Hello and welcome to the Bees in the Weeds channel! My name is Josh and I am a small, backyard beekeeper in Kentucky who enjoys working with these amazing little insects. This channel is intended to be a source of information and education for those looking to venture into the wonderful art and science of keeping bees. I believe it is extremely important to help our pollinators to the best of our ability as they are vital and critical to our food source. An engineer by trade, I thoroughly enjoy the science and problem solving aspect of beekeeping. Please join me as we explore and learn together. I’m so grateful you are here! Cheers! 🐝🍯😎
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Yes. There are lots of ways to do this. You could also perform splits where one box will have the original queen and the second box will raise a new one.
I think the directions say to open up those entrances too in the heat. I added a feeder shim as well (this is in the EPA registration papers and I believe instructions available online) so the bees can circulate the air around the apiguard from the plastic card the tub comes with for applicators. I would bet you have some propolis entombed apiguard between the frame and the inner cover on your next visit! I have some hives I ran as single brood management and it was easier having them consolidated in the bottom box but I still put a second deep on after the 4th of July honey harvest for them to fill and overwinter on. You should try one hive as a double deep just as a test. You can always switch it back to single deep in the spring. If you have any more queen issues and have a chance to combine them to another hive you should see if you get much of a difference. We are averaging around 105lbs a hive this year, down a bit from last year but we did cut comb and made a fair number of splits early in the season. Thanks for sharing your experiences it's always fun to watch and see how different folks are keeping bees. The bees seem to get out of the hive the first treatment and seem less and less fazed as you put more in. We had a small swarm come into our apiary on July 3rd and I thought it was our girls but all hives were queen right and that swarm had a laying queen in it. I could only guess these may be feral hives that got run out by SHB or some other pest.
Great feedback as always Brian. Done treating here with Apiguard as I shot this video the beginning of July and we are now in August. The great news is not one colony propolized the Apiguard in! I was pretty excited about that. I have several shims I made but obviously if I can get away with not using them it’s easier. Haha All colonies are doing great and zero absconds this year. Keeping the IPM boards out made a big difference. I’ll just have to wash soon to see how numbers are. I may treat with Formic before the end of year. I agree that the bees tolerate the thymol much better after the first treatment. Happy beeking!
I ended up getting 57 pounds out of two first year hives. Managed single brood. I am using apigaurd also but I split my two hives into five. I think I am going to wait until the new queens and the original queens get to laying well. I’m looking at second week in August. My queens should be on their mating flights today and the next few days. Hopefully they will be laying by August 9th. The second week in August should give her time to lay up good then I can treat.
Awesome video buddy and a beautiful frame of brood!!! I tested all my hives this week and my mite count is very low so I’m holding off on treating. I’ll check again about this time next month if levels have risen then I’ll treat. No honey for me this year as it is my first and I made a few splits although they say not to with first year hives. Might be making another one they keep making swarm cells as fast as I treat them out.
@@ChiChi-r4o oh I didn’t know that bee companies couldn’t start their business this year. Glad you the bee company police have told me that. I will ask next time.
Awesome video!! My kids still ain’t interested a whole lot yet my oldest says he wants to help but for some reason when it’s time to work them he’s not around 😂🤷
Single hive first year keeper here, My bees went from nuc in june to 5 full supers, I never thought I'd be harvesting honey the first year..... Your review and the price is a sealed deal..... Thanks for the vid mate.... cheers from Michigan :)
I prefer to feed pollen patties and syrup through a feeder, I think having the ability to choose between protein and sugar is important, I have been taught that the bees know best.
I think I could design one of these in CAD and then 3D print it in PET (food safe plastic) At the moment I use a potato ricer to masticate the wax cappings after draining, I then drain the honey from the masticated wax and let my bees process the remaining honey in the wax in small batches so that they get it before any robbing can take place.
100% when she was a virgin. It was very obvious and clear. Not only by her size and shape but also by her demeanor. Virgins are extremely flighty and run around on the comb like chickens with their heads cut off. LOL
@@beesintheweeds I know what you’re talking about when it comes to virgin queens being kinda crazy..i had one sting me a while back.i sure wasn’t expecting that
Awesome Video! I am very jealous of all that equipment as well, what a blessing to have the opportunity to use it… looking forward to seeing the next video
I like to let the bees clean up all the wet cappings and they won't waste a drop of that sticky stuff. You can also throw all them cappings in a wash tub and add water to it an wash all the honey out of the cappings and then dip them out and put them in your wax melter and then feed wash water back to your bees. More ways to skin the cat and a bunch cheaper too!😁
@@beesintheweeds I figured the swarm commander but wasn’t sure what holds it. I think I’ve heard of people doing this before. I need to get me some swarm commander obviously ! Great work with the catch!
Great information. I have been doing a single brood chamber for the first few years, But I always left a deep full of honey for them for the winter. From the last 3 videos that I have watched this morning, (from 3 different beekeepers) I have been doing it incorrectly and loosing 10 frames of honey. Thanks for the info.
Hi. Not necessarily “doing it wrong” as plenty of people overwinter with a super on a deep. But yes, of course they will consume that honey if they need it. I prefer to take the honey and replace with sugar syrup down in the deep box closer to the cluster. Either way is fine, it’s up to the beekeeper’s discretion. Thanks!
When using apiguard you should take out I’m board, remove entrance reducer and provide ventilation type inner cover, giving them more ventilation helps to prevent absconding
Yes I agree but this was not an abscond. And it also depends on the outside temps whether to leave the IPM board in or not. I’m dealing with this issue currently. 🙂 Thanks for watching!
It’s mainly just grass right around the colonies. I try to keep it trimmed back. There are plenty of flowers and weeds all around the colonies in the right-of-way. I have someone from the state coming by soon to survey the area. I’m hoping to convert a lot of the surrounding land to a pollinator habitat but I definitely need help doing so. The ground requires some big machinery to till with all the roots. Thanks for watching!
I have not but I will definitely be looking into this!! I was outside in the yard for 3 hours yesterday (July 7th) and it was ROUGH! Thanks for the tip!
Great Video!! Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear about your colleague 😢 We appear to be a few weeks behind everyone here in So California as we had abnormal weather or at least that’s what I am hoping 😊 So you don’t put your supers back on to let the girls clean them up? Another question, you go immediately into Winter preparation, so Single and you feed for the rest of the season? I finally started shooting videos and hopefully will get up to your level 😊
Hello! Great to hear from you again and glad you enjoyed the video! No, I do not put the supers back on as I only extract once a year. Any fall flow that we end up with the bees get to keep which means less sugar feeding for me. I set the supers out to be cleaned (stay tuned for a future video) and then I store them for the winter. I now shift to mite washes and treatments for the colonies (currently have ApiGuard on). Then I will shift to feeding and make sure each colony is at least 70 lbs going in to winter. Thanks for watching and hopefully you’ll get your channel up and running soon!
This is one of the best reviews of the 4 frame extractor. Despite having a problem with mine , I still feel that the extractor is a good deal for someone with 1 or 2 hives.
That is laying workers. No matter what people tell you. Never leave a hive a month without checking it. I check mine a week after they should be building a cell, If they aren't give them another frame of brood with eggs. If they have a cell wait another week then check to see if it hatched. Sometimes they are duds. I check mine once a week no matter what.Waiting a month is a waste of time and bees. The ones that wait a month just have more bees than they really need.
There is some research and evidence that disrupting a hive too much during the requeening process can result in the queen getting balled. Lots of pheromone changes going on during this time. I’m not saying it happens a lot, but it can according to EAS master beekeepers. I should have mentioned I checked this hive Saturday after pulling supers and it is queenright.
Personally I have not. I have a local friend who uses them. I tend to stick to one type of hive as I find it is cheaper than buying equipment for multiple. Just my $0.02!
So this year is my first year and I am doing single brood management like you are. I was wondering how long does it take you to do an inspection? Also how long does it take you to do inspections in all your hives? I only have 2 right now and I’m trying to figure out how to reduce my inspection time as I increase my numbers.
Excellent questions. The answer is it can vary widely depending on the task. If I’m just checking for queen-right status then I can do an inspection in under 3 minutes. If I am checking for swarming activity it can take longer. If I am checking disease or illness, it can take even longer. The point being, the time to do an inspection really depends on why you are getting into a hive. This is why there is such a steep learning curve for beekeeping because there are so many variables. Rarely is there an answer “if this then that”. Hope this makes sense. Keep asking questions and growing your bee knowledge! You will learn over time! Cheers!
Finally got it to spin without hitting the tops of the frames. Cross member on one side sits a quarter of an inch higher than the other side. This allows enough clearance. Still have not heard back from mfg.
Problem solved . I took a grinder to the bottom end of the frame cage. Removed about 6.5 mm , this dropped the cage enough to rotate without colliding with the cross bar. Unit works great now. Only paid $125.00 for it. But it’s really all I need for 2 or 3 hives. Probably voided the warranty but I was getting impatient. I have a fix for the covers. Use the clips that hold socket sets on a strip to keep them organized. Takes 2 or 3 of them and epoxy them to the cover. They fit the rounded top of the tank. Remove the posts that come with the covers. Thanks again
I just purchased this extractor. Put it together, but when it rotates the top of the frames are hitting the metal cross member. Very noisy and it also results in wood chips falling into the tank? Any suggestions.
Thanks , I put in 4 empty frames was wondering if lack of weight might be a factor. I reached out to vevor for a solution. Will take a look at the shaft also.
Not the greatest color to use, I agree, but it’s what I had on hand and didn’t want to waste it. There are enough other markers and colors (top and bottom) that I don’t believe it affects the bees too much.
@altaylor293 bees can actually see red they just dont perceive in the same way we do. if anything it would appear black, assuming they simply can not detect that light frequency.
