Your hives are so pretty. Im jealous. I saw a ball of bees on the ground, could be another queen. (Spoke too soon!) But you did an awesome job! Did not think you would find the Queen, good job! Exactly as I would hav done it. PS, I love solid bottom boards. No hate.
As a beekeeper in South Africa I can give the following advice. First lightly smoke the entrances 1or 2 puffs. Give it a minute and then strong smoke 5 to 10 puffs directly into the entrances. Give it 3to 5 minutes pop the lid and heavy smoke under the lid, give it another minute. Now you can work with light smoke when they start getting agitated. When you get the smell of ripe banana ( attack pheromone) it is better to close up and leave. We work mostly late afternoon and early evening because the bees are slightly calmer. Our African bees are less prone to disease, control hive beatles better and is more likely to abscond.
When using apiguard you should take out I’m board, remove entrance reducer and provide ventilation type inner cover, giving them more ventilation helps to prevent absconding
Yes I agree but this was not an abscond. And it also depends on the outside temps whether to leave the IPM board in or not. I’m dealing with this issue currently. 🙂 Thanks for watching!
I appreciate the way you teach us. No worries. I just have unfilled queen cups right now in Central Florida with a really crowded hive, but I can't find the queen and I'm not certain of eggs (think I see a few) yet. I only have one hive so I want to make this works. Lost some to swarms last year. Trying to not make the same mistake. It's a great hive.
I have blocks and 4x4s in a similar setup with 2 hives instead 4. I was going to expand to 4 hives but I see that that working the 2 inside hives is a bit awkward. I'm trying to get a setup easy on the back. After watching this I think I'll stay with 2 hives between 2 block piles so I have 360° access. Never know what you might pick up in a bee RU-vid!! 👍
Worked in a quite large apiary and 1 single deep was a big no no = high chance of swarms. Guys working there actually did a test with 20 hives in a single deep for a season: bees were making queen cells like crazy all season; lots of splits, not much honey produced. If you're all over your beehives and micro-manage it you'll be fine. If you only inspect every 2 weeks or so: expect losing your bees.
Sorry but this has not been my experience. Yes, I have experienced lots of swarming but the singles for the most part successfully requeened. My bees don’t make queen cells “all year long”. They’re not Africanized. And singles can actually produce MORE honey than doubles. I’m not sure where you are located but again, this has not been my experience here. Cheers!
@@beesintheweeds just north of canadian border. beehives used for 1-deep testing were of different genetic background too. could be a difference in climate, sure. We also used different treatments after summer flow and harvest on beehives. survival was also higher with double deeps (I have no number here just was told it was higher) and needed way less feeding so from a business standpoint it was a no brainer I guess.
You should make your own bottom screen boards using 14 x 18 winco serving tray. Cut sides and cross pieces from 2 x 4s. You have to fill corners in due to the radius corners on the tray. I keep diatomaceous earth in the trays to kill small hive beetles.
I had the same thing happen last year I put them in the hive the next day. They was on the outside agand I put them back in the next day they was back out and while I was sitting there looking at them they took off and I just watched them leave. And said good luck to all of you
I like your videos, I am not a beekeeper, but I find beekeeping videos fascinating, and I sure do love honey. I have always wondered why some beekeepers place heavy bricks on the lids and at first, I thought to myself they must be to keep animals from lifting the lids off but that did not seem right, you finally explained the reason for them; and I like the way you clearly narrate your actions and the reasoning behind each decision. That medicine seems like it really repels them. Also, I thought the minimum number of boxes was two the smaller honey super on top of the brood box, but you appear to use only one box? Also, I like that bench like set up with the 4X4's and bricks. Thanks!
Wow, thank you so much for the kind words! I’m so glad you enjoyed the video and I do pride myself on providing logical explanations to my choice of beekeeping practices. As you know, there are many ways to successfully keep bees. I just offer one perspective. As for the single vs double deep philosophy, please check out my video here for a nice run down of the pros and cons. Thanks for watching! Thoughts on Single Brood Management ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jcYkarrBKVE.html
cut the api in half its to strong and clean it off the bottom board i have done the same thing. if they were queenless they already had a brood break that will help with mites. i love my bees mist with 50 50 sugar water to help they clean off each other queens stop or slow brood when treeted.
Interesting strategy although until you get the queen inside I suspect the bees would remain on the stand with her. With her inside the inner cover hole, it's possible they all would have moved up to her over time. I just wouldn't want to leave the bottom of the hive open for extended periods due to animals that would prey on them or pests. Thanks for watching!
I use hopguard 3. When there's brood I use 1 treatment every 2 weeks 3 times. Bees don't seem to mind. I use oa vape in spring and fall. My first year I lost my only hive to apiguard. They absconded. Now I have top bar hives so use the hopguard and oa. I'm hoping it keeps working well. Happy you caught them. I had double deep and it was 70s in Wisconsin. I used whole 50 gram dose. Wish I used 25.
Are you doing half dose because it's hot? If so ,half dose for a single deep is 12 5 grams while it's hot out. Can you take a frame of honey? Frame of brood and frame of eggs and put it in there. They have no reason to stay in hive. Use 5 gallons bucket to feed 2 to 1 for a bit and try apivar so you don't run them out again. Should work good since you really have no brood.
@@beesintheweeds The pink food box was gone and there was no food. The hive is still in question in a super poisition and by grounding it with eggs and brood well there be a probality when not locating a mating queen.
@@beesintheweeds have you watched your video on removing the food. Than keep watching to the end of your video forggeting on adding the food back on. One fanstastic way of knowing when a queen is in process by adding a frame of eggs and larvae will clear up any hobbist confusion to translation. Was great watching a disregard on a state of a hive to employing sticks on a ladder system.
Appreciate the feedback. I’m a one man crew so it’s a little difficult but I’m trying different things to see if I can’t get some better angles. Thanks again.
@@beesintheweeds sorry I have just come across your channel, but you still need to have the camera closer , had the same problem with my hive,had a swarm under my hive ,didn’t see it,took two hours to sort out. Gary, Near Stonehenge.
@@garyhenstridge6232Thanks Gary. I do try. I’m a one man crew the vast majority of the time so it’s difficult to manage the bees and film at the same time. I only have so many hands. 😊
I am thinking out of the box here. I am not a beekeeper but regularly watch beekeeping videos. I am hunching that fresh paint smell on bottom board and boxes and vibrant colours are bothering them. Please note that these are bees who belong in the wild and wilderness is not that colourful as your apiary. My suggestion is that, remove the colours from the bottom box and brood boxes and supers and bring out the natural wood with its original colour.This trick may help bees to stay in your apiary.
I don’t believe that is what happened or the reason why. The different paint colors is to increase the chances of a mated queen returning successfully to the correct hive as bees can see all colors but red. Having hives this close together or not ideal and can cause issues with successful queen mating and return, along with drifting which can promote varroa issues and disease. But when you only have so much space to manage bees, placing colonies closer together is a must and we deal with it. Thanks for watching!
It’s certainly an option I have considered but it does provide additional support when the hives are extremely heavy with honey. Thanks for the suggestion!
I’m a one man camera crew. It’s a catch 22. Use my hands and leave the camera further away, or hold the camera in one hand and not be able to do what’s needed. Maybe if enough people enjoy the content I will invest in a GoPro I can strap to my head. 🙂 I do appreciate you watching. Sorry for the poor camera angles.
