Our small farm is located in the rolling hills of southern Ohio. We produce honey, Queens and surplus bees. We focus on giving beekeepers information on basic beekeeping, equipment use and product reviews. Most of our videos are aimed at newer or smaller beekeepers. Follow along with us as we look into these amazing and misunderstood insects: Apis mellifera, the European Honeybee.
Ugh! This was me this past spring. I'm still relatively new, and it's nice to see my girls aren't the only ones who get grumpy from time to time. I've got a full suit, and they absolutely find every chink in the armor they can. LOL! Thanks for posting.
To help Prevent these things on your wrist you shoul and I'll go back to the hive and start drinking the nectar up to prevent moke your face Smoke your arms smoke your wrist smoke your hands and it prevent bees from attacking your camera Smoke camera too it really does help don't ask me why it just does They don't like the smell of smoke
That was actually comical. This was a feisty hive. I was tired from working bees all morning. The smoker went out. They did produce quite well. Thanks for watching.
WOW your girls were good an com . I opened a bunch of my colonies two days ago an they are my lunch BUT there was a storm front coming in an I know that really pisses them off but I went in anyway. Just part of it . Good to see a update from you. Thanks
This time of year, some hives can be a little "chippy" either from weather or low incoming resources. I have a couple that need re-queened as they are bad attitude all the time and I'll get that done in the coming weeks. Thanks for watching.
Been watching you for about 2 years.Love learning from you.I have been using Formic for a number of years, but I would like to know how you decide to use 2 pads vs 1 pad twice. Thanks for the videos.
I have used two pads in the past but I prefer to use a single followed in 10 days by a second single. Single pads are less disruptive to the colony, does not seem to burn open brood, does not obscure the Queen pheromones (as much). It does clean up the mites but the two pad probably does a touch better. I absolutely will not use two pads if the first three days of treatment are mid 80's or higher, specially if the hives are in full sun nor would I use two pads with older Queens. Just my experience.
Don't mean to be so critical but you opened pads to air and leaving them sit and fume out, wasting the duration on the treatment. you should not have opened the foil til ready to place the strip pad
I understand your point completely. The majority of the pads were out of the pack and installed within 15 minutes. This is common practice in commercial beekeeping, one person opens and lays the pads on the hives tops and the second person cracks the boxes and installs them. Real fast if the hive is only one or two boxes tall. Awhile back I asked Tom about this and he had no problem with this method, stating it was the length of time the pads are in the hive that is important for efficacy. I do know it's the first three days that does the biggest amount of flash kill but even at seven days, the pads are still strong with fumes. In the past, this method has cleaned the mites up pretty well and I'll be going mite washes in a couple weeks to see where they are at.
Thanks for the video Tony. I'm planning on doing a Demeree with all 3 of my hives this coming spring, so I very much appreciate your video. My question is - is there a point in the season where you re-configure the boxes to the more traditional 2-deeps with a super or two on top? Or is this a method by which you'll leave the Demaree configuration alone until you've harvested the honey?
I over winter in either double deeps or a deep and a super. Usually sometime in March, I move the Queen to the bottom deep and put an excluder on. From there I run as a single brood box until fall and don't remove the excluder until Late September or October. This works well for me. One thing to watch is some hives are over achievers at pollen collection and will jam up too many frames with it in April and May. There is a learning curve but it works well.
@@tonywestsbees6042 thank you! I like that approach. So during the months you're not concerned about the queen being isolated from the cluster - there's really no need for more than one deep serving as the brood chamber, therefore, a queen excluder down there can only make finding the queen easier when doing things like mite tests/treatment etc., not to mention reducing risk of rolling her.
During warm months, the nurse bees are hanging out with the Queen and brood. No isolation worries. I do have a good followup video, the 30 days later which explains things too. It's a different hive in the apiary but you get the idea.
Hi all, anybody had exp using these in really hot weather? I am in far NW Australia, temps are mid 30s -40 degrees C from October to April. Wondering how these hives do in these temps. Thanks
Remove the Queen. Go back into the hive 8 days later and remove all the emergency cells. At that point, the hive is hopelessly Queen-less with no way to make a Queen. The hive will then readily accept a cell you give them. The new cell will change the genetics of the hive in about 6 weeks or so.
Yep this is always a good time of the year. Yes it may be a big or a light pull we are just thankful for what we get and we just work hard for the next season. I had a complete out yard killed off this year by someone spraying . We take the good with the bad an work to do better for our girls . Thanks Tony
I agree. Work with nature, not against it. Nectar is trickling in and the big hives are starting to make white wax again. We will see what develops. Thanks for watching.
You can do several things. You could remove it as a split or leave her there during the flow and add a super above her. After the flow, you can use her to re-queen the bottom box so you have a young Queen going into winter. You could also use her to re-queen a different colony. Lots of options.
@@tonywestsbees6042 how does the colony respond to being directly on top of another? Is the risk of fighting likely? Also how do the bees organise themselves to draw out the supers above and below the 2 broods? Thanks for replying to my message, I have a hive that's pretty busy and I'm half expecting to see swarm cells when I get into it on tomorrow, just wondering what my options are as supers went on not too long ago, if no cells are present I'm thinking of following this method or the 'preemptive' method. All the best.
Actually they do just fine. Queens emerging from a cell is natural for them. If she mates and comes back, she will set up housekeeping and all the bees accept her. The upper box is far enough from the bottom it works fine. Now it is a two Queen system. Be sure to have an upper entrance and use a Queen excluder wherever you do not want brood.
I used an automotive catalyzed body filler that had a fiber filler. Once done, sealed with a couple coats of exterior enamel paint. It worked well. Thanks for watching.
I got the big one this week that is just like yours bruce. Took the top off the extractor to lessen the weight. Was ready to roll in about 20 mins even putting the top back on. Now I just have to wait for the nectar to dry in the hives. Getting close though in nebraska.
After yesterdays inspection, we have a small 1 brood box hive with a new strong queen (we requeened about a month ago) that has some nice capped brood. We have a second hive that has no capped brood but we saw the Queen. We are thinking about killing that queen and moving her bees over to the small hive with the thriving queen using the newspaper method. Do we need to kill the weak queen? Do we need to make sure the top box has an exit for the bees? Thank you
I replied to this but for some reason it is not showing up. You could just drop one on the other and let the bees sort it out but I would just remove the one Queen, paper combine with one sheet of paper with slits in it. No upper entrance is required, they will be combined within a day or two. An active laying Queen is readily accepted by the bees. I would feed them =for a few days. Fed bees are happy bees.
Tony, Thank you for your details of the Demaree method. it worked great for me. Please confirm when you revert the hive box order back to standard settings. 2 weeks? One week after no queen cells are found?..
I leave the relocated brood away from the bottom box for awhile, until it emerges. The brood up top will emerge and join the hive's population moving down thru the boxes. If you have a long flow, you can Demaree a second time or even a partial Demaree, 2 frames of brood. There are no definites. Lots of options.
@@tonywestsbees6042 actually i m new to these all things but i really like watching them over since childhood i m not afraid of them i enjoy their company..thats why i got two hives with 6 farme full bees. Yesterday i tried to mark queens cause while inspecting i almost crushed one queen once so i didnot wanted to repeat that again but end up making blunder
Increased honey production since the population is much bigger. This year I had two hives that swarmed before I got to them and one hive that superceded the Queen. Those hives only have one surplus medium super on them right now so about 30 or so pounds extra. Those hives that I did Demaree on all have 125 pounds of surplus honey or more each. It's work but well worth it for a small scale producer.
Just done this for the first time and happy with the bottom box but the to BB is now full of honey. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Keep it for winter and give it back, I guess.
Hi Tony. Thanks for this video. I just did my first Demaree method attempt on my largest hive last week. At what point (if at all) would you recommend adding more boxes to the bottom for the queen to expand? I currently have mine set up at 2 mediums with about only 1 box of frames fully drawn and usable.
For my area, our main flow is only 8 weeks long. I use a single deep brood chamber. I rarely see my Queens have more than 7 frames of brood. The challenge is how well the house bees keep the nectar moved up out of the brood box. Some hives do better than others on this. Some hives manage pollen better than others too. Two mediums would most likely be enough room. You can also do a second Demaree a few weeks later if needed.
When removing a frame covered with bees, it is possible the Queen is transitioning from one frame to another. Literally it is possibly to roll the Queen like a pop can and can cause injury or kill her.
The second excluder is a "just in case" you miss a Queen cell in the upper box. If you did miss a cell, you end up with a mess down in your supers. On the Supers, in that video, it was drawn frames. This year I have already ran out of drawn frames, I'm putting in heavy waxed frames/foundation with a single drawn frame in the middle of the box directly over the brood nest to get more drawn out. I hope this helps.
If the hive was a little bigger, yes. We were still having cold nights. I waited a couple more weeks then put a drawn frames in the middle. Rule... Never have one brood frames by itself early in the year, always two or more then never more than one drawn frame. Don't divide the nest too much early on risking chilled brood or causing disruption or panic in the hive. Currently that hive has 7 frames of brood, one full honey super and starting on the second. The first hive in the video I have pulled 5 frames of brood from, is drawing out new foundation and has a deep filled with honey already. Not bad for a resource hive. Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed it.
As an older beekeeper, I keep some old equipment on hand to pull those heavy honey frames out one at a time to avoid hurting myself! Stack them up and cover them with a screen.
To me looks like you added to much work to them and they can’t keep up. I may be wrong but I didn’t see a lot of bees that why the supers are not so full. I do apply the same method for first time and I keep it low. We have to consider that the weather should be perfect for maximizing the honey harvest and then the quality of the queen etc.
It's a matter of reading the hive as you know. That hive between mid April and Mid June produced 175 pounds and rarely went over 6 frames of brood. That year I think we averaged 125-130 pounds per during that time period. In our area, local Beekeepers rarely get over 45 pounds of surplus and usually split to prevent swarming. This is an option for those that do not want to split or create more hives.
Hi, Can the demaree split be done after the honey flow? Mainly to strengthen the colony for the fall or next year? (only the 2nd full year into bee keeping. )
@@tonywestsbees6042 I'm in the south so it stays warmer until late oct early November. I'm not too worried about swarming right now. i was thinking about it for strengthening the hive and possible fall honey. Thanks for the tips. Great info on your videos.
Great video, Tony! I've had a lot of people ask me about this method and had to search it to educate myself. You did a great job explaining. I'm gonna share it on my new beekeeping community! Does your jacket not have straps to go around your thumbs to hold sleeves down? Might be worth adding if not.
Thanks Jason. It really was a last minute video to make. That was a feisty hive for sure and my jacket cuffs neen both new elastic and new thumb straps (still)! My follow up video was on a different hive as I had problems making the video on the original. The hive in this video made a surplus of 125 pounds and the hive in the follow up video made close to 175 pounds.
Hi Tony. It might be a bit too early to ask but I'm curious about your experience. In average, how many - relatively - solid frames of brood do you see in a single brood box throughout a year in season? So all in all: is a single deep brood box is enough for you?
During peak spring buildup, 7 or maybe 8 frames is max but many Queens level out between 6 and 7. That's my experience and most of my bees are heavy Carniolan influence.