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.
Hi Peter , so when I move the two brood boxes up top with supers below them and a new brood box with a excluder and frame with the queen and some drawn and undrawn comb so leave it like that until the honey flow is over unless it get full of course, thanks!
I am planning already for my winter/ spring set up for next spring. I like to re-queen to keep a fresh queen yearly. When would I plan on grafting (from my own bees) and replace my queen and still not allow my queen to go backwards in my honey production? Would I do this before the flow (when drones are flying) or after the flow has started or when the flow is over. My flow is generally over July 4th.
Hello, As a retired Honey Farmer in the UK, with over 60+ years experience with bees, I have to say this video gives out the wrong advice to those taking up the craft, as what you just showed, is bad beekeeping practice for the following reasons. 1. Brood frames should never be used as Honey supers. would you like to eat honey that you had just scooped out of the toilet? Every time a bee is produced in a brood comb, the Larvae speads out it's faeces in the cell just before it spins a cacoon and pupates. This is why brood combs become progessively darker the longer they are in the hive because none of the larval faeces is ever removed from the cells, yet super comb stays clean. That means that you are storing honey in a container that is composed of ' Bee Poo '. Fine if you consume the honey yourself, but not if you are selling it. 2. Unless you provide a top entrance, any drones trapped in the top will contaminate the top half of the hive, because they can't leave the hive to relieve themselves. Eventually they will die, block the excluder and invite various organisms that feed on their decomposing bodies. 3 Unless you are cold storing or very well sealing your stored supers, you will surely lose a lot of combs through wax moth. Wax moth will very rarely attack wet clean wax supers, but love brood combs, as it is the cacoons impregnated with bee poo that they really like. 4. You are far more likely to get a lot more dead bees and rubbish in your honey at extracting time. There are many more reasons why, brood comb should oly be used for breeding, and honey suppers for storing honey. If your management system requires double brood chambers, then if you wish to reduce the brood nest for honey production, take one box away with the queen, and place over a double screen board above the supers, produce a new queen in the bottom box and if you dont want to make increase, kill the old queen off and recombine the two brood chambers once the honey has ben removed. Kind regards, Tony Marsh.
Interesting! I dont think my established hives would let me go so a single. Few nice sized sunflower fields in the area give a big surge of pollen and the nest expands again. BTW, I 'think' I spotted a queen at 15:32 middle right. Maybe not, looked kinda small just had the shape. Love trying to find Waldo :P
Did u inspect the bottom brood chamber for room/ space for queen to lay?… if not is there a concern the bottom deep may get too congested invoking the swarming urge?… Many Thx
I could see that below they ranged from 5-6 frames of brood....this will increase to 6-9 frames over the next couple of weeks. Very few swarm after this if done at this time of the flow.
I'm hoping to try Demaree method soon. But I have a question though, I saw on one of Randy Oliver's video, that one of the swarm triggers is the lack of young brood pheramone. So if I place all capped brood in the bottom box, even with a queen, would the remaining adult bees be triggered to produce a swarm cell as soon as the queen lays a patch of eggs? Is it also a second threat of swarm cells, when all the uncapped young brood is up top, without any queen pheramone? Thanks for the video.
They usually attempt to raise a queen upstairs so its important to remove those queen cells after 8-9 days. But the time there is no young brood pheromone in the upper chamber there is loads in the lower chamber.
If you find the queen a place her below the excluder then put the rest of the brood above, do you worry about drones that may be caught in the new honey super? Do the need to get out or can the get through the queen excluder?
IMO if you allow queen to occupy two deep chambers during the spring(swarm season) and even take a split of necessary. Then, move them to the single chamber with 4 to 5 frames of brood in the lower chamber and a few in the upper when main honey flow starts, 8 frame equipment will work fine. It's more about the timing and technique than 8 vs 10 frame.
Very interesting 👍 I know you're busy, but if you don't mind answering a question, I'm a little curious about your comb honey frames and why you only use a small section of foundation at the top instead of a whole sheet of super thin comb foundation which is what I was taught to use in southern New Zealand, . I was told by the beekeeper who trained me that a full sheet was better to draw comb faster, and straighter for good presentation. do you find it takes longer for your hives to draw comb honey frames without it, and do you have 'comb wobble ' issues if the bee's draw comb from a small section?
@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer thanks for answering, I really appreciate it. I think I might experiment with a few frames in a hive and compare the results. That's the great thing about RU-vid, you get to see how other beekeepers tackle the same thing with a different approach 👍👋
Bypass should be on the other side so that if any bees enter it they won't be sucked up into the vacuum. Also the inlet and outlet do not have to be in the center of the box where the handles are. This area is difficult to seal.
Plz continue with this “demaree series” especially how u continue to down size as the season progress’s. I am a 3rd year beekeeper and followed your instructions regarding the Demaree method on seven of my hives. None of the seven swarmed and i am getting a wonder honey harvest… 21 gallons of honey from 3 hives thus far… Thank you both u r wonderful teachers and “explainers”! Dave from Wheeling WV and SE Ohio near the Ohio River.
After shaking the bee’s some remain on the frames that u r loading and taking to the garage. How do u deal with those residual bee’s on the honey frames prior to de-capping? Thx
Oh boy, full depths up a stack.🥵 Interesting side note, the first guy up Mt Everest, Sir Ed Hillary, was the son of a beekeeper who used full depths for everything and thats how he was so fit for the attempt on Mt Everest 😂 speaking of interesting obstacles, Bears😵💫 electrified apairys⚡ 😮 Im so glad i live in New Zealand 😂 so very very glad. I couldn't imagine anything more gut punching than some freaking animal ripping a hive to bits. We don't have bears, snakes, scorpions, predatory big cats, wolves, coyotes or any of the other ghastly horrors you guys have too worry about 😄 our worst headaches in central Otago southern New Zealand are AFB, Varroa and wet weather in summer for the thyme nectar flow. Nice first honey pull though and your bees look great🐝👍 thanks for uploading
Is there ever a concern with using older brood frames for honey when they were most likely treated for mites the previous fall? How long does it take for the chemicals to dissipate?
Going to try your double nuc on some mid summer new queens. Learned to not stack new supers on top of queen excluders from you too. I'm 1st year BK. Great info, thank you.
Thanks for an informative video. Will be using some I’m techniques this season. What are the dimensions of the cage you made? I’d like to make on myself.
Hi - wouldn't it be normal 'professional' procedure to NOT put the brood boxes directly on the ground level? Wouldn't it just be right and healrthy for both your human workers and your bee colonies? At least 50 cm / 20 inches high cheap saw horse like stand? Less brood deseases, less risc of spinal disc herniation and such .. ????????
@@T0tenkampf yes : in EU on palettes if you have heavy moving gear -- cheap muscles instead in US :( -- and also: inspection ground zero is also nor professional ist just cheap
Plastic qe will keep the queens from being able to cross over. I learned that the hard way with my double nucs. I don't like honey in brood frames, just a personal preference.
What's funny is if one nuc is stronger than the other the bees work up and the 5 frames over the strong nuc will be capped and the other hardly touched. They seem to stay in their lane😅
I've invested in double nucs like Michael Palmer resource hives. Fantastic resource hives and I get a good honey crop from them. Usually run them 4 over 4 and then qe and supers. Basically running a 2 queen hive. With the shared heat they overwinter great. If I had the $ I'd convert most of my operation to them.
Are there concerns about collecting honey in brood boxes that have been treated for mites last year (I used apiguard and oxalic dribble last year)? Thanks for sharing this video!
why 2 brood chambers? do the math: * 2000 eggs (worker bees) max per day per 21 days cycle = 42,000 cells needed. with ~6900 cells per LS deep drawn comb frame that makes max 6 frames of LS deep needed for max laying capacity!!!!!!!!! pls think! * 3000 eggs (worker bees) max per day per 21 days cycle = 63,000 cells that make 9 frames LS deep max needed !!!!!!!!! do youn have queens that lay 3000 eggs a day? doubt it - US queens are known to lack vitality, european Buckfast do even up to 4000 cells in comparison
