as the bees your bringing do not outnumber the colony it can be done with strong colonies.. The bees in the existing colony will defend and protect the queen.
David, Great video. I was a bee haver for over 15 years and have been a beekeeper for the last 3 to 5 years. (I am also a serious cyclist). I have to approach beekeeping in a very different way than most beekeepers. I am sighted but legally blind. I will not, for instance do a bee wash for mite testing. I know the 1st bee in the jar will be the queen. Instead I assume I have mites and treat prophylacticly. I have figured out (for the most part) how to shake bees and make splits with my low vision. I am however having difficulty figuring out how to supersede a poor quality queen. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks Keith
Good afternoon, first year beekeeper here! Wouldn't moving one hive super to another hive cause the bees that are in it to fight with the hive they're moved to?
I saw a video you did where you were rearranging frames to set up a more efficient brood pattern surrounded by resources. (I have a hard time finding your videos, sometimes, my struggles with youtube.) So, I went in to rearrange. I have two brood boxes with one honey super in top. And, I found my lower box was empty. No brood, no stores, nothing. The upper brood box has a fairly decent hive, maybe a little bit low on brood but I'm feeding so, maybe I'll get a little more? The hive has plenty of bees, I think. My question is, leave that lower box or remove it?
Maybe swap the bottom brood box with the top brood box. Bees are always moving upward. Might help encourage the queen to move up to lay new eggs in the empty brood box.
bekeepers answer, you can take each way: advantage of leaving, the bees are away of the ground, low moisture; advantage of removing: you can clean it up and reduce disease germs
As tall as that hive is, because I'm 4' 10" and 190 lbs., I wouldn't be able to manages that. So I became a fan of horizontal hives. Easy to manipulate the frames, ect.
You say you used to sell honey for a living but stopped. Does this UA-cam and speakers fees exceed your previous cash flow from honey sales? What did you do to replace the income from the bees?
I needed to leave my other career, and honey wasn't enough. I'm not getting rich off UA-cam, but it helps cover the expenses of low budget filming gear.
Treat getting bees like getting livestock it requires and investment in effort,time and money but in the long run it’s worth it. I think of bees as a long term investment, with a sweet return.
My first package was from you. In 2018 I become finally a beekeeper, I hope, and stopped buying packages. I love my homegrown queens. 73 de N9ERY ex SP6FQO 🙂
This is my first year beekeeping and there is a learning curve. Don't ask me about the expense.
I had zero expectations about a return other than getting experience and learning what the processes.
Started out with two colonies and I now have five. One is rather weak and I think I know why. We'll see if I can keep them alive over the winter.
I have found that I am paying much more attention to the weather and flora and fauna around me.
My dad was a biology professor and we lost him in 2019. I feel closer to him as we move on.
I live in the south and saw a lot of spring activity and I'll be better prepared for this next spring to catch more swarms.
I am having fun and learning new things is wonderful. I love the fascination.
Keep up the good work and I'll see you in January.
Persistence is just patience in motion.
My wife and I have kept bees for 5 years. She just quit keeping bees because of anxiety. She was anxious about keeping them alive through winter, keeping them mite free, swarming, etc., etc. I stayed with it because I enjoy solving problems.
Unfortunately I’ve seen a couple neighbors give up within a year or 2. Old neglected hives left in a field :(
Love your videos David. First year beekeeper and I sure felt the burnt out these last couple of months. Now praying we survive winter
Keeping your bees healthy shows they love you back by growing and expanding. They challenge me to learn them and try to understand them
Having a year or two of training before getting your bees, and ongoing contact with members of a local beekeeping group helps IMMENSELY. It helps you maintain sanity and keep from quitting when you face curveballs throughout your first year. Speaking from experience, and in the midst of my 1st year keeping my own bees...
Did a rescue from a friend's compost bin in April, dealt w/hive beetles galore, did a split, requeened, had 2 absconsions, re-requeened, dealt with intense robbing, uneven mite loads... finally getting to a calmer place. Will be adding a 3rd colony (Randy Oliver nuc) in spring... I must be crazy!
Another super video, you are on a roll David! You definitely have the pulse of what your audience is going through. I'm a big fan, and get a great deal out of participating in your programs and watching your videos. I'm not thinking of quitting at all, but my bees have worn me out this summer. Haha, I'm absolutely exhausted. Beekeeping is a lot more work than meets the eye.
Great video. The Burnout is real, I've questioned it several times but, I love challenges and so that drives me to be better.
Your videos always provide a lot of information...this one in particular is overflowing with wisdom. Thank you.
15 minutes into a Beekeeping class a man got up and said "This is to much work ". Out the door he went.
A lot of folks think it's going to be easy. They seem shocked at how hard it is and how much work is evolved. Also it's not a cheap endeavor.
Then there is the emotional factor. One minute you are elated, everything is wonderful. OH happy day! Next second you drop into the dungeon of sadness and can't seem to do anything right.
Then BOOM 💥 Your hives swarm out or abscond. Yikes. They give up.
I refused to let it whip me but can't say I didn't think about it a couple of times. 8 years in. Addicted 😂
I love the way you describe your experience with learning beekeeping. I was really surprised as well that the hobby was quite different than I thought it would be, but somehow I prefer the never ending learning process of beekeeping. As a fifth year beekeeper myself I fully understand now how you can be be a Master Beekeeper and still be learning more about them every time you open a hive. In time my favourite hive inspections became the ones where I would open up a hive and see something completely unexpected that I had never learned about in my courses.
Hi David, I really love your new video and the way it was shot. Very cool to see the unedited parts! It just reinforces that we all make mistakes and you inspire all of us beeks to keep on learning and improving!
Taking a class with a local beek association when I first started got me all fired up to learn even more about bees.
This was a great video David. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Burns...this was quite helpful and encouraging. I am a second year beekeeper, and it has been quite discouraging...you nailed it in this video. It almost sounded like you were speaking about me!
I appreciate your comment. We all go through discouraging times. We just have to find something, ANYTHING to hang on to, and keep going. If you're gonna fall, fall forward. 😀
Really enjoyed this video David. Lots of great points. Well-done my friend!
Dziękujemy.
Thanks my friend.
Another great video, David. "Thank You"
I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
If at first you don't succeed, try try again! 🐝💜 So glad I didn't give up after losing 2 out of 3 hives. Just dug my heals into my beekeeping education and joined my local beekeeper club. So far this year has gone pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go this winter. 🤞🐝💜
😅 Love the "bloopers" at the end!
I always appreciate your videos, I learn so much. This is my first year and lost my hive after 4 months (started with only one to learn...which I did.) I will be continuing. Kind of focusing on cut outs to get up and running next spring, after I build more equipment and prepare better for best season. Thanks again.
Next...not best😊
You are so cool! Thank you for all these videos!!!
Glad you like them!
I'm trying to learn as much as I can before we start beekeeping in the spring! Keep up the great videos!
I love beekeeping. Im beyond the burnout stage. Im super stoked and aggressive to keep adding more colonies.
I do believe our bees in the north are feisty and in the south calm. UA-cam bees are always calmer than any hive ive ever had. Smoke makes them edgy as well. Daytime temps chave been 11celcius and 8/ 9 celcius at night. When we harvested our last hive they were really angry lol. I was stung in both feet, and in my abdomen. I had 4 bees in my doubled pants, and 2 bees up my sleeve. I had a bee jacket with hood on and gloves. I told myself that i was going to work out how much id sell everything. Two days later i offered the bees food and they were calm. I will keep them for now lol. There is an icecream parlor at the end of our street . Couple days ago i stopped to talk to the owner and a bee was flying around my window. Im 99% sure that was one of mine. It was a wonderful site. Freinds are also mentioning about seeing our bees in the community. There hasnt been any bees seen in our community for years until we got into beekeeping. This is our 2nd successful year of 3 yrs of beekeeping.
I see you left the bees from the hive you took the super from with the super. Can you please explain? They won’t❤ fight?
I often recommend that you treat this like combining, but in this case I read the hive and determined I could get away with it.
Also you’ll find those bees came with resources, basically they’re now family.
It's been a hard first year but I'm already enthusiastic for next year and a full spring flow
Stay strong my friend.
So, what can be discouraging is that you are pulling frames with beautiful full brood patterns going into winter, and my 3 hives have very little brood, if any, this time of year. I'm in Canada with roughly 60-65 degree days and 45-55 degree nights F. Next week we will probably have our first freeze. Is there something wrong with my bees? I'm not the greatest at finding the queen but I've replaced 2 this year. I probably spent $580 on bees, just this year. It's rough getting started
I got into it for the declining bees and my garden. I find it relaxing and fun but they do like to toss in a curve now and then. I rapidly got a few hives (it addicting) lost 30% first year ( mites and robbing) but stayed with it learning and now have 100% hive count with spare Nuc's for insurance. The one thing I never counted on /thought of was all the honey. Now I have more to learn
Do you not use inner covers?
Yes, it is frustrating good days and better days never a "BAD" day.
The learning curve with honeybees is huge. I studied about all I could on line for about 4 years before I got my first hive. I took a beginners course, helped out in the club apiary and even had a good mentor. there was still so much I had to learn by doing it. Nearly lost one of two hives this year to EFB then did lose it to robbing by ants. replaced that with one that I still haven't concluded the cause of spotty brood. the other hive superseded half way through the year. this is only my first full season. Hope to do much better next year.
Indeed!!
At year 3 I’ve seriously considered giving it up. I love the bees, studying for the journeyman cert. and watching their organization. However, lifting a 10 deep is very painful and buying 8s to replace 6 double deeps is not financially feasible. My state limits the hives by acreage and 6 is my limit so now I have to get rid of any splits or swarms. I enjoy telling folks about bees and will advocate for them till it’s over for good. Great video you made for what I needed
Move your colonies to horizontal hives. Long Langstroth or Layens style. No super lifting required. After initial set up, the maximum lift weight is 1 frame full of honey. Use a wagon or cart to transfer frames to or from a super frame for transportation.
Make, buy, borrow or steal(jk) a langstroth longhive. Your frames will work may even be able to join your deeps together with access holes between to make one as I've seen on youtube. Only have to lift 1 frame at a time. Just an idea.
Great video, David! I like shooting too 😉
David,
How long do you leave your feed box set up on (empty super box with burns feeding inner cover/jars) ?
Until it daytime temps drops below 50 (f) on a consistent basis.
Here in the UK the stat for giving up is, in year 1 80% of new beeks give up and out the 20% left, 80% of those will give up within 4 years
Wow, that's probably about the same in the US, so out of 100 beekeepers who start only 16 are left after 4 years.
@@beek yeah exactly 🐝
@@beek 80% give up of the 20 left actually leaves just 4 left!
Yup You Are Right!! Only 4 left. Good math
@@beek It's just 4 left out of the original 100 after four years. After one year 20 are left. 20% of those 20 makes 4; that's how many are left after four years (the other 16 gave up).
I didn't know that you could just add a box from another hive with those bees in it, will they fight with the bees like they are robber bees and concern with the queen, this is only my 2 winter with my hive.
With a newspaper between them, they get along while they remove the paper.
David I was just kind of wondering did you leave the Bees on from the honey supers and just transfer them right over to another colony?
There is no problem about that this time of the year, yes you can just transfer them!
Yes he did, you can do this as long as the bees your bringing do not outnumber the colony it can be done with strong colonies.. The bees in the existing colony will defend and protect the queen.
David, Great video. I was a bee haver for over 15 years and have been a beekeeper for the last 3 to 5 years. (I am also a serious cyclist). I have to approach beekeeping in a very different way than most beekeepers. I am sighted but legally blind. I will not, for instance do a bee wash for mite testing. I know the 1st bee in the jar will be the queen. Instead I assume I have mites and treat prophylacticly. I have figured out (for the most part) how to shake bees and make splits with my low vision. I am however having difficulty figuring out how to supersede a poor quality queen. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks Keith
If you need to replace a queen, you have to kill the poor performing queen, wait a day and introduce a new mated queen.
Good afternoon, first year beekeeper here! Wouldn't moving one hive super to another hive cause the bees that are in it to fight with the hive they're moved to?
They won't fight this time of the year.
30 takes and a rut worn in the graaa😊
I saw a video you did where you were rearranging frames to set up a more efficient brood pattern surrounded by resources. (I have a hard time finding your videos, sometimes, my struggles with youtube.)
So, I went in to rearrange. I have two brood boxes with one honey super in top. And, I found my lower box was empty. No brood, no stores, nothing. The upper brood box has a fairly decent hive, maybe a little bit low on brood but I'm feeding so, maybe I'll get a little more? The hive has plenty of bees, I think.
My question is, leave that lower box or remove it?
Went back and found the video I was looking for. Thanks for all the info.
Approximate location?
You could swap the boxes and continue to feed and let them fill the top box.
Maybe swap the bottom brood box with the top brood box. Bees are always moving upward. Might help encourage the queen to move up to lay new eggs in the empty brood box.
Remove it
bekeepers answer, you can take each way: advantage of leaving, the bees are away of the ground, low moisture; advantage of removing: you can clean it up and reduce disease germs
like that video guys !!!! good stuff david
As tall as that hive is, because I'm 4' 10" and 190 lbs., I wouldn't be able to manages that. So I became a fan of horizontal hives. Easy to manipulate the frames, ect.
Even for tall beekeepers, horizontals are awesome. I love mine.
@@beek 🥰
The first to comment for the algorithms!
You say you used to sell honey for a living but stopped. Does this UA-cam and speakers fees exceed your previous cash flow from honey sales? What did you do to replace the income from the bees?
I needed to leave my other career, and honey wasn't enough. I'm not getting rich off UA-cam, but it helps cover the expenses of low budget filming gear.
One you can’t tell us about, makes me wonder
Treat getting bees like getting livestock it requires and investment in effort,time and money but in the long run it’s worth it.
I think of bees as a long term investment, with a sweet return.
i say beekeeping is to deal with dissepointments learn from it and go further.
My first package was from you. In 2018 I become finally a beekeeper, I hope, and stopped buying packages. I love my homegrown queens. 73 de N9ERY ex SP6FQO 🙂