For your honey supper, you should use 10 frames until fully drawn. Then, you can go down to 9 frames after that so they can be drawn out further to help in honey extraction.
Good idea, thanks for the tip. I've kept 10 in my supers whilst the oil seed rape is on (I'm in the UK) because it crystallises so quickly and because it's so dense it's hard to extract. But for the rest of the year that's a great idea.
I particularly admire the admission of an error and applied that as a change to your beekeeping. It is exactly how I learned and continue to learn. If you don't learn you'll always be a first year beekeeper. I'm really enjoying your videos and some stuff I know and other stuff I need to apply. I've had great success with British National hives using polystrene as I believe the hive doesn't need to work so hard to maintain a temperature, they subsequently have energy for other stuff, i.e. brood and honey production. I saw a book by Tim Rowe on the Rose hive method and it was an awakening for me. Tim is an Englishman in Ireland. He uses hive management techniques and NO queen excluder. I'm 5' 8" hugely tall(aye right!) and I end up with boxes above my head. Please keep the videos coming, I love them.
Thank you for this comment! I will look into Tim Rowe and the Rose hive method. I have heard about those polystyrene hives! I wondered if they are worth the buy or not especially bc I’ve seen some made in the 5 frame nuc size. And more videos coming! Keep on keeping my friend!
I tried checker boarding and they would just draw out the ones that were already drawn and leave the ones that were not. this year I am coating my empty frames with wax from capping's with a paint roller. Hopefully I get better results just putting one drawn frame in the center and the rest undrawn comb.
Live in south east MI, getting swarms is getting harder and harder.. caught one about 2 weeks ago and seems to bee struggling.. going to give them some sugar water today and see how that goes. I’m a firm believer in not helping them with feedings. 14:45 bees seem to be disappearing year after year.. live in the country, and the farmers are constantly spraying.
Feeding a small hive is Okay; it kick starts them into making more brood ; especially in a heavy spray farm area . the stronger a hive is the easier it is for them to fight disease Small /weak hives are less likely to survive dearth and yellow jacket; small hive beetles etc
Good tip on not checkerboarding in honey supers. I have definitely made that mistake in the past and I have never heard anyone talking about it. I wonder if you can still do it if you are running 9 frames instead of 10.
Hey I'm Mitch and I live in the Virgin Islands. We are at bout 80 to 05 degrees and i don't have a winter. I was told to watch importing bees we don't have Varroa mites. We do have dirth.
I've lost alot of my hives that swarmed and bees are just getting back going robbing here in Darlington S.C. has been my problem on weak hives. Got alot of pollen bound brood frames in freezer for later splits if I can get cells from other small nucs I don't graft yet
Holy🐄90°?¿? That's Awesome Finally summer has arrived😁Did u ever think that when u first started bee keeping that one day ud be doing a Twenty Minute video dropping All this mad knowledge on us???☺️So Happy u found bee keeping and So Proud of u for coming as Far as u have! And hey who knows where ull be in a few Months let alone years???👏😁👑🐝👏Super cool little tricks to get them to draw out faster I like the adding an empty box to the middle, I can just see the bees rolling their eyes at you and being like, "Okay ladies and gentlemen, Emily is at it again so let's get Moving on this, all hands on deck!"😂🐝😂And as always I just Love how giving u are about sharing ur knowledge thats uve attained throughout ur time as a Bee keeper, not everyone would be as generous as my Favorite Keeper so Good for U😊Sorry I've been absent but ur videos Always brighten my day just know that, I'll be at work and see ur new video notification and smile and know I have something to look forward to so Thank U my friend u really are the Bees Knees👏🐝👏Stay Cool and ill see U in the next one, Emily😊 #emilyisthebeesknees #beefitbeekeeping #beefitbeeyard #beefithoney #beefit #beekkind #Fantastically👏
Love your videos! Great info! I use a lot of those techniques myself. When will you start checking/treating for mites and can you make a video? I have no problem with making hives and growing them but making them survive thru winter is another issue lol
What's with the smooth Jazz? I've got one hive with a new package in it and I found some issues with the checkerboarding. While they did start to draw out the foundation they also over drew the sections of the existing frames that contained honey into the empty space even if the frames were mostly brood. What I ended up doing was just using my hive tool to remove the over drawn comb, which made a bit of the mess with the honey.
Really appreciate the information. What to do with frames in the brood box that pull out comb too far/thickly. Should one mess with that or just leave it?
The word you’re looking for is VISCOSITY, not velocity. Viscosity is a measure of resistance to deformation at a certain rate, so basically the ‘thickness’ of the nectar.
I appreciate the correction! 🙂 but I really do mean to use the word velocity. If feeding with a high viscosity, meaning putting more sugar in a sugar water mixture, the bees will be more inclined to store it rather than draw comb. But if feeding at a high velocity, meaning not just putting on a quart sized jar for them to draw comb (in that situation, sugar water is not coming in at a rate high enough to stimulate them to draw wax, they will instead consume it as food) but instead putting on a gallon bucket or a 1.5gal frame feeder of 1:1 will bring sugar water in at a velocity high enough to keep their wax glands turned on. Drawing comb takes a lot of energy so there is a balance between the sugar content and rate in which is it coming into the hive in order to get the result you are looking for.
I tried checker boarding and they would just draw out the ones that were already drawn and leave the ones that were not. This year I am coating my empty frames with wax from capping's with a paint roller. Hopefully I get better results just putting one drawn frame in the center and the rest undrawn comb.
I threw a 3rd deep on. They've only got about 12 of the current 20 drawn. Last year I was honey bound on 10 and I don't want to worry about swarming away this year, even if it doesn't stress them to work out fast. I also smeared old melted wax all over the new 10, I'll probably get wonky comb. It was a mixture of burnt honey and melted wax. I have no idea what they're going to do with it.
Yep they will fizzle it down. I was doing 50 lbs a week last year when I made all of those splits. Could have taken down more but the bees were eating better than I was 🤣
You explained that all really well. The bees like two bee spaces in the brood and one in the honey supper is what you meant, right. I used to make youtube beekeeping videos and it is quite hard to make a video, look after the bees and then take care of all the camera stuff too.
Okay... i may have missed a little bit of this video. Most everything you said is tried and true. The only thing i DO NOT agree with, is the sugar syrup. Sugar syrup is not honey. If one had no options but to feed, or the bees die... well something is wrong, make sure to pH adjust the water using two 1,000mg (2g) vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) and around 2g (about 1/4tsp) of citric acid. Honey is around 3.7ph, anything above that breeds bad shit. Botulisms cant even begind to grow from spores below 3.75. While sugar water, being greater that 5pH is a breeding ground for disease and feeds the negative bacteria and fungi. That, and the fact that, although sugar water can trigger the need for more cells, it has NONE of the natural lipids, organic polymers etc, fhst is needed for building out comb. You cant make anything without materials. And the materials for wax are all plant latex/sap/nectar derived compounds. You'd do better in ramaging a letex or resinous rich weed (such as wild lettuce) or making some scratches on trees where the bees can gather the sap. That being said... you get at least an A ir A+ not sure if I'm including S- fhru S+ in mg score or sticking to grade school. Theres IS one method that I'm curious of, that I have yet to see it tried.basically a Japanese Pile Hive with frames. Make boxes out of 2×10s nut drill a couple holes in the top and bottom of eache frsme for pass-thru, put in foundationless frames (mark each one with an arrow pointing to the nearest outside wall of fhe box), solid insulated cover (where you have your hives is ideal. Shade in summer, sun in winter), solid bottom board with small holed in the corners for bees to chase hive beetles out of. Just keep adding boxes to the bottom periodically, let them build them out, then add more boxes and remove a couple of the top boxes. Whenever the first day below about 70F is probably the last day for boxes and harvesting. Unless youre prone to Tennessee winters. If theres no other means of ventilation, bees naturally draw downward to the entrance where they can place the comb in the most climate controlled spot, nearest the entrance. So it may be more simple to keep adding boxes to the bottom, having them fill them and move the brood down, then backfilling up top with nectar. Seems simple enough. And works around the bees nature, while reducing stress. Stress is detrimental to the body and immune system.
I feel bad for your bees. Bees are amazing creatures that spend EVERY waking moment working to provide for their colony. You are manipulating them to work harder for YOUR interests. Seems like you are working your bees to death.