I learn something from you almost every time u put something up on RU-vid. I been beekeeping for 7 years now in Montana. Just wish we had a little bit milder winters. Went from 9 nucs to 30 colony's this year. Thanks for all the information you put out. I like the idea of the bait frame and no excluder. Thank you Kamon!
Thanks for watching Mike hope they help! If you are not already I would learn as much as possible from Michael Palmer. He has great information in regards to cold winter beekeeping!
BRILLIANT! Most people don't realize bees don't usualky see foundation as Available room,that's why they Swarm with whole empty deep above em..Most don't realize bees have to Fill Their Broodnest before they can fill Super's.. But it's obvious you do realize these things, and are doing a Superb Job , Keep em coming
Hi Kamon. I have heard you discuss queen excluders in at least two different videos and came away each time with a different impression about how you felt regarding their use. In all cases, you indicated that there were appropriate uses for them, but in at least one instance, you seemed to be more enthusiastic about the advantages if used properly. Even mentioned offering an upper entrance to the honey supers above the excluder so as to not inhibit returning forgers. It is a virtue to adjust one’s views in the face of compelling new information or just through accumulated experience. Would you say your views on how extensively to use excluders has evolved significantly over time? And can you give me a brief summary overview about how you currently see things regarding best use of excluders. I am in the New River Valley of southwest Virginia at 2200 feet elevation. It sounds like similar to you, we have a short intense flow in my immediate area, dominated primarily by trees such as poplar. The late season flow is considerably less and frankly unreliable if conditions get droughty. I am devoted to the use of excluders and marking my queens. Seems to me the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages. But I have not done controlled experiments, and worry that I might be missing something such as a bunch more honey production. I typically pop my excluders on above the brood area in March, and pull them around the end of October. Thanks.
Hey guys, if y'all decide to use a queen excluder and you live where it freezes, make sure you take it off in the fall. The cluster can move up and leave the queen behind to freeze.
It looks like my problem is going to be getting my girls to draw comb in my medium supers. Right now they're in two deeps and I have no drawn medium frames at all.
I use the excluder, above the 2nd box, have harvested boxes which have been honey blocked below the excluder, I'm moving toward not using them myself. It seems to be a management decision as each hive is different. I guess it is about understanding your bees and working out what each queen is up too, as they are all different in my experience. Love you videos!!
I really enjoy your video’s. You and everyone else has had video’s about adding your next brood box everyone all ways says to bring up a frame of brood well that is fine but how about the new people starting out . I have a deep on bottom and going to have a medium brood on top . How do I get them to come up with all new equipment and NO medium brood frame . I know the best answer would be to have two deep brood box’s but I have a reason for going to a medium in top . So any help you can send my way would be a great help . 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️ ??? .
Ok i have some questions: 1) did you say you put a frame of brood in the honey super to get the bees to work there? How long do you keep that frame in there? Is it capped brood or not? 2) what is the reason the queen won't go up the honey super and lay eggs if you don't use the queen excluder? 3) do you put the excluder on later? how much later? Thank you.
We have short dearth periods (less than 4 weeks) here in South Louisiana I have hives facing every direction also with a mixture of hives in full sun and partial shade. The SHB definitely prefer the ones that are shaded. I have better luck with queen excluders by using top entrances above the excluder.
I lose track of where you may have mentioned this. But did you say you do single brood management during the honey flow? If so, would you kindly explain it in one of your videos (unfortunately we are in November so it’s not something we can see). Another question, brood frames can also be used by the bees to store honey. But do you harvest frames that once used as brood frames? I wonder how that works as worker brood cells are smaller than the honey cells. Do the bees elongate the brood frame to add honey, and then resize them when they want worker brood? It would seem that honey in brood frames might be harder to harvest? Thanks.
Thanks Kamon! 1st year BK from Jersey Shore. Installed 2 Nucs into 8 frame deeps on a rooftop. 1 hive thriving, other hive might be queenless but had supercedure cell which hatched so maybe have new queen or maybe not?? Not able to find queen in either hive? Thriving hive has larve and 3 frames of capped brood so I assume it is queenrite?? Anyway.....once the bottom boxes are drawn out I was going to put an excluder on and put a medium super on top with an excluder. They will bee entering wax coated foundation. Now I am having second thoughts, because you and your followers make great points about the bees drawing out the foundation in the super?? Maybe when the time comes to add another box, Ill go with another deep and do it the old school conventional way?? If I can get the hives to survive the winter , then next year go with the single brood box??? I liked Malcolm’s idea of a deep frame of brood in a medium box to help the girls get started up top?? Anyone like to chime in?? 🤔🤔 Kamon I am 5’ 6” also. Been short all of the life 😀
Great explanation. I like using deeps for honey, because I've put medium frames above a deep and the bees ignored the space and swarmed. I put an excluder on and put one frame of brood or two inorder for them to say yes we have more space, then move it down myself
So if I put a medium box on top of single deep they may not go up there? That's my plan. I have back troubles, asked the people I bought from what could work. My packaged bees are doing great and ready to put a medium on the end of this week. Should I rethink that?
@@danab4337 its is rare but has happened to me. Here is an ideal that I've done. Pull the middle medium out of the box. Then pull the middle deep frame out. Put the medium box on the deep box and put your deep frame in the middle of the medium box. It's longer but will extend into the deep box. Leave it for a couple of days. The bees have now explored the new top box. Go back and scrape any comb they built on the bottom of the deep frame and put it back in the bottom box where it came from and put your medium box back on and replace the medium frame.
Thanks for another informative bee topic. I didn't bring up a brood frame and the 2nd box is mostly honey. No brood. Great advice. Need to moved one brood frame up to help build 1st year hive. Thanks again.
Yes my friend there is nothing like natural raw honey. And here in Massachusetts I keep all my hives facing the South so they have the longest periods of sun they can have. Thanks for sharing.
I heard someone say that even w/o an excluder- the queen will be hesitant to cross over the honey at the top of the frame and that would provide a natural wall/excluder. What has been your experience in this regard? Thanks
Kamon, did i hear you right, do you use single hive (brood) management? Can you do a video on how, why, and when? Please! 😁 P.S. i wish i could get out of work for your conference! You're amazing! Keep it up!
We had -40 last winter bees took it fine.lost 2 out of 48 ..beez heat the cluster not the box.. had one a nuc size of baseball lived fine. Dark colors for rappid spring build it . Wrap hives in tar paper . I use a foam gun seal up cracks.. 2" of foam on top to keep moisture from dripping on cluster .. winter gets dry i just dump snow in the hives to give them moisture ... Italians add candy boards they burn up stores . Carnies wont use any stores till feb
This isn't on topic with this video but I have a bee colony living in my wall. Its a brick wall and the other side is my kitchen. The wife doesn't want me to cut open the wall we have been remodeling for a year and she is tired of it. Do you have any recommendations how I can get this colony out of my wall and preferably in a box so I can start keeping bees?
The sooner you remove... the better... it's a great possibility it will continue to grow... much bigger problem then, best to remove from outside...but... you have brick walls... might consider having professional remove, but coordinate with them to have equipment available to start your own colony with those bees.... after removal, be sure to seal all exterior walls... more bees will swarm there... just a thought
Thanks for all the great information again. I have a bit of an off topic question. Yesterday I was helping a friend with her hives and found a swarm had moved into an old box of nasty rotten comb. They were building cross comb and trying to tear out the old stuff. What's the best way to incourage them into drawn comb. Should she just place a super of drawn comb on top. I'm afraid trying to remove the new cross comb will completely fall apart with it being so tender and wires everywhere. Thanks again for all the great tips.
We have had so much rain herein KY I’m afraid we are already in a dearth and the farmers have sprayed all the fields. I had 2 full capped supers last week now they are uncapped and just about empty.
Yes you can, but the bees will not like it at all. If you do it daytime, about 1/2 or so of the bees are foraging and you have less bees to deal with. If you do it at night the bees are attracted to the flashlight and it does not matter what color light you use. At night the bees are agitated and will stick it to you.
