Bob this was great thanks so much for doing it, I hope u continue to do videos as u are working the bee yards. I made one of those boxes for scarring brood around it works great. I started putting on the honey suppers today the flow has started here i had wet frames found queen cells and did some splits as well. any way thanks so much for the videos they are great. please keep doing them. God Bless and have a great week
Always enjoy your videos. I've been practicing your method of colony equalization (and splitting) this spring to reduce swarming. I'm in Birmingham, AL and find that this type of management needs to be started around March 1st, as we usually start seeing swarming at the beginning of the month. I sometimes worry that I remove too much brood from strong colonies, but hearing you say that you leave 3-4 frames of brood makes me feel better. As of March 20th, all of my strong double deeps already have 2 supers installed to also give the feeling of space. Nectar flow will be starting soon! Thanks for all that you do Bob.
Bob you have such a calm demeanor that I'm positive the bees appreciate. 4 years in to my beekeeping journey, and patients is the lesson the bees keep trying to teach me. You Sir are a master!
Hello Bob. You mentioned that you didn't loose many colonies over winter. This is my first year of not losing any at all. I have been really busy getting honey supers together to put on them.
I would interested to know if you keep a record of how much sugar syrup you pump into hives , and if that is deducted of the total amount of honey you produce . ? That would give you an accurate amount of honey the bees produced .
Hi Peter. We don't keep individual records for the feed each colony receives, just a general idea based on what we did across the whole yard. The truth of the matter is that much of what we produce and accomplish would be not be possible without first building the bees on sucrose syrup so they're ready when the flow hits. Especially after the nuc and colony production we do first. I know many countries pay more for sugar than we do and what we do wouldn't be financially viable for them.
Yes. The calm demeanor AND the information seems to be for 2nd and 3 year beekeepers also. So many others focus on only the 1st year and not what to do coming out of the winter with your colonies.
Hi Bob. You and your team are professional and enthusiastic. Your equipment is in great shape. Your system is Honed to near perfection for what it is. You open your hives and recognize a great colony. We open your video and recognize a great operation. Thank you for sharing...........
Ty, so much for your videos Bob, I live in SW Washington 1st yr beekeeper to bee :) Ty so much for the time you spend on your videos for us. :) Blessed Days...
Frames from drone laying queens may get distributed among good colonies or we might just shake most of the bees out and place the entire box on top of a colony that needs another box.
Those big ones you have with lots of brood are what all 25 of my hives are looking like here in south central Pennsylvania. Giving every hive a full box of drawn comb for more space. Season is starting with a BANG so expect some folks to be caught off guard and lots of early swarms this year! Time to get the swarm call gear loaded into the car.
Gleaning info from your fast pace is challenging for a novice, so I usually watch several times and scale down to fit my limited experience and yard. Thanks
Bob, I have a question. I'm just outside Philadelphia. I overwinter my colonies in doubles. This fall I left a medium on most of my colonies because of low food. I had to feed sugar bricks over the winter to keep them going. I ended up losing one hive that must have gone queen less over winter and it just died out. So, I got in my hives for the first time yesterday because it's been too cool to do anything. Our Maple tree population is large and the bees are bringing in nectar and tons of pollen. I"m also seeing maple nectar in the cells. I put supers on to collect the nectar and keep the brood boxes from jamming up. I was expecting relatively small populations. In reality I found large populations and a lot of brood. there are drone between the boxes. this happens almost every spring to me. I can't split yet because we can't get queens. I don't have adult drone yet either. As for queen cups, I've only seen empty cups on the bottoms of the frames. I know they make them for emergencies. How do I keep them from expanding too fast? I'm not feeding because they're bring things in. Any suggestions? I do have to open some of the brood nests because they're filling up with pollen. I've also found the bees are building some comb.
Sounds like all is going well. In our area a full dose Apiguard treatment will slow the queen down and perhaps even give her a short pause and although it sounds odd I know of one beekeeper that uses it as a swarm control measure while at the same time achieving some mite control. He uses it about three weeks before swarm cells would normally begin to show up.
Hey bob I was wondering if two medium frames of bees could build up had a small colony make it threw the winter and I want to make sure they live any info or tips would be much appreciated
Two medium frames will build up eventually. You could add a medium frame of hatching brood from another colony to help them along if you had one. You could also shake a moderate amount of nurse bees off a frame of open brood to add young nurse bees.
I have converted a sack trolly to an easy to use super lifter ,it can lift 3 wsp boxes and is very useful doing brood work i will do a feature on in a instegram( wa Bush honey ) .The arms grip the hive and winding a handle lifts. if using an escape board this would be effortless and possibly as fast as what you do which requires a high level of strength and stamina .i admire what you are able to do.
Always great information! We absolutely love the quality of your double screen boards. We ordered 20 this season and hope to phase all of our older ones out with yours. They are very versatile and I don’t really understand why everyone isn’t using them. We are the only operation that seem to like them in our area. The quality is the best I’ve seen on a double screen board. We have used them from many manufacturers and even had a custom shop build them for us. Yours surpassed them all in quality. Thank for the quality information and products. In times like these people need good instruction and quality equipment. Your operation provides both. A sincere thanks from a growing sideliner.
I would just love to visit down your way and spend a day working yards with you guys. I have began using some of the tricks you show up in my yard and so far the bees came through winter well in Pennsylvania. Thanks for sharing your knowledge
All of our double screen boards are built the same way. This gives us the opportunity to have a single entrance on all four sides of a four way pallet to lessen congestion and traffic on the front and back. The bees do fine with the side entrances.
Thank you wery much for your great video lessions!! I love your work! If understood you Have a box for brood that you take out with the bees and put that in smaller colonies? The bees will not fight eachother when putting them in other box? You Look in a hive to Have Max 5..6 frames of brood? Thank you so much! Enjoy and all the best to you from Europe!
Hi Dave. Yes, we call them brood hauler boxes and we never have issues with the bees fighting. 5 or 6 frames of brood just happened to be what we wanted on that date. Sometimes it's less and sometimes more, depending on how close to the main spring nectar flow we are.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you wery much for your reply. Great. I Have AŽ hive system...i love your lessions will try to use the methods on my hives. I have to learn the correct ways ..
I love this view. I noticed how few skips (spottyness)your strong colonies have in the capped brood. That first weak one had quite a bit more spottyness. Do you think that colony might have a higher mite/virus load? I watch several beekepers, and along with my colonies i am noticing more spottyness this spring overall than in recent years. Your strong colonies in this video have the least spottyness of any i have seen this year. Thank you for this video, also enjoy you guys poking fun at each other!!
Our mite load is very low right now but we will at times check a poor looking colony with an alcohol wash to make sure. So far this year all is well with mites. Could be a little virus stuff going on but if in doubt we tend to blame the queen.
Am I correct that you have a double screen board separating 2 colonies and are removing that double screen board and turning them into one single colony now??? If so, what are you doing with the other queen??
Yes, we installed a small colony with a separate entrance over a stronger one to take advantage of the warmth rising through the double screen to help the small one survive the winter. Now that it is warming up a bit, and the upper colony is beginning to expand, we're moving them to a separate location of their own where they can build up on their own.
Bob...About that pump..... I am a little lazy to research myself, I would really appreciate it if you can help me with the electrical diagram for your hookup, I got all the parts, including that fancy pump, it took a while to arrive from Italy but I got it now, just waiting for the nozzles to get to me and will start putting it together. Thanks in advance Dan
On our trucks, the pump is wired directly to a 20 amp relay which carries the load, which in turn is turned on by a switch on the dash inside. There is a fuse between the battery and the relay.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks Bob, I got the relay as well, also I did get separate fuses for the pump and reel, I didn't realize you put a switch in the cabin as well to cut off power when not in use, great idea; I am starting to put the entire thing together, couple more fittings to play with on the reel/rubber hose and still waiting on those nozzles to fit those to the the other end of the hose and will be able to call myself a "mini Bob", lol. Dan
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks Bob, noted on the thickness of the syrup, worse case scenario I will stick a warming rod in the tote to heep it warm for the time being, here in MI the 2:1 syrup can get thick in the colder days. I appreciate your input on the matter and thanks for your prompt response, I know you are a busy guy so I value your time. Dan.
Really great information on using the double board. Beautiful looking colonies. How much space is under you migratory tops? Is there a 3/8" trim piece on the outside edge of the lid?
We don't have any trim pieces on the under side of the lids. If I was going to do that I would choose 1/4. We use a separate 1 inch rim when needed for treatments or pollen patties. Thanks.
Mr. Bennie, Do you end up using all of the extra brood frames in a new apiary? What else could you do with the excess brood frames at the end of the beekeeping day? I enjoy your beekeeping videos thanks
Bob, Thank you for another great video. Do you do any type of mite treatment in the spring, prior to splitting ? When do you do your first mite test in the spring?
We have very low mite numbers before splitting because of the oxalic vaporization we do twice in winter when the bees are broodless. Before putting supers on in April or May we will do some spot checking and make sure they're still low. If we were to treat with anything this spring it would probably be one dose of Apiguard.
Hey Bob and your Beeks. Question : What do you guys use in those metal Round 'Lids,*' you add into those Feed Holes, in your Hives Roofs ??? 👀 I'm in Scotland 🏴 so can you suggest a source, or alternative to use with ex Jam (Jelly) Jars, or medium Canning Jars, re top Feeders. Thanks in advance. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2022. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Hope to source some sort of Lid, this side of the Pond, if possible ! Hope you can advise. Going to make some DIY Queen Hives (Boxes with Top Jar Feeders) and try to make my own Queens. I'm in my 2nd Year of Beekeeping. So giving myself a challenge ! Cheers to all. 😎
We're using the same one piece 70mm lid that fits our feeding jars which is also the same size that comes on a common quart jar here. All commercial container distributors here carry them. We get ours from Gamber container in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Thank you.
Bob I am a 2nd year beekeeper. I saw you last year at Amy Grant’s farm and at Tennessee beekeeper’s meeting at MTSU. You had John in this video working a rowdy hive as I call them or angry bees. I have one hive now and the bees seem very angry when I work them. What can I do to get a gentler hive. Thank you for all your videos and lessons, you are the best . Thank you Jeff Powlesland Nashville TN
Hi Jeff. It may be tough but requeening them with gentler stock should result in a change of attitude in about three or four weeks. Of course this assumes they are not being continuously aggravated by ants or skunks or something else which can make them extra defensive.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you for the response. I have a new queen coming at the beginning of April from Mann Lake. I am hoping that helps change the attitude. Appreciate your response you are a good person. I loved the slide show at the Tennessee Beekeepers annual meeting of your path to where you are now.
Bob, You mentioned your late summer queens. Are those from your queen supplier too? Or do you open mate on site? Last year was horrid for my bees with the severe drought. So yah I fed and babied the girls along as best I could. New queens were just not top notch in the heat and poor nectar/ pollen. So I planned on late summer requeening. Only the birds were as desperate as all other wildlife here too. Open mating swarms were even more so targets 🎯 for the hungry. A bit higher than 30% return on mated queens on late summer queens. Time wasted for me. I was looking around the internet for bird scaring weapons. While bird bangers and screamers would be a hoot for me... not so much for the dogs and livestock. Those pretty kinetic metal wind spinners kinda caught my eye! Ever use those around the mating yard? Or know anyone who has?
Queens from late spring on are produced by us. Sorry to hear of your low mating percentages. I honestly don't know anything about those things to scare birds away.
It's a lot disappointment after a lot of work. But life finds a way.. Early spring this year. Hives look vibrant and active. Winter losses about 18%. I will wear that as a badge of honor since clusters were so small going into winter. Queens are expanding the brood nest and. bountiful maple pollen everywhere. Gotta give bees credit were credit is due. What other livestock could rebound from tragedy like that?!?!
@@bobbinnie9872 I know, not always works for me either... but if it will work in 50% of cases, still it will be a 50% improvement in the health and safety of employees
Great video and some good lookin bees. Split out the old queen in one of our hives 2 weeks ago and they sent a virgin swarm into our oak tree this past Saturday. Live and learn!
8 frames wow! No way I could do that in Ct. 10 frames and an insulated cover…. And a mild winter maybe. Why not take the feeders out in the fall and add those feed frames Bob?
We could have left them out but we chose to feed with them under those double screen boards. Colonies without double screen boards were fed with buckets.
I had bees last two years come get water from my ac drain and I’ve spent some time watching them to see if I could track them to the hive and I noticed they were coming and going in three different directions I never did find a hive but they had a steady flow of bees all spring till end of late summer I always had 10-15 or more bees getting water the first time I seen them I thought a swarm was close by but it turned out they was just a lot of bees coming for water