Here's What Happened with the Flying High Hive - We're Starting Over

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It appears that our Flying High Hive swarmed until there were not enough bees left in the hive for the colony to survive. We found a queen and about half a dozen bees, along with 12 queen cups, in the frames when we went back into the hive. There was no evidence that this queen ever started laying, and there were not enough bees in the hive to support the frame of brood that we put in there from Big Bees about 10 days ago. So, we're starting over with a swarm that we caught at John's farm. Hopefully, these girls with like it in Apex and stay with us.
We are practicing natural beekeeping methods using Layens horizontal hives that we built ourselves. To get a copy of the plans that we downloaded for free and used to build our swarm boxes, frames, horizontal hives and insulated horizontal hives, click here: horizontalhive.com/

Опубликовано:

14 май 2023

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Комментарии : 15

@crabmanrockefeller9117 Год назад

We love the videos. We caught 2 swarms last year and lost both over the winter. This year we have already caught 5. We will see how it goes. Same thing here we provide a place for the bees to live, the rest is up to the bees. The first ghost video was by far the best. Best video ever -

@randsbees Год назад

Thanks so much! We appreciate y'all hanging in there with us. We'll try to do better.

@johnrazor8720 Год назад

Update from here in Knoxville, I finally have honey bees in my yard but in limited numbers. Lots of bumble bees, sweat bees, and a small black bees. Even though I’ve had blooms in various trees and flowers since March, they all seem to finally be attracted to the blooms of my giant holly trees. Bees all over it since last Thursday. I love to stand under it and hear the buzzing. Not many honey bees this year but at least we have some. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for allowing me to keep bees vicariously.

@randsbees Год назад

Glad to hear that the honeybees have finally showed up in your neighborhood. We get lots of bees in our huge Nellie Stevens Holly trees when they bloom, too, so maybe they were just waiting for that at your house. Thanks for your continued support!!

@patriciadouglass9972 Год назад

All your videos are awesome and informative. Thanks for sharing once again, even those incidents that you refer to as failures.

@randsbees Год назад

We are learning as we go along. Thanks for continuing to support our channel!

@lambbrookfarm4528 Год назад

Well, Thanks for the second version! We just got dandelions here and the apples are trying to open, frost predicted for tomorrow morning...No swarming yet. You folks get way more swarm activity in your area than up here in central NH. I did drive 3 hours west and get some very groovy treatment free northern bees for Vermont. Did inspections this past weekend and only saw a few capped drone cells, a little fresh drone comb. I figure they are going for population still. I have my swarm traps out though. Thanks for posting, take care

@randsbees Год назад

Our friends in Newport, Vermont, reported snow there today. I guess Spring will get up there eventually. Let us know how your new bees get along. Good luck!

@lambbrookfarm4528 Год назад

@@randsbees well, I read 26° for a low this morning. Not so good for the apple blossoms this year. Maybe next year.

@tommychew6544 Год назад

Some bees just like to abscond, I think. A friend of mine has a masonry porch pillar that catches a swarm or two every spring. He claims he just goes out and one day they are all gone. I've got a swarm trap set up right next to them, probably too close. Think I might setup a second one about 50 yards away but, I don't know if I really want the genetics of bees that are known to abscond from an area a couple times a year. The factors that the bees know, and we don't are beyond our understanding I think.

@randsbees Год назад

I think you're right about moving your swarm trap. We had one at a friend's house very near a colony of feral bees. Two years in a row, nothing. This year, we moved the swarm box from about 50' away to about 200' away and caught a swarm. Looks like they like to put a bit of distance between the existing hive and their new location. There is SO much that we don't know and never will. You are right on about that! We'll never know exactly what happened.

@jcahn2 Год назад

Tommy Chew is possibly correct about absconding although that would typically occur during a nectar dearth (not now.) Absconding is an Africanized bee behavior and IMHO more likely to occur with bees from Fl, Ga, and Tx, even though they have been selected to eliminate the aggressive defensive behavior. I'm going to vote for parasitic mite syndrome. I don't think you could expect to see mites on the few remaining bees, esp. with no brood. Perhaps the queen had a mite associated virus that kept her from laying or flying.

@randsbees Год назад

This is our first experience with a queen not laying, so we were completely baffled. A mite-associated virus seems like a very logical explanation. We appreciate that suggestion from an experienced beekeeper. Thanks, Jack!!

@tl3192 Год назад

Overheating?

@randsbees Год назад

Good suggestion, but it really hasn't been hot here yet. We talked to an experienced beekeeper a few days ago, and he said that he has had colonies that just swarmed and swarmed and swarmed until there was nothing left. It's like the bees got into a swarming mode and couldn't stop. Doesn't seem to be anything that the beekeeper can do about it. Who knows?