Your key realization to discover you don’t need to validate yourself with “certificates” removes so much stress from your life and allows you to enjoy life more.. Good Job …
Hey Tara, we met when you spoke with us at the Harnett County Beekeepers Association. I've been following your channel since. I think the size boxes are entirely personal choices for all the reasons you outlined plus a few more. One thing I think new beekeepers should consider that you didn't mention is majority of NUCS come with five deep frames. It's a quick, hard lesson learned when you choose to use all medium boxes and find out the frames in the NUC you just purchased don't fit. This isn't an issue when starting with a package. So, to add a warning to your advice, anyone reading/watching this that's decided to start with all mediums, make sure you find a seller that can sell you a NUC that comes with frames that fit your boxes. Happy Beekeeping!
Hey! Great to hear from you. Those are great points-esp about the deep nucs. I actually just saw a local beekeeper place a handful of medium nucs for sale-so if you (or anyone reading this in the greater Triangle area) are interested, I can help make the connection.
Two things I've learned are a "must do" for me. Monitor winter food stores & feed fondant if needed & take mites seriously. I killed too many colonies over the winters before doing these things.
I am very new, first hive was a rescue of a swarm last year that moved into our basement (through a crack between our foundation and the house. It was July, which here is way too late for a hive to usually survive (by that time we have very little forage for them). So I had a friend give me two 10-frame deeps to put them in and almost immediately I realized too big... so I switched them to 8-frame deep/medium mix which is much more manageable. I am only 5'3" and have back/shoulder issues. I fed them almost continually until it dipped below 50degrees in Oct/Nov (start of winter for us and we start getting snow) so they could draw comb. Candy board along with pollen patties and a quilt board, with an insulated wrap on the outside. As of this week we have had enough snow melt and several days in the 50's and they are still alive. I was able to open the hive last month because I had one day over 50degrees to check food supply (but nothing else). Today will be my first real inspection before we get high winds and snow this weekend. It's normal for us to have the odd snow fall up until May. I wish I could do the long or horizontal hives but they just aren't practical for our weather, just not enough room and we get a lot of travel up the hive due to cold. I am actually looking at AZ hives, they are now coming out with hybrids here in the US that use langstroth frames and provide the protection from the elements we need here. Still happy I saved the swarm, even though I hadn't planned on getting bees anytime soon (had been something of a possibility for the future) but I could have lived without the constant low-level anxiety of wether they would make it through winter for the last six months!
Hi, here in Holland it's recommended to paint the part below the entrance (don't know all the terms: the landing area)of the boxes in white, yellow or blue, or give them patterns, so they recognise their own hive better. Not to say you must do that, but just as information. And if you want to move the hives at this time of year, move them everyday a little bit: max 3 feet to the front or back, or max 1,5 feet to the right of left. With colder weather they cannot spend to much energy to search for the right hive. But probably you know that already 😊 Just some tips :) Good luck!
Great tips! I’ve heard about using colors to help the bees with wayfinding. This is a great reminder because I intended to paint the rocks on top of each hive last year and I totally forgot to do that!
These are just a few tips to help with bee stings 🐝 1-drink 8 oz of water with 1 tsp baking soda after getting stinger out. This saved my life when I was a kid and got stung by two bumble bees on my head. My mom called our nature path doctor and this opened up my throat that was swelling shut. 2-get a blue ink pen and scribble over stinger site. This immediately takes pain away. In the old days they used the blue dye they used doing laundry to brighten whites. I know it sounds weird but I learned it from an elder and it works! I also always have Benadryl pills and cream close.
What great tips! I’ve heard of adding a baking soda paste to the sting site but hadn’t thought of drinking it. I wonder if it has anything to do with alkalinity. Funny that blue ink pens are the ones to use-I’m not a fan of them and always get rid of them in favor of black ink. 😆 Now I need to keep one.
Well this sounds like utter bullshic. I continue to be amazed with how uneducated the public is. Do you sometimes forget to put your head down when it rains?
@@intheshell35ify You do realize a lot of these methods have science behind them? She isn't saying use essential oils. According to a 2018 study published in The Journal of Immunology, baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, may be able to help reduce the inflammatory response in the skin when dealing with the venom from a bee sting.Also apple cider vinegar wan be used to wash down the affected area, ACV is a proven antimicrobial. Also medical grade honey or manuka honey can be antimicrobial and lower inflammation of a sting which is based on 2021 research review in the Open Life Science Journal. I suggest you checkout the effectiveness of honey on wound care - it's pretty mind blowing. Aspirin is also a derivative of a home remedy, willow bark, just as a FYI so before you knee jerk response on something like this take a couple minutes and just double check to see if you are right and if you don't feel like doing that just dont say anything.
Good information. Just getting into beekeeping. I built my first trap to catch local bees and hung it on a tree. The design approach is the Layans approach based on Dr. Leo Sharashkin. I am green and am learning all the time.
Thanks for making this video! I'm in my second year beekeeping. And was thinking about how to expand my apiary. I like the idea of staggering the positions of the hives on cinder blocks to prevent disease spread. Will probably be trying that this year :)
I spent 2 years learning before I starting beekeeping and I'm on my 4th year with bees, and although I get how much easier and cooler it is to work without a suit/gloves, it just never made any sense to me why so many people want to. I mean C'mon, who wants to deal with stings and bee poop on your clothes if you don't have to.
Totally agree on Mediums. Sold my one deep setup several years ago, currently running 12 to 18 colonies all 8 frame mediums with 15 more packages on the way mid April. I make all my own equipment except for the frames themselves. I am at year 9, and the one thing that I wish I would have done from the beginning is to use full sheets of foundation as opposed to starter strips. Starter strips do work to a degree, but very inconsistent and lots of drone comb. No matter what I did, most of my frames were a mix bag of marginal poo. I have stuck it out for the long hall, but this winter, and to this day I have been culling out wonky comb and replacing with full sheets of wax foundation, and to add to that, it am getting the foundation with the vertical wires embedded in them to minimize blow outs during extraction. With these embedded wires I feel no need to add the left right wires that I have been adding for the past several years. Just the act of adding all the inserts and wires, tensioning takes time. I am currently building another 400 new frames, and I do not have to wire each one of those, that is a big deal. Time is money.
Interesting that you’re seeing a lot of drone comb. I’m moving over to letting them build the comb themselves and I’m curious if I’ll see the same. I def prefer the foundation with the vertical wires for the exact reason you stated about the blowouts-so frustrating after all the work getting to the honey harvest!
Thanks for sharing. We are over in Jacksonville and started in 2017. So, I guess this is our eighth season too. Giving the Journeyman test a go this weekend.
@@fiveacreshoneyfarm 50/50. Didn’t pass the written but passed the practical. From some information that’s come my way, about 80 percent of the people in my area/region did not pass. So, a 20 percent success rate - seems like the state should revise something.
@ColesFarmNC It’s so hard. I had the same outcome you did on my first time. A lot of people say that the jump from Certified to Journeyman is harder than Journeyman to Master. I think I passed the written the second time by 1 or 2 points. Tough, but you’ll be sharp next time!
@@fiveacreshoneyfarm Ah, ok. Thank you for sharing that. Good to know. I’ll give it a shot at the summer meeting. It’d be nice if the regional directors organized a testing opportunity in between the meetings.
What I have learned from keeping bees in Australia is that they actually can die from overheating if you don't give the hives shade through the middle of the day and the afternoon. That was a week with several 43 Celsius days, and the hive that died was a recently caught swarm while the bigger stronger hives survived, but still. In future I want my bees to have a verandah to shade them overhead and from the west. That said, the idea of having the hives arranged in a C or U shape so their front doors are all facing different directions won't work on my next property. I've been reading up on bee colour and shape vision, and I'd like to find more specific information, but what I'm looking at is having each hive box a different colour in the range they can see, and then also having a set of stamps in different simple shapes (square, circle, triangle, etc) and putting black stamps around the entrance to each hive, so they can use both colour and shape cues to find the right house in the street. If anyone is already doing this, I'd love to know if it's working for them, and what changes they recommend in the details!
I used surg gloves last year. This year I am using the heavier mechanics latex gloves. They are much thicker than the surg gloves but still give me better maneuverability than the regular hive gloves - which are too big for me anyway.
What color are the mechanic gloves? Are the disposable? Trying to picture what they look like. I tried using dark yard/work gloves once and the bees were not having that. I imagined my hands looked like bear paws. 😆
They come in dark blue or black. I got mine at Tractor Supply. Yes, disposable. Although you could use them again if you washed them while they are on your hands. I can mine anyway because they are a bit loose. Probably dispose if they are snug on you.
Getting stung will always hurt I went from selling severely to no swelling after 3 years of owning bees . Now 40 stings are a pain but not causing swelling . Yellow jackets i barelyfeel and white faced hornets stings a bit for 10 min but now have not much effect other than that Honey bees sting hurts a lot for about 3min Dont scratch the sting location that causes the delayed swelling for me . Always have an escape route when working your bees run thru dense trees get in a vehicle and leave or get into a shed . It sounds paranoid but i know of instances when commercial beekeepers were severly stung almost to death . May have been Africanized bought from Alabama ??And this was in central Saskatchewan Nylon armour is almost sting proof but warm to wear . Be careful i got my first bugs in early eighties now 40 yrs later i enjoy them more than i did earlier on . I have run thru the bushes a few times to get away fr them so i could take my veil off and once was yo get one out of my ear.😂
I love that you’re more passionate about bees now after a lifetime with them. A true love story! 🐝 An escape route is a good idea. Reminds of those beekeeper bumper stickers and t-shirts that say, “If I run, you run.”
What gloves do you recommend. I have the bee gloves that are leather and still got stung and I’m allergic or overreacted like you did for a month. Was terrible. I didn’t want to go back down there. Then the bears got them. Was just a disaster.
So sorry for the bears! I use the regular white leather ventilated gloves sold at most beekeeping supply shops. I have been stung on the wrist once through them on the center area. I had the gloves stretched too tight and since then I make sure to keep the fluffed and baggy so that a stinger can’t reach me if a girl gets salty. Were you stung through the leather part?? 😱
I plant a lot. 😆 Apple trees, redbuds, beautyberries, peach trees, paw paw, blackberry, blueberry, elderberry, plus borage, buckwheat, crimson clover, calendula, zinnias, cosmos, not to mention the veggie garden. I also encourage existing tree species (poplar, maple, etc.). I learned to garden from books and UA-cam. 😃 Posting a video soon answering this question and a few others I’ve gotten.
Your key realization to discover you don’t need to validate yourself with “certificates” removes so much stress from your life and allows you to enjoy life more.. Good Job …
Hey Tara, we met when you spoke with us at the Harnett County Beekeepers Association. I've been following your channel since. I think the size boxes are entirely personal choices for all the reasons you outlined plus a few more. One thing I think new beekeepers should consider that you didn't mention is majority of NUCS come with five deep frames. It's a quick, hard lesson learned when you choose to use all medium boxes and find out the frames in the NUC you just purchased don't fit. This isn't an issue when starting with a package. So, to add a warning to your advice, anyone reading/watching this that's decided to start with all mediums, make sure you find a seller that can sell you a NUC that comes with frames that fit your boxes. Happy Beekeeping!
Hey! Great to hear from you. Those are great points-esp about the deep nucs. I actually just saw a local beekeeper place a handful of medium nucs for sale-so if you (or anyone reading this in the greater Triangle area) are interested, I can help make the connection.
Two things I've learned are a "must do" for me. Monitor winter food stores & feed fondant if needed & take mites seriously. I killed too many colonies over the winters before doing these things.
I am very new, first hive was a rescue of a swarm last year that moved into our basement (through a crack between our foundation and the house. It was July, which here is way too late for a hive to usually survive (by that time we have very little forage for them). So I had a friend give me two 10-frame deeps to put them in and almost immediately I realized too big... so I switched them to 8-frame deep/medium mix which is much more manageable. I am only 5'3" and have back/shoulder issues. I fed them almost continually until it dipped below 50degrees in Oct/Nov (start of winter for us and we start getting snow) so they could draw comb. Candy board along with pollen patties and a quilt board, with an insulated wrap on the outside. As of this week we have had enough snow melt and several days in the 50's and they are still alive. I was able to open the hive last month because I had one day over 50degrees to check food supply (but nothing else). Today will be my first real inspection before we get high winds and snow this weekend. It's normal for us to have the odd snow fall up until May. I wish I could do the long or horizontal hives but they just aren't practical for our weather, just not enough room and we get a lot of travel up the hive due to cold. I am actually looking at AZ hives, they are now coming out with hybrids here in the US that use langstroth frames and provide the protection from the elements we need here. Still happy I saved the swarm, even though I hadn't planned on getting bees anytime soon (had been something of a possibility for the future) but I could have lived without the constant low-level anxiety of wether they would make it through winter for the last six months!
From Canada 🇨🇦
Where you wear 8mil gloves, I also double glove as well so I can remove the first layer and put another set on without being sweaty mess.
Hi, here in Holland it's recommended to paint the part below the entrance (don't know all the terms: the landing area)of the boxes in white, yellow or blue, or give them patterns, so they recognise their own hive better. Not to say you must do that, but just as information.
And if you want to move the hives at this time of year, move them everyday a little bit: max 3 feet to the front or back, or max 1,5 feet to the right of left. With colder weather they cannot spend to much energy to search for the right hive. But probably you know that already 😊
Just some tips :) Good luck!
Great tips! I’ve heard about using colors to help the bees with wayfinding. This is a great reminder because I intended to paint the rocks on top of each hive last year and I totally forgot to do that!
These are just a few tips to help with bee stings 🐝 1-drink 8 oz of water with 1 tsp baking soda after getting stinger out. This saved my life when I was a kid and got stung by two bumble bees on my head. My mom called our nature path doctor and this opened up my throat that was swelling shut. 2-get a blue ink pen and scribble over stinger site. This immediately takes pain away. In the old days they used the blue dye they used doing laundry to brighten whites. I know it sounds weird but I learned it from an elder and it works! I also always have Benadryl pills and cream close.
What great tips! I’ve heard of adding a baking soda paste to the sting site but hadn’t thought of drinking it. I wonder if it has anything to do with alkalinity. Funny that blue ink pens are the ones to use-I’m not a fan of them and always get rid of them in favor of black ink. 😆 Now I need to keep one.
Well this sounds like utter bullshic. I continue to be amazed with how uneducated the public is. Do you sometimes forget to put your head down when it rains?
@@intheshell35ify You do realize a lot of these methods have science behind them? She isn't saying use essential oils. According to a 2018 study published in The Journal of Immunology, baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, may be able to help reduce the inflammatory response in the skin when dealing with the venom from a bee sting.Also apple cider vinegar wan be used to wash down the affected area, ACV is a proven antimicrobial. Also medical grade honey or manuka honey can be antimicrobial and lower inflammation of a sting which is based on 2021 research review in the Open Life Science Journal. I suggest you checkout the effectiveness of honey on wound care - it's pretty mind blowing. Aspirin is also a derivative of a home remedy, willow bark, just as a FYI so before you knee jerk response on something like this take a couple minutes and just double check to see if you are right and if you don't feel like doing that just dont say anything.
Great vid gal!
Good information. Just getting into beekeeping. I built my first trap to catch local bees and hung it on a tree. The design approach is the Layans approach based on Dr. Leo Sharashkin. I am green and am learning all the time.
Thanks for making this video! I'm in my second year beekeeping. And was thinking about how to expand my apiary. I like the idea of staggering the positions of the hives on cinder blocks to prevent disease spread. Will probably be trying that this year :)
Yay! Welcome to beekeeping. Yeah, staggering the hive stands is a simple, low-effort move that could have great long-term benefits.
Ha. I have two deeps and a top cover serving as a bed nightstand. Perfect!!
I spent 2 years learning before I starting beekeeping and I'm on my 4th year with bees, and although I get how much easier and cooler it is to work without a suit/gloves, it just never made any sense to me why so many people want to. I mean C'mon, who wants to deal with stings and bee poop on your clothes if you don't have to.
❤
Totally agree on Mediums. Sold my one deep setup several years ago, currently running 12 to 18 colonies all 8 frame mediums with 15 more packages on the way mid April. I make all my own equipment except for the frames themselves. I am at year 9, and the one thing that I wish I would have done from the beginning is to use full sheets of foundation as opposed to starter strips. Starter strips do work to a degree, but very inconsistent and lots of drone comb. No matter what I did, most of my frames were a mix bag of marginal poo. I have stuck it out for the long hall, but this winter, and to this day I have been culling out wonky comb and replacing with full sheets of wax foundation, and to add to that, it am getting the foundation with the vertical wires embedded in them to minimize blow outs during extraction. With these embedded wires I feel no need to add the left right wires that I have been adding for the past several years. Just the act of adding all the inserts and wires, tensioning takes time. I am currently building another 400 new frames, and I do not have to wire each one of those, that is a big deal. Time is money.
Interesting that you’re seeing a lot of drone comb. I’m moving over to letting them build the comb themselves and I’m curious if I’ll see the same. I def prefer the foundation with the vertical wires for the exact reason you stated about the blowouts-so frustrating after all the work getting to the honey harvest!
Thanks for sharing. We are over in Jacksonville and started in 2017. So, I guess this is our eighth season too. Giving the Journeyman test a go this weekend.
Woohoo!! How did the test go?
@@fiveacreshoneyfarm 50/50. Didn’t pass the written but passed the practical. From some information that’s come my way, about 80 percent of the people in my area/region did not pass. So, a 20 percent success rate - seems like the state should revise something.
@ColesFarmNC It’s so hard. I had the same outcome you did on my first time. A lot of people say that the jump from Certified to Journeyman is harder than Journeyman to Master. I think I passed the written the second time by 1 or 2 points. Tough, but you’ll be sharp next time!
@@fiveacreshoneyfarm Ah, ok. Thank you for sharing that. Good to know. I’ll give it a shot at the summer meeting. It’d be nice if the regional directors organized a testing opportunity in between the meetings.
What I have learned from keeping bees in Australia is that they actually can die from overheating if you don't give the hives shade through the middle of the day and the afternoon. That was a week with several 43 Celsius days, and the hive that died was a recently caught swarm while the bigger stronger hives survived, but still. In future I want my bees to have a verandah to shade them overhead and from the west.
That said, the idea of having the hives arranged in a C or U shape so their front doors are all facing different directions won't work on my next property. I've been reading up on bee colour and shape vision, and I'd like to find more specific information, but what I'm looking at is having each hive box a different colour in the range they can see, and then also having a set of stamps in different simple shapes (square, circle, triangle, etc) and putting black stamps around the entrance to each hive, so they can use both colour and shape cues to find the right house in the street.
If anyone is already doing this, I'd love to know if it's working for them, and what changes they recommend in the details!
im just starting , my wife told me so. hummmmm.
I used surg gloves last year. This year I am using the heavier mechanics latex gloves. They are much thicker than the surg gloves but still give me better maneuverability than the regular hive gloves - which are too big for me anyway.
What color are the mechanic gloves? Are the disposable? Trying to picture what they look like. I tried using dark yard/work gloves once and the bees were not having that. I imagined my hands looked like bear paws. 😆
They come in dark blue or black. I got mine at Tractor Supply. Yes, disposable. Although you could use them again if you washed them while they are on your hands. I can mine anyway because they are a bit loose. Probably dispose if they are snug on you.
smart and beautiful
It’s a good idea maybe for a woman or someone who cannot lift heavy ,to use the Langstroth (upper) super or the Warre hive, they’re are not too heavy.
I’m so curious to try a Warre hive!
Or horizontal hives. There's no heavy lifting, and also you're not ripping the whole house apart to see what's going on inside.
Have you considered using 8-frame mediums? As a 74-yr-old, I can say they're da bomb.
I would love to move to 8-frames! It would be a long-term expense to switch over and I think I may do that as my oldest 10-frame mediums age out.
Getting stung will always hurt
I went from selling severely to no swelling after 3 years of owning bees . Now 40 stings are a pain but not causing swelling .
Yellow jackets i barelyfeel and white faced hornets stings a bit for 10 min but now have not much effect other than that
Honey bees sting hurts a lot for about 3min
Dont scratch the sting location that causes the delayed swelling for me .
Always have an escape route when working your bees run thru dense trees get in a vehicle and leave or get into a shed .
It sounds paranoid but i know of instances when commercial beekeepers were severly stung almost to death . May have been Africanized bought from Alabama ??And this was in central Saskatchewan
Nylon armour is almost sting proof but warm to wear .
Be careful i got my first bugs in early eighties now 40 yrs later i enjoy them more than i did earlier on .
I have run thru the bushes a few times to get away fr them so i could take my veil off and once was yo get one out of my ear.😂
I love that you’re more passionate about bees now after a lifetime with them. A true love story! 🐝 An escape route is a good idea. Reminds of those beekeeper bumper stickers and t-shirts that say, “If I run, you run.”
What gloves do you recommend. I have the bee gloves that are leather and still got stung and I’m allergic or overreacted like you did for a month. Was terrible. I didn’t want to go back down there. Then the bears got them. Was just a disaster.
So sorry for the bears! I use the regular white leather ventilated gloves sold at most beekeeping supply shops. I have been stung on the wrist once through them on the center area. I had the gloves stretched too tight and since then I make sure to keep the fluffed and baggy so that a stinger can’t reach me if a girl gets salty. Were you stung through the leather part?? 😱
what do you plant for forage for your bees! how did you learn to garden!
I plant a lot. 😆 Apple trees, redbuds, beautyberries, peach trees, paw paw, blackberry, blueberry, elderberry, plus borage, buckwheat, crimson clover, calendula, zinnias, cosmos, not to mention the veggie garden. I also encourage existing tree species (poplar, maple, etc.). I learned to garden from books and UA-cam. 😃 Posting a video soon answering this question and a few others I’ve gotten.
Perfect is difficult to find,but that comb must be very very close.
:) Thank you.
Bees can also sting through beekeeping gloves. That said, it’s not as easy for the bees to get their stinger in. I always wear official gloves