My next door neighbor has 12 acres in south central Texas and we decided to start raising honey bees as a tax exemption. The property is a good 45 miles out and we go out as often as possible to check on and feed the 4 hives we installed back in April of this year. His daughter is 8 years old and I enjoyed it so much that I was able to introduce her to beekeeping. I bought a bee suit for her. I am committed to being the beekeeper and I plan to continue this for as long as I physically can. We will be moving up to eight hives this coming year. Your a wealth of information and knowledge thanks for doing all that you do.
David, you talked me out of quitting a few years back. Then with your guidance I've become a bona fide beekeeper instead of a person with bees. Thank you sooo much for the help and encouragement.
So good to hear Tom, and glad I played a small part in you learning the art of beekeeping! Can't wait to see you start your journey to become an EAS certified master beekeeper.
Funny you're talking about frustration in beekeeping. My 4th year, I was still struggling.. something went terribly wrong in one of my hives and I was like, that's it. I'm just going to let them do what they do. I'm out. Then, as I was mowing the lawn, I saw a swarm. That's 250 bucks in that tree!! I captured the swarm, found the queen and I was back in! lol What I've learned is to not get too overwhelmed in the bee yard. I do a few hives at a time and when I'm ready to stop, I stop. I'll check the other hives the next week. I keep it enjoyable. Now, I love it!
I have that same book....my dad have it to me. He had reached out to the gentleman's son who was the coauthor back in the 80s and he mentored him. Excellent read!
Yes, I too grew up in the sixties David. Wow, what a flashback. And yes, we all had to type. I went to state meets and won, typping 102 words a min with zero errors--ON A MANUAL!!!
Very scary stuff. Thanks for the info. We do not have such info in South Africa about our bees. Do not even know if we have these problems. Very new at beekeeping. We coming into our spring soon.
Thank you for your amazing videos !! Is there a winter bee kind for layens hives ? What can we do in a layens hive to winter feed ? Any help greatly appreciated 🙏💕🐝
One more piece of advice when working the bees in the summer time. DON'T RUSH! I was in my hives in Mid-late Jul;y doing a mite count. due to the distance from my hives, I had some that required a two-hour drive. Late at night, a little before dark, I did a mite count. somehow in all that, I ended up with a hive that I had unintentionally made queenless. I believe that had I had more time, I could have avoided this.
We forgot to remove some drone comb so i was doin that with my dad and we decided to rip into it and look for mites. We got about 10-15 cells in before I found the first one with mites and my dad says "hey thats pretty good so the number are low then right?" and i just looked at him with shear confusion and said "no... thats would extrapolate to like 30 mites per 300 bees so very bad" wish the weather would chill out a little even if just for like 4 or 5 days so I can get my formic pro pads on. Im honestly debating just leaving the Formic pads 1/2 covered by their mylar wrapper as randy oliver had some pretty interesting reserch on how that midigates overdosing the formic particularly in i think he tested 90degree weather.
10:05 I'm from sask, Canada. Have helped with bee keeping for 6 years. We had 2 queens fly away couple days ago when we took put the frame with the queens on them.Never had this before. Still no queens in those hives..any ideas?they didn't swarm
SE Minnesota. Oh boy. I have a mite bomb. I treated all my hives with FA pads a month ago. This hive had been bearding since the end of June. I noticed the population was down and did an alcohol wash today. So. Many. Mites. Realized I had forgotten to put the cover on top of the screened bottom board so essentially the FA was being over ventilated out the first time. Oh, and I squashed the queen accidentally too. I put a couple more pads on it again, but I think it’s done for.
Im on my 3rd year of watching bees. Ive got 4 double deeps with supers on them now. I had a scare. I made 2 splits and both had new brood. Then i checked again and saw none. I was gonna buy a queen so i checked it 1 last time. Instantly i saw about 50 drone cells so i thought laying worker. Upon further inspection i found good healthy brood patterns. I was clueless on how this could have happened.
Maybe one split raised a queen, or one already had a virgin queen and the other had the mated queen or sometimes hives have two queen, and you just separated the two queens 🤷♂️
Nope, it's illegal for beekeepers. OA does NOT kill mites below the caps, and I live in a cooler climate where I can use formic pro when needed, and my other IPM methods work well enough.
I do not have a freezer ; can Small Hive Beetle’s’ eggs be killed if the frames are removed from the hive and placed into a sealed container with paradichorobenzene and stored for the winter for intended use in the next spring ? I plan on extracting the honey before I store the frames for using the comb next spring . I live in southern Georgia about 35 miles due south of Atlanta about one mile west of the Flint River . Our weather has had a lot of rain combined with high temperatures ; the SHB dream paradise . I am going to apply Grub out around my hives in a few days . The grass and other vegetation has been cleared around my hives . The river swamps around my area have thousands of feral hives and they have presented a great problem with trying to rob my hives . I have had to place screened hive reducers that have a single opening of 1/4 inch high by 1/2 inch wide to the entrances to allow for the guard bees to have better control of the entrances . I have purchased robbing ( that you recommend ; the white ones with the adjustable flaps on the top, and will attach them promptly . PS: I purchased nucs that the seller posted ( to her customers 9 days after I the fact that the nucs that she sold came contaminated with SHB ! 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤔👎🏻😤😡 I realize that keeping honeybees requires a “ learning curve “ . There are no mentors available in my area that I can receive information from ; so I’m kinda “ out on my 0 own .
So true. I was mowing ( and filming) around my defensive hive and they ran me Pat, my videographer out of the bee yard. They heard that weed eater and boiled out of the entrance like a waterfall.
My next door neighbor has 12 acres in south central Texas and we decided to start raising honey bees as a tax exemption. The property is a good 45 miles out and we go out as often as possible to check on and feed the 4 hives we installed back in April of this year. His daughter is 8 years old and I enjoyed it so much that I was able to introduce her to beekeeping. I bought a bee suit for her. I am committed to being the beekeeper and I plan to continue this for as long as I physically can. We will be moving up to eight hives this coming year. Your a wealth of information and knowledge thanks for doing all that you do.
David. Thank you for not downing a new beekeeper asking questions. Even you answered it a million times. You are so patience with us.
We all started knowing nothing, and we are all still learning 👍
David, you talked me out of quitting a few years back. Then with your guidance I've become a bona fide beekeeper instead of a person with bees. Thank you sooo much for the help and encouragement.
So good to hear Tom, and glad I played a small part in you learning the art of beekeeping! Can't wait to see you start your journey to become an EAS certified master beekeeper.
You're awesome David. Thanks for propping up the newbee and and not beating us up.
Funny you're talking about frustration in beekeeping. My 4th year, I was still struggling.. something went terribly wrong in one of my hives and I was like, that's it. I'm just going to let them do what they do. I'm out.
Then, as I was mowing the lawn, I saw a swarm. That's 250 bucks in that tree!! I captured the swarm, found the queen and I was back in! lol
What I've learned is to not get too overwhelmed in the bee yard. I do a few hives at a time and when I'm ready to stop, I stop. I'll check the other hives the next week. I keep it enjoyable. Now, I love it!
Great job and good tip
Hello Everyone from Orangeville NY, cool, cloudy and 70 degrees today.
Thank you David!
I have that same book....my dad have it to me. He had reached out to the gentleman's son who was the coauthor back in the 80s and he mentored him. Excellent read!
Yes
I have ABC & XYZ 1934 Edition that I inherited from my father in 1955. I am 73 years old and have started again with bees. In South Africa.
Yes, I too grew up in the sixties David. Wow, what a flashback. And yes, we all had to type. I went to state meets and won, typping 102 words a min with zero errors--ON A MANUAL!!!
WOW, 102 WPM on a manual. You're the master Brad, bravo. I hope you are still typing on a manual. If not, dust it off my friend.
Very scary stuff. Thanks for the info. We do not have such info in South Africa about our bees. Do not even know if we have these problems. Very new at beekeeping. We coming into our spring soon.
To add to this... I lost the 2 hives I had in our fall due to not feeding. I learned the hard way...
Stay with it, and yes feeding can make a huge difference.
It's used to space 9 frames in a super. I bought a stainless steel one, I love it!
Idk if it adds more honey to a frame, but they do build the frames wider so it's easier to uncap them when harvesting.
Thanks David
Thank you for your amazing videos !! Is there a winter bee kind for layens hives ? What can we do in a layens hive to winter feed ?
Any help greatly appreciated 🙏💕🐝
Thanks David!
One more piece of advice when working the bees in the summer time. DON'T RUSH! I was in my hives in Mid-late Jul;y doing a mite count. due to the distance from my hives, I had some that required a two-hour drive. Late at night, a little before dark, I did a mite count. somehow in all that, I ended up with a hive that I had unintentionally made queenless. I believe that had I had more time, I could have avoided this.
Good tip
New bee's arrived today are settling in and having their first local orientation flight. Newcastle, Australia.
So yes, spring is start now in Australia!!
We forgot to remove some drone comb so i was doin that with my dad and we decided to rip into it and look for mites. We got about 10-15 cells in before I found the first one with mites and my dad says "hey thats pretty good so the number are low then right?" and i just looked at him with shear confusion and said "no... thats would extrapolate to like 30 mites per 300 bees so very bad" wish the weather would chill out a little even if just for like 4 or 5 days so I can get my formic pro pads on. Im honestly debating just leaving the Formic pads 1/2 covered by their mylar wrapper as randy oliver had some pretty interesting reserch on how that midigates overdosing the formic particularly in i think he tested 90degree weather.
10:05 I'm from sask, Canada. Have helped with bee keeping for 6 years. We had 2 queens fly away couple days ago when we took put the frame with the queens on them.Never had this before. Still no queens in those hives..any ideas?they didn't swarm
Mated, laying queens usually do not/cannot fly away. Had to have been either virgin queens or swarm queens.
#book Thanks for all the advice and videos you put out.
Glad you like them!
SE Minnesota. Oh boy. I have a mite bomb. I treated all my hives with FA pads a month ago. This hive had been bearding since the end of June. I noticed the population was down and did an alcohol wash today. So. Many. Mites.
Realized I had forgotten to put the cover on top of the screened bottom board so essentially the FA was being over ventilated out the first time. Oh, and I squashed the queen accidentally too. I put a couple more pads on it again, but I think it’s done for.
That's a learning experience. Formic Pro does suggest closing off the screen bottom board.
Do you have winter be kind for 5 frame, 6 frame, 8 frame hive bodies.
10s and 8s
Catching up on Friday morning...
Thanks for watching
Was there uncapped brood in the first frame that you showed?
A tad bit
Im on my 3rd year of watching bees. Ive got 4 double deeps with supers on them now. I had a scare. I made 2 splits and both had new brood. Then i checked again and saw none. I was gonna buy a queen so i checked it 1 last time. Instantly i saw about 50 drone cells so i thought laying worker. Upon further inspection i found good healthy brood patterns. I was clueless on how this could have happened.
Maybe one split raised a queen, or one already had a virgin queen and the other had the mated queen or sometimes hives have two queen, and you just separated the two queens 🤷♂️
Do you use OA vapor or swedish sponges?
Nope, it's illegal for beekeepers. OA does NOT kill mites below the caps, and I live in a cooler climate where I can use formic pro when needed, and my other IPM methods work well enough.
What is winter be kind?
I do not have a freezer ; can Small Hive Beetle’s’ eggs be killed if the frames are removed from the hive and placed into a sealed container with paradichorobenzene and stored for the winter for intended use in the next spring ?
I plan on extracting the honey before I store the frames for using the comb next spring .
I live in southern Georgia about 35 miles due south of Atlanta about one mile west of the Flint River .
Our weather has had a lot of rain combined with high temperatures ; the SHB dream paradise .
I am going to apply Grub out around my hives in a few days . The grass and other vegetation has been cleared around my hives .
The river swamps around my area have thousands of feral hives and they have presented a great problem with trying to rob my hives . I have had to place screened hive reducers that have a single opening of 1/4 inch high by 1/2 inch wide to the entrances to allow for the guard bees to have better control of the entrances . I have purchased robbing ( that you recommend ; the white ones with the adjustable flaps on the top, and will attach them promptly .
PS: I purchased nucs that the seller posted ( to her customers 9 days after I the fact that the nucs that she sold came contaminated with SHB ! 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤔👎🏻😤😡
I realize that keeping honeybees requires a “ learning curve “ . There are no mentors available in my area that I can receive information from ; so I’m kinda “ out on my 0 own .
Paradichlorobenzene will not kill the eggs like freezing will.
Ive never met anyone who says derailier and I've lived in the uk for 34 years😂
9 Frame spacer
Herald CA
Frame spacer Jim g
Gonna be a Beesy season 😂😂😂
Indeed
More defensive is right, oh my goodness they're wee jerks right now for sure!
So true. I was mowing ( and filming) around my defensive hive and they ran me Pat, my videographer out of the bee yard. They heard that weed eater and boiled out of the entrance like a waterfall.
Bee back scratcher
give more room for comb
❤
#book
Book hashtag