Quiet unambitious beekeeping on the Isle of Newfoundland since 2010.
An intuitive intelligence for beekeeping can come to light through experiential teaching and learning - by sharing our experiences with each other.
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Even in the heat of central Texas, my bees (kept in Layen's hive) tend to propolyze any extra ventilation holes I provide for them. Top insulation is crucial to prevent comb collapse in the heat, but ventilation doesn't seem needed. Thanks for the video! Oh, by the way I'm Scott @blacklandprairiebees.
The hard insulation up top was a hold over from my winter setup. I left on because I didn't want it taking up space in my shed. But leaving it on seems to have worked out well. The bees propolyzed every little crack in the hive (and there were many). Even the insides of the corks that plug up the drilled holes were coated with propolis. It seems, if they could, they'd seal in every hole like you described. I was always taught that upper ventilation in the summer will reduce the amount of work the bees need to do to cure honey and to regulate the brood nest temperature, but having cut off all upper ventilation for a couple summers now (with hives that happen to be painted black), I don't see any evidence that they're overworked or stressed or anything detrimental. The bees are curing and capping the honey just as quickly. I can't tell if they're fanning more than they would with upper ventilation, but if they are, it's not exactly taxing the workforce. A dozen or so extra bees having to fan near the entrance? That's nothing. The temperment of the bees seems more relaxed too. That could just be me projecting, but I don't think I've ever gone so long in the summer without a sting before. I did most of my beekeeping wearing shorts and a t-shirt and no gloves. The bees just show any defensive behaviour. Again, that could be coincidence, but an enclosed hive with no upper ventilation might keep all the happy pheremones contained inside the hive instead of evaporating out the top entrance. Maybe? Neither of my hives are in full sunlight all day long, so maybe this wouldn't work for everybody. However, I've seen plenty of commercial beekeepers whose bees don't get any shade and seem to do fine with no upper ventilation. So... It seems like upper ventilation isn't necessary. It only took 14 years to figure that out. I'm getting there.
I gave up on foundationless frames due to the large number of drone cells produced. I sell nucleus colonies so want to pass on to customers well drawn out combs with few drone cells in it. However, If I was just keeping a few hives for myself I might give the foundationless method another try.
They definitely make more drone comb at first, but do seem to switch to normal worker comb eventually. At least that's what I'm seeing in my hives as I gradually cycle out the frames with standard plastic foundation. When I started backyard beekeeping in 2010, about half of my frames were foundationless. I got so many drones, it was kind of nuts. So I switched to using mostly plastic foundation. I've reached the point now where I'm sick of buying foundation and having to wax it myself, so I've got my bees making more foundationless comb again and it's working out okay. I have specific hives with feeders dedicated to foundationless comb production. With that set up, they're drawing out worker brood in the middle and drone comb near the edges of the brood nest. My plan is to keep doing that and move the foundationless worker comb into my regular hives. Two things I like about foundationless comb: 1) I rarely find drone comb between the supers in the spring like I used to. 2) I can easily cut out queen cells from foundationless frames and move them into nucs of whatever else want to do with them. That being said, I don't think foundationless frames are practical for most commercial beekeepers, especially on deep frames.
I keep 1-3 frames of foundationless frames precisely for drone cells. I have found that the bees don’t make as much of a mess under the frames with plastic foundation when I provide a place for them to rear drones.
Why do you think we wouldnt like keeping bees there? You dont have African Small Hive Beetles or Varroa Destructor mites. You have strong nectar flows and a mild cool climate. Bees are made for that.
I can see the Labrador Current from my house. Google it. It's one of the coldest ocean currents on planet earth, and my bees are stuck inside most of the time because of it. In this particular location, Flatrock, the nectar flow is TRASH. Plenty of pollen. Not much nectar. In the location that I call the Magic Forest, it's a completely different story. Don't be deceived by what I post from that location. But the location that's shown is this video is JUNK. 1/3 of the bees' foraging area is the North Atlantic Ocean. The rest of it is mostly spruce trees. It's the worst place on the island of Newfound to keep bees. I have no doubt about that. Not having to deal with Varroa or most of the other diseases that beekeepers in the rest of the world have to deal with is great. But keeping bees in the worst climate for honey bees kind of cancels out all those benefits. I know beekeepers in Iceland who live in a more honey bee friendly climate than I do here in Flatrock, Newfoundland. maps.app.goo.gl/PNVTDGbbvV2sYj116 Trust me, you wouldn't want to keep bees here.
brother, i am new to beekeeping. i never thought i would be drawn to this, but here i am. Never saw myself as a beekeeper....i live in St.Johns, and i am putting out some swarm traps......Is it the right time, will they be attracted.......
There may not be as many swarms as media attention might make it seem, but over crowded colonies tend to swarm in June, July and August. The best place to set up a swarm trap in St. John's is probably the Waterford Bridge Rd area. That place is a haven for honey bees and swarms.
I love your content. Nothing really out there for this province. I am a retired Military guy. And I did an introduction to 🐝 at Avalon Homestead. I really liked it. I am on the list for some Nucs from the Bearded beekeeper. For some reason, the noise the bees make help my PTSD from Afghanistan, weird..so, I have a swarm trap out in North River, and looking at what you said .this may be presumptuous of me, but if you ever need Anny help, iam retired, and love in St.Johns
A good swarm trap contains drawn comb of some sort, preferably old drone comb. I don't know why, but swarms seem to like drone comb. A six-frame nuc with deep frames I think is the standard size used for attracting swarms, though don't quote me on that. It's not uncommon for swarms to move into old empty hives, which have nothing special in them except old dried up comb. A tiny dab of lemongrass oil goes a long way. Commercial lures work too, but lemongrass oil is much cheaper. Apparently the buzzing of the bees, when they're not trying to sting you in the face, has a calming effect. I've spent countless hours over the years just hanging out with the bees, watching them, listening to them. You're not the first person I've talked to who has found beekeeping helpful with their PTSD. If you have all your beekeeping gear and hive components, I know other beekeepers, not members of the beekeeping association, who produce nucs for sale if you can't get any. It's getting late in the year for new orders, but I can pass the word on if you think you're ready for some bees now.
I mention the black paint in the original version of the video, but I had to cut that part out for the video to meet the 60-second maximum length of RU-vid Shorts. These short videos are killing our attention spans. In any case, the hive is painted black because for 90% of the year, the weather is freezing cold. I painted my hives black for that reason, but after painting them black for a few years now, I don't think the colour of the hives -- in my local climate -- makes much difference.
Natural pollen is the best choice for those new queen cells. I believe you'd have been better served to leave that pollen and move capped brood with that queen. What you are trying is a fly back split. I did this once but with a large hive. It was amazing how quickly the original colony drew out the comb but I was really disappointed in the quality of the emergency cells. I went back to moving the queen and letting the original colony raise the cells. Good luck to you. I hope you have better results.
I couldn't get them to make swarm cells, which I prefer, so I went with emergency queen cells. All the brood, including fresh brood, is in a box by itself now, with all the nurse bees and honey, but minus most of the foragers. I put in a pollen patty afterwards. Being queenless, I expect them to take in the pollen and fill some emergency queen cells with royal jelly. The old and failing queen, who I really could have just "dispatched," is in the original hive location to receive all the foragers. I'll keep her as a spare queen and maybe get a few more frames of brood from her. I've never heard of a fly-back split before, but I'd say that's what most of my splits are. I suppose an artificial swarm is similar. All the brood and swarm cells are moved to a different hive and the queen is left behind with empty comb and a bunch of foragers and no brood.
I'm using a fine mist of slightly sweetened water just like I would use a smoker. I explain it in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-otlhV9rPAlw.htmlsi=HkhGj8NtSQpI7rfC I use a spray bottle, or mist bottle, when I need to do something quickly and don't have time to light a smoker. I normally wouldn't use it for any kind of major beekeeping, but it's fine for quick peeks inside the hive if used properly. I should have had a smoker this day.
It would not be Newfoundland without a bunch or rain , drizzle and fog. Maybe a warm day soon so the bees can get to any surviving flowers.....we hope....
Because the weather forecast for the next 2 weeks calls for rain, drizzle and fog and the bees might not be able to forage. The population is expanding and they could run low out of honey in those two weeks. They may not need any sugar or pollen, but it doesn't hurt.
I tried copper tape to keep them out once, but that didn't stop them. I used a row of pennies instead, which did work. I wonder if I can get a copper plated bottom board. Ha.
I don't think being close to the cold damp ground helps. Mostly I'd say it was the large population going into winter with so much honey that I didn't need to feed them. Big clusters going into winter usually turn into big clusters coming out of winter.
I have wintered bees directly on the ground and they did great. I have seen other people do it as well. I don’t think it helps them but it don’t hurt them. can have other problems like snow or ice blocking them and flooding at all would be bad. The old timers would use Soiled bottom and they used an empty box under. It would keep the frost down and that could help. They sell them landing board things and that’s where it comes from. Nowadays people will have those on stands. that doesn’t make sense to me. It’s supposed to go right on the ground to get that effect.
I have never mowed before they turn to fluff. As you noted, there are many opinions on bee need or no bee need. We do know that the bees are taking a beating in the U.S. I have watched a bee keeper in the Southern U.S. that has, with other bee keepers, transported the bees to California to polinate the almond trees. (Sorry about my spelling). If the bees were not taking a beating, they would not need to be sent here, or there to get the flowers polinated.
An apis mellifera fossil was found in 2017. In a dry salt lake bed in the Nevada desert in North America. The researchers said it appeared to be exactly the same as a modern day Apis Mellifera Mellifera black honeybee found in the isles of the Gulf stream and in northern Europe. They named this find apis mellifera neoartica. I have found evidence they are indiginous to North America.
Hi, even an hour before it starts raining, I see slugs nearning the entrance of my hives. They feed on dead bees. They know in advance that there will be dead bees dropped out by the cleaning bees. I have never seen slugs inside my hives (most are styrofoam). About mice: I leave on purpose a small empty styrofoam box (Apidea, mating nuc) on the ground, free for any mice that would seek shelter. I give them a dry and warm place to build a nest and they do not bother the hives, that my experience. I have checked in winter and there is usually 2 to 4 mice living in there. They build the nest with leaves and other materials. My entrances are 3D printed with PLA, in winter I keep a very small entrance, height is like only 7 mm. No mice ever got in. About condensation water: I tilt my hives forward 1.5 to 2.5 degrees to help water to evacuate, and help the removal of dead bees. Good luck and cheers.
You say in the vid that it's too cold for them to fly right now, a bee climbs out when you open the top, and instead of opening the top to put them back - you fling them away. Ffs.
Often my frames and entrance reducers are a tiny bit too long so I keep some rough sandpaper near the hives to sand off the edges. It takes surprisingly few swipes to make them fit. Sometimes it's just propolis on the ends.
Not a bad idea. I've had propolis make frames tight, and you can see me scraping propolis off one of the frames for sure, but the box is homemade and too tight. I think one of the frames of was homemade too, and too long. But yeah, having a piece of rough sandpaper in my kit would be handy.
I recently found out that bees become very cold they climb into cells and that is how they warm the area inside. They each vibrate inside the cell. A small colony cannot warm the hive enough and freezes to death. Up until last year I thought dead bees inside cells upside down meant starvation and I thought that for decades. Maybe it froze to death. Maybe not.
How did you make that? I bought ultrabee for over a hundred a bag and it looks like your recipe is just as delicious. They put a little essential oil of lemongrass and some tumeric in theirs and say it's over 50% protein so I assume it's hemp seed flour. I don't know and they don't state the ingredients anywhere that I can find.
I didn't make it. I bought it from a company that slapped their own label on it with no info about the ingredients, but I'm pretty sure it's FEED BEE powder: feedbee.com/product/ They make miraculous claims like everyone else (doubles brood rearing etc), but I doubt any of these magic formulations can beat real pollen (which I plan to use for now on). Anyway, even on the website, I can't tell what's really in it. They don't even mention protein content. I'm wary of any pollen substitute that doesn't list the ingredients, especially from companies that make fantastic claims about it. Lemongrass is an attractant. It's like putting anise extract in syrup. The bees go nuts over it. But I think they'd have the same reaction if I mixed up a bowl of Rice Krispies with anise extract. I don't think it means the product is nutritious. The bees just can't help themselves but go nuts over essential oils.
One of my colonies actually turned every bit of it into real honey combs IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER in that feeder space! By the way , how do you propagate your queens?
I either make walk-away splits or I crowd my hives until they make swarm cells, and then make splits with the swarm cells. I don't have time for anything more involved than that. If I can, I try to move the virgin queens to a different location for mating because there aren't many beekeepers in my area. I plan to breed off the strong colony in this video. Gentle non-defensive bees (#1 quality in my book), low swarming tendency (when I'm convinced they're going to swarm, they just don't), good honey producers that over-winter well with or without hive wrap (I have no love for hive wraps), and good hygienic behaviour -- the bees are constantly cleaning up and dragging out the dead. I had a great colony a couple years ago, but the swarming tendency was so low, I couldn't get them make swarm cells. That's the only flaw in my system. Ha.
