1) Why use a 5 frame nucleus hive instead of a 10 frame brood box a a resource hive? 3:35 2) Lots of dead bees around my swarm trap, is that normal? 11:50 3) Tried the Swarm Reacher, the queen did not climb onto the frame. 17:18 4) What if I direct water from my A/C unit to my birdbath for the bees? 21:45 5) I've had several large swarms go into a swarm trap and not stay. They just don't fit. 26:50 6) Any thoughts on washing your bee suit to remove alarm pheromone from your suit? I wonder how long the alarm pheromone remains? 35:28
Happy Fred-day, time for a cold one and some learning... Yogi has visited my yard this week, many times, here in Central New Hampshire. Electric fences work. All bees safe! Yeah!! Times change, we learn things, use it or not. Great current info, thanks Fred, have a great week.
Did you get any video of your bear? They have very good memories, and mine have learned not to enter my apiary at all. We see photos on social media, but they don't venture onto my property... and I'd like it to stay that way. :) Glad your fence held!
@@FrederickDunn It was my bad, I left some extracted dead out frames at my robbing station overnight. All bees behind the fence safe, with no signs of entry this year. It was probably the same bear that awoke me, last year, when I was napping next to a hive, I mean, observing landing boards. And yes, I have game camera footage.
G’d day Fred… Qn#1… A beek that just starts could have a 10 frame box… would it be beneficial to close off the excess space and allow the colony to rapidly expand and put on a second 10 frame box but similarly closed off for only 5 frame o/h access… my thoughts are to take out spacers and increase box volume as they expand and head off swarming… thoughts?
Yes, absolutely. I would place empty frame feeders as place-holders to reduce the interior space until they get going strong, and then just remove those and replace with frames.
I tried the Swarm Reacher 4 days ago in Central Indiana. Swarm was about 28’ up. We pulled down several full Deep frames of bees but did not get the Q. The bees would stay a bit and fan, but then fly back to the swarm. After 2 hours my arms gave out from hoisting and lowering. Left old comb frames in place inside an open Hive Butler. No go and the bees took off before nightfall.
Great episode with many mind provoking differences of opinions from different areas of the world or even Country. I know you're Langstroth oriented on your opinion's because you have that gear readily available for use, so it makes since for you to go that way. Your description of the taller 5 frame nuclease resource hives seems to lean into my reason for choosing Layens more deep style frames and is the reason I have chosen Layens. Feels like I'm playing devil's advocate here but, why would you choose Langstroth over Layens equipment if not for availability for what you already own, with how well your Layens have done? Not an attempt on a bust on you, I've learned so much from you that it's not even funny! If it's not about honey production and all about bees and ease and condition of the hives, what would you choose today as we grow older and can't lift as much weight? My small Cities lame restrictions on bees makes me want to go around them by using Lutzin's frame design but, the weight would come into play as I head toward 60, I bet. As I watch more of Randy and Jeff's videos of how natural bee's setup their cavities, I can't help but to lean toward deeper comb setups. It seems to be what the stronger colonies do in nature when given the ability and space to do it. Shallow frames seem to be more about honey production and deeper ones more for the bee's sustainability as a strong colony that can keep producing their progeny on their own without us. Sorry about how long this has been, it just spells out my thoughts.
My Long Langstroth is performing just as well as the Layens. Comparing the verticle stack of 5-frame nucleus hives, those build faster than the larger Layens when starting out. After a colony is established, and the numbers are up, they are back on equal ground. 5-frame, or even 6-frame nucleus deep boxes are easy to lift and work. I don't go higher than 3-boxes. This makes the verticle benefits higher than the Layens, and you have 15 or 18 deep frames available to the bees depending upon if you're using 5 or 6 frame boxes. The good news is that the bees will use both cavities, and both orientations successfully. So one is not significantly better than the other. Now that leaves it up to management. When I turn 80, my entire yard is likely to be composed of Horizontal Long Langstroth Hives. Langstroth deep frames are just right, and as you've mentioned are compatible with associated beekeeping equipment. Since they both work, it comes down to simple personal preference. There will be people who love Top-Bar hives and want nothing else, it's great to have choices.
Hi Fred, another good show. I have one question My flow hive swarmed on April 10th it landed 10' from the hive on a butterfly bush so I was able to capture it. How long should I wait to inspect the flow hive for a new queen?
I'd watch the landing board for evidence of a new queen in production. 12-14 days should tell the tale. If no brood by then, it's time to think of alternatives.
Question..i wintered over a hive..been feeding it low numbers but queen looks healthy and is laying..took a picture of her Saturday.chrcked wednesday she's gone..and not dead on bottom board..and the hive is being robbed by other bees. where'd the bees go? She cant fly off if shes fat and laying?
The goods news in that described scenario is that if she was laying, they can produce a replacement queen. Remember that if she did die, you wouldn't necessarily find her dead in the hive as undertaker bees also remove dead queens. I hope the hive recovers. Thanks for sharing.
Honey bees can crawl down into (sometimes fall into) the feeding ports of many of the widely available hummingbird feeders. And, the similar reservoir feeders made for orioles are especially easy for honey bees to use because the feeder ports are larger.
I buy from a beekeeper a few miles from the st. John’s River in Florida and I asked him why he didn’t sell his honey as organic and he said that he was sure that his bee’s got water out of the river and it’s is loaded with runoff from south Florida homes
It's pretty standard that U.S. beekeepers are not permitted to label their honey products as organic, and that's largely due to their ability to forage anywhere on anything for miles. We just can't guarantee that all of their resources are organic.
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Could one factor be that the nucleus hives require less preparation because of the smaller size and therefore less energy to bring the hive to acceptable living status so that they can get busy building up resources so they can build their population?
lol, “remember the ones that hated you the most, are dead” lol made me laugh out loud! I had a bee land on my wrist the other day while quietly observing the hives, I just looked at it waiting for it to fly off, it stung me while I was just watching it…
Fred, your topic was right on point. I thought I was doing great with population of my hive as nectar flow is starting and thought this would produce a heavy honey harvest. Well seems that even though I added a super to give them more room. They were already over crowded in a double deep and had made a plan to swarm. I didn't see the swarm cell they made on my inspection and they swarmed. I caught them in the process and had the equipment to caught that swarm, they completely filled a 10 frame box. The mother hive is still jam packed and has 14 deep frames of capped brood. I will have to split them regardless. I hope the new virgin queen gets mated. even so.I will have to split them but I have to wait to see if virgin queen gets mated and get new eggs. Instead of doing multiple splits because I don't have the resources/ honey, pollen frames I was thinking of just separating the 2 brood boxes and adding a second box to make the split and still have 2 very strong hives and then making smaller splits off those, once they balance out. I am thinking a 10 frame split would be better than smaller splits at this point just to get an immediate control on the swarming, otherwise they will just continue to swarm
Wow, I'm glad you were present and able to rehive that large swarm. This is the time of year when we can definitely lose a lot of bees if we're not attentive. Thanks for sharing. I hope those new queens get mated and return ok.
@@FrederickDunn I looked at the Kentucky BeeKeepers Calendar and they didn't have anything on hive population control month of April in fact it doesn't come up in the Calendar til suggested in May/June. They should correct this. I only found the 1 queen cell so I'll have to wait and see if she emerges healthy and gets mated before I can split the original using the eggs from the new queen to get more queen cells. If not I'll have to buy some queens for the splits. Perhaps I should put on another super as this original hive has 14 deep frames of brood, full sheets capped, to give me more time. I estimate that 14 deep brood frames is around 70,000 new bees and 30,000 left from bees that remained . Do you have any suggestions? I seem to be at a loss for immediate management of this hive
Good afternoon Fred. I have a very large queenless hive and a very small hive ( 2 frames of bees) with a mated queen. I want to combine these hives. I know most of the time the small hive is put on top of the large hive but the queen is in small bunch. Also the large hive has a deep and 3 mediums. I do have a queen cage and a queen introduction cage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Are you 100% certain that you are completely queenless in that large colony? I would test the waters by pulling a frame of brood that includes eggs, and trade out a frame from your suspected queenless hive. Within a week they "should" be making queen cells or one emergency queen cell on the frame of brood that you introduce. That's what I'd do. This is also why I keep resource hives, so I can drop in a frame of eggs and open larvae in the event that another colony becomes queenless.
Did you ever find that link for swarm catchers or know what it’s called? You better be quick around here to find someone on social media with a swarm or someone will beat you to it. I also planted 10 serviceberry seedlings this spring. I hope they will make it through our desert like summers. I planted them on the very edge (touching water)of my pond at full elevation. This summer they’ll be 45 yards from water because my pond fluctuates that far back. My pond gets to 1/4 it’s full pool size each summer. I lost 2 big pecan trees I planted in the 1980s to our record heat and drought last summer and many big limbs on others. I didn’t even get an accumulated 1” of rain all summer. Texas Monthly Magazine has an online article about the loss of trees pecan farmers lost last summer. I have around 100 pecans. I’ve been potting up a bunch of Eves Necklace and Goldenball Leadtree seeds all morning. 2 very tough drought tolerant species for my bees.
Good talk, Fred. On the website for swarms, called Swarmed. I responded to a swarm post that I was sent later evening, called the person had to leave a message and when they called me back next day they had someone there already, because they called around. So in my opinion the site is just a tool that the person can use, so people can't count on getting the swarm.
Thanks for that feedback, I guess people are not patient when it comes to bees on their property. It's a tad frustrating when someone posts on social media, and someone responds and heads out only to discover that someone else is on the scene.
Well, no one told me that my first bee package would relieve themselves all over me. Other than that, it was fun. Thanks for inspiring me to get started.
Hi Fred 👋 Happy Friday! On Conesus Lake Bairly got two days of 60 last week and the week before to inspect. Temps 48-50 rain and snow here. Night temps 30-25 for the next week! If its not raining ist too cold under 60 to inspect. Most hives no drone brood others maybe a fist full. No QC. It's gonna be at least a week before I can get in to inspect again.
It's fine for honey, the only risk in my opinion is that they may be encouraged to continue to use it for brood unless you use a queen excluder. If you have a choice, I'd leave the brood frames/comb in areas designated for brood rearing.
Always great information, thank you Fred! I have an indoor apiary and concerns about using the smoker. It's seldom necessary, but I like to keep it handy. I've looked for the smoker you've shown before with the spark arrestor. Do you know where I can purchase it? I've also been intrigued with the Apisolis vapor smoker. Do you have any thoughts on this piece of equipment? I appreciate responses from anyone. 🙂
I have the Apisolis vape flameless smoker here and it's waiting my review. The smoker that has the removable fuel container and spark-arrester that I use is available through HoneyFlow.com
@@FrederickDunn Looking forward to your review! Thank you for the information. I just ordered some of the sweetgrass pellets to help support your education efforts in your beekeeping community.
Mr. Dunn. I just installed two packages of Saskatraz bees two weeks ago after losing two hives to absconding before winter last year. Yesterday, for earth day, a swarm of wild bees decided to move into the abandoned nuke hive that I had sitting on the side of the house. It was the first time I have captured a hive and was magical. I had left two frames of comb and one of them had honey in it, so it must have been like cooking brownies in a house you want to sell. At first, I was slightly concerned that one of the new hives had decided to move out of the beehive I had put together for them, but no, they were still working hard and pulling in pollen, so I accepted my good luck and watched the new hive. The nuke has been used for splits in the past, so It smelled like bees. My question is this. Should I wait a week or two before taking a peek inside the new hive? My only concern is that there are only two frames in the nuke instead of five and the bees may decide to build elsewhere. I have a rotating disk on the front, so I could set it to queen excluder mode, but these are large bees and a lot of drones are evident. I am not worried about catching more swarms and am content to let the new bees live in the nuke for now, so I don't see any need to move them to another hive. I do have an actual swarm trap that I could next to it and even a couple of spare hives I could use. Thanks for any advice in advance, Mike in Sacramento, CA
@@FrederickDunn Mr. Dunn, I checked them this afternoon and found that they had indeed made about three frames worth of comb and were well on their way to creating a huge mess. I decided a larger box was indeed necessary. Thanks again.
True, but I don't want their queen to have competition, so I can't recommend that use of QMP. However, you can do that with a brood frame, get a queenless cluster on the comb, and then insert them into another hive as you remove the QMP. But when a swarm has a queen present, I don't want a conflicted pheromone present in that situation. I have used QMP to get them down onto a lower branch, but needed to remove the QMP noodle once they have made that move with their queen.
Swarms in April is crazy to me! 😁 I'm in Northern Sweden, and my bees had their first massive cleansing flight after winter on the 8th of April. 😜 😂 They've been cooped up since the beginning of October! 😳
i tried swarm reacher last week.Great idea ,but cheap plastic crap.Did not fit pole and did not fit frames.Do not waste your money .It will stretch and roll frame .What a peice of crap.As i said great idea just need a better clamp,,,,
I disagree that it's a scam, the man who produced it seems honest and sincere. However, people are more than welcome to come up with their own jig or methods. I will say that it fits my window washer poles just right. The owner of BeeSmart Design inspected one and mentioned that it was very good quality plastic, as in he didn't take material shortcuts. I hope you provided your observations and feedback to the inventor. Adding a C-clamp would add weight, but I'm sure there is more than one way to attach a frame. Thanks for sharing.
