We are beginner beekeepers using Layens Horizontal Hives for our honey bees. We are just beginning our beekeeping journey, so come along with us as we learn more about these fascinating creatures. We are also beginner RU-vidrs, so please be patient as we build our channel.
You barely mentioned it but bees are so very capable of uncapping the full frames of honey, such as in a robbing situation. Uncapping a bit just to get the scent going is a good idea, but I just put any unused honey frames out., away from any active hives .(Usually old brood deeps and unused overwintered honey I don’t want)
Dr Leo Hello I just catch a swarm on layens frames how long does it take the bees to build the combe on these frames thank you for your time best wishes Andrew Terry
We just fill a spray bottle about 1/2 full of water and add about 3-4 drops of anise. I think we got the anise at our local Wal-mart in the essential oils. Or we may have ordered from Amazon - I just don't remember. A little goes a long way.
@@randsbees thanks for the information. I have a swarm that came in about a week ago and there is no queen. I want to try put these in with another hive
Thank you for your video. I am in the exact situation that you described at the end...will be moving an established swarm (been there for about 2 weeks) that has been in an owl box to my Layens hive. Website says to use a whole sheet, but I'm hoping I can get away with 1/2 sheets. Do you think I should stick with using full sheets for the first frames I place in the box? I'm hoping the bee keeper that is helpIng do this will be able to use some rubber bands to attach some of the comb they have made. Thanks for any advice.
We use 1" starter strips normally. When they bees swarm, they come ready to build wax. If the wax that they've built is still soft, you can probably push it into the wires of your new frames and then rubber band it. It may help to heat up the wires a bit with a lighter. Try to save all the brood and food that you can. If you have honeycomb that you can't save, leave it nearby and the bees will rob it out. Good luck!
We do have stuff in the swarm box to attract the bees. We have 2 vials of lemongrass essential oil in there that mimics the queen pheromones, a couple of frames of old brood comb, and some propolis smeared on the inside walls to make the box smell like bees. And the swarm box dimensions are what the swarm is looking for - about 10 gal.
what kind of a router bit are you using for shaving off 1/4 on the side bars? Somehow my router often rips/splits the bar. I'm probably using the wrong bit. Thanks
I think we were using a 3/4" straight bit, but we were making 2 passes - taking off about 1/8" at a time. It left the sides pretty rough so that we had to clean them up with a knife. Since we made this video, Miller Bee Supply has started making Layens frames. They are located close to us, and so we'll be buying frames from them going forward.
I know little to nothing about beekeeping so if this is a crazy question, forgive me. Will bees swarm with a virgin queen? If so, how do you know that after they inhabit a swarm box, the queen hasn’t gone off on a mating flight just when you decide to move them? Thanks for all the frequent videos. John sure has a beautiful farm and I envy his serene lake.
What we understand, a really strong colony may cast several swarms. The old queen leaves with the first swarm,and that's usually the biggest swarm. Subsequent swarms may have a virgin queen. We think that we caught 2 secondary swarms with virgin queens. They didn't have any brood when we moved them into hive boxes, but they did when we checked them later. And the really small swarm in this video already had capped brood. Momma said, swarm boxes are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
And John does have a beautiful farm. We love visiting there. The lake is for water supply, so only electric trolling motors and paddling are allowed. No jet boats or party boats. It's always quiet and peaceful.
Well things are getting rolling up here in central NH. We have shade! The trees are mostly leafed out except for some elms and ash trees. I can look to the north and see that the hills are leafed out up to about 4000 ft. Lilacs and blueberries are in bloom. My bees are looking for more space. I just finished a 20 frame Layens box that will get bees tomorrow. I have 3 more hives to finish hopefully by next weekend. I'm hoping for honey and fewer swarms this year. Always a pleasure to see you folks down there in the land of bees. Take care, Brice
Thanks so much for watching our videos, Brice. Hopefully, we've given you a little bit of useful information and have not led you too far astray. Sounds like you have the makings of a very good year. Keep us posted!
Maybe you guys can help me. When you combine two hives and use sugar water mixed with Anise, are you using Star Anise, or Aniseed? I am confused about which essential oil to use and I cannot find the answer on the internet. Thanks in advance.
If you have a frame of old brood comb in your swarm trap, the queen has somewhere to begin laying almost immediately. I believe the cell is capped around day 9. So you could easily see capped brood within a couple of weeks. If your swarm came with a virgin queen, it can take up to a month.
Depends on where you are. We're in central NC and everything is blooming here. The bees can easily take care of themselves. If you're way up north and nothing is blooming, and have some of your honey that you can feed them, l'd go that route. Never store-bought honey - only honey from your apiary. We keep some honey frames in the freezer to feed back to the bees. Last resort would be sugar water. But, the bees typically gorge themselves on honey when they swarm. They come ready to build wax and to make a new home. Good luck!
Thanks, I'm in north West Missouri and everything is blooming quite well. This is my first year so I don't have any honey frames put away at this time. I think they'll be ok
Love your channel, Newbee here😅I live up in the Rockies. My question is…..i had bought a few Nucs (I know, I just couldn’t catch any swarms last year and am so impatient to catch swarms this year). Anyhow, my first Nuc I cut the langstroth frames and then screwed them into my layens frames. My second Nuc I built adapter frames and used those. My third Nuc I just placed the langstroth frames sideways using my layens frames as a holder, does that make sense? My question is….for this third Nuc how do I rotate out the langstroth frames out? And should I do this before winter?
We started out with Layens equipment, so we've never had to deal with conversion. If you go to Horizontalhive.com, click on the Plans tab, scroll down to "Convert Langstroth hive to Layens,"and hit the Plans button. The page it goes to steps you through the process. We've seen Dr. Leo talk about doing this. It may have been on Offgrid with Doug and Stacy. You can search RU-vid for those videos. Gene over on Enjoy Beekeeping has some videos on this, too. He started with Langstroth equipment and converted to Layens. You should be able to rotate those frames out over the next couple of seasons. You can checkerboard your regular Layens frames with those converted Langstroth frames and slowly work them out. I wouldn't rush to do it before winter. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
Ah, the beauty of spring. I have a honeysuckle in my backyard that smells great and you would think would be covered in honey bees. Not the case. Apparently too many chemicals being used in the neighborhood. Enjoying your springtime adventure.
Thanks, John! We had honeysuckle on the railroad track bank by our house in Apex. Then the RR sprayed it, and it hasn't come back. That was a few years ago. At least you get to enjoy the honeysuckle in your backyard.
Thanks, Pat! A little backstory: the hive at Gene & Jody's house is painted like her playhouse. And that's the playhouse that Crissy played in as a child. Crissy and her daughter are the ones that painted all of our hives. So, we go back a LONG way. Did you paint your hive?
Howdy Roy and Shirley. A few years back, I built what I thought was 3 8 frame Layens swarm boxes. Well, me being me, I inched it. I made a 7.5 frame box. Big gap with 7 frames. I picked up a tip from some northern Lang beekeepers. They use grain bags for an inner cover instead of a wooden inner cover. Some use canvass. I use cotton canvass cut to cover all the top bars plus the extra open space. You really just need a piece big enough to cover the gap plus a few frames, but I find at least half the width of the hive works good enough. The bees will proprolize the canvass but won't build cross comb unless they are cramped for space. Always a pleasure to see you two working your bees, thanks for posting. Have a great day, Brice
Yeah, we need to do something different. Roy assures me that he will be able to get those frames out this fall where he beat the board in at the end. We'll see. There may be some foul language involved, so it may not make it to RU-vid.
The hard part for us is to NOT prop up a colony that's too far gone. We're learning. Like the Jimmy Buffett song said: breathe in, breathe out, move on.
@@randsbees And if we have a swarm that gets away or an abscond, that’s just more natural bees living in nature. There’s no losers when you keep bees with a smile, which is all natural.
Hey you all. I am not that far from you. I have a few questions for you. 1 are you still catching swarms? And if so how long do you leave your traps out? 3 do you ever move your traps and if so how long do you wait before you move them? I had only one trap where there was any interest for a day, then the bees left. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Just caught one yesterday in central NC near Alamance. We usually leave the swarm in the box a couple of weeks but not more than 3. A strong swarm will fill a swarm box in a month and be ready to swarm again. We have not been moving our traps. All the books say to put your swarm traps along a tree line (bees navigate straight whenever they can hence the term bee-line), up about 10-14 ft high, baited with lemongrass essential oil, propolis and some old brood comb. The scout bees are looking for about a 10-gal volume home - the size of the 7-frame Layens swarm trap. We've had just as much luck in our 6-frame plywood Layens traps. The main tip is to put them up early. We usually put ours up near the end of February. We caught our 1st swarm this year on Easter Sunday. We put up 4 swarm traps near our house in Apex and caught 4 swarms. We put 5 up around our friend John's farm and have caught 3. We have 2 up in the northwestern NC mountains and haven't caught anything there yet.
a word of advise from an old beekeeper with 2 bad shoulders, i caught 6 swarms last year and none of my traps were over head high. several were in old equipment sitting in the yard that i sprayed swarm lure in. make it easy on yourself, falling off a latter for bees is not worth it
Thanks, Tandy Beth! We're looking forward to using our new refractometer when we harvest honey this year. We went up to your neck of the woods for the solar eclipse last month. We went to Paducha, KY and then crossed the Mississippi River into MO. Thanks again for your support!
We get our buckwheat and clover seeds from our local farm & feed stores. Buckwheat seeds were $1.50/lb this year (2024). Everything likes buckwheat. The bees love the flowers, then later in the season, the deer and turkeys wear it out.Had clover seeds left over from last year. Those are really tiny seeds, and a pound goes a long way.
I heard you can place a leafy branch in front of the entrance, to let the bees know that something has changed. Supposedly they are more cautious about learning their new location.
Thanks for the reminder. You'll see that on the next video. We often do that when we move swarm boxes from one property to another. We dont when we're just moving them a few feet.
Hi Roy and Shirley, thank you for the video. I caught a Wild Bee Swarm in June 2023. This was the beginning of a new challenge, how to work with the bees. My bees have a “comfortable pied à terre” in a Layens Horizontal Hive in my backyard. I recently performed my first inspection of the Layens Horizontal Hive (video is on my channel) the bee colony survived the winter without any problems. I do not use any treatment or supplemental feeding for my bees. I am very happy that the family of backyard beekeepers is growing thanks to beekeepers like you.
Sounds like you're off to a good start. We recommend that you have 2 hives in case you need to "borrow" resources. If something happens to your queen, you can move a frame of eggs from one hive to another so they can make a new queen. You can prop up a weak colony with resources from a strong one. But be careful not to waste resources on one that's too far gone to save. We're struggling with that one. Good luck with your bees!
We have not. A couple of years ago we had a swarm land in a bush in our yard about 10 ft from an empty hive. There were scout bees looking at the hive but the swarm went to a bush. We used a couple of frames with foundation on them to scoop the bees out of the bush and put them in the hive. And they stayed. We've never baited a hive either.
We got a SAF Regata Extractor for Layens Frames from Miller Bee Supply (#M612): millerbeesupply.com/products/saf-regata-extractor-for-layens-frames?_pos=4&_sid=518a6e4d9&_ss=r . They are a 3rd generation local (to us) business that still makes their own woodenware. It was not cheap, but it works. If you can find a used M610 - same unit except it holds 9 Langstroth frames, you can change out the basket for one that holds the Layens frames. Another option is a honey press like the one that Wes over at Secure Acres uses: www.horizontalhive.com/buy-hive-bees/swarm-trap-top-bar-sale.shtml#honey-press . Those are cheaper and also work well. But you have to cut the comb out of the frames and press the honey out of the comb. You lose all the comb in the frames and the bees have to start over every year building comb. Good luck and let us know which way you go.
I've enjoyed watching you guys take care of your bees. Im from independence MO, and Im just getting started. I have five swarm traps up but have not caught a swarm as of yet.
Off Grid with Doug and Stacy recently posted 2 videos with Dr. Leo about swarm catching. I think you're just getting to the right time there in MO. We've had a very warm, wet Spring in NC and everything bloomed early for us. So we were 2-3 weeks earlier than normal with our swarms.
It has been an exciting and busy spring for you guys. Love, love your videos. Thanks for including us in your adventures. Note: I love the accent also.
It has been exciting for us. And for you, too. And I don't know what you guys are talking about. I don't have an accent. I sound just like everybody else that grew up on the dirt road that I did. 🤪
Love the videos! We caught one so far this year. We will see how the year goes. You guys are really good people by the way and we love the wholesome educational content! We only set out a couple of traps every year. Started two years ago I guess. It's a fun hobby for us.
Thank you so much! We started with 2 hives thinking that was all we wanted. We're up to 10 now. And our friend, John, said he wouldn't mind having another one on his farm. It can become addictive... Maybe in another 4 years we'll know what we're doing.
Congratulations! We're a little bit behind on our videos - have caught 6 so far this year. Keep us posted on how it goes for you. Hope you catch more!!
Yeah, I don't do mornings anymore since I retired. In my work-life, I had to prepare materials for a 7am meeting every day. It was painful. If you're a morning person, daybreak sounds like the perfect time for you.
Good morning from central NH. 27 degrees this morning. Rainy and 27 yesterday. I took advantage and moved a hive to a new yard just a mile as the bees fly, away. They have not been out much this spring. I did place a pine branch if front of the opening so they would orientate to the new location. I guess the 'city lights' helped on your transfer. Great to get updates, thanks for posting, Take cake, Brice
It's supposed to hit 90 here in a couple of days. We've been working bees for 3 days straight - busy, busy! More videos coming... Thanks for keeping us updated on YOUR bees. We love hearing about them
Hello from Central PA. I like that you added the mics, makes hearing both of you better. I would still recommend that Shirley become more mobile with the camera especially during hive work. Like the videos but honestly there isn’t much compelling content because the viewer doesn’t really see much other than a wide angle shot. This year I decided to make my life easier and bought a bunch of hunting gambrels. They were $7 each and I can’t believe that I didn’t do it sooner. It’s basically a pulley system and makes it so much safer and easier to put up swarm boxes.
Roy has a plan for doing swarm boxes differently next year. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for the suggestion on improving our videos. I'll keep that in mind.
It really is. We bought a nice Nikon digital SLR camera in 2010 to take to Alaska. Now, our cell phone takes better quality pictures and videos. Go figure.
