Package vs Nuc Challenge. Evaluating colonies progress Products we use. www.amazon.com... Thank you for supporting our channel through our affiliate link! #beekeeping #beekeeper #Honeybees
Best instructional videos about bees on the web. Thanks. Learning now to get ready to start beekeeping next year. Kamon is the best giver of information I have found.
In all honesty I like the longer videos I get to see more and compare your bees to mine and I have really gotten the locking your videos you're really intelligent and you like to explain stuff so thank you very much you have helped me out a lot with mine
We can listen all day long too 😊. I truly thank you and your wife for all the time and effort you give up just to give us all this information. You are down to earth and honest,, thank you Bama
Hi kamen I really enjoy your videos ...the reason the bees get creative is that the bottom box frames and next box frames are not lined up with each other it's not uncommon to push all the frames to one side but the the next box frames gets push to the opposite side .
I noticed very quickly that bees get meaner the bigger the colonie gets. But I feel that its just because there are more stinging age bees at home. Its like crime rates, it naturally goes up when you go from 1000 people to 30,000 people. We had a VERY strong colonie last year, the queen was amazing, And boy did we hate going in there the most. IMO, mean hives = healthy hives.
I keep sharing homegrown Nucs vs. pkgs. and raising local queens to the clubs and beekeepers up here and know others in this State of WI. doing the same...so very important!!
They weren’t drawing like yours and I melted bar comb and little bit of other comb and used a brush and ran about 2” top section of 2 plastic foundation and placed one in the top box the other in the bottom. I found them drawing both today.Thanks for sharing your views, I have done so much experiment in my hive within last couple of weeks, looks like I got the solution. Even if I break a section of old frame, that would be enough to paint many frames. I have watched , once they start, they won’t stop.
Looks like you’re gonna have to come up with some ice cream to get some new princesses. Lol. Just love your videos. Great camera work, great info & great sense of humor. Keep up the great work. Love & Hugs from Vicki in Ft. Worth, Texas.
I wax my plastic foundation too. You can minimize burr comb by using green drone frames. I use one drone frame per 10 frame deep box, in the 2nd position. I put green over green in the 2nd story.
Im really enjoying your videos. You knowledge level is awesome . And you Constantly talk witch not alot of bee youtubers do . your constantly pumping out information !! And you make people laugh great job ! You will be up to 100k in no time
Pollen has become an issue in my apiary as well. My bees have begun foraging pollen substitute from my pollen feeders. I leave out a small amount of Ultra Bee in each feeder in the event of a pollen dearth helping to keep the queens and brood production going and in the past week the bees are hitting the feeders hard. It is a LOT cheaper if you buy it by the 1,500 lb. tote.
Kamon, you do an excellent job sharing your experience, bees and advice/opinions. Lots of credit needs to go to your helpmate as well. I'd like to title this installment the Deja vu video.....as I've experienced everything you shown. Package queens suck 90% of the time. I got one good one this spring. I caught three swarms, requeened one of them twice, requeened one package....I think that queen was the queen mother...99 and failing...when shipped. Too many suppliers (and a few are big time you tubers) are running the equivalent of puppy mills. All they do is puke out bees as fast as possible for a quick buck. They have no real liability. If they fail....hmm must be the buyers fault. I don't think that's true most of the time. I'm convinced that rearing your own queens from known stock is the way to go....although we can't control the drones they hook up with. Feral bees bring the quality of natural selection with them, but usually are loaded with mites. I give the swarms I catch three OA fumigations ten days apart to knock down most of the infestation. It's a daily learning experience.
Nicely done! Kudos to the camera operator & very nicely narrated!! Question: Have you ever tried using five frame nuc boxes; stacked five over five? And then progress to a larger hive body? From my observations, I believe bees perform better(faster?) in smaller/condensed spaces rather than larger hive bodies. Here in my region of southern Florida, all my bees come from swarms or cutout/removals/tree trap-outs/forced absconds...so I've never dealt with packages before. Just thought it may be worth trying during occasions where a colony seems to be performing 'slower' than others Looking forward to your next video & wishing you and your bees continued success! 🐝🐝🐝☮️☯️
That's why I prefer 8 frame boxes. Less of a daunting task for the bees to fill the box out than in 10 framers. 5 on 5s seem a good idea though. Have seen it work well.
Hello Kamon, I too have used package bees and nucs...every time the nucs have far outperformed the package bees here in the mountains of southern Pa. I love your videos...Am so glad to have found your channel on youtube. i make remarks on many of your videos and will likely continue to do so. Have a great honey season!!! Rick in Pa.
The bur comb always seems too be drone comb . I think adding 1 drone comb foundation frame will cut down on it ? But when they want males they will make a way !
I REALLY needed to hear what you said about under mated package queens being superseded in the first couple months. I am 3 for 3 on losing my package queens and I am currently trying to fix the problem. This is my first year bee keeping. Unfortunately, being a green newbie, I was tearing down queen cups and queens cells in an effort to prevent swarming. In hindsight, I wish I had let them go ahead with what they were doing. Thanks!!!
Hey Kamon ya might better check them lids for Queen when ya pull it.Many times i have found them on lid.They bee crazy bugs sometimes.Also they may draw more comb with feed.I know that takes more money and my wife hates it when i buy more sugar lol.
Good point on the gentle bees. Ive always figured "mean bees make more honey" because they are stronger colonies of more workers - not actually meaner.
Thanks again for your video’s you answer a question I needed to know about my bees . I can not get my bees to move up to the next brood box . All I have is all new equipment no brood that I can put up there to get them up . My bottom is deep and the top brood is medium with a FULL ,FULL bottom deep . So I have to come up with something. Thanks again
I have found trying to begin with a 3 pound package and bare comb-foundation THE WORST way to start. A 5 pound package and some brood boasting at intervals works much better. Any fresh hive of packages will need to be feed all spring long. I plan on at least 30 pounds of cane sugar fed as syrup and several stout patties of "Pollen Supplement"! This to encourage brood rearing and comb building!
In the earlier days of beekeeping packages were the only way other than swarms to start. With myself I had them also superceed the queens in packages. Nucs I feel are the best way for new beekeepers or expansion.
I just got started this year with two packages from two different suppliers. I am having these exact same problems. Already had to replace one missing queen. Not drawing a lot of comb, and what they did was in the wrong place-on top of frames.
Observationally If I saw what you have down here, I'd would be loading up the pollen patties / substitute. I'd probably get some OA on them as well a couple of weeks after the protein injection if things were not improving. Keep the sugar up on them as well to get that queen loaded up.
I see this when bad flow,or Alot of rain.. I think your also right on your Queen Theory, actually I can prove your right-take Virgins add to Nucs, the Successful ones will draw comb,the ones that Queen didn't return won't.Good job Kamon keep killing it
Interesting comment about having properly mated queens, I just watched another video where the beekeeper makes 28,000 queens per season!! I am asking, Would there be enough drones around naturally to mate all those queens, or would the beekeeper need to manage hives to produce drones??
IMO nucs are the only way to go if you don't have drawn comb ready for package bees. Honey bees have been here for over 300 years. They have adapted as well as any native species.
I started with two packages this year and they have both superseded multiple times. One hive has been through three queens and my other just supered its original. They are running out of time and need to get things worked before the end of the season. I'm trying to let them raise their own queens because I don't want to bring in something but I'm wondering if I need to change my mind.
@@kamonreynolds I mean when you have full sheets of brood why supersede the queen? scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62234661_380333582601603_751056206587494400_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_oc=AQk7Xfezax-7NqrqMCBC9UsYv1JRVjTb69cSo8ijvfSMTRHKggCWpDI7ujPjGnoEsP8&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=979828d906bf626a0acfe775e9f10788&oe=5D7E989E
Not if we can help it! We have a few hundred hives so sometimes we have to do it in light rain just to get the work done. (not fun) If the bees need space, food, or anything we will do whatever we need to insure they get it when they need it.
Pop out the sheets pressure wash or worsh (depending on what side of the county your on) and rewax. One guy I know boils his to clean them. I would be afraid they might warp.
Hello sir, i am a beginning beekeeper and i saw your hive tool in your hand in the thumbnail of this video and wanted to know where you got it. It looked like it had the j hook part on it and the 90 degree bend piece all in one. Right now i have to have 2 hive tools to have both those features. I like the one with the 90 degree turn for breaking frames apart and cleaning burcomb, but the hook comes in handy sometimes. Could you post a link?
I've been following along with my 3 nucs. I have 6 queens coming next week for splits. I was hoping you'd be ahead of me since your 800 miles south of me. I hope I don't screw this up lol!
@@hughyhughes8058 I started with nucs, but my nucs are now 2, 10 frame deeps. Packed brood at the bottom and brood up top. I don't want to make honey, I want to make bees. And the queens I have are Texas commercial, and as Kamen said with his queens...not very good. So I got local survivor stock from a reputable beekeeper.
That is one I picked up from kelleys 10 or more years ago. I think they still sell them. Not sure. We will be building a screened bottom board this winter and will post it
I bot 2 book on beekeeping call keeping bees with a smile and keeping bees in horizontal hives by Dr Leo Sharashkin and where do you get your white pads i like your shows i think i am going to build a hive
Do you sell nucs ? I get the feeling you might. Obviously a nuc has a head start from the get go. Couldn't you offset that by feeding and pollen patties from the beginning?
hi I an a new bee keeper looking for some help does anyone know why an entire colony will just up and leave for no reason, they didn't leave one bee all gone
I've given some Y tube beekeepers grief over telling people to buy their "gentle" bees that won't sting . IMHO It's unprofessional to trick people into believing that fallacy. Often times bees can get aggravated simply by the demeanor of the beekeeper, but there are those times when your bees that are normally cool for whatever reason just turn hot.
Great video Kamon! I'm in Birmingham Alabama and installed 2 packages on April 3rd also. Both filed out the bottom box really well and drew out comb in most of second box but they filled the second one with honey only. Queen didn't move up and lay any at all. Honey isn't capped much but most frames have honey in them. Do I need to feed them or will they survive on the honey that is there? Will the queen move up and lay if they consume the honey that is in there. Not sure how to get them to build up in numbers if she doesn't have room to lay more eggs. Thanks again for the info you put out for us!
dont feed sugar syrup and keep a close eye on them they might need feed a few weeks later. You might ought to feed a pollen patty if the bees are not bringing n pollen.small patties are safe to use and will help them brood.
I have noticed that the hive tool you use isn’t the same one that is in your Amazon list. Just curious were I can find that tool with the hook on the left of the claw. Again thanks for the informative videos👍
I use to use the j hooks alot. My wife uses a j hook. I like this one because of the thinner end. I can pry boxes easier / quicker. I got this tool from an Amish guy. I will ask where he ordered it from
Its October 26 2020 in Athens Ga and I have a question for overwintering. 22 of my 3 havis have a medium super on them that is about 75% filled with honey and the other 25% isnt drawn. Is it ok to leave them there with that extra space in the super? These were splits off my original hives which died hence the non drawn frames.
The colonies are otherwise very healthy. Strong bee populations and still have 5 frames of brood each. Has apivar on currently. My original mentor is a naturalist bee keeper and doesn't believe in treatments. I moved my hives from his property and started treating for mites. All 4 of his hives have since absconded.
I've often suspected many "queen breeders" or "package producers" of using their good young queens for a year or so in production colonies and then using those to sell in their packages after requeening theirs with young, strong queens. They are probably like buying cows from a sale barn...you're mostly buying stock that someone else culled. Can't do much about it, they are selling a technically viable queen with no guarantee...she's enough to give you a start but she's certainly lackluster. Self made queens are no doubt the way to stronger colonies. Your package queens just act like old, played out queens. I suppose the queen producers could just be over stretching their queen production colonies and they are not feeding the queen brood well enough or they are too inbred but inbreeding is a little overblown as a "thing" most of the time with bees and animals.
You are best.. but you have to chance waxing frame systematic. Wax bees 12-18 day age. Nurse bees 0-12.. hive traffic center belong 0-12.. left side right side belong wax bees. If give them left side right side same time syrups very fast done job. if mix brood and waxing frame bees not working sustainable..
