“If you live in North’s America and you don’t know what Carharts are, you’re. It working hard enough...” You owe me a coffee. I spit it out all over my dash laughing my ass off. I love it. I’m the only person in my family wearing them!
You did another great video. Thank you. I really look forward to them. My ladies got the cedar shavings in their attic and wrapped with black felt paper. Glad to see you basicly do the same. Today was warm so I peeked in and they looked good. As much as I could tell.
I was taught the same as you. No suit. Only a veil if the bees are nasty that day. shorts and a tee-shirt are best. As for your wraps. I usually don't use anything. I've tried tar paper, but it's a hassle. I do like the ones you're using. Fantastic videos by the way.
About the winter wrapping, I just use insulation paint on my boxes. It keeps them cool when they need it, and also warm. Warmth is probably the only benefit in my country, never goes over 25 here and is usually is only 12.
Another great video! I have really learned a lot from watching your channel. I'm just getting started this year in Southeast Missouri. I'm going into winter with 4 hives, 1 double deep and the rest single 10 frame Langstroth. I've decide to use your single brood box as a paradigm. I'm hoping to learn how to graft some queen cells next year and expand. Thanks again!
I'm glad I found your channel. I've argued with beekeepers here in Oklahoma about only needing to overwinter in a single ten frame. I've been over wintering 5 frame nuc boxes and if they got larger I overwintered in 5 over 5. Then one year I ran out of nuc boxes and put them in a 10 frame box with success. So if you can do the single deep in Canada, we differently can here. I've also argued that when I check hives in early winter they are already in the top box for the heat and stay at the top all winter. That they don't start at the bottom and eat upwards to the top.
Malcolm Megibben thanks. I regularly overwinter 5 frame nucs as well. This year is actually the first year in the last 5 or 6 that I don’t have any nucs overwintering. As I understand it about half of the colonies in our province are managed and wintered as single brood chambers. I also know Beekeepers our west in much colder climates that winter single brood chamber hives outside for the winter.
@@DevanRawn I am in Alberta Canada it get crazy cold here in winter like -40 with 50 mile a hour wind. I have a insulated shed that I will move them there and heat it to around 0
Ray Sarasin Please do your research on indoor wintering. Pick up the book “beekeeping in western Canada”, it should be available through beemaid or maybe your provincial apiarist office. Depending on the number of colonies and volume of the room where bees are kept, the rooms are generally not heated. Bees give off the heat and airflow is carefully managed to maintain the necessary temperature. But proper ventilation systems are extremely important, and it’s not something to take lightly.
Thanks Devan for another vid.. We do some of the same here in Marengo, WI. USA which was good to see. Winter strong and hey, looking forward to your winter vids which you say are coming up.
Great video, loved it! Yep, Carhartt duck cloth overalls are pretty darn incredible. Roundhouse Jeans also produces the similar style, but made in the USA. :)
Hoping very much to start bee keeping this season, so I have started the now oft best starting point with anything, RU-vid. Popped you a sub as I have found your videos not only informative but I get the impression you view your Bees as pets. And good husbandry over honey farming is my goal, the honey is a bonus, not the reason I want to do it. Great work, thank you for such great content.
Watching many of your vids, I like your wisdom and common sense approach to bee keeping. Where did you get such wisdom? I would also love like the bibs for pajamas!
thanks for your video. What temperatures do you have in winter? And what is the thickness of the brood chamber wall? In Lithuania we have temperatures around -15 in the winter and I use single brood chambers with thickness of 3cm but no need for additional insulation. And those black covers don't seem as much of insulation, so I am amazed that your bees overwinter on the thin walls.
When can you move your boxes for winter without totally disorienting them, and when do you place them back in their foraging location in spring? I can't figure out this timing thing. I'm in the high desert of central Oregon.
Hi Devan, How many frames of honey do you leave in the single box hive? And configuration? With single box hive over-wintering, you've removed all honey supers and forced the population into 1 single box? I assume this is best for warmth?
Devan, Thanks for sharing more great information. In the summer do also use the top entrance? Since you add new supers just above the queen excluder, do you put the top entrance just above the queen excluder to make it easier for the bees to get to the super the bees are currently filling? I don't remember seeing the top entrance on your other videos.
Hey. That top entrance is just a notch cut in my wooden inner cover, so it always sits on top of the hive. During the summer (any time I have supers on) I typically turn that inner cover 180 degrees so the entrance notch is at the back of the hive. This way the bees tend to use it a bit less and they just go for the main bottom entrance. The only benefit is they are less likely to store pollen up in the honey supers when they use mainly the bottom entrance. They are more likely to store all the pollen down in the brood chamber where it belongs anyway. Sort of a complicated answer to a simple question.
Quick Question Devan-I see a lot folks say when you make a split in the spring to take out 4 frames of brood to put in new box with mother queen In a single colony setup that seems excessive? Are 4 frames really needed? Wouldn’t 2 frames of brood be enough. - thanks
A typical 4 frame nuc that is sold will contain 2 frames of brood, 1 frame of pollen/honey and 1 sort of empty frame, with all 4 frames covered in bees. So yes, of course 2 frames of brood is enough to start a new colony. The point I don't think you're getting is how much brood is on each frame. In my experience doing in-depth assessments of colonies (taking detailed notes on brood area/honey area/pollen area/bee population for thousands of hives some years), total brood area will be about the same in doubles vs singles. The difference will be how much brood is on any given frame. You may have more frames that contain any amount of brood in a double, but the average amount of brood per frame will be less. So not all frames of brood are created equal.
Devan, thank you for taking the time to do another video. I enjoy getting others perspectives and enjoy your videos. One question for you regarding one of your other videos. I asked what type of pollen traps you use but did some research and purchased a few from Dancing Bee. Unfortunately, they did not come with any instructions. I have contacted them and have not heard back so I was wondering if you had any advice that you would be willing to share about set-up and pollen collection. It seems that there is not a lot of resources available regarding pollen trapping on the Internet. Anything that you would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.
jpmako ok interesting. I also use the Pollen traps that dancing bee carries from Pollen depot. However I got some of the first ones they made and actually had to make a couple modifications of my own to make sure they worked right. But the basics are- I leave the entrance in the trapping position all summer may-sept. I take extra care to look through the brood chamber and see that they still have plenty of stores Pollen. If there is any queen problem (the colony swarmed, trying to supersede, emergency queen rearing) switch the entrance to “not trapping”. I ran a little experiment trying to get queens mates through the Pollen trap and had 25% success in mating. So if a queen needs to mate, forget about Pollen trapping until the new queen is laying.
Devan Rawn Thank you for taking the time to explain the traps and what you do to set them up. As far as queen issues, I would not want queens returning from mating flights to have to go through the traps even if they could fit. We run a small Queen rearing operation so we usually have an abundance of Mated queens on hand to correct any issues that may arise. Again thanks for responding and I look forward to more videos.
ya, perfect. Mated queens are your best option in those colonies. There are a couple of larger holes cut into the metal pollen trapping "plate" on my traps, but it seems the queens can't find them and move up through reliably. I was interested in testing it because I frequently use queen cells in my own operation for requeening. I requeened 24 pollen trapping hives with cells and found the 25% success, where I would normally find 80-90% success in standard hives.
Devan Rawn That was a good test and I’m glad you did it and not me! Hopefully you did it early enough in the season where you were able to fix it. We also use a lot of cells in our operation but they are primarily used in mating Nucs, Nucleus colonies being prepared for winter as well as “bigger” hives with queen issues. We find that the acceptance rate with cells in more populous Hives is greater than with introducing Mated Queens. Thanks again for taking the time to explain how you use the traps.
What is the purpose of reducing the entrance, I am going to try my first hive soon I have the langstroth kit coming Monday 081318 should I wait until spring to start a colony
So, that's sort of a loaded question. Like anyone, I've had good years where survival is 95-100% and I've have bad years where survival is 65-70%. Whether they were in single brood chambers or not was never really the reason for higher or lower success overwinter. I could usually diagnose colonies and figure the cause of winter loss to be some form of management that I messed up with, maybe an inadequate varroa treatment or whatever. So if you're looking for brood chamber size to be a direct factor in improving winter survival rate, I'm afraid you're not going to find it. However, in my opinion, a single brood chamber hive is easier to diagnose and manage THROUGHOUT the entire year. Winter loss is a result of how your bees are managed all year long.
Hello Dewan, may I kindly know how much syrup is on average in every frame ? Are the outer 2 frames from each side 100% filled with syrop on each side of the frame and the rest of 8 frames are around 75% on each side ? Thank you.
That's probably a fair assessment. Ideally each frame is as full as possible with honey/syrup going into winter, but I know in reality that's not the case.
No, I don't have any first hand experience with any of those feed additives. I've heard some positive things about Honey Bee Healthy, and there's another one that's commonly sold around here, Hive Alive I think. I've just never experimented with them or felt like they were worth buying, but they might be.
Devon...... really... its 01/29/2019 and I am still getting your videos... on repeat.... where are you ??? when are you going to produce an update....... come on..... your fans miss you!!!
What if you slid your hives next to each other and back to back for the winter like Michael Bush and Michael Palmer do? For better wind break and insulation. Just a thought. www.bushfarms.com/images/WinteringNucs2-2007.jpg
Hey, I'm familiar with the system. I actually do have some doubles wrapped together in a 4 hive western wrap that are pushed together into the middle, but that's a whole other story. I just don't think it's necessary for most full size colonies in my environment. Nucs I can see really benefiting from it. When I do winter nucs (every year except this one), I either use boxes that have two nucs separated by a thin divider or I push together a bunch of my 5 frame boxes sort of like that picture.
1952toots personally I don’t find mice entering good strong colonies in the fall. They’ll target any weaker hives that I may have to unite together anyway. Just my experience but I haven’t found mice to be a real issue inside colonies.
I can honestly say in all my years of beekeeping I've never heard the word "vericomb". I don't scrape away any comb at this time unless it's preventing the inner cover from sitting flat and closing the hive. I'm not going to pull a frame for 4-5 months once they're wrapped so there's no need to scrape anything.
haha! you just call it wax? real quick ..im online ordering a bee belt. They have right hand and left hand. So I am righthanded so I assume they mean I need a right hand...right? thanks
thanks! I'm looking fwd to going single brood chambers next spring. I have 40 colonies going into winter. Mostly 2 deeps high and some nucs from late season swarms. --appreicate your help
Hey Devan. . I'm located down in the Stated, 15 miles South of Lake Superior in Northern Wisconsin. I am a beekeeper going into our 5th winter and have always been pursuing the Single Brood Box management... I greatly appreciate your videos on the subject and would like to invite you to our Face Book Page, .. as we have a lot of folks that are interested in this style. You are one of 3 of my On-Line-Mentors which I share with your group and would love to have you in our group to encourage us Norther Bee Keepers in the States. Hope to hear from you. facebook.com/groups/614096545339364/?ref=bookmarks
