Absolutely gorgeous! Love seeing clean powder and bright blue sky. Nothing is more breathtaking especially with mountains in the background. Thanks for giving us the update! Glad the colonies are managing in such rough temps!
Always nice to see your comments! The real test for the bees will come in February! Lots of beekeepers in my area lose their colonies during early warm spells. We'll see how it goes, thanks again!
Your snow cover is really beautiful. After several days below freezing, we warmed up to 62°F here in VA. Got a chance to pop a few tops and check food stores. Keep up the great the videos.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a white Xmas in Wales this year but I enjoyed the cool/cold away from our Australian summer for 6 wks. I love seeing your little bit of heaven. So quiet and hush.
So lovely all that deep snow. You take great care of your bees. Such a nice property. Wow, if you hadn't said that was a pond I wouldn't have known it. By the way, this is Des. Formerly Thagirion9. I changed my name since my character is the mascot of my channel.
snow ?? deers ? ducks? pond? WOW, i know must be routine for you but, just WOW. greatful for the sharing Fred. have you seen any of Devan Rawn's beekeeping videos? how come some beekeepers insulate their hives and some dont? do chickens go outside in the snow? apologies for so many questions. thanks again and many blessings!
Chickens go outside if they can find grass to land on, they don't care about the temperature. I found that heavy insulation on the hives where I live tends to result in too much moisture inside the hive. The bee box thickness, if drafty holes and crevices are sealed up, seems to be optimum. If they are draft-free and have plenty of honey stored, they do fine.
I'm so glad your bees are doing well so far. I haven't tested any of the Apimaye insulated hives, I'm pretty partial to wood hive bodies but that doesn't mean I won't evaluate them at some future date :)
Mr. Dunn, this is an off subject question, but...do you insulate the open area above the top cover and the gabled roof? If so, do you insulate year around? Is the only reason for the “plug” in the Flow 2 top cover is to remove it if one wants to top feed? Thank you and this was a beautiful walk through of your home.
HI Bill, I don't insulate, but instead, create "dead air space" by reducing ventilation. The FlowHive gable roof system is not tall enough to accommodate inside feeders, so that's why I have left the Flow-Super box only, on for accommodating a feeding tank when and if needed. All I have to do is cut down on drafts and the bees heat their cluster very well. The FlowHive inner cover plug is designed for those Rapid--Round Feeders, which I LOVE, BUT, as I've mentioned, the top isn't high enough to accommodate that. There may be a cold-weather modification coming from Flow, which will accommodate bee wintering requirements, including feeding, better.
Hello Mr. Dunn, I am currently going through the process of becoming a first time beekeeper, this April to be exact. I have been watching your videos for quite some time and greatly enjoy the new addition of Q&A videos. Though I have a couple more to add. I am actually in Eastern Pennsylvania and your recent video, and my own accounts, have lead me to wonder where I procure a northern breed queen so that I can take advantage of such genes before winter? The bees I am receiving are originally from Georgia, since I truly can’t find anyone who sells packages born and raised in Pennsylvania. To get to the point, I’m wondering if you could lead me in some direction of procuring a queen, or even a nuc, that are hardier to a northern climate? Thank you, looking forward to hearing from you.
Wonderful what you do Frederic! Have you tried Top Bar Hives? I use them here in Sweden (same climate as you) and they are great. NO problems with snow or mice. Bees love them!
Hi Ragnar, to awesome to have someone in Sweden watching! :) I have friends who have tried the top bar hives and they didn't work out well for them. That doesn't mean that I won't try one some day :) Thank you for that suggestion.
They do go into a state of torpor and lower their metabolism. BUT, when there is any kind of warmup, you will see landing board activity and some flying out of the hive. There is also interior activity on those warmup days and that's when the cluster moves over new food and they do some interior maintenance followed by re-clustering when the temps drop again.
I miss my observation hive!!! I'm in the process of reconfiguring that so it will be larger and of course facilitate my cinematic equipment better. All I need is the time and I hope to re-establish that in the coming summer. There are things I observe, document and learn, that simply can't be done without the ability to see IN the hive. Re-Design in progress!
@@FrederickDunn I have seen some people in say Germany, Kentucky, etc, put an actual tiny spy cam pen camera between frames and run the outputs out to an external hard drive or stream wirelessly, looks awesome, but I agree I want to set up an observation hive this year as well. Kinda want my first split to go into one. But I am still putting together and painting 3 hives I got at Christmas to get ready for April. Busy Busy!
HI Carlos, just the boxes are ON, the flow-frames have been taken out. I'm using the Flow-boxes to house feeders if I need them. I have some small colonies in three of the flowhives, so they may need feeding when things warm up and those boxes will serve that purpose well. I've written to the FlowHive inventors with recommendations regarding the need for Flow-Feeders for colder climates like mine. I've also left the Queen Excluders in place to prevent the cluster from migrating into the empty box. Lots of testing to do and I'll report on this configuration in my next flow-hive update video which I'll be doing in the next few weeks.
@@FrederickDunn Thanks Fred for the reply. If there is no supplemental feeding and it is just a box, do you leave the inner cover hole open for air venting, and they do not have issues heating up that extra space? Also since you are higher north do you have any burlap or insulation in your flow roof like Styrofoam, or is it empty? Thank you so much.
@@FrederickDunn Thanks for the testing Fred. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing in Southern Maryland. For now I do the traditional 2 brood box and and feed top of frame or use Vivaldi type boards for air flow / feeding. But if the flow super box works just as well and there is no condensation and smaller hives have no problem keeping the space warm then thats a great thing. Very interested in your results for moisture or mold. Thank you.
@@weasleoop Some of my hives have polystyrene covers others have just the roof. The extra space is not heated by the bees at all, the goal is draft free so they can heat their cluster only. It's a popular misconception that the bees are heating the box the way we heat your homes and they don't. The cluster is warm and inches beyond them, even in a smaller box, the air is the same as the outside temps. There is no feed in the box now, but I have the option to add it when things change weather wise.
Wow!!!! I see that you left the flowhives on. Guess its ok to do that? And you don't wrap them and they are ok? Do you take the queen excluder off for winter?
@@FrederickDunn No, I run the MIT Beekeeping student group. We keep hives on the roof of the student center, and off-campus at Endicott House. Just a fan of yours!
@@AustinWigley That is AWESOME, I'm so happy to know you have those hives on campus! I wish you all the best and thanks to taking the time to comment on my video :)
HI Graham, they just vent out through the hive and when the snow melts through, they simply continue driving warm air out while the snow falls, so it kind of remains a vent path rather than happening after the snow has accumulated. This is also why I never clear snow from the sides and back as they really are excellent at making their own vent pathways :)
Since the flow boxes are empty, how do you store the frames? Do you drain them all before removing? What if the honey isn’t ripe or frame isn’t full? How do you store them so they don’t get mold, wax moth, hive beetle, etc.? I’ve gotten mixed advice from my local club. Many people buy a chest freezer and put the whole flow box in-not an option for me. I’ve also been told a single box of empty comb can be stored above the inner cover. I’ve also been told to just take it off and irradiate it, but the frames would only last 3 seasons that way.
Hi Dannielle - after my final flow-frame drain off, I remove the frames to my robbing station and allow them to be cleaned out by bees and some wasps. After they are completely cleaned, that's when I move them to winter storage. It won't matter if there is unripe honey in the cells as it all gets removed and recycled by the bees back to their wintering hives. I don't irradiate the frames as we get a real "deep-freeze" where I live. This year I have a FlowHIve2 and another FlowHive that I needed to put feeders inside, so I left the "fancy" flow super "box only" on and used it to house the feeders with Queen Excluders in place to prevent the cluster from moving up into that empty box. Now, in the spring, the Queen Excluder is already in place and I will remove the feeder (rapid round feeder) and simply restore the Flow-Frames for another honey producing season. We just came out of an extreme winter event and they are all flying today, so, it appears to have been a great idea! I will provide a re-cap video about how I did that now that I know it works :) Thanks for watching and commenting. Please look for my Frequently Asked Questions Videos as I answer lots of flowhive questions in those.
Frederick Dunn Thanks for replying. Would the bees clean up the frames in a day or two if I left them in the hive? Open feeding comb and honey is illegal here. Are the rapid feeders on the block shims (From an earlier video by you). Are the rapid feeders full of dry sugar with the clear cup removed?
@@Psyche8D Open feeding comb and honey is "illegal" where you live? Where do you live? Would you please post a link here to your regulations? Thank you. Robbing stations provide a much faster cleanup than if left on the hive and the window of opportunity to remove frames may be very narrow as it was this year for us, so leaving on to clean may not have worked the some of the cells could end up with solidified honey remnants in them which hinders future draw-offs.
@Frederick Dunn I live in Australia. See page 11, requirement 7.1. 7.1. A beekeeper must not allow a used hive, part of a used hive (including frames, combs, honey or beeswax) or an appliance containing honey to be exposed in a manner or under conditions likely to attract robber bees; including during transportation. beeaware.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Australian-Honey-Bee-Industry-Biosecurity-Code-of-Practice.pdf
@@Psyche8D Oh, thank you for sharing that Danielle, I'm sure there are some good reasons. I'm glad that it is not illegal where i live. I would hate to have to simply dispose of honey that wasn't used in winter. I could understand during transportation, but in my own bee yard, I'm very happy to have that advantage. We do get inspected by the State for disease, infection and pest infestations. Open feeding is a very common practice in the United States, I'll have to pay attention to the potential risks of allowing bees to clean up honey-frames. Thanks so much!
Fred, wow, you hit the nail on the head about the chimney holes the bees melt in the snow. This has been documented in snow bound hives in Canada. As soon as you said that it was like you went to the same lecture. Let me find the video for you. Here it is, skip to 7 minutes in or watch the entire lecture. Very informative about what you were just discussing. Watch "Keeping Bees in Frozen North America" on RU-vid ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fFanJbaigM4.html Haha you watched it 4 years ago. No wonder it was like you were at the lecture. Funny.
Mr. Dunn, are you aware of anyone’s “Proactive Use” of MAQS to prevent mite infestation rather than the usual practice of monitoring a hive...finding the infestation...then using MAQS to eradicate? I am about to receive my first NUCS snd hope to get ahead of this issue. Thank you.
You may not like my answer here, as I don't and never have used mite quick strips or any other mite deterrents. One season I did oxalic vapor treatments in all of my hives and did get some mite samples on the bottom board. What I am doing and have done for many years, is often frowned upon by those who treat faithfully. I am using survivor varroa resistant honey bees from the BeeWeaver Family in Texas. They do have mites and actively chew and destroy them as part of their grooming process. One drawback to these bees is that when they detect mites in capped brood, they cut off the caps and drag everything out to be discarded. Someone using an approved treatment would, of course, preserve more honeybees and have less of this overactive hygienic behavior. It just works for me as I want sustainable lines that can go treatment free. The State Inspector is always amazed by the cleanliness and success of my colonies as it's rare to succeed in the way that I do without interventions. My method is to strengthen the bees through the foraging seasons by providing healthy water sources, including sea-salt water for minerals and boosting pollen and nectar resources in my vicinity to greatly reduce dearth periods. I monitor for mites and IF they get out of hand, I am not against treating. BUT, unless they demonstrate an inability to control mite populations and SHB on their own, I'm not going to treat as part of a seasonal routine.
Good Eye Nancy, those are young colonies that are housed in the deep brood box only, then there is a Queen Excluder with a space for a feeder it needed. That way when the spring nectar flow hits, all I have to do is drop in the Flow-Frames and the excluder is already in place.
Fred, take a look at how much problems the Common & German wasps have caused in New Zealand as an invasive species with no predators. Sounds like they could do with a few European hornets to balance things out. It's an excellent documentary www.nzonscreen.com/title/bandits-of-the-beech-forest-1996
