Started with 2 colonies died first winter got 2 more next year died in the winter got 4 colonies the next year 11 years later 5000 colonies. Mite treatment, mite treatment, Mite Treatment, finally feed them.
I had 8 colonies last year. I'm already up to 28 this spring and hope to hit 50-70 by this fall. I have been splitting like crazy. You are a great teacher Bob. You have helped me become a bee keeper instead of just being someone who has bees.
My brother Opoku, kindly let me know how you achieved the high percentage of colonisation of the hives in your apiary. I own over 100 hives, that is managed by a beekeeper, and agent beekeepers. The colonisation level is below average. It will be my pleasure to share your experience.
There are lots of 2nd/3rd year experts telling you how to manage bees on RU-vid. This isn't one of them. It's one of the few presentations I watched all the way through and enjoyed every minute of. Thank You.
Try to stick with the pros. Backyard beekeepers that are new to the hobby often have bad information. I learned this years ago when a first year beekeeper was explaining swarm cells in his colony when it was supercedure cells.
Your information of 4 frames peak in 7-8 was a game changer for me. Thank you. Had swarm cells in my best colony in April; checked my notes and guess how many frames of brood it had 8 weeks prior.
For 75% chance of success with mating a queen, there is 100-25^2=93.75 % chance of at least one mated queen in 2 nucs. That’s 93.75 of 1 or 2 mated queens. Just a little token of statistical appreciation for your sharing of beekeeping techniques.
Just cottoned onto your videos - they are more than EXCELLENT! I'm a forth year beekeeper and been running about 45 hives at peak each summer for two years and then reduce numbers down for winter. Took to beekeeping like a duck to water! Have fallen in love with making increases and selling local nucs here in Pennsylvania. Working on overwintering a large number of nucs this year in addition to full sized hives (12 nucs/21 full). Have had three years of 100% winter survival on full sized hives and hoping the strategies work for another year. Again thank you for the wonderful content of your videos and your willingness to share your wealth of knowledge. Loved what you said about pooling all the info out there and then filtering it and making some of it your own - so spot on - I know too many beekeepers who have not figured this out yet.
This was fascinating! I live in Washington State and have been considering selling my 10 acres….for which sale price I can buy a 300 acre farm with house, barn and 240 acres of active pastures for bees and sheep in Tennessee. Going to 500 colonies would be a dream! When I first started breeding sheep I experienced the ‘spinning plate syndrome’. That’s the way it starts and it always seems to find a natural maximum. I think tripling every year is perfect. With sheep I could just keep up with doubling every year. My superpower is that I’m stubborn. If all my bees died tomorrow I would sit down and figure what went wrong and start again the next season. I started breeding rare breed sheep…so rare that they are near extinction…when one dies it is a real tragedy…but you figure out what went wrong and don’t do that again!
Who cares? Seriously? Who in the world do you think wants to hear about your stupid dreams? You'll never do anything and your sheep need to go extinct. Crawl back in your cave and stop bothering people with your ignorant drivel!
Your advice on growing with your bees is great advice. It applies to all areas of life. It's one reason debt can be very dangerous in business. It allows you to grow your business even if you have not learned the skills necessary to handle the next level.
Bob you have the absolute best presentation style I have ever saw. I have been watching and gathering bee knowledge for the last 3 years and the info you have just flows and is easy to understand. Love it and keep it up!
Just made 60 double screen boards. I can't wait to use them. I had 1 last year. I over wintered 43 colonies with 100% over winter survival in 2023 into 2024. 39 double deeps, 1 single deep, and 3- 5 over 5 nucs. I plan to graft cells again for the second year. My first graft of 45 cells last year had 0 take. I attribute that to prolonged larve exposure as I had to relook for the queen in a packed double deep after she escaped the queen cage; then, I retried a few days later and got 43 out of 45 cells to take. Anyway, I am excited for 2024 !!! 🎉❤
In 25 minutes I learned more than a handful of new things I never heard before... Thanks a lot for sharing this knowledge! I always look around to widen my horizon... Pretty sure you will see me try some of that 👍
I have been self stinging for Rheumatoid Arthritis and it has helped me greatly. I really appreciate how well you approached this topic. I'm sorry for your pain, but a truly heartfelt thank you!
A great video ,worth watching every year, people spend a lot of time and money getting this info, and Mr. Bob has given it to you freely , I sure appreciate what you do for the new comers and the older ones too, Bob has let the bees teach him hoe to be successful. thank Bob ..............
Thanks Bob for your time. Your videos have been very helpful. I've watched them several times. I did use a Snelgrove board once this year but your design and technique is what I'm doing next year. I would advise people to make and use your board as shown in your videos.
Mr. Binnie. I have been binge watching your channel since I found it. Thank you!! I had a question about the swarm queen cells. In your splits (daughter nuc) would you use 2 brood frames with queen cells on both? Or just one? Thank you again!!!!
I wish that I had listened to your advice on this video around 2 months ago about peaking at the right time. All of my big second year hives have swarmed and I'm paying for it. Its been quite a journey thus far and I'm taking it slow and learning by experience and people like you. You my friend have one of the best beekeeping minds on RU-vid and I've listened to quite a few. Thanks for all that you do.
So happy to hear your ideas on swarm cells. 👍 We have used them all as well but being only a 3rd year beekeeper and hear warnings against it. Glad to hear your opinion is positive. So happy I found your channel.👍👍
Great info on the double screen board. Ive had nucs unable to keep brood warm on cold nights and lost most of the brood in the nuc. This double screen method with the nuc on top of hive will help to keep the brood warm in the new colony. Thank you Bob.
I bought 14 10 years ago. I was struggling going from 14 to 200, 200 to 80 etc. At this moment I am at 140. Goal is to have 10 locations (owned) with 30 colonies + 30 overwintering splits. I have 4000 great wine plants, planting 88 chestnut trees, planning to plant 2 hectar walnut... This as a sideline besides running company 😂 Lol Am I crazy?
Loved this one. I hope you do this talk on RU-vid again. I want to get into selling nucs. Not sure how to keep numbers up with selling. If I want to sell 50 nucs in next spring. How many do I need to go into winter with. I was want to sell in early spring. Thank you
If you aren't worried too much about spring honey production you can make several from a healthy overwintered colony and still be back up to full strength by early summer. A good colony will make a least one and be better off for having done so. It will be less likely to swarm and you will have rotated out five combs.
Bob, thanks for all the vidios, very informativve. Can everything you talked about in the three videos I watched about starting a nuke, be done when there are only one strong brood box and not two? And in this case is a ten frame box too large for a starting a nuke? Should I reduce it with a dividing board. Thanks
Yes, this technique can be accomplished starting with a single story brood box. Once you get the theory there are lots of possibilities. And yes you can start a nuc in a ten frame box. It may be helpful to use an entrance reducer. We do it all the time.
I really enjoy your presentation. I am at 20 colonies. I’m hoping to be at 50 by 2022 and stop there to assess the growth. I am after the honey and sell bees; I’m just hoping to continue enjoying it and care about our bees. Mr Binnie, will you consider one brood box or double brood box ? If you find the time to enhance in this topic in the future I will gladly appreciated. You have inspired me to grow responsibly and not to get over my head. I’m in Niagara region, Canada 🇨🇦, great videos. Thank you.
Hi Alfredo. We run both single and double story deep colonies. We prefer doubles but usually have several hundred or more singles each year. These come from leftover nucs we have after spring bee sales. The reason they remain singles is because we want to make honey with them on our Sourwood flow which comes in late June and July and then we turn them into doubles the following spring. Both singles and doubles have their pros and cons and your suggestion for a video is a good one. I'll put that on my list. Thanks.
We don't clip wings but I don't see a problem with it. When a colony swarms the queen will try to leave with them but if she can't fly she will usually be lost. The swarm will return home and then once again swarm with the first virgin that hatches. This can buy you a few extra days to save the colony from swarming by killing all the cells but one or two.
I would have liked to see your manipulation of a strong colony split with a nuc on top and then joined at the honey flow. I'm new to this particular channel and not sure if you've done a video on this.
Hello sir, just started beekeeping this year. You said that swarm cells make the best queens. I've recently have this in mind but i dont know if i will do it or not, sir i need your advice. The time of splitting in our country is just 1 month away so im thinking of purposely making one of my hive to make swarm cells and harvest it to make nucs for expanding my bees. Sir may i ask your opinion about this cause i dont have much experience? Thank you for your answer.
This will work. Ideally you would find and harvest the cells before the colony swarms. To do this you will need to check the colony every 5 or 6 days. If most of the cells are on one or two frames you may be able to cut them off with a very sharp tool if they are sealed and gently push them into another frame for splitting. It's also OK to use a cell that is not sealed yet as long as it isn't too small. Good luck.
Thanks for the contents of the presentation. My take is that gradualism is the main key to an efficient expansion of colonies. My question then is how do you achieve high colonisation if you install between 10 and 40 hives in one apiary at the same time.
Hi Mr Binnie David Whitman from Augusta here. The 2 single colonies I got from you on April 6 this year are doing so well. In such a short time they have made a deep and medium of honey apiece. I put a deep on them immediately when I got them as they were mighty with a few frames of comb and rest foundation. No excluder. Queen had free reign awhile and when brood present put on excluder and they backfield deep with honey. All just like you said it would happen. Learned so much from you and not bad thing to let queen go to lure bees up before putting on excluder. I appreciate your vids and couldn't be happier with my colonies.
In your opinion what is the fastest way to grow without buying someone else bee yard? I have 6 nics and 3 10 frames. I was thinking about getting some local mated queens and pull ot 2 frames of brood out of each box add the mated queens. I am not worried about honey. Just want to increase bees for next year.
What you're describing is how we make a lot of our new colonies. 2 frames of brood, 1 frame of honey and pollen, and a honey flow or plenty of sugar syrup to grow on. If all goes well that unit can be split again in 4 weeks. I wish you good luck.
Just got first colony a few days ago .I wanna reach commercial beekeeper level asap .I think I'm lucky cause my area mainly grows sugar cane so I'm hoping to get sugar alot cheaper .
I just opened my two bee hives today to see what is going on. Well in one hive I saw very little larva, just a small area here and there but none capped over. I did not see the gueen. I have one hive body and two supers, both full of honey and even the broad box was loaded with capped honey. The other hive has two broad boxes and both really full of honey, the top broad box was full of capped honey and the bottom box had just a little capped brood and you could see where the brood had been and now being fill with sugar water. I did not see the queen. So this being Oct 6th and in Mn is this normal for lack of brood? Thank You
@@bobbinnie9872 thanks, I live in (Southern)West Virginia, zone 5. Enjoy all the interesting stuff you share but at times your a bit over my head! LOL Experience is definitely needed. Like the little girl that wanted too eat the whole chocolate cake, she had too take one bite at a time. Question: too wrap your hives or not in cold climates. If so, how?
Thanks Bob, I real enjoy your vids. Can you build a double screen divider board that will support two nucs next to each other and create two 5 frame nuc splits?
Hello bob i have been watching your videos for a while now very nice content ,i have a question me and my father have about 150 hives and want to grow as fast as possible can you produce bees all year long using sugar and splitting we are based down in south Florida
I have to be honest and say I don't know in South Florida. We definitely can't here. We can produce splits during the active season with sugar syrup but we also have to provide a protein source if the bees aren't bringing in pollen. You may have pollen coming in all year but if not it could be tricky in your area presuming hive beetles would tear up pollen patties down there.
Great information. When you say kill the old queen and pull the board to re-queen the colony with the nuc queen do you have to cage her to introduce her to the bottom colony, do anything special or just let them mix with each other. Thanks for your videos.
Hi Jeff. If the top colony with the new queen is large enough (5 frames or more) the bees will protect their queen and there will be little chance of loosing the queen. If in doubt you can spread a sheet of newspaper with a few small slits between them so they will mingle together slowly.
Hi Bob, I'm a new beekeeper from Mauritius. I appreciate very much all of video. I am going through some of the videos again to be able to get some more info. I would like to know if you can describe what you are looking for when you reach peak in population for the honey flow. Thank you Jean
A good question but hard to answer in writing. This is about the "art" of beekeeping which takes time and experience to learn. Oddly enough peak population doesn't happen when the queen reaches peak laying capacity. It actually comes a bit later when all those bees start to hatch which is when the colony begins to get that very full and congested look. The moment you see nine or ten full frames of brood, peak population isn't too far behind. Sorry for the vague answer, I hope it helps. I would suggest watching "Equalizing Bee Colonies for Swarm Control and Increased Honey Production". It might help. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oAJ928fr_EM.html
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you for your time and help I will look into it. I have watched most of the videos and I must say that it's very clear and instructive. You are of a great help. Thank you again.
Yes but it would work best if you add brood. See our video "How To Make Splits Using A Double Screen Board". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z62UwOLfdMo.html
I'm curious what you would say for how to set a date in the year for when you should have your cut off to no longer do splits? I've had a hard time finding information on this. (Also in a long winter state.) I'm pretty sure it would have to do when the nectar flow stops picking a date before that for no longer splitting those that don't need help, and another date to have help, before that flow stops. But the exact range of that I don't know what space of time is right.
I used to do a lot of early fall splitting but finally decided it took too much away from the mother colonies when I needed to be getting them in good shape for winter. In our are I like to be done making nucs and such before the mid summer honey flow is over. It gives me enough time to get both the split and the colonies good for winter. I'm sure it's different for each location.
Hey Bob, i have a nuc that i made in July. The queen started laying august 1st here in michigan. They are in a single deep with a medium super on it. I’m concerned about them as they are on 8 frames. There’s a cluster on the top and even have 8 frames on the bottom. How would you handle that? Too early to buy queens here and we don’t even have pollen coming in
Sorry it took so long to get back. Too much work right now. More info please. Is the bottom box full of bees or empty. Are you worried they are to big or to small.
Hey bob, i appreciate you responding. After further review i had a chance to do a full inspection. They have 10 medium frames of bees with an empty deep on the bottom. I totally misjudged them. So, i expect the queen to drop here in the next few days or i may reverse. Either way, they have been super busy the last 3 days bringing pollen in
hello there i was wondering , how much land do your bees need at 2500 hives to sustain and prosper, i am expanding my 100 unit apiary and hoping to achieve 500 in the future on private land , thank you in advance for your reply and fantastic videos
We simply try to keep our bee yards at least 2 miles apart. Occasionally we will have some closer together than that if they are either small yards or in very good areas. Our yards run 32 to 48 colonies. Good luck on your expansion.
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you for quick reply, i am about to acquire a land of 2 x 2.5 km and hoping to create 3 apiaries spread out in the area totalling 500 hives and then terraform with natural high nectar and pollen producing plants with a small blueberry operation on the side , you think 500 hives will be too many?
I've only had a few which happened by accident and saw no drawbacks except more cost for equipment and more handling. They all were three boxes. I have a friend that runs 2500 colonies with two mediums as a brood nest with an excluder under supers and loves it. He likes that two mediums are a bit larger than a single but still small enough to get a lot on a truck.
@@bobbinnie9872 How to make single(deep b.) through entire season a single(of course with queen e.)?There are two frames of food and theoreticaly 8 frames for queen to lay eggs.After some equalisation/split to 4-5 or 6 frames of brood(sworming) there are only 2-3 empty frames left for brood in that colony.In short amount of time queen will have no free space and to do it again, equalisation/downsizing to 4-5 frames of brood in large apiary is almoust imposible/impractical.Is there any easier solution?thanks
If i want to make 3 hives out of one, when is the latest date i can split so they can build up for winter? Is it better to make 3 at once, or split once, then let rebuild and split again?
There could be but it would be different for different areas. Check out our video "A Year In The Bee Yard". Here's the link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DcRkkWi9gbQ.html
Hi Cory. We like to keep our production yards two miles apart or more but some are closer. We have a few spots where we mate a lot of queens and yards are a bit closer. We simply ask people with large properties if they would let us put a yard of bees out. The worst thing they can say is no. Some people love the idea and of course some look at you as if to say "are you crazy"? Most of our yards get a case or two of honey for rent and some don't want anything at all.
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you, I figured it was something like that. Been splitting like mad this year. (For a small yard at least) trying to get to a point where both my wife and I can be "stay at home" parents. Glad to have your perspective and approach available to us, thank you for sharing it.
Great video please tell me what you do in Aug you said what u do in Aug is the most important so please tell me what u do and thanks for another great video
Hi Frances. We treat for mites with Apivar in early August and also begin a feeding regime. I talk a little more about the reasons for this timing in our newest video "Nuc Production Yards".
I was curious about splitting the double screen hives. Should the hives be placed next to each other, when dividing afterwards? I am worried about my bees all returning to the original.
Your concern is legit. When we divide in the same yard we wait until the nuc is very well established, with plenty of hatching brood, and the weather is no longer cold. The nuc will take a temporary hit by losing their field force but they will rebound quickly. We also make sure they have a reduced entrance when we do this for less draft and easy defense. If conditions aren't ideal we will also loosely stuff in green grass which will quickly wilt and the bees will eventually remove it on their own terms. Good question that I should have addressed better. Check out "Splitting Using a Double Screen Board" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z62UwOLfdMo.html
I really appreciate you taking your time to answer my questions. I got a double screen board from you a few months back and it has helped my 2 tiny hives (going to wonter) to make it this far. The should I place the split close to one another, since the bees know the boxed are there, just direct my entrances to align with the entrance hole from the box I am removing, it that makes sense. I really appreciate you taking your time out to reach out to me. Thank you. Mr. Binnie! I'll be seeing you once the weather warms up.
@@bobbinnie9872, I watched the other video and it seems like I'll be taking these apart just like a normal split....expect the foragers to migrate back, so just load up the moved hive with nurses?
@@bobbinnie9872 I have no doubt they will. I feel lucky to live close enough to your operation to be able to pick up some of your stock. Have a wonderful bee season, sir...
