Greetings. I’m a 10 year beekeeper. There is so much to learn! I would put the empty brood box on the living hive. That way they will use the space in spring. If you leave the empty boxes where they are, wax moths/hive beetles may ruin it as soon as it gets warm since there are no bees to defend it.
Hi the I believe reason those bees dies is because the number of bees got low (most likely lost queen) and you had to much space and the colder nights we had killed the bees. Something I have learned from experience is you have to have a good ratio of bees to the amount of space you have in the hive. An example that I like to use is trying to heat a 3000 square foot house with a small electric heater is like a small cluster of bees trying to keep two boxes of the hive warm.
It appeared your bees were clustered together to try to maintain/promote warmth for their queen and any brood, but there were way too few bees. If a hive goes into winter with too few bees, they can't generate enough heat to survive. Also, could they reach their honey stores? In cold weather, they tend to only move upwards for honey, not side to side. Just something to think about. Believe me, every bee keeper has lost their share of bees. You just keep on trying the next year!
Agree with your assessment that the bees starved to death even though they had some honey in the top super. Really could not tell for sure since they didn't pull out the other frames in the brood chamber. Also, the wasp had nothing to do with the death of this hive. Good luck to them this spring on their new hives. They should have feed this hive in the fall.
Hey Jason, if you pay attention to all those pine trees, you won't find much grass growing underneath them. You should get rid of all of those pine trees. Plant something like Whiteoak, Hickory, Poplar, or Maple. Any thing besides pine. Hope you have a wonderful new year and God bless you and the family.
If the bees are dead and the their tongues are sticking out that means they where poisoned somewhere that ppl have sprayed. I lost 8 hives due to ppl spraying chemicals.
Hello Jason, Lorraine and Penelope. You are an amazing homesteading family. I love following along as you rebuilt, reclaim and revitalize this property. Your work ethic is incredible. Can't wait to see your before and after pictures after 5 years. 🤗❣️🙏
I so enjoy watching what you and Lorraine do all around the homestead. It's definitely a huge improvement from two years ago. I'm sticking around for all of it. Happy New Year Jason, Lorraine and Penelope.
Great Job on the high tunnel. I built mine last year by myself and so can truly appreciate your accomplishment. My elbow hurt for months from using the impact driver. Sooo many trips up and down the ladders! 😂❤ Many blessings on your endeavors!
Really enjoyed watching you build the greenhouse and seeing how Lorraine harvested the honey. I know what it feels like to lose your first colony! Been there! Just bought your chicken tractor plans and probably will buy the course on chicken processing too. Thanks for making these available!
Ridge pole -I’ve done 2. The long pole method I didn’t have space for. Attaching 1 at a time was exhausting for me. But building out 3 lengths to run into the brackets & adding a new length everytime the other end was in the bracket on the hoop worked for me. There was a lot of back & forth. But less stress on my neck & shoulders
I read somewhere that some bees go into a hibernation or a kind of shutdown when it gets too cold for them. It gives the appearance that they are dead.
Hi I joined 2 tubes at a time on my tunnel, both work as you show. Our tunnels in UK are a bit different (they were 10 years ago when I put mine up) I didn't have the spring clips like yours They looked interesting on your pig one. I did mine in summer to get poly really tight . It is still like a drum skin, it was 50°C inside the tunnel when covering on my jack as all the people that said they would help with cover dissapeard for a few days LOL. I enjoyed a cold beer or 10 when I was done
Merci for sharing your experience w/ bees! Strongest hives survive, weaker ones go by wayside, Bond method, live & let die survival of the fittest. Now you have proven strong survivor hive that can be split into another hive or 2 later this year. Your empty can be used for splits. Also can use styro coolers (Omaha steaks/Jenny craig etc) to make swarm lures to catch your or other feral survivor honey bee swarms. Keep on Beekeeping the Planet! 🐝🐝🐝
Well that is very upsetting! I would cry if I lost a hive. Now you have a chance to capture a wild hive of bees. Put a bee box in a sturdy tree and see what you can catch.
We lost our first batch of bees too, but most of them left in the middle of winter and there were not many dead ones left behind in the hives. We're not sure what happened, but we assume they abandoned the hives due to lack of resources. We had water and pollen out for them but we didn't provide any extra sugar water and they must have thought they didn't have enough honey to survive the winter. Oh well, we'll try again. The honey from the abandoned hives is the best tasting honey I've ever had! It's worth it to keep trying bees even though it's an expensive hobby with a huge learning curve. Good luck to you guys!
Knee pads are okay. I found the Velcro straps really irritating to the back of my legs. I started using the rectangular pads that are sold for gardening. Quite the improvement.
So enjoyable to watch the two of you learning as you go, your interest in finding the cause, so many of your posts, you have many people who will help you long the way. I am not a honey lover, but it always looks so good. The two of you work so good together, and so patient with each other.
On my 60’ tunnel I put up the ridge pole piece by piece just like you did. Brings back memories. I think the worst bit was the constant up and down and move the ladder.
Yep welcome to bee family. We are in northern Montana. Lost three hives last year. FYI order bees ahead. Some have a time limit when you can order bee,mine is March. I scrape my frame with a pancake turner into a colander. Then let it drip. With only the few frames I wrap and freeze.
Hi , great channel, Hey you may want to invest in a hand honey spinner. It holds 4 frames and you canhot knife the caps off then spin the frames to get your honey. My father was a bee keeper for 60 plus years so I pickup up a few things. I'm in Queensland Australia. Great work and very interesting watching your channel.
We actually leave our honey covered tools outside for a couple days for the other hives to clean out because they can recycle other hives honey. OBVIOUSLY CHECK to make sure it is parasite and disease free first.
You don't convert school buses any longer? I liked when you did that and recall the one or two videos where you talked about doing so. I am sorry about your bees dying. I enjoyed watching how much honey you were able to get, and how you went about doing so. You're working hard clearing and building!
It would be easier to have a pet tiger than try to keep bees alive. They are the most fickle and infuriating creatures. They are wildly unpredictable, and such a mystery. Bees gonna bee.
One time we were at a festival and my wife and I were showing how to braid wool rugs. I took a break and visited a been vendor who let me help him spin out the honey in his equipment loved the opportunity. I would suggest going to a class hands on and see this being done first hand and in the coming years you too can add to your homestead classes on this subject. Great fun and oh so good.
You can get yourselves set up to catch a swarm this year as well. I had one year a mouse got in the hive and destroyed it. This year I had one swarm catpture hive be lost to wax months. I still have two swarm capture hives going. PS I don't have an extractor either. This year I got 15 pints from 7 frames. Had to manually scrape frames and strain just like you did.
New or weak bee hives can be attacked by wasps and destroyed. The wasps are going after the honey and protein. Wasps can sting multiple times while Honey Bees can only sting once. You will have to fortify protections for the hives going forward if you want them to survive. Also, you can look into wasp-killing sprays or some other way to kill the wasps in addition to fortifying the protections around the hives. I am so sorry that your bees died.
Sorry about your Bees but at least u did get to taste the honey. You are doing great with a High tunnel and working by yourself. Tell Zeke to help you 😂
Jason, you are one hard working man. Your home-grown diet must help a lot. Maybe Lorraine can find out more about what killed the bees? That is so sad.
only reason I say it like that to not confuse people. When you just say chickens most people think egg layers. Well, nowadays you can say 3d printed chickens. 🤣
@@SowtheLand Chicken you buy from the store might as well be 3D printed. I remember how beef used to taste and now, you might as well become a vegetarian.
Stinks about the colony. This is beekeeping. No matter how hard you work or study, you are going to lose bees. Man, I wish I was closer to help you as you take on these amazing insects.
Green House is coming together. I'm so excited for you. All the veggies, herbs, flowers you'll be THANKFULLY EATING. It's nice to get a taste of your honey. ❤❤❤🀄🥀🌹🙏🇮🇱🙏🛐🛐🛐🌹🥀 I am very thankful to watch your Loving family VLOGS And🎉 FRIDAY SHOPTALK. You are BLESSED. FROM SE MICHIGAN.
Hi guys. So glad you are promoting our pollinators ! Bees are so awesome. What they give is so valuable. Good for your health. People use bee pollen. You can make lots of stuff with the beeswax. ( candles ) Honey is good on Peanut butter sandwiches. Lol Sorry about loosing some of them. That was sad. It shows how nature is in charge of things. Thanks for a nice video !