SW Ohio Bees - Common Sense Beekeeping. I'm just a grumpy old U.S. Air Force veteran doing the best I can learning to work honeybees in Southwest Ohio. I'm not a master beekeeper, just an amateur enthusiast who has dove into this hobby/business and am loving it.
I inspected my hive this weekend and found something very similar. They had frames full of capped honey in the bottom box a month ago, where the queen was. There was also good brood. This past weekend, she is now in the top box and they've cleared out several frames of capped honey in the bottom box and apparently moved it. We still have some of the same frames with capped honey, but some are empty or now have brood where there was once capped honey. Still scratching my head. They are still producing honey, so it's not like they need to use it. I'm in San Diego and first year of beekeeping.
@@swohiobees granulated sugar is super unhealthy, which is why there are so many health problems in humans. Diabetes, eye problems, and so much more. They're even linking Alzheimer's to a form of diabetes (diabetes type 3). Sugar is definitely not nutritious. If anything, you should be taking honey to water and giving them their natural nutrients back.
if they had brood( which i would assume because u didnt pull a frame) they just simply moved the Honey as close as possible to the brood. that does not only make for shorter ways to the Larvae but also is better for heat disribution. Also bees will always try to have Honey above and around the Brood to dry it further and make for a more stabile climate inside the collony. So its quite a normal.
That is an option. I open my hives every week in the Spring to check on them - escape time for drones. I don't fully cover it in my videos (my bad), but what I like to do is take those upper boxes off after that brood has emerged - escape time for the drones. Assuming we are then in peak nectar/honey season, I will add an upper entrance - escape time for any remaining drones.
!0 of my 16 colonies are all from the same queen, they are varroa resistant and were quite good producers, this year however went mad, all my colonies were running at maximum turbo production, I made many more splits and made NUCs to sell, the honey production went crazy with fully drawn supers filling in a week in some cases. I think this was all down to a very mild winter here in South Yorkshire England, she was still laying eggs in January, as a result the populations were massive from the start of the first flow and they hit the ground running I have to do something different next season, I think the Demaree would just increase my problems though, I will try one colony for a few seasons just to see how it pans out though.
So glad I discovered double nucs/resource hives. The benefit of them is they build up quickly & of course share heat over winter. I don't use that big clunky middle divider. I cut a 3/8" piece of plywood to shape & use that. This allows 5 frames to easily fit on both sides.
@@aleksminskiy367 - The resources hives are my queen factory. I'll do splits & take the new queens from one of the resource hives. Then place new eggs in the resource to make new queens.
Great question. I personally have had really good luck directly adding a queen like this. However, A paper merge (combine) would be the proper way to do it. I've got a couple videos on it. Try: studio.ru-vid.comT8IXoNMiDAc/edit
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When was this footage taken Tim, just want to get time frame on what your seeing and when. I too am in Ohio. I’m north east of you. Fairfield county for me.
What does brood area look like in your horizontal hive? Most put green drone comb in brood area. I got top bar hives now because I can't lift. Don't worry, we all have senior moments.
The queen had very little area for brood - due to so much honey. Thus the reason I was moving frames out. Not laying as many drones as earlier this Spring.
@swohiobees so the frames were from broid area? My bees use 18 frames for brood area and then the rest honey. Kamon reynolds uses only 10 frames for brood and the rest of long Lang for honey but he's more south with short winter. How many frames if brood did you have.
@@brendawydeven2934 - Unfortunately, bees don't consult with me or read any manuals. When the flow is strong, they store it in any & all cells. There is no way to prevent this. All we can do is move or remove those honey bound frames and give them empty comb. Sometimes this helps, but when the flow is strong, it can be a loosing battle.
@swohiobees Right, and I get that. Was just wondering if that was in the brood area. Or did you take them because there was honey going into brood area . I'm a little confused because you don't show both sides of hive. So you took it out of brood area. If that wasn't the side brood isn't usually made why would they be honey bound.
Tim, seems to be a common problem this year for sure, a lot of my hives are plugging to. Nectar flow is very heavy this year. Where are you at in OH? I am just south of you.
It is more helpful in taller configurations. In this case, it also provides an escape for any drones up in the Super. If time had permitted, I would have shaken the bees off all the frames.
upper entrance should not be used without a queen excluder. The queen will most often lay near any entrance or ventilation spot. In single brood with a queen excluder you can put an upper entrance because the queen won't move all the way to the top of the box due to the QE. It's also just a little more efficient if the foragers can just go directly in and out of the top instead of working their way up from the bottom
In which direction should the entrance be located? Right or left or middle? Opposite to lower entrance? South, SW, etc. Thanks for the help! I want to try demaree next year because this year we had a lot of swarms! Greetings all the way from Switzerland to Ohio!😊🎉
@@ninoskafunesschmidhauser6116 - I'm not sure it matters so much. However, usually will put it up top and on the same side as current opening. This way they are oriented correctly when you finally remove that upper entrance.
Question: we've had a cool spring. Too cool to open the hives. Then rain and more rain. Then as I was about to try this, my hives swarmed. Might I have another chance to use this demaree method this season?
That's a Govee fob. It measures Temperature & Humidity. Not built "for" beehives, but I've used 4 of them now for the past 3 years. I'll finally have to change batteries this year. They can be found: amzn.to/4avBMFP Great to know the bees are doing good over Winter. As a bonus, it lets me know when they start brood again in late Winter - Temp jumps up to the low-mid 90's.
Tim, very cool. I had a similar experience in Chicago. We didn't get as dark as yours did. I agree that I won't be here for 2099 to see the next one. :) Awesome to see what others saw. Here's my Chicago experience: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7u-GJo9UhlU.html
I had 2 swarms in the bee yard today. One had 2 queens so I split the bees and made 2 nucs. The other swarm I used to repopulate my log hive. Your bees are looking great!
