Honey Bees Under Pressure from Wasps other bees and night predators
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Welcome and Happy Friday!
Well, autumn is in full swing and the number of flowers still providing nectar and pollen are dwindling down.
This results in a larger number of foragers than resources to forage. With temps also going down, bees and wasps are driven to test the defenses of other social insects which may not be well protected.
What can you do for your bees? Reduce those entrances to defensible sizes. If you take off honey this time of year, that can kick off a feeding frenzy from scouts that will quickly bring their hive-mates for a raid.
When taking honey off during a time of plenty, there really isn't much pressure as everyone is productive and resources would be high. However, as the landscape goes to sleep, competition intensifies and colony strength is sure to be tested.
As if that's not enough, night predators are also intensifying their raids and search for resources so they can build up enough fat to endure the coming winter.
YES! in response to those generous viewers who have asked how they can support my work, please follow this link: / 3494368
Here is how I deter the animals in this video: • How to keep skunks and... These work!
What wireless cameras am I currently testing/evaluating? The night sequences in this video were captured by the Arlo Pro system which feeds video right to your phone, ipad, or computer - they automatically record when motion is detected, AND they can be accessed for a live view at any time day or night, AND - you can listen and talk through them. My evaluation continues, but they are fantastic so far and are weather proof. amzn.to/2VcjXWF
NOTE: once you have the Arlo base, you can add any number of cameras, BUT, if you go over 5 you will have to pay a small annual fee to see each camera on their website link. REVIEW COMING UP LATER THIS MONTH.
The Solar Powered Owl flasher/chirpers that are keeping the critters away from my bees: amzn.to/2o4RJkF
I have five of them in my apiary - still testing, but so far the results are excellent.
NOTE: These are not product promos, I paid full retail price for everything I've mentioned and am reviewing.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You could really give PBS a run for their money! Amazing shots!!!
Thank you so much! :)
1 agree 110%. What do you use for filming, a GoPro?
We are preparing to take the plunge into beekeeping next Spring. We have acquired most of the equipment, etc we need to get started (have purchased two Flow Hives with additional supers as mentioned in a post on a prior video). The main thing we need now are bees, and want to be sure we get an order in soon enough to ensure we don't miss out on supply. We have been looking at various options. I know that location will likely determine what options are available. Being in the Midwest (NW of St. Louis), the main supplier in GA may be the best best, but there is some access to bees from CA (through distributors ins MI, WI, OH). Of course, we are also looking at local sources as well. We went to one beekeepers' group this past week, and I would be hesitant to purchase bees (e.g. a nuc) from any of them (not going to say I was all that impressed with some of the answers I got, but I do have a lot to learn yet). We will be checking out another group next week. In any event, we are considering trying bees from two different sources - one for each hive. Is this not a good decision starting out? Also, I am very interested in the B Weaver bees that you have been using for some time. Unfortunately, it looks like B Weaver no longer ships bees (bee boxes for pickup only), only queens. What are your thoughts on this - how can I best incorporate the B Weaver characteristics into my colony(ies)? Would introducing a B Weaver queen in the future be an option (e.g. when doing a split)? Would purchasing a mated queen bee sufficient? Or, will I bee missing out on the "other half" of the equation (from drones)?
Great videos, Fred! WOW!
Again Mr Dunn you have outdone yourself! We are always waiting on your next video! We probably watch about 15 or so Bee people on YT and have learned so much from so many but my hubs and I have learned more from you than probably most of the others put together and you always present your material in such an awesome manner! We started watching because of the bee Q&A and have been won over and absolutely love the bee videos that are pretty much all bees and not much info just your amazing photography skills with some awesome music added in! Again we can’t thank you enough for the time and effort that you put into helping us as new beekeepers and entertaining us at the same time!! 💖💖💞💕💞💖
Thank you sooooo much! I'm so glad that there are so many options online for a beekeeper's education :)
I used to be terrified of bees until watching your channel, today I went outside and saw about 15 bees getting a drink out of the pool and actually went close to them and let them fly around me. I appreciate you.
Fascinating video, as always. After watching you use screen to reduce the entrance of a hive I tried it with much success. Actually, I noticed that scout bees from other colonies were trapped on the inside as they were sure how to get out. The resident bees attacked them viciously. I do wonder whether the resident bees know how to ventilate the hive on the screened-off portion of the entrance. Or do they just use their wings to vent only entrances that are unobstructed? It may be that the screen undermines the ventilation efforts of the bees as they are only circulating air that is flowing in from the screen? I wonder about this as in a previous video you noticed that bees close off all ventilation areas except the entrance. A great science experiment, no doubt.😉🐝
Thanks, as always, for another fascinating and quality informational presentation.
Always enjoy your photography Fred.
Thanks David!
Hello Fred, looks like your owl's working well. The heat index is 95F right now in Eastern Texas.
I'm glad you still have that warmth Dan! What's producing down there?
@@FrederickDunn Goldenrod, Cowpen daisy, native sunflowers, and various other flowers. You can have my heat, lol.
I always enjoy the Bee education, thanks.
Another great piece of videography! My dog woke me the other night at 4:00 am, wanting to go out. I should preface this with the fact that she has been previously nailed twice by skunks and I swear she can smell them a block away. I turned on the flood lights and there he was rooting around for grubs and he/she was huge. Not the least bit phased by the lights. Needless to say, the pooch was not let outside LOL!
I have a "skunk kit" on hot standby just for my dog. He has been spritzed twice this year. so not that bad considering how many are around.
Frederick Dunn so do I!
good afternoon my brother my congratulations your work is very beautiful God bless you always
Nice and informative...as usual, plus some nice videography! Thanks, Fred!
So sorry I missed that bee breakfast Robert! Nice to see you here though!
44 degrees Fahrenheit here this morning... I am less ready for winter than the bees. LoL!!! Thanks for another amazing video. Are those evening shots (not the Arlo) taken with the Nikon? Amazing light sensor. Wow!
Yes, the color sequence at night was the NIkon Z7
Absolutely amazing!!!
Hello Larry, I can't wait until till I can say that about the temperature, lol. Low 70s in the morning, 95F right now.
Dan Ski's Bees - Dang!!! Are your bees still bringing in the nectar with it being that warm?
@@LarryLeesBees Bringing in pollen, my frames aren't like they were before the dearth, I'm supplementing. We've had a little over a 1/4" of rain in 3 months, it keeps going by. Mine and all of the surrounding counties have burn bans.
I need your informed counsel regarding the best mixture of bee-friendly perennials to seed an embankment about 25x200ft on a commercial property. The grade dangerous and I'd like to eliminate the risk of continuing the future use of mowing machinery. I think we might be just able to get the seed out in time for our fall rainy period. If all goes well, we've discussed the possibility of offering as less traveled area nearby to a local beekeeper and eventually, with their help, perhaps tending them ourselves. This is not an ideal location as it hasn't developed a healthy layer of topsoil since it was left barren and eroding during construction and has only in the recent 3-4 years managed to grow grass. I have my doubts about the possibility that improved irrigation will make the budget for quite a while yet.
Thank you for any guidance you may offer. Thanks for your work with birds, bees and imaging.
Wildflower mixes are a good choice for areas that won't be attended to, and there are perrenial choices available through Eden Brothers - Just select the best mix for your agricultural zone www.edenbrothers.com/store/wildflower_seed_mixes.html
Just Awesome !
Question!! Today a large amount of bees came to the hive I use an entire window screen with frame as a deterrent and 2 of the 3 entrances are closed the bees were all over the screen and up and down the hive I panicked and shut the whole hive down after perhaps 15 minutes and feeling it was not good to keep the pollinators from entering I moved the rock which closed the 3rd and a frenzy of both entering and exiting took place although very little fighting and many couples face to face doing a gentle sword fight looking behavior and then what!? was that a queen I saw? Eagerly I shot both stills and video then I panicked again and semi closed the hive with a piece of sponge interesting to note that I stuck my hand in on the frenzy to squish a yellow jacket with no bee aggression toward me. Did I do right or wrong? There have been no honey bees around for about 3 years I adopted this hive from someone who lost interest and I believe after my hearty feeding from the first of August they multiplied so much that they swarmed so I assume that the robbing it is that swarm. Help! What to do? Shut it down preventing pollinators from entering or keep the sponge in place. (note to self: join a bee club)
HI Russ, anytime you change the configurations of entrances, try to do that at night and there will be less confusion when the foragers head out. You may indeed be seeing some swarm preps rather than a full on robbery. But that will prove out as you observe the activity more.
Fantastic Fred! Gr8 photography. Will look into getting cameras and deterrent system to stop critters getting our fruit.
Cheers. Johno.
Thanks John, what kind of critters are after your fruit?
Frederick Dunn ... rats, squirrels and raccoons... coyotes are not active. Should import some dingos 🤔🤭😳😉
Thanks Fred! One last round of flowers here still... but we might get frost tonight.. so we'll see!
I just need to get my flow supers OFF asap! Last year caught me completely off guard and I don't want that to happen again.
@@FrederickDunn Yeah.. that weather switch can be fast! I just finished extracting. I have one super on one hive still that was 75% full and capped and the other cells were still uncapped. That was last week. Hoping they will fill up the last few with the remaining resources and also the "cleanup" honey i left for them to rob back off of supers, frames etc. cheers!
@@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork Yep, and setting out those leftovers for robbing is a nice win for the bees as there is no more work to be done with that honey when they get it home! Let's hope winter comes in soft and doesn't stay long!
@@FrederickDunn Yeah I was amazed how fast they swarmed it... 1000's of bees on it in 20 minutes! I'm with you.. we could even have a "touch and go" winter as far as I'm concerned! :)
I’ve been going through your videos trying to get ready to start bee keeping in the spring. One thing I can find is if there is a way to keep a colony to one hive. For the first few years I don’t want to get to ahead of myself and would like to keep things to one colony. I love on about an acre and have a corner spot away from people I plan on using, but I don’t want to outgrow the area, or explains before I’m ready. If you have covered anything like this please let me know in what video so I can watch. Thank you!
You can do it but they will swarm .
When they swarm,your left with half of the bees.
You can catch that swarm and sell it or give it to a beekeeper ,or you can let them swarm and they will find a home in nature.
You will still be let with the bees in your hive.
Get nice ,docile bees and enjoy them.
The UoG up in Canada specialize in single brood box operations. (we're all learning to the day we leave, so no harm in mentioning UoG).
I do 2, but this yr did a single that out performed my yard, so will be exploring that more next yr. If your an active attentive keep they will not swarm as a rule (but bees can, will & have swarmed and had room to spare, why its called keeping and not 'having' lol) good luck, its a most enjoyable & tasty hobby, learn from everyone and know we all make mistakes (how we learn ;)
Fred,
Another great video your camera system really works good. I have to look into the deterrents you have and maybe keep the bears away from electric fence.
Thanks, John
I've learned that the bears definitely don't like the noise. I have them on game cameras and they are definitely in the area. The Deer also don't like these little noise makers! You "can" actually hang them on the hive if you want to, but i have them in front, facing the hives and in other places they are in a cross fire from the sides so I can cover several hives at once. The skunks are less sensitive to them unless they are right up to the hive.
@@FrederickDunn
Yes as a queen breeder the bears can do a lot of damage quick, I like to take any steps to deter them. I'm going to order some and cross on different angles and also check out the camera system now that I know you get alerts very positive results in saving time and money. As you know breeders are cheap now a days.
Thanks again
I meant are not cheap
@@beekeeperjohn7616 Those cameras have to be within 300 feet of your base station, so only good for apiaries that are truly right in the back yard :)
@@FrederickDunn thanks
Did you plant you maximum sunflowers in spring or fall. I have seen reference to both
I always plant in spring :)
So I was watching my bees as the day was coming to an end and noticed a pollinator with pale white pollen upon her legs and she was dead. It was the first pollinator that I saw dead. Most, about 90%, have bright orange or yellow pollen. Then the next day I saw another bee dead and with the same pale white pollen. Could it be the pollen perhaps treated with pesticide that killed these two girls?
Generally speaking that tightly adhering light or white pollen is not pesticide-laden. Did you look at the wings carefully or try to determine the age of the forager? If the wings were tattered and frayed, those are at the end of their useful cycle. You can always collect and submit dead specimens for testing, but it's my guess that that was just pollen. If it was a heavy pesticide source, I'd expect to see a much larger die off. Please let me know if you learn something more about what happened to your bees.
@@FrederickDunn How very kind of you to reply and so quickly! I do save dead bees and I did check the two and right you are as their wings were a tad frayed. The more I know honey bees the more I admire them.
Thank You Sir..🇱🇨👍
Thanks for watching!
What kind of trap can you set up that will attract yellow jackets and not bees?
ua-cam.com/video/Smn-dbpCKJA/v-deo.html
This was great U always do such a good job with these videos, u have a lot of wild life at your place. I have some as well I have killed 3 rats and 3 mice with the traps u showed us on your channel. Cought 3 possums and 4 squalls I relocated them, I was trying to catch the big rat in a live trap I cought them instead. it is so big I do not think the traps are big enough for them, plus they can not get where I put them I did not want to kill any other animal with the traps I concealed them like u did. Thanks again for the wonderful video keep them coming, we people out here love watching your wonderful work. Have a Blessed week
Very informative and educational 😀
Thankyou for posting.
Lost a small poly nuc last weekend due to robbing once the girls know they can get free honey they show no mercy.
That's the worst of it, once they get that taste and return to the parent colony, it's nigh impossible to curb that robbing tide.
Do the alarms bother the bees? Do the bees trigger them?
The bees ignore the alarms, but they do set them off when they fly right in front of the sensor as they explore.
I almost added robbing screens to my hives. It got really dry there for a tad. We have had a bad fall dearth in Maryland.
Still a lot coming in. But the girls were definitively picking on each other trying to horde.
Do you ever open feed to take some of that robbing pressure off? I've done that in the past for the worst days.
@@FrederickDunn That is exactly what I did. Soon as they find the feed they send foragers there.
Unfortunately I put formic pro strips in so I can’t reduce my entrances for 8 more days. I had yellow jackets going in and out my one colony this morning. Once it warmed up a bit the bees got out and started defending. Was worried at first.
I found a way to fix my robbing and yellow jacket issue while still having ventilation. I used your idea of window screen. Well I used 1/8 inch hardware cloth and folded it. Left my weakest colony with about 2 inches of gap for an entrance. They are finally able to get the 2:1 sugar syrup without having to battle every neighborhood bee, yellow jack and bald faced hornet. Glad the bald faced hornets don’t attack in force. They seem to come one at a time and the guards make short work of them. They are not afraid to go right into the hive. I’ve found probably 8 dead bald faced hornets below my landing boards.
Are the chickens still staying clear of The beeyard since you put in those ultrasonic
I turn the alarms off during the day, so the birds roam through normally :)
We had snow already this fall and temps to -8 at night the coldest yet is -8ish
I hope I have some time before that happens as I have a lot yet to do around here.
@@FrederickDunn Better hurry Fred. I moved my bananna trees in yesterday and we are suppose to get down to 47 degrees tomorrow. It is going to be a long, snowy, cold winter for the north east per the farmers almanac.
I think the bees know. They have been in a frenzy the last 2 days like it is the end of the world.
Ray, that's crazy, it seems like yesterday, you were playing with your girls.
@@danskisbees7348 Seasons change quick here
Tonight about say 300 miles away up to 2 feet of snow tonight
Your voice was not fresh as routine hope all good :-) if not then will be soon InshaAllah , all the best
Everything is fine here.... I sounded different? (';')( ';')
@@FrederickDunn yes sir in the begining of vedio,
I had one of my two hives abscond a few weeks ago. No sign of wax moth or excessive hive beetles, no dead bees. I'd gone into the hive two weeks before to do a mite wash, but didn't find the queen so I didn't do the wash. No sign at that time of queen cells. Either I missed her, or maybe she died or left and the rest of the hive left. Any opinions?
You can cut sections from the brood comb and send it in for chemical residue testing. Without a Queen, it's extremely rare for a colony to vacate.
@@FrederickDunn I couldn't find her, but that doesn't mean she wasn't there. I've always had trouble finding her in this hive - the other hive, no problem. Usually I just looked to make sure there was open brood and went on my way. But I didn't want to shake her into an alcohol wash.