Thanks for your videos. I’ve had bees for about 13 months, 2 springs. I started with 2 and I have 5 hives now. I understand you and I have learned more from you than anybody else I have found on RU-vid You have helped me an unbelievable amount. No one in my family has ever had bees so I’m learning everything on my own so thanks again for the time and detail you put into your videos.
Thanks Devan. This is my first spring and I am finding I quickly get enthralled with looking at everything in the hive, scraping/cleaning, and just watching the bees be bees. I will start making a plan for each visit and getting in and out with least disturbance to the bees. I have learned much from your videos since I took over 3 established hives last fall.
I am also from Southern ON, we are about a month behind. Bees are know bring in pollen but we have the smallest brood amount we have every hard. We are forced to delay our splits for another week. Last year we started Apr 24
I have been wondering if you have tried putting your wood chips into plastic bags to better insulate your hives? It would improve the insulating properties of the the wood chips. I ask because we had a remodel project going in in the middle of winter and used bagged insulation to keep the walls and ceilings warm. Open faced insulation was only a little better than bare walls etc. but bagged insulation stopped the cold flat.
Devan, would you be willing to describe or do a video about how you record colony data? It appears that you have some sort of card with the colony ID and possibly some notes on each? It would be great to see more about your system of managing colony information. Thanks!!!
Hey Devan, I'm following Michael Bush a lot these days because I'm working on becoming treatment free. He suggest that we "don't ever wrap our hives for the winter," saying that the cold will not kill your bees, its ventilation, and by wrapping our hives, we cut off crucial ventilation. What are you thoughts on this, and why do you wrap? Thank you
I believe this question has been asked before, but what material are you using for your smoker? Does smoke of different materials makes bees behave differently?
I just installed 2 new nucs and discovered they both had queen cells. Both had larvae. One had a empty queen cage in it but I could not spot the queen either nuc. How should I proceed with these hives?
I use the brand "Craftsmart" which is from the Michael's craft store chain. The have oil-based and water-based, get the water-based which are non-toxic. I replace queens generally only if there's a problem or once they're into their third season and I have no intention of breeding from them. If you want to do it as a matter of routine, every second year is not a bad idea. Young queens are important for overall hive health and productivity.
Hey Devin thank u for ur informative videos. I've watched most of ur videos but have not seen how u prepare ur hives for winter, specifically downgrading the number of bees to fit in one brood box for the winter. I've seen some of your hives that have 5 supers full of bees, where do they all go for the winter, one wintering brood box couldn't possibly hold all those bees could it? Thanks< Pat in Alabama
Worker bees live for 35-45 days, and over fall the queen will stop laying new eggs to replace them, so the colony will naturally shrink in size over the fall and winter.
I keep bees in 8 frame single deeps and it works just fine. I feed in the winter a little differently and I use a 2nd deep early in the spring to make splits but they are overwintered in single deep 8 frames
@@kwil5379 I am so confused as I watch this video... If these hives are just coming out of winter (April) and they are all just single deep boxes, what were they eating all winter long? I see no uppers that would be for their honey supply. :-(
CenterTree777 You certainly have to watch them through the winter for food stores. The outside 2-3 frames on each side typically consist of honey/ pollen combo. However, I typically add a candy board on top around Christmas time (I’m in WV) and that gets me through till spring.
Devan hey where are you located I'm trying to figure out Missouri losing hives but in Tennessee I had 40 hives 5 shallow and rest deeps and didn't loose a hive except the first 2 years when I first started thanks
We've got quite a few species of ants, but none that actually bother the bees. Lots of times ants start making a nest up on top of the inner cover under the lid, but they're always separated from the bees. We definitely don't have to deal with Fire Ants or anything crazy.
I have avoided this for a few reasons: 1. Seems like a boring video to me - decide on a treatment, follow the label directions. 2. Viewers are from all over the world, and my canadian-centric view would likely be telling people to use treatments that they don't have access to and aren't legally registered in their country. 3. I've always just felt the real recommendations for treatments should come from people who are currently involved in their regulation or approved extension workers (my old job). Not "some guy" on youtube. But.... maybe, we'll see how mites look over the summer.
Thanks for the great vids, I always learn a lot from them. I have the same question. I understand your reluctance about treatment videos however from the standpoint of a beekeeper that is trying to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible I find it crucial to learn the opinions from many different sources. Your experience and knowledge about the treatments would be quite interesting and beneficial to many of us and I would very much like to watch such a video. I hope you will reconsider and make a treatment video. Thanks
In that case you should consider taking a workshop. I teach workshops in my province every year that are put on by the provincial beekeeper's association extension program. We are paid fairly for our time, have lots of one on one time with students to have in-depth conversations about these complicated decisions.
Depends how high the mite levels are in the packages. I'm open to all registered treatments for mites, it just depends on the situation. If you monitor and find a moderate level of mites, try an oxalic acid treatment right away before there's much capped brood for the mites to hide in.
In the future!? Dude, check them now! If you just installed them, take an alcohol wash or if you've got them on screen bottom boards start a 3 day mite drop sticky board.
Devan I also marked my queen this year and while looking for her I noticed that the colony was poor in size ( overwintering) and had absolutely no food reserves so sugar patties and pollen sub were added. I'm hoping they bounce back from four frames to full deep brood. What's your take on replacing old brood frames when they become very dark and heavy with paper membrane although very uniform and completely drawn?
If the frames are 5+ years old and you have an opportunity to replace them (for example in this weak colony when there's no brood or feed in the frame), I would try to replace them. It's good for a colony to get fresh wax in there and can help reduce prevalence of nosema.
Devan Rawn thanks for the quick reply. I'm going to do what you suggest as this colony was feral in an abandoned bee yard years gone by, so it's a good assumption that the brood frames are at least that old considering the dilapidation of the other hive bodies in that old yard.
I am considering keeping bees but not to ever take any honey. Why? Because i have a theory that bees are becoming weaker over time because we over farm them. I believe that by feeding bees sugar to replace the honey we take is destroying their immune system over the many bee generations that we have been farming bees intensively (for the now huge population of this world). We all know that sugar is bad for you and that honey is a super food. Also bees are not like us, they should not be eating many different food sources, they eat nectar and honey, not sugar. So everyone in the world is stressing about the diminishing bee populations but nobody accepts the fact that we are over-farming the bees and stressing their immune system by subjecting generations of bees to malnutrition, thus destroying the immune system of many generations of bees. Over time their immune system will be destroyed by interbreeding of these weakened bees. So i believe it is time to keep bees simply to protect them and not take the honey!
izzzzzz6 most beekeepers only take excess honey thus the honey super was created for the bees to put the excess honey. Leaving 1 or 2 honey supers on over the winter could kill the bees because they could not keep that big of a hive warm enough. Taking honey that the bees need is something no beekeeper would do and most don’t feed bees sugar unless they are struggling at the start of the year.
Yrs ago a beekeeper & her baby were found dead at the front gate of her house, the baby was in the pram, they were about to go for a walk when the bees attacked.
,@@belmum1689, Actually, you NEVER "asked" a question. So, no you weren't "asking" me anything. I "asked" you. See, that's what the little "?" thingy at the end of a sentence means. You made a PUBLIC COMMENT on utube. So the way it works is anyone can reply back to you. Cool huh? What a great world. You type, I type. We irritate each other and we type some more. Cool huh? Trouble is, your typing makes ZERO sense, so this will be no fun for me anymore.
@Chapstick University of Guelph beekeeping - a huge source of knowledge, (Ontario/Toronto region=same region as here, same good people :)), Canadian Beekeeper, Richard Noel, AVosRuches (francophone). From the top of my head :)
