Saw you at the Greenville TN conference Aug 9-10 EXCELLENT conference… thank you for all your detailed video and time you put in on helping others.. a real blessing. 🐝
Bob it’s always great how you go into detail about the little things that can make a big difference and allow us to learn from your experience, ex/ the paint you use, the hive lifter. Thank you so much for the extra effort you put into these videos. You have a naturally great teaching skill, you make it feel like it’s just a talk between two friends !
I watch every one of your videos because even if the title doesn't appeal to me specifically, there is ALWAYS something great to be learned. Please continue with the videos, they are much appreciated.
Always a tid bit or two of information I learn when watching your vdeos. Thanks for putting them out. I look forward to coffee with Bob on Sunday mornings...
Way back in the day, hot linseed oil "boiled" when you added the lead dioxide. (white lead pigment, the best of which used the "Dutch" method, thus Dutch Boy paint.) Lead was all over the place for at least a century. Lead paint, window caulk, varnish. Zinc galvanizing had up to 2% lead up to the 1950s,
Greetings from Croatia. An irreplaceable tool for transporting things, especially on inaccessible terrain where you can't get close to trucks, trailers and handcarts. Ideal for beekeepers because everything is done easily, quickly and in silence, which you will surely admit is the most important thing in the apiary. The only drawback of this tool is that it requires two beekeepers. In Croatia, we have been using this tool for several centuries, not only for beehives, but also for stones, crates, wooden blocks, etc... Admittedly, the earlier versions of this tool were made of wood, while the modern ones are made of strong steel or aluminum. Personally, I have had this tool for more than a decade, but until now I have not had the opportunity to make a video, because there were always only two of us when moving the apiary.
Good morning Bob. I use water proofing membrane for drywall and concrete for wet locations dries within an hour and protection is great along with exterior porch and floor paint,my boxes are osb pulled from construction site dumpsters,I have some that are 3 yrs old and are just as good as the day I built them. Hope you received the email about the barrels
Ive had great results painting pine shingle roofs with 1/3 oil paint with 1/3 linseed oil and 1/3 varsol . It soaks in and lasts for at least 15 years before needing to be repainted with the same mix . Ive also dipped garden stakes in it and they last 2o years partially in the ground. I might try it on some supers to see how it works . We have had great results with using a couple coats of good quality oil paint without primer . Thanks for the early morning video .
I made one out of 2x4's years ago when I was trying to expand to five yards. The store one was too expensive so out came the saw, screws, and hinges and built one to fit. I still have it in the storage trailer at a farm where my bees are kept.
QqNice video. Brings back memories of making my own boxes and moving them by hand. I used galvanized twist spiral nails and glue to put together my boxes. Though I have used a hive lifter once before, it didn't work after I started putting 2" x 16" - 1/4 inch cleat hand holds on the front and back of my boxes. Always had a problem with the factory made dado hand grips. They were hard for me with gloves on and whoever, my son, I would get to load and offload them in Almond and prune pollination. Plus the wood is only 3/8" thick in those spots and prone to splitting. Also I would get Black widows around my hives and the western red paper wasp in those handholds between my boxes pushed together on my homemade 4 way pallets. I now make or order deep boxes specifically without hand holds and select big knot free wood. Plus I make a different kind of bottom board than the one used by most people designed by a very experienced commercial beekeeper from our club. I do use cedar migratory lids dipped in paraffin and pine resin with a little bit of beeswax. I have dipped my boxes in this hot wax before but after a couple of years stopped because they get too weathered for me and can begin to curl on the top or bottom outside corners. I paint them pretty much like you do but 5q0% by hand at first do to the end grain of the finger joints along with the front and back sides. Then I stack them 4 or 5 high and use an airless sprayer for a second finish coat with the same paint, linseed oil, and copper napthenate in green or brown. I do use MDO pallets like you do but a little longer, 48" long by 32" - 1/2 inch wide two pieces of 3/4" 7 ply MDO but with U shape metal clips instead. Widow, wasp, and fallen debris between the boxes problems again and they are dipped/stacked too. Have always liked the way you made your own things for your bee business in the past too. The 55 gal. barrel lifter, the design/construction of your truck beds, and this homemade hive lifter out of steel 3/4" pipe in your video. Thanks again for another interesting part of your working honeybee operation in your area of Georgia. Good luck in 2024. 🐝
Hey Bob! I have got to get my beehive lifter cart up there for you to play with. Cali trip went well. Blizzard in the Sierras the day I flew back. Bees should be home soon 😊
@@lenturtle7954good strong doubles, should yield at least a couple nucs, leaving enough behind to recover in time for a honey crop. At $350US(about $500CDN) that’s a pretty fair deal.
That is close to getting warm while working with fire wood . It heats you up four times. While you cut it , while you split it, while you load it , an while you burn it. Yep the faster you load bee hives by hand the warmer you get but not your hands lol. I wish you had eight frames hives . By you down sizing does that cut down on the amount of nucs you sale per season. Thanks
Ha Bob so good to see you, wow Bob 350. is very cheap. Boxes and everything wow. They sell nukes here for 250.00 at least that is what the price was last year. If you do not mind me asking why are you cutting back you have great help. Hope you have a blessed week
@@aaronparis4714 not trying to pick a fight sir but nothing in this world is free .. everything comes with hard work and there is always. A little money involved Nucs in my area go for 189-200$
@@aaronparis4714 Bobs price is real cheap u get the hole hive boxes he has frame feeders in them as well. The lids and the bottom boards he makes them with that real expensive board, plus they are production hives you would pay 500 here for a production hive. He could had sold them for a hole lot more.
Hi Frances. Colonies, nucs and packages tend to go for less in the southeast. I always hear about higher prices as you go north. I turned 70 last year and I don't want to work as much. All good. And yes, you are right about the premium equipment. 👍
Our recipe is one part CuNap 8%, 2 parts raw linseed oil and six parts mineral spirits. We store the left over in five gallon buckets and keep it until the following year. It has to be well stirred though.
Thanks for continuing to put out great content. Even though I am just a "backyard beekeeper" I find a lot of the information you share applicable to my situation. A question about the CuNap. I avoid pesticides and have been treatment free since I started as a beek 4 years ago. All my stock is from using bait hives. My overwintering rate is 79%. So, do you dip your boxes inside and out? If I brushed CuNap just onto the outside surfaces of the boxes, would you think that would be almost as good as dipping them? Thanks.
Hello Bob. How's the paint building coming along. I was painting some equipment yesterday. I really like y'all's painted equipment, because y'all do a better job than I do myself. Plus I hate painting equipment for some reason.
Hive guard is a blend of microcrystaline and paraffin. Dipping at 300⁰F for 2 minutes is all that is required. A box can't be painted in two minutes and put bees in it 5 minutes later after it cools. Cost of labor is actually less to dip. On the topic of cheaper, $0.80 cents a box to dip in wax. It used to cost me $2.80 for stain to air spray (spray uses 25% more product lost in the air transfer vs brush on) after Texas had their freeze and lost their resin stock pile, or at least that was the excuse, causing paint prices to skyrocket here in Canada. One of the products you mentioned is food compliant, and the other is not according to the labels. Copper salts may not hurt the bees, but it's not good for humans (honey contamination). If painting, oil is better because oil displaces/repels water(thats what oil does), better than water-based. Stain is better again because it soaks into the wood acting as a sealer, whereas paint does not, two different technologies. Canadian pricing.
Funny you say you use an oil based primer, here in Australia everyone will tell you to use a water based primer sealer and a water based exterior paint. I do this and have had boxes start to rot within 3 years
I discovered the hive moving tool after moving hives around my first two years of beekeeping.Really makes it a lot easier and less awkward when walking and placing in the truck.Every bee club should have one . I use cypress boxes when i can and i never paint them.What are your experiences with cypress?
We purchase the raw linseed oil in drums from Lintech in Byron, GA., the CuNap from Mann Lake and the mineral spirits by the drum from an oil company in Gainesville, GA.
Great info Bob. I understand the cutting back a little. 1000 hives is still a lot of bees. Question - Does the hive lifter work with all sizes of boxes, 10-8-5?
I have the boughten one Bob has purchased from Mann Lake and I've used it on 10, 8, 6, and 5 frame nucs. The smaller boxes could sway I suppose, but I've never had an issue.
Do you not cover the entrance so you don't lose bees? The carrying jig makes it look pretty easy. I think I may get one of those from you so we can move hives for sourwood this year. Thank you for this video.
Bob, thanks for the recipe! I want to dip some pallets, but being a smaller sideliner thats gonna be tricky, ntm the amount I wld have to make up(there's no way I'd use it all). Can it be brushed on with any sucess? Or if it has to be dipped can I pour the left over in a container and use it again at a later date?
On laying worker colonies- you shake them out and they migrate to other colonies? Have you ever tried to newspaper a laying working colony with a Q right colony? If so, does it work?
They do migrate to other colonies nearby but the newspaper method works well too. If it's a weak laying worker colony and a strong colony being stacked on the newspaper is not necessary.
Hello Bob, At $30.00 a board I repair any box I need to, If I see a construction site I stop and ask if I can dig through the dumpster for wood Its to expensive not to for me. Do you think that wood that already has paint on it can be used on the inside of a bee box. I picked up 12 plywood cabinet doors but its painted on both sides. I understand that ply is not the best to use but if I can get 8+ years out of a box at not cost for wood I'm ahead of the game I am more afraid to use used boxes than plywood. Anyway thanks for the Sunday vid.
@@bobbinnie9872 I am in Ontario Canada. We don't seem to have the resources here like it seems you have in the states. I will give your store a call. Thank you. I am traveling to Tennessee in May for 2 weeks. Any suggestions on good bee places I can checkbout there?
