Dyson Apiaries of Mocksville, NC is owned and operated by Justin (NC Master Beekeeper), and Heather Dyson. Justin is a long time 4th generation beekeeper who grew up helping his dad, Terry Dyson (NC Master Beekeeper), with his small scale queen breeding operation. After completing his education in business, Justin decided it was time to see if he could run an operation on his own.
Dyson Apiaries was founded on the principle that it would produce a high quality product while offering advice and help to those not so experienced in beekeeping, in order to promote the art of beekeeping. Dyson Apiaries specializes in nucs, and honey production.
Contact us at 336-492-6408 or Justin at info@dysonapiaries.com. Also check out our website at www.dysonapiaries.com
still in my first year and all my mentor told me was i will not get honey this year and i have to build up to double deeps, thank you for this video. the biggest struggle as a new beekeeper is understanding "the right thing to do".....and not having comb haha
@g8rgrl13 I started with a similarly minded mentor like you. Now I only operate single deeps. I find it easier and more fun, with the added bonus that swarm control leads to more splits, nucs, and more colonies!
Hello, i came back here looking for you because I remembered your channel and I really enjoyed the content. I realized that i had not seen a video from you in a long time. thanks for all the great videos and i hope you will make more when your life allows it.
Hi - I live in Los Angeles and found your video trying to figure out what to do. I got a nuc of bees on May 26th and was told by the guy I got them from that he was 99% sure there was a mated queen. On June 1st I inspected and saw no new eggs or active brood but what looked like queen cells or cups on one frame (didn't move the bees to know for sure). But, I assumed I either had no queen to start or something had happened to her so I left them alone. On June 8 I checked again and saw no evidence of any queen cups at all (unless possible that bees repurpose cups after one hatches?) but still no active brood at all. So, I am thinking that this hive is "hopelessly queenless?" and the workers could start laying themselves soon. I was offered another nuc of this guys nuc with an queen to combine and was at the bee store yesterday and the beekeeper there told me was very risky and that once a hive has been queenless for a few weeks (and especially if the workers start laying) that they won't accept the queen in the nuc and the workers from both hives will also fight and kill each other. She also told me that giving the queenless nuc a frame of new eggs and larvae won't be the answer because I will weaken the queen right nuc and that the queenless nuc won't have nurse bees, could reject, etc. AND she claims even if they did make a new queen, there are no drones around for her to mate with. Then I see your video and everything she says seems to be wrong and I am so confused. If you can offer me any insight I would appreciate in case things are different in southern california? and, yes, I am a fairly new beekeeper as I have only had one other feral swarm that I managed for about 1-1-/2 years.
Good advice on keeping Nucs around. Thanks for the video. I was thinking that a direct introduction would be successful. Thanks for showing that it is possible.
You could also put a queen excluder between the 2 deeps then come back after a couple days and then split the deeps and allow the queenless deep reer a new queen on its own.
I prefer to do splits with a mated queen or ripe cell rather than walk away splits. Too much production time is lost in such a short season with walk away splits.
When you load the bottom brood box with capped brood and then queen excluder doesn't that cause over crowding and invoke the urge to swarm? I am a novice an trying to learn, thank you.
Easy method is to move them a mile or two away. If not, the one that is relocated in the same apiary needs too many bees because several will go back “home”.
New subscriber here. Do the color of your boxes represent different things? Or you just paint the hives with whatever color paint is available on hand?
Hello sir , Thanks for your videos .I am curious to know if you provide your bees with sugar candy in winter ? Is it fine to do that in the states amongst beekeepers ? I live in the middle East Thanks 👍🏻
Sorry to hear about your Dad. My wife and I visited my Dad today in Columbia, SC. He’s 93 and living in a nursing home with advanced dimenta. He got me into beekeeping as a young boy and I’m just now picking it back up. Sad he doesn’t remember any of it now. Anyway, I live onSC/NC line and your videos have helped me tremendously. Prayers for your Dad on this Easter Sunday. Take care!
I think from using OA for a few years now the vaporization method works the best. There are new OA products that you can use 2 grams per deep as a legal treatment. In SE Ohio I treat 5 times over 21 days with vaporization. This is legal. Then I treat again like you say just before the winter solstice. Great video.
They have recently changed the regal on OA treatment allowing it to be used multiple times for a cycle. I still believe it to be less effective to e than other methods when the colony is brooded up.
“Wet shakes” are a common sign. If you shake a frame and nectar slings out, it’s fresh and not dried down. Also look for the tell tale white dot of pollen on the bee’s forehead for the tulip poplar flow. When bees start back filling brood cells, is another sign.
Great info - thanks. Just went to split and found queen cells in my hive. Wish I’d seen this before. But going back to do some remedial work tomorrow. Thank you!
The only thing I see that you need to save that wax in a bucket lnstead of putting it on the ground. This would help with wax moth control and give you some extra wax for other things.
I keep a few older queens around for 2-3 years but it’s because of the genetics I’m trying to keep in my apiaries for queen rearing. Generally though, most of my queens get replaced every year. With all the stressors on honeybees these days with pesticides, mites, viruses, and demand for high production, most get replaced via supercedure every year around sourwood season if we don’t do it ourselves.
So helpful, thank you. I am a backyard beekeeper in central florida so the flow seems on going sometimes. I seem to have good genetics and want to keep it. Good to have this great information.
another healthy perspective. Thank you, I'm new to your videos .How is it you can take bees from all different hives and them not fight with one another?
It depends on the time of year and the method. If bees are bringing in nectar and actively raising young bees, they really don’t pay each other much attention. Early season balancing is a touch different. I will typically pull resource frames from hive and put them in a nuc or something all mixed up with each other. By the time I take them to another apiary to use on other colonies, their smells have all mixed up and they really don’t know who they belong to. Very little fighting with this method.
Do you see any difference in performance if you were to install a package in to the 2 story nuc configuration? B/c of bees tendency to like to build up and not out?
The two-story nuc would grant you better expansion in the beginning with a package. They will draw the comb better and it allows them to use the rising heat to expand brood more quickly.
Migratory tops do not need the inner cover; however they will sweat a little in the winter. Sometimes you have to prop them just a pinch to allow the moisture to escape.
I’m happy if I have a 100 lb average across the colonies for each flow (spring wildflower and sourwood). Last year the spring flow let me down and I was at about a 70 lb average but sometimes I exceed the 100 lb average.
Justin I just found your channel Tuesday I have very much enjoyed every one of your videos, You do a fine job explaining I live in Virginia so that even made it better I think your weather is closer to mine. I have candy on all my hives doing the winter the candy I make i put pollen in it. They eat it up to they just by pass any honey they have in there hives. I hope you continue to do videos this year All your videos are old. I hope u do the videos the day you are working your bees and upload them. that would be great. Any way just wanted to say hi the vedios are great and thanks for doing them. been doing bees for 11 years I have 41 at this point. Going for a encrease again this year I am now retired from my full time job. and that is great. I am still a care giver I do that from 4pm-9am unless he gets sick them it is a full time 24-7 you just made me think of a question you said u remove the q if the hive is trying to swarm, Do you ever remove the queen from a hive even before there is swarm cells just to increase, the hive does not ever think of swarming and u have another hive. Plus you have many queen sells to make small 1 frame splits this worked great for me last year. I have removed queens from strong hives to make me some queens. I have tryed grafting but I have a eye Dease and grafting is not working to good for me. I am going to try again I have gotten a very large magifing glass and special lighting with it and I also have a large magnifing glass that I can hang around my neck to help me see when I do inspections, so hoping this will help me, Anyway thanks again for the time you put into the videos. Have a Blessed week
Glad you enjoyed the video. Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Takes time to process through the footage and I struggle to make the time. But thanks for watching.
I agree alcohol washes are more accurate. Most people struggle with instantly killing the bees so they lean toward the sugar shake. I use both dependent on the situation. If I find 1 mite in a sugar shake, I’m treating.
