I am Peter Cowin, aka The Bee Whisperer. I have decades of experience growing honeybees in northern New England. I now run more than 130 colonies producing thousands of pounds of honey and hundreds of nucs each year. My aim for this channel is to help along beginner beekeepers and to show how this fascinating hobby can be turned into a significant income.
Nice. But if there was another hive closer to previous location, then no single bee would understand your video and would return to nearest (the other) hive to the previous location. Except the case, you moved it before first spring flight. And in this case is no difference between this covering of hive entance or no action... During the winter season is erased their "programming" about location.
Ha Peter just seen your and amy interview with raindeers youtube page it was great. If you do not mind I like to ask you a question. I would like to treat for mites with oav I have heard treat every 5 days for 7 treatments works have you tryed this thanks
awesome video,, with this method what would happen if were do a demarry split on the 2 nucs with only broad in queen box n 4 drawed frames then put every thing else in top box, would that give her more time or would they just fill empty frames with nector ,, thanks again i learned much from you,,,TY..
Hello bee whisperer😊 thank you for the constant enlightenment. I was wondering if i could purchase bee venom from you for a research on its effect on arthritis
Great info! I was wondering what percentage of the brood box is typically stored honey in say September? Have you ever inspected the bottom (brood box) in September? Please keep these videos coming!!
I performed a demaree split on a hive that was previously split from a very agressive and overpopulated hive. Now I don't see any evidence of a laying queen . How should I requeen this hive?
I would hedge my bets by takeing a couple of nucs from it with new queens. The big hive in my experience is much less likely to accept the new queen than smaller ones.
NO! Most beginners have their first swarm by placing a queen excluder on before they have any drawn comb in the honey super. Hannah was doing exactly the correct thing. Wait till they start to draw the comb then make sure the queen is in the lower chambers by shaking off the bees. THEN adding the excluder and replacing the honey super. For some reason many hives (not all) just wont pass up through the excluder when there is only foundation above it, then become crouded and swarm despite all the room above.
Dude the american way would have been to do a walk away split after not finding queen in top box and leaving all the cells till you found her..and Those are not swarm cells their supersedure. The brood pattern in bottom box is not good or were it should bee and you only had good patterns in the top box..you might even try reversing your boxes and put a double screen board in between them.
When a colony is preparing to swarm ALL queen cells are swarm cells. When superceding they make one or two queencells (except in emergency supercedure) This is a very common misconception. Please don not underestimate the good sense of my native America by saying a walk away split is the American way. These should , in my opion, only be done if you MUST split and can not find the queen, forcing them to make queencells means they may make some out of 5 day old larvae rather than 4 day old larvae. These make inferior queens and as they will emerge first they then kill all the better quality queens.
I also, had a mishap with a brand new queen. I was moving the frame with her on it about 10ft away to the nuc box. Before placing the frame into the box, I always want to eye ball the queen as it's going into the box. This time, however, I couldn't find her again. So i looked and looked, nothing!! I looked on the ground to my right, nothing. Left, nothing!!! Moved my left foot back and pow!!! Bright green marked queen under my shoe!!!!! Dead!!! I was heart broken!!! Lesson learned, bring the box to the queen!!!!
14:11 I found that if you cut out wonky combs like that, if you flip the frame around so the cut side is next to normal comb, they draw it better than if it's facing the same side.
Ha Peter real nice it is strange our flow is over and your is just beginning. That hive is doing good. It is nice to see you doing videos again Have a blessed week
Hi Peter. I'm trying the nucs under a combined honey super and have a question. One nuc is much smaller than the other. Will they share resources and even out?
Hi Peter. Will 2 5frame nucs below a qe and combined 10frame honey super spread the bees across both hives.? One nuc is new and smaller than the other. Thanks for your videos.
Would like to know what is the silver looking sheet that you put on top of the hive under the telescoping cover. Is it available to buy from a supply house? Thank you.
As a newby trying to move from being a “beehaver” to a “beekeeper” I very much appreciate the clear explanation of an excluder in simple terms I can understand. I also now have a better explanation of foundation and comb. Beekeeping needs a dictionary!! :) Thank you again.
Thank You, Peter. At the end of my beekeeping life, I think I should try this method. I keep only two hives now, so, there should be time enough to play with them. No swarming too. Perfect tutorial and a great video. Greetings. Adam. Bye.
My first attempt with the Demaree Method is going well. I have a deep brood box queen excluder then 2 med super and finally the two original brood boxes on top. My question is, can i now move the top two brood boxes down and the two med supers up on top?… the two top brood boxes are extremely heavy with nectar and difficult to lift up that high after i inspect the bottom brood chamber to ensure that it isn’t filling with brood and resources. Many thx again Peter. Dave from Wheeling WV
If you do that during flow, emerging brood will eat the honey. It will work if you combine them and gather emerging brood frames at least 3 weeks prior to the flow. If you want more honey, you should also restrict queen from laying during flow or take out capped brood frames during flow and give them to other weak colonies. Once this flow is over, the weak ones will be ready for the next flow. That timing is the essence of beekeeping.
Unbelievable, I was just talking about demaree splitting today😂 I'm in southern New Zealand and I doubt many beekeepers have heard of this technique in new Zealand and the guy I was explaining this too was giving me the " you gotta be kidding me" look😂 so now I'll send him the link too this video 👍😆 thanks for uploading 😄
This is stupid just mix it at room temperature and let it sit for a few hours all the sugar will dissolve at whatever ratio you like hot water makes it dissolve faster but boy that's a lot of bother and then you have to cool it down so it doesn't ferment get a container mix it up stick it in the fridge comeback a few hours later all the crystallized sugar will be dissolved
I never would have thought of that. Great idea! I only have 10 colonies but two of them are weaker. I may equalize and then stack in this manner. If I feed as someone else suggested the results may prove to be interesting. Great idea!
