Oh man .... if this year does well could it mean .... could we finally see ...... a flowhive super next year? ;) A toast to humble beginings! Congrats on the booming hives and the best of luck going forward!
Jim, nice to see you are having a great honey flow like we are here. For my bees, it is heading towards a record harvest. Again with your insulated hives you are seeing the direct benefit that having the hive environment easier to manage for the bees allows them to put on more honey! Insulation for the win!
That's awesome. You can really see how powerful having a healthy hive coming out of winter is. With the mite situation being managed I think your hives are going to do great next year too.
Thanks for another great video! I started a package in early April in my version of your bee barn (deep+medium sized frames, 2” rigid insulation exterior, no additional wood wrapping exterior…yet) in NE CT. The colony is booming, better than in my 10 previous years experience and I credit your frame design. Inspected yesterday - fully drawn 6 of 7 of the extra deep frames and 2/3 filled a honey super (7 drawn combs rather than 8 to promote those fat combs easy to uncap) in one week. Added another yesterday. Never had a package build so fast and produce right out of the gate. Also added a temp/hum broodminder based on your experience. Love it! I’m hoping to split this colony in June. Thanks again for such great videos.
Supersedures are always interesting to see. Clearly the bees know something we don't. Fingers crossed they become queenright nice and easily. Let 2022 be the easy, booming beekeepers year 😁
I try and use eggs as my indicator. If they have eggs and population numbers with a cell going I assume it’s a swarm cell. If I find a queen cell and don’t see eggs, I usually find that’s a supersedure.
I'd recommend some Pacific Northwest Dogwoods to even out your spring flow a bit, plant some around, see what sticks, one can but try. One full grown dogwood will feed all your hives for a month and a half.
You have the right brood chamber space were the queen can lay up the brood nest and it forces the worker bees to store the honey up in the honey super. Your hive is being manage like using the single brood chamber management tech when using a langstroth hive.
Well, I have converted my hives to your style. I keep losing my bees in the middle of winter, even with resources still in the hive and treating for the mites. fingers crossed all goes well this year.
Looks great! I mowed my orchard dandelion field this past weekend as the apples blossomed. I’ve found that my bees don’t move up if the dandies are left uncut.
We didn’t have a huge apple blossom this year. Some trees had zero flowers. Very strange. Milkweed and clover are coming up everywhere, so that’s good!
Seriously wow. Our hives swarmed May 15th that's after we had already gone through and gave them supers. We're an hr east of you. What is up with this year? Our hives are exploding this year.
I am happy that your doubledeep is working so nice. I would place the second super under the first because the bees dries the honey from top to bottom.
The QC's are supersedure cells. I join with many of your commenters in that this has been a wild nectar year. I live in California and our flow hit a month early and it was flowing. I have never experienced anything like it. It was so exciting to see how quickly the bees could fill the supers. May is normally our flow but like last year it has been on again, off again. Also, horizontal hives are different but super awesome to use. Management is different but once you figure it out, it's great. Try it, you may like it.
No crazy flow here yet. It’s been nice, but a bit chilly and things seem late. However, it’s supposed to be in the 90s this weekend and that is very, very unusual for May. I’m sure horizontal hives work great for people in some climates. If they work for you, I’m happy for you. But they make no sense in a northern, cold climate where bees need to maneuver throughout a hive for 6 months of freezing weather. Moving a cluster across multiple frames to find food is way harder to virtually impossible compared to moving up and down vertically to find food. My hives were inspired by thinking about how bees evolved living in the inside of a tree. Trees are tall and narrow. Horizontal hives are not. I’m not telling anyone how to keep their bees. I’m telling you how I keep MY bees.
So nice to see your hives doing well. Since every hive seems ok have you thought about selling bees/queens? Maybe this year dabble in queen banking and next year offer some for sale? There is always a bunch of hobbyist who need help and since you're getting pretty proficient you might be in a position to help above and beyond your awesome videos!
I have to second this idea, especially given he is trying to avoid adding a bunch more hives. We are looking at repeat results for the year he had to add… 9?10? More hives, but in this case with added relief of environmental pressures. I expect he’s going to have to let many hives swarm just to prevent drowning in hives otherwise!
This year I had to test honey that was uncapped and spin it out because the flow is so heavy. Our black locust trees in IN were beautiful this year. If I don’t spin them when half capped i run out of honey frames .Yay go bees go
Looks like overall those hives are clam as can be I used to laugh 😃 so hard when you would open the Russian hive (honey bagers) they where some pissy little girls lol
Question I see you answered my question in this video from before about regretting not doing a double deep bee barn. Thanks. Love the bee barn. Just starting with two Nucs in PA and all new equipment how much feeding would you suggest while the flow is starting? Let it be natural or continue to supplement. They have taken about 5lbs of sugar each already
I say just keep feeding. But also monitor the frames. If you see them packing syrup amongst the brood, take the feed off and make sure they have a super. If you are feeding and you don’t notice them storing anything, they are using every drop and you need to feed more.
Kinda pulling this outta my butt, but it seems to me that unless you notice something actually wrong with that queen, it might be good to keep her. You may end up with a year where the hives get punished for a strong push at the start of the year, but a slower starting queen does well. Just thinking that with the way you use your bee yard, it isn't really a big deal to have a queen that isn't a monster. But, if you decide to get rid of that queen, maybe encourage them to swarm rather than a direct replacement?
Jim, I have assembled enough equipment in my woodshop for 3 barn hives. I was waiting until you released the V2.0 barn hive changes, before assembly. Can you disclose how you plan to correct for the moisture and adjustments to the top of the hive? Thanks! Lastly do you have any other youtuber recommendations that others are apply to the barn hive? I will definitely add ant barriers that you referenced in a previous clip. Thanks! And keep up the great work!
Hey Mr. Jim deep and medium works get for that area the people ask you about deed and deep that might be for southern states or mid states if I can get the end bars i'll try it and let you know here in middle East Missouri I know that deep and medium works grat in the south the by bug farmer is exploding with his bee barn
Great videos Jim. 2nd year Keeper in N. Central Washington at 4000ft. Started watching last fall and found your Bee Barns to be more interesting than the insulated Layens I built getting started (these died off due to yellow jackets last fall). In the last 2 months I have built 6 (material for 2 more already cut and awaiting assembly) of your hives based on clips of your videos and Instagram pics. Just heard you say no need for upper ventilation. If that is true, why the vent holes in the upper box? After design/build determination? Keep up the good work and sharing.
Yaay Vino Bee's!! It was a hard year last year, they are thanking you for listening to them! Question: are you going to build doubles to add to your hives eventually and be done with the smaller comb trays? As always, I continue to not be disappointed in knowing your instincts for this is on the money! Great job!! Smiles and blessings...
Do you mean the supers? I like mediums. They're easier to handle when full and easier for the bees to finish before moving on to the next. I'd hate to have a bee yard full of half finished deep frames at the end of the summer.
@@vinofarm I wasn't sure how to word it. But the new configuration that you made for the bees, is deeper/ longer. Yet you are adding the regular sizes on them now. I was wondering if you were going to build the deeper/ longer ones to add to them instead of the regular in the future. Hope that makes more sense. I'm not a bee keeper and I don't remember all the technical terms for the hives. Sorry. Maybe it's not needed except for winter over to keep them in the deeper ↕️ comb frames/boxes. Or if you plan to modify the deeper aspect to everything you add during growth time? Hope my wording helped...🤷♀️, I fear my lack of knowledge may confuse. Either way, I'm totally jazzed by your design for the hives. I was just jumping up and down happy to see those succeed, instinctually I just knew you were on to something! I've followed you from the beginning and cheer you on at every turn (and your bees)!
I will say even if you don’t plan on selling bees, you might want to ring up your bee buddies incase you get inundated with new queens. I have a VERY strong feeling that this year will be just swarms swarms swarms
To me middle of the frame queen cells can still mean a swarm. I literally watched my hive swarm this morning and when I checked the hive I had queen cells in the middle of the frames...so i still check them they could be swarming soon or already have
I think you are right, big hives seem to make at least ten when they get going…. But maybe they were just getting started? I hope you get a fresh queen out of it.
Hi There . We get our bees in Nucs, from a local breeder. What are your thoughts and suggestions in getting the bees from the nucs into the bee barn, as there is already eggs, larvae, and brood growing in the five frame deep super nuc box without disturbing all the brood nest too much ?
Super it on top of a bee barn nuc, preferably with a queen excluder (and put the queen in the bottom), remove after the last brood has hatched (or keep it as a honey super).
Jim, whay are you using deep frame in isolated hives? I have isolated hive but only using single deep and max 8 frame in LR 10 frame because I have termal board on side (falowing boards) pusch bees to move honey from brood chamer uper in super that way you let queen to dominated with brood chamber, sometimes I have only 6 frames in brood chamber and 3 super’s on top. Let me tray explai if you have 6 frames only in chamber LR deep frame is 8000 cels (+-) 8x4=32 mean 32000 cels , circle of 21 days think about do mat little. I switch 3 years ago from W LR deeps to single and now I harves 100 lb honey from each hive, again think about if you let queen dominated with brood chamber you reduced preshure in brood chamber then with this metod you have healty and strong bees because they raised in tight brood (compact brood) with micro-clime. Bees swormi g because of big temperature , thats reison you can see queen cells in hive, that way bees is ready to sworm out any time. Use termal camera and check temp in brood chember and used one colony in single brood chember you will see diference, this I mean only for isolated chambers.
I'm glad you figured out a solution for your hives. 100lbs of honey per hive is simply not possible where I live. No matter how I manage the bees. There is just not enough of a nectar season. I'm managing for winter survival first. Honey is not a top priority for me.
I sometimes try new titles to see if it affects views. Sometimes it does. Not trying to trick you into clicking again! Just trying to reach new people.
@@vinofarm Ahh Gottcha! I dont mind clicking your videos more then once, I guess im just overly excited waiting for the next video :P May this season bless us all with an epic flow!... for the bees of course.
As you know l love your BeeBarns, nothing wrong with the name by the way. Would the type of woods have anything to do with the amount of flow? Just a thought.
A feeling of “crowding” in the brood box. Also, when 50% of the frames are covered in capped brood, that brood is all going to emerge shortly and the population is about to explode. Those bees need a place to go. I add a second super if the queen is still covering more than half the frames with brood and they’ve started putting nectar in the first super. Then just stay ahead of them. Make sure there’s always an empty super if there’s a flow happening or imminent.
Hey there again from WY! I was glad to see your video up! I really look forward to your videos, as I learn something new from you every time! However, I'm going to be selfish, and a pain in the posterior, by lamenting that you don't do the super close ups anymore of the queen, the important brood aspects that you use to show, and of the specific types of brood, as well as close ups of Queen cells (and the internals of Q.C.'s such as larvae and jelly). The camera set ups are a serious bother to you, and steal badly needed time from your day, but perhaps you could do some close ups every third video or something of that timing, so that some selfish old Geezer in the middle of nowhere like me still get some greater detailed information, but not to the point of stealing so much of your time? Anywho, thank you again for another truly great video! All my best to you and your family, stay safe and healthy! Cheers from the Oil Patch in Central WY
I will keep this in mind. A million things going on around the farmstead in May and this video was edited in a rush. I needed to post an update and didn't spend as much time on it as I usually do. There will be plenty more videos this summer. Nice to hear from you!
I just wanted to ask why won't you just do an 8 frame super and not 7 so you don't have those extra space? Since, there's no need for a spacer on the supers. I know the brood boxes are only 7 extra deep frames, but I just wanted to ask still
7 frames are spaced wider apart. This allows the bees to build the comb wider than the top bars. Wider capped comb makes slicing off the caps effortless when it comes time to spin the honey. Tightly spaced super frames make the bees cap the honey INSIDE the plane of the wooden frames and therefore they store less honey per frame AND it makes extracting harder.
I have talked about Broodminders several times. I posted the temp/humidity data on Instagram almost weekly over the winter. I love them. They changed how I keep my bees.
Nothing wrong with drones. Unless you find that ALL the brood is drones and then you have a drone layer problem. But this time of year there are usually lots of drones.
When does the swarm season begins in MA? I've set up a swarm trap close to Middlesex Fells. I "painted" trap inside with real beeswax and I put lemongrass oil as a lure, but I don't see any activity yet... No even curious scouts.
Not many feral swarms up here. You’ll be catching lazy beekeepers’ bees. I never see swarms out here before June 1 but things are earlier out near you.
I live about 1hr east of Jim. Past 2 years our hives swarmed May 14th & May 15th -like clock work. Due to health reasons we weren't able to quite stay on top of hive maintenance.
Its looks like its going to be a great year for the Vino bees. How is your insulation problem going? have you given it some though? You could stop a swarm by giving them more boxes or kidnapping bees from a big hive into a lesser one. I still don't get why you have preferred beenapping to bigger hives. can't wait for the spring flow update. Hope you get a big ass hive now that you are limiting the hives and number of nukes.
Not sure if I wasn't clear in the video... I DID take bees and brood from the biggest hives and put them into the smaller hives. That's what "equalizing" is.
@@vinofarm but you did not make more nukes just ensured that every hive has a relative equal size, you just took one big frame and you are not capping your hives size you gave them an incentive to grow, I prefer this instead of making two hives and a nuke from one hive. Also I really want to see you get a massive hive someday. Not likely you ever let that happen but still. It's awesome to see the Vino bees and think of season 1 (year 1) and how it's changed and evolved.
Starting in late August and early September, I remove the supers. The fall flow happens in September. Everything they gather goes straight into the brood box. It’s a thing they do. The queen slows down, brood patterns gets smaller and the bees “backfill” the brood box. They live in the brood box for the winter. If the fall flow is poor, I have two months to feed them and they use syrup to backfill the winter nest.
What do you do when you find that your bees have gotten nectar from plants bad for humans? Also, I'm out west and the bees I'm forced to use will be the hybrids. Do you have your bee houses plans written down? Being where I'm at, I'd probably have to go with a double deep brood box setup.
Id suggest calling a local university for advice! I don’t think it is common but i have heard of it rarely happening that some plants nectar can contain hallucination chemicals
@@FioreCiliegia Reason I really wanted to know is out in Southern Nevada, there's a lot of plants growing that are illegal in many states. I don't know if it can get into the honey
I won’t use plastic frames here in West Australia, it gets so hot in summer that they warp an bend in the heat. I also worry about micro particles of plastic in my honey.
I’m sure horizontal hives work great for people in some climates. If they work for you, I’m happy for you. But they make no sense in a northern, cold climate where a cluster of bees need to maneuver throughout a hive for 6 months of freezing weather. Moving a cluster across multiple frames to find food is way harder (to virtually impossible) compared to moving up and down vertically to find food. My hives were inspired by thinking about how bees evolved over millions of years living inside trees. Trees are tall and narrow. Horizontal hives are not. I’m not telling anyone how to keep their bees. I’m telling you how I keep MY bees.
I’m in northern CT and started with horizontal hives 10 years ago. Tried for three years but never had winter survival despite exterior insulation ‘blanket’. Then went to Warre (frameless vertical) hives, better winter survival, but not easily manageable. Then went to all-medium Langstroth, 3 box winter brood chamber. Better, but Jim’s bee barn design (deep-medium frames) has been a game changer for me.
