· Beekeeping · 18th Century Home Improvement · 21st Century New England Homesteading ·
Since 2007, we've been building a homestead on an 18th century New England farm. We are located 60 miles west of Boston in Central Massachusetts (Zone 5a).
We have 1/4 acre of wine grapes, 150 apple trees, a hoophouse and a large garden. In 2016, we added the bees. From 2009-2016, we completely re-built a termite-infested ~1775 antique farmhouse. In 2019, we began construction on the Dream Barn, a modern barn/workshop. Someday, we hope to renovate an old stone bakery that came with the property.
This channel was born on January 1, 2016, but we've been documenting our progress on Instagram since 2013. Thank you so much for watching and subscribing.
INFORMATION:
MY NAME: Jim
EMAIL: thevinofarm@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM: @vinofarm
SECOND CHANNEL: Vinofarm2 ru-vid.com/show-UCQnNGZg3aeBxfunqog_Et_w
Hi Jim. Love the bee barn! Built one before spring this year, and the bees have made it a powerhouse. I have other hives, but like trying new ideas and yours is doing awesome. Do you have a video covering your winter prep for the barns? I have the main large body with a Queen excluder above, and 2 supers pretty full of honey above that. Do you reduce everything down to the main hive and install your plexiglass feeding box, or do something else? I’m in Michigan with similar weather to what you experience. Thanks for any help, and great job 👍
Hi i have followed your Bee Barn posts on RU-vid and have a bee question about your bee barn. thank you i love what you did. QUESTION: if i move a 5-frame nuke into your 9/8 frame bee barn. once i move the queen down and all the nuke has moved into the bee barn. is that too much free space? will i be setting the hive up for small hive beetles and wax moths?
totally depressing!!! sorry to see anyone lose this many bees. My guess is this is a mostly veroa issue. Winter is bad but if they are healthy with as much insulation as it looks like you do then this should not happen. Good luck
Even though you insulated the bejezus out those hives and took every precaution to plug every nook and cranny I find it amazing to see the bees filled in all of the remaining gaps. Just to say "nice try human, let us fix that for ya", but also an acknowledgement that you are on the right path.
I'm still interested. Perhaps 2.0 could mix the top and bottom sizes. 3.0 would be an option for double deeps. Also, I'm considering using deep/medium boxes for new hives next year instead of bee barns. This way I can mix regular frames (including drone frames) with bee barn ftames. I do plan on making a removable outer insulated shell that can be marketed to traditional box users.
I agree about the sweetness in the Ischia starter. I have used this starter for 15 years for everything. I will say at times when proofing bread at warmer room temps (78 degrees) in summer I have got sharper more acetic acid development in my loaves. I believe the lactic acid that develops easier in cooler temps does produce a milder sweeter acid taste you get from retardation. I did like the san francisco starter but not when used it for sweet breads. Ischia is a solid universal starter. I have had several issues with cross contamination of starters and mold over the years so I stick with just ischia. I would use the King Arthur (New England) starter if not. It's a great starter but I do enjoy the ischia island sweeter taste likely from the lactobacilli producing more lactic acids naturally? (I'm not a scientist)
How does this hoop house look at your house? I assume that you just videoed yourself dismantling it and played it in reverse as a how to. Brilliant idea my friend, love it! Chuck
Day 158 - I can see a few newbee mistakes. Don't open them on poor days like that. Don't give them pollen in the fall, you give pollen in spring for brood build up. In the fall, the population should drop for winter not increase. Also, did you leave a bee escape on? Take it off
I did 100% hive insulation before last winter hit, closed my upper vent and I believe my bees came out of winter stronger this year. Faster to brood rearing and honey production. Do you keep your bees in the insulated boxes all year long?
I built 4 barns last year, lost one hive of the 3, and left one open, no bees. I added one package in the spring so only 2 hives from carry over. I ended up with over 16 gallons of honey from the 2.5 hives. All cause of the barn??? Anyway just thought I would mention that. My question is how do you deal with wax moths? The frames are too large to even fit in my freezer...
I made a bee barn and want to treat for mites. Has anyone used formic pro? I use it on the rest of my hives and want to use it on the bee barn but don't want it to go wrong and kill the bees.
So sorry to hear about Pepper's demise. After 15 years, all I can say is Pepper lived a RICH, FULL LIFE! My sincere condolences to you and especially the kids. 😥🐕💐💔
yoh1: why not try out Langstroth jumbo frames, genius? yoh2 -- you know why all is in horizontal frame configuration traditionally, do you? why not vertical frame config?? yoh3 -- see what even com beekeepers do nowadays : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0VG1kqt1GA.htmlsi=oSJ4S78-W301yC0U
the only thing I can see that will be a problem with full insulation is you will never get wax moths out if they get into that insulation, or any type of pests they will burrow into it deep and explode in population.
your insulated hives are working wonders, and if the food stores are still super strong in Feb, then your bees are able to keep the hive much warmer with less effort, when they use less effort vibrating to generate heat they will eat far less than a hive that is constantly having to move to make heat.
@vinofarm hey I messaged you on reddit asking how do u make nucs with these types of hives the only way I know or ever was taught to make nucs was with frame transfers but that is not possible with those giant frames lol
nah, I do not wanna any plastic in my behive. I do this for myself but not for someone. So only wooden. But I liked the idea. Because I actually was thinking to have 2 box brood boxes. I also wanted to use 8 frame boxes. I also was thinking about layens hives and slovenian hives.
If you place pollen substitute in a centre of brood nest then it will boost brood production like spring i know this from randy oliver research on bee nutrition.
I wonder how these did throughout the year, is there another update video? Ive been thinking about doing Bees, but with the harsh temperatures up here in Canada, I'm not sure how viable it is with those thin boxes, Ive seen others wrap the boxes and have to deal and a whole sort of mess, so finding a buildable solution with foam would be great. Are your bees protected from things like Bears? how would these fair against such a thing, or would they even know with all the insulation in the first place?
You are a legend in your own right, built myself a bee box 📦 barn with a camera 🎥 inside . Have you ever thought about incorporating your beehives into your barn? Yours truly The Candleman🕯
You are a legend in your own right, built myself a bee box 📦 barn with a camera 🎥 inside . Have you ever thought about incorporating your beehives into your barn? Yours truly The Candleman🕯
I may have missed this, but, how do you plan to extract honey from these frames? I live in AK and we generally take all of the honey from the hive before killing them. I think I’ll try making a few bee barns. But I’m wondering if I’ll not be able to extract hive from the barn, only the honey supers. That would drastically cut down on honey available to harvest. 🤔
I love your videos and ideas. I think it’s definitely the way to go. I never liked how the brood chambers were separated. There’s so many advantages to this method! I’m gonna make my own polystyrene hive soon, and I can’t wait to try it.
I did both and noticed my bravo hive is much stronger and they filled the hoover hive brood box 7 frames in two weeks plus two days, When I placed them up top, on alpha hive they barely touched it and stayed down bottom. Realizing they dislike the white foundation I switched it to the black double coated foundations and they are now picking up on building them out. So I as a new beek well I noticed it doesnt matter too much where to add it as long as there is a flow as the queen moves around from top to bottom which is why we need an excluder. However I also noticed that honey lane hives are cheaper made, warped frames and no wax on the frames. I used hoover hives and they almost filled them in two weeks with two frames of nectar/pollen bee bread and brood galore. They just seem to bee able to build up on better frames rather than location of the box, at least for me. one is in the shade longer in the am but in the sun more in the evening. The one that gets early sun and early shade is stronger by far, even after the swarm than the hive in the shade early morning and sun all day after that.
You have overcome challenges before, and I believe in your strength to navigate through this time too. Thank you for the invaluable insights into beekeeping, especially your strategies for keeping the bees happy, designing a back-friendly hive, and the detailed hive data and behavioral observations-I absolutely love it! Your creativity truly shines through, and you've inspired me. It's okay to take breaks. You've got this, and there are folks rooting for you every step of the way.
Styrofoam is super soft and easy to break but lite. If you want to build from wood and don't have problems with moisture try stabilized wood. It is not economic at all and heavy but built strong like a tank.
