I still can't believe I didn't get into bee keeping 20 years ago like I dreamed about. We did our second honey pull on our northern yard around 750 pounds new record for us 3rd season im happy with that . One thing is very clear queens we mated in July last year had the most honey production.. next harvest will be much better as the comb is drawn out now . Used last years drawn comb selling nucs and expanding . Will be pulling it by the ton very soon . My 20 year-old son is gun hoe into bee keeping now so I have a partner and strong young hard worker . Need to build escapes . This shaking and brushing off bees is 3x the work just waist of time . No swarming has happened in a year everyone seems to be having swarming problem.
Always a joy listening to you and seeing your bee yard. What I don't get is how you manage to get the bees to deposit the honey in the supers and not in the brood box. My brood boxes always seem to have 4-5 frames of honey even though the is plenty of empty space in the supers above. Also, how you get them not to swarm. By the time my nucs get to 4 frames, I am removing queen cups and cells. I do a "complete" check every 7-10 days. Some times, I do miss a queen cell and they swarm. I only have 6 hives. Two weeks ago, one swarmed on me.
Are you running single deeps or double? Doubles put too much resources in the brood box. If you manage to keep enough honey space, they should not worry about the need to swarm.
@@judicorbett3498 Thanks for the reply. I used to run doubles, now I have singles, but they are still deposition the bulk of the nectar in the brood box. Sometimes I trade frames from the super to the brood box so the queen has space to lay. The bees end up filling that with nectar and the trades continue. The one that swarmed on me had at least a box of 80% empty space. I am sure there is a minor thing I am doing incorrectly. Ian makes this look so easy.
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog I have been looking at your videos and I do follow as close as I can. My bees winter outside in MN. Next year I will try again. Thanks
Mite counts seem to be lower this year not sure if it has anything to do with the endless flow wet year counts are zero . There's something causing it .. not just my colonys lots of bee keepers in the area scratching their heads. Last years reserch showed my area had the highest mite loads in that reaserch you asked us to report to .
Great work, Ian. So much honey. unbelievable harvest. Congrats! I was at my local Costco yesterday. Honey there was very reasonably priced. The label says product of USA and Brazil. I think that means 1% USA and 99% Brazil. Or, actually maybe 98% China as China honey had been banned and they will just go through another country. Ian, have you consider opening your own honey shop? It's so hard to buy real honey these days. Even Costco cannot be trusted.
I see you take all the honey at once. You do not select completely for covered honeycombs. Do we measure the humidity of honey. If so, what is the humidity of the honey?
What happens to all the Bees that are in the boxes,you take into the honey house. I'm guessing you don't shake the bees off before you load them on the truck. I saw some in your honey house by the window. Can they make it back to their hive or do the just swarm and go into the trees?
OK I am learning but I am not a beekeeper yet. So the question is - when Kerry (sp?) deals with the bees in the honey house that have a queen and brood in the super - what does she do? And can you return them to the two colonies still out in the yard that are now queenless? or do you put them aside to start new colonies and go find the ones that are queenless and requeen them? or is there another option?
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog I will, thank you for caring. When I move. I am in an apartment in a strange city - want to get closer to home. Then it wont matter if I am in an apartment, though I would prefer to be in a single family house with enough yard to feel free to do what I want without bothering the neighbors.
Do you ever place swarm traps in your yards? They seem to work best with a couple of old brood frames in them. I bet you would catch several, each year, in each yard.
You mentioned in an earlier video where you were mapping population growth that it may be beneficial to make a strong split after the flow. Is this something you may trial?
Great videos and information. Thanks just wondering if you have any robbing problem with hives open so long? Or just during the dreath period. Bees to busy?
I can emagine the enormous risk of robbing with all your open boxes on your truck. Get in and get out quick! When your flow slows to a crowl. Would you have to take different measures collecting the last honey boxes?
Why can’t you just add more boxes earlier and save on labor? You obviously know what your doing so I assume there is a reason for it. Thanks for the videos. Very well done.
