Backyard Beekeeping Q&A 263 June 21st 

1) I am out of space for nucleus hives, what's the best way to combine with 10 frame hive bodies? 18:34 2) My horizontal hive is full, and there is a lot of bearding going on. Any ideas on what I may need to do? 23:29 3) We discovered a bee with deformed wings (Suspect DWV), we treated for mites. What should we do about it? 31:32 4) I would like to have a resource hive, why can't I just use a single 10 frame deep Langstroth for that? 38:33 5) I'm wondering what I may have done wrong that my bees are not using the BetterComb from Betterbee? Any suggestions? 48:57

Thank you so much from southern Ontario! Two weeks ago I asked you for your advice, after I found a new queen & no brood at all in my developing hive. You suggested I simply wait 12 days and then check the hive again. I did so yesterday and saw not only my new Queen but also young larvae and capped brood, which tells me she has begun laying. I wanted to thank you for your very good advice, which is so appreciated by me as a relatively new beekeeper. Thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience with those you help and guide. Marie-Louise from southern Ontario 🇨🇦

It's 8:56 PM and has finally cooled down to 95 degrees F. from 101 here in Sacramento CA. Boy do the bees seem to love hot weather here. It can be a bit alarming when you find thousands of bees bearding at ten in the morning because it is already hot, but at least it is a dry heat. Anyway, I wanted to extoll the benefits of having a frame of honey saved. I had a five-frame nuke that was really struggling. It was accidently formed when I transferred a swarm from it into a ten-frame hive and stragglers decided to stay so I added a frame with a queen cell to see what would happen. Well, two weeks later it was obvious that the queen cell had hatched a queen, but the bees just could not get the numbers they needed to make it. I noticed that they had two half-filled frames with a small number of cells, the size of a baseball, dedicated to larva. Since I had three empty frames in the nuke, I pulled one and substituted a full frame of honey I had thawed from the freezer. Two weeks later and they have filled the whole nuke. I suspect that the premade cells and abundant food, really allowed more bees to baby sit and grow their numbers and gave the queen more cells to lay in.

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your experience with the keeper's hive.

Great show as usual and what a great review of horizontal hives! Solves lots of problems with engineering!

We have Clover for a lawn ,bees still trying,but we could use some rain,starting to get hot n dry up😢

Question for you, Fred, perhaps you could address in an upcoming Friday, Q&A. I’m studying factors that determine temporal division of labor in a colony. I came across the idea of a reserve pool or “resting workers” that can react to deleterious conditions such as pest damage, predators, or discovery of an abundant nectar source. (from The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark L. Winston, pg 104.) My question is, do you know this to be the case? It’s the first I’ve heard of a resting reserve pool, and my resource is from 1987. Any more recent findings? Thanks and I appreciate all the great help and information you give. Debbie, Charles City, Va

Morning Fred. Here in NW Minnesota the White Clover is just coming on and the Milkweed is close. Temp here is 64° with 70% humidity. Rain thus far (1 April - 31 Oct) 11.35" with a total of 4.64" for the month of Jun so far. So, not everywhere is under a high heat temp dry area. Have a great day.

Thanks Fred, In my yard my bees are on Black berries. The white clover on my 2 acre field is not being touched yet. Expecting rain over the next 2 days I hope the clover will produce nectar after the rain. It's been the driest spring that I can remember in my 67 years. I have 5 Basswood trees that are getting ready to bust open. I also see 10 other basswood trees ready to flower with in 1/4 mile.

Hey Fred, this Jeff Buttler from McGregor Minnesota. Your comment about the bees getting water from cow pie, I was going to start a out yard where there is a septic company is dumping treated waist on fields. Is there any concerns of the nectar or water from the forage for the bees? The farmer wants me to set up there, but I am not sure I want my bees to be exposed to that. The only reason I was considering it was because there is a lot of basswood and clover. I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Healthy colonies should be the #1 goal of every beekeeper even with the honey producers.

I have a question: It’s 96 degrees here and you have on a jacket 🥵 Do you have the A/C working hard?

Hi there Fred. Another great Episode. . . 👍 With a Horizontal Hive and Running out of Space : Either. . . 1) Do a Split of it, and make a Nuc. OR. . . 2) If you have a big Canvas / Waterproof Sheeting : You can add a Brood Box with fully Drawn out Comb 'over' the H.H Brood Nest 'Frames.' IF YOUR HIVE has Inner Cover Boards : where some are removed under the 'Box' Itself... Bees will crawl up. Then add the Box Hive 'Lid' and then "Cover up the Box and the Horizontal Hive too. Within a few weeks you will see signs of Bees, Eggs, Larva (Bees in all Stages : BIAS) Then you can take either that. Split off and relocate that in the Apiary. Keep it, Sell it. Or take that x10 Deep Box, add a Super and again place on a Hive Stand, or Sell ! Most Beeks or Beek Books 'state' taking these "Bees" to another Apiary, at least x3 Miles away... Then bring back ! I don't. I add a Frame of Feed usually some Fondant, and a Frame Feeder of 1:1 Sugar Syrup. "CLOSE the Hive up the Entrance (the Bees Front Door !) BUT still give them the 'AIR VENT' in a "OPEN" Mode. Especially if it's Hot or Humid !!! 👀 After about x3 or x4 Days, you can 'open the entrance' to say x1 Bee Space (Wide) Once they 'start' to Orientate to their newer location : you can open it up a bit more. After a week, they will be 'there' and stay Colony wise with no problems. Hope this helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Fantastic! I’ll be there

That colony that swarmed a month has already filled their boxes. I added two more empties atop the full hive.

Outstanding video, as usual. I am using your visor design and the bees are up under it when they beard. Question, though, what do you use for a visor on your Apimaye hives? I don't think your basic design will work for them, will it?

Thanks Fred! You will have much fun using a flow super on the two queen keeper. It works well! I know someone who does this every year. I will let you think about where to put the flow super in relation to the exchange box (above or below it). We appreciate you supporting innovation. George

As I was watching the ending credits. What animals we’re fighting with that raccoon?

Heilà Mister Frederick Dunn 🤩

Always watching in Kalamazoo Mi appreciate all your information and wisdom with beekeeping.

Bettercomb does sag in the heat if the bees haven't had a chance to work or 'stitch' it in first. Maybe providing some shade for the hive with bettercomb newly installed would help.

What a great choice of music to accompany this opening sequence!

Fred, Swarm Rustler works really well too. I've had good luck with it as well.

Disappointed the keepers hive didn’t deliver to Australia:(

Great show, second year bee keeper. Live in Titusville pa so all your info is very helpful to me. Thanks.

👍

Good Saturday morning Fred. What you do with you time is great! You provide such good information and as a bonus, really great photography, thanks, keep it up! It's been hot here in central NH with the heat index approaching 100 degrees for this past week, pretty hot for my neck of the woods. Some really impressive breading and foraging bees as Ian the Canadian beekeeper says 'dripping' from the hives. Well, temps have dropped 15-20 degrees it is finally raining enough to get the garden and my shiitake logs under the trees wet. The swamp level around my place has been low. This rainy stretch will freshen things up. We are looking at a rainy stretch and I anticipate some swarm possibility when this rainy stretch ends. Thanks for another information filled Q@A, have a great week

Cant wait to see how your flow super works on the double queen keeper

Saw my first leaf cutter bee this year, holding part of a cosmos petal. My first year of growing cosmos. Very excited!

At least I don't have beats.

I am just north of Louisville and have already captured one swarm weeks ago and it is a very healthy hive. Is it too late to capture another one in my interceptor?

Thanks Fred, have a great weekend!!

My bees are on the Borage. Strange thing is my sour wood trees bloomed a month early. Charlotte NC

Beautiful solitary bee motel! Thank you.🌹♥🌹

That was really short

Ty for all you do Fred. Loved this vdo.

My cows love eating milkweeds. Milkweeds very dense in nutrients.

Hi.. form NYC 🇩🇴🗽🇺🇸🐝

Bears.

Thanks Fred

I am #5

really enjoy fridays with you thanks

I am having problems with fire ants getting into my hives . I live in South Georgia and there are many FA colonies around . I placed aluminum flashing between my bases and hive 4X6 beams and applied grease on the flashing . Yet , the ants get into my round feeders by the thousands and form a nasty mess in the sugar water . How can I rid my hives from the fire ants ? I have tried using ant killing jelly on the outside of the round feeders , using a medium super box ( the ants ignore the bait ) for a spacer with the telescope cover on top .