I’ve been keeping bee’s for about 4 years now. This year has been the first that I am making a sincere effort to do everything correctly and expand my numbers for next spring. I have learned a tremendous amount watching your videos. This is the first year where I feel like things are making good sense to me. So much more to learn but I am enjoying the process.
Yes indeed, beekeeping forces us to pay attention to mother nature, and this certainly includes the flowers. Keep up the good work, Bob and thanks for the wonderful videos. I've learned a lot from you. 🐝🐝
You taught me to requeen every year and I appreciate that. That's the way to go Bob. Thanks for sharing this. I spray in between my Muscadines vines so I have nothing growing in aisles. Only time my bees are in my small vineyard is when the old fruit falls on the ground. Thanks again Bob and Thanks to your crew as well.
I keep rope calk on hand to plug up those gaps and cracks. The girls like to collect it when the propolis is harder to collect resources for. I see them pulling on it and sticking it on their saddle bags....then off they go...back to their hive. And then find it in the gaps and holes they plug up with it. Caught a worker helping herself to the roll on my desk just yesterday.
Hello Bob. It’s very hot and dry here. I replaced some of my queens. In the past couple of weeks. I doesn’t look like I’m going to have a big honey crop this year. This is one of those years. I’m glad I’m not a commercial beekeeper.
Thanks Bob for all the great photography while you and your crews work the many yards there in Georgia. Much noteworthy advice and knowledge on how and what we should be doing with our own area honeybees. Here in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, California. Thanks
Our sourwood is almost done, caught me off guard coming in alot earlier than last year, few trees we have are at 990ft elevation, temps in 90's, ive got buckwheat, sunflower planted for backup, waiting on goldenrod, taft,tn
Hi from central Otago southern New Zealand 👋🥝😄 Wow what beautiful locations to have apairys, that's really nice. Great to see you being proactive and requeening early but yeah it's always a grit your teeth moment when you've got a great Queen and you bump her😅 I completely agree with your methodology there, it's absolutely better to requeen proactively than reactively. I hope you have a great sourwood flow this year, our main crop in this part of central Otago is Thyme honey in December and January which is our summer with a willow bump in the spring late September and it's shaping up to be a great year, lot of rain now in our winter which pushes the ground moisture up👍😆
As always a great learning process from everything you share Thank You. Our not so secret prayer right now is that we reach two inches of rain for the year by July one ..................................................... not likely!
Mamosa trees give you nectar while when I see it in bloom it means the end of the spring flows. I’m going wild black raspberry picking and seeing mamosa in bloom. Sorry for the spelling error on the tree
I totally know you are right requeening my best queen started laying drones at the worst possible time in early spring . I never lost the bees I just doubled it up with a smaller hive . . But hive count went down .. I tried our small wild flower honey mostly fruit this spring very tasty !! But never got to taste anything like robotussen 😢
Ha Bob another great video, glad everything is working good for u. Thanks again for talking to me on the phone and answering my questions I am trickle feeding now thanks again for everything hope u and your family and crew have a very blessed week. looking forward to your next video.
In addition to queen excluder failure, unstacking/restacking during a hive inspection gives a queen the opportunity to jump ship and end up above the excluder. I'm always careful not to stack or lean anything on supers.
Sourwood just started for me in southern WV, about a week early this year. I hope all goes well. Sadly we’ve been in a drought for a few weeks. Might get some rain tonight, hopefully that will prolong it.
Do you find that bees are more reluctant to go through a plastic Queen excluder than a metal one? Thank you for taking the time to provide CZcams videos. They are very informative and helpful. I know it is one more thing on an already full agenda when going to a bee yard. You are appreciated!
If the dimensions are correct I think you will do better with a metal excluder. The question is, is the dimension correct. Plastic excluders are stamped and tend to be right. Right now we are seeing metal excluders too small and too big. Thanks.
Good morning Bob, Sourwood is just getting started here in Mills River, outside of Hendersonville NC. One question , Mimosas usually bloom here just as Sourwood is finishing. Is it earlier than last year for you? It seems to me that you said years ago, that one out of five years are great for Tulip Poplar in our area. Dearth may be a bit harder this year. Thanks for the continuous education. Antoine Ignizio Henderson county Beekeepers 🐝😊
Good morning. Mimosa has always bloomed ahead of the Sourwood in our area. Decades ago Tulip Poplar was a little more dependable. Last year we made a good bit but this year we did not. With the heat and lack of rain we're currently experiencing it could be a struggle in late summer this year.
You have made my day today. My area is a country agriculture area. Around the dearth the cotton blooms. Never had any problems with pesticide. Until this year. A crop duster came in and dusted in front and behind our little 14 acre property. I don't know who, what or why but am now on the search to find d out. Also, Bless you for talking about Mimosa honey and even showing the tree. A group of beekeepers were adamant that they don't work Mimosa. There is a Lot of it in my area and has helped me with my wildflower honey and a little extension in the honey flow. Just enough to give a little different flavor and beautiful golden color. I pro.ise not to do "Bob said, told you so" lol. Your verification is enough for me. Maybe a video on what pesticide poisoning looks like. I was feeling pretty sad. Thank you so much. Susan NW Georgia
Bob- have you thought about selling your established “used” queens? I’ll bet people would be happy to have them since most are backyard beekeepers. Something is better than nothing $30 queen vs newly mated $45 one- sounds good to me😀
Bob I ever get enough supers I would do the same as you but with the basswood we don't have sourwood but I believe basswood is are best option here in pa but right now I have all my supers on and need more like I always do for basswood so looks like they are gonna plug up and swarm in the next two weeks I'm trying to cut down on my numbers and move bees to just one yard ND make things easier
Hi Bob, 4th year with bees, just south of you in Canton, GA. Wondering what your record keeping process looks like and how you keep up with the status of each yard and the colonies within each yard? Really love how you explain all the little insights/tips/situations/problems that pop up. Most helpful. Thanks!
Hello Bob. Back in Romania we used to do pastoral beekeeping. I approached the same practices here in N Texas. The difference is that here we have no agricultural fields with sunflower or Canola fields. Wild flowers only. I understand that you use to go to Ca for almond pollination. With this idea/ practices in mind I have to ask this, considering the beekeeping low in Ga. I am allowed to bring bees from Tx to Ga? I am not intending to bring more than 60 colonies but I am so interested to see you and your facility and 2 learn…. This is my dream project. Thank you so much for keeping posting.
Georgia does allow bees to enter from out of state but you would of course have to find locations first. You would be most welcome to visit our business if you get to Georgia.
Hope the towels that you are not using, are helping. I wonder if you could pot the culled queens in a 1 oz bottles with alcohol and sell those. I know some folks love putting that in there swarm lure.
Mr Binnie, I understand you wanting to requeen yearly. I also understand you not wanting to sell the old queens due to not wanting to complicate your process. What I dont understand is how it takes longer to put a queen in a cage and stick her in your pocket than it does to find and pinch her, other than about 10 seconds, of course. You could simply drop them at the store at the end of the day and let the retail team deal with them. I think there are plenty of people who would pay 1/2 price for them. Not for their production value but for the genetics. They could be thrown out after a day or so. Kind of a day-old bread concept. Take care, I really enjoy your videos.
Thanks. It's hard to explain my feelings on selling or giving away used queens. It's something that has developed over time. I actually have, and still do, give away many to friends that understand what they are getting. I never charge anything. The problem is that in the past I've given many away to people I didn't know very well just to hear negative comments through the grape vine that they had issues or were unimpressed. Perhaps its vanity or maybe it's simply because of the experiences I've had in the past that I don't want to do it.
Thank you for the clarification.It does seem sometimes that people base their value of something on what they pay for it. I guess that human nature. Skin in the game, ownership, etc.
Good morning Bob… i got a question. I live in Oregon. 10 hives did mite check yesterday all of em look really good except 1 hive. Seems to have way to many mites we are in middle of flow got honey supers on. Should i wait for flow to end or how should I handle this. Thank you much
For the feeder hole in your hive cover, is that an upside down jar lid? I want to switch to bucket top feeders and am wondering the most effective way to plug the hole without leaking. I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for making them!
If you are only using buckets, any size hole with an appropriate cap or plug will do. We use a 71mm hole saw which works with a 70mm jar cap (70G), because we still use 5 pound honey jars for feeding at times. Thanks.
For my nucks l found a plastic 2L bottle that won't collapse in from the vacuum. And now I use those caps for the top hole and the round entrances on the nucks. Even for my baby queen mating boxes. That plastic bottle cap became a multi purpose entrance and feeding hole cap. And it seals good. I think it's 3/4 in yours... 21mm A round entrance is much easier for bees to protect from robbing the nucleus hives.
I bought 10 from Mann lake and had two strong hives that the queen went through two excluders to the top. She was marked and up top laying. Not a major deal just frustrating to have to wait to pull the mostly capped honey.
Here l found a Turkish made plastic ones with bee space between boxes and after 5 years l still didn't have a queen pass through one. Now I use them and the metal ones are in storage. Bees have no problems passing through and my yards moving is much lighter. I think they even have a name.. don't have one in hand but if I remember it right it's Ciprus or Cyprus like the island
I ordered mutt queens from Nature Image Farms. I read that line has some of your Caucasian genetics in it. Requeening some Heavy Italian influenced queens. Hope to cut back on Robbing some.
Just curious, have you measured the bar space in these excluders you were mentioning? I don't have enough to get a good number but I have seen quite a few videos lately, from different channels, talking about how some queens are just a little smaller than the norm. I'm personally just curious if there's something going on with the "genetics" of the bees themselves...something stunting their growth as side effect of local pesticides, herbicides and such. BUT, I'm hoping your just right and it's poor manufacturing! Have a great weekend, still loving your videos!
We're seeing excluders running from .156 to .194 and many have bent wires out of the factory. I think .160 to .172 works the best. The Hive and the Honeybee says .163 is correct. Thanks.
Still wondering how you requeen with a nuc? Also if you have deeps for honey supers, how do you tell them apart from brood boxes that may have mite treatments in them at one point? I do think I'd want to use a brood box that has had treatment in it for a honey super the following year? Or that not a issue?
Some of the comb in our deep supers has been exposed to treatments but not many and we are using organic treatments these days which cause little trouble.
I know that 1/5 of an inch is used in pollen traps and that queens can get through 1/4. I'm not sure if there is something in between that would work. There actually are few metal excluders that have good spacing but the overall design is not good.
Most are from last year. We've only found a handful from 2022. I know the used queens could be of value but I decided a long time ago to only give them to close friends because I didn't want to risk getting bad comments from someone that doesn't understand what they got.
In Oregon Portland I didn’t treat for varroa from end off April When I treated With acid oxalic what . It is your recommendation ? to wait until the end of July when hopefully we have honey, or treat now with quick strips or acid oxalic ?
We are doing mite checks in each yard to determine our numbers. Most of our yards are low but a few yards are high. The high mite level yards are getting treated later this week with oxalic acid vaporization to keep numbers from getting higher until we treat with Apiguard around August 1st.
Bob, what does the Sourwood taste like? Do you have any at the shop to buy? I think the only way I am going to know if I have sourwood coming in for sure is to learn to be able to taste it. Also, What is the difference in color between white clover and sourwood?
I have never been good at describing the different tastes of honey. Sourwood has a mellow sweetness and I have heard otherts say it has a nutty, buttery taste. White sweet clover is lighter in color and Dutch white is about the same if they are both pure. It doesn't take much other honey to darken Sourwood a bit.
I pick up a very subtle anise flavor and smell from my sourwood honey. It smells exactly like the flowers from the sourwood trees. The flowers have a very strong scent
Hey bob this Albee seeing if you will have anymore cells the ones I got are great and are laying well I still got the first box I got from you you was going to trade it that day and I asked you to let me keep it it was one of your boxes that you had repaired that was sept 9 2020 I met my bee mentor he was 85 years old still had his first bees he had ordered from spell bee he had raised on all his beekeeping years I also met him in sept9 2010 I have both of my mentors boxes hanging in my bee shed have a good day ps tell Jessie hey
We did our last graft of the season today and may have extra cells next week if we have a good take. Contact us on Wednesday and we will know. These are cells to install on Friday.
@@bobbinnie9872 thanks bob Jessie said you might have a day in late march that I could come over and help with maybe learning some of your techniques for grafting it would be a honor to hang out and buy your lunch for the crew seeing if you have any sheets of the plywood for sale I made that trip down to the plywood shack below Atlanta long haul needing to make some tops and where do you get your lid cut out bit got one I think it came from china lids are super tight on the fit
Good morning sir, how are you coexisting with fungicides? I was going to set bees on a friend of mines farm until I read about the fungicides he was using. Said it is damaging to the gut health of the bees based on studies. Most of his crop is soy beans,corn,and turf. But the grapes are where the fungicides are being used.
Although fungicides aren't as bad as pesticides they are made to kill things too. If the bees are in it they will be affected in an insidious way. If there isn't anything blooming when spray is applied you may be OK.
@@bobbinnie9872 the guy with the vineyard is just a..... Where l am it's full with vineyards and olives. But the owners, me being one of them spent some time weed eating, mowing or turning the top soil over to conserve the humidity in the ground.. so the bees simply have no interest going there. And spraying with a wind is strictly forbidden. I can't even imagine the problems l would have when they inspect my honey or pollen and find fungicides with the contracts already done for the season. I would be marked for ever. By by organic standards and good prices for the products
It depends on the circumstances. In this instance we installed on the same visit. There was a slight nectar flow and the bees were preoccupied and very gentle. If it was a dearth and the bees were feeling ill tempered we might try to wait 6 to 8 hours.
@@bobbinnie9872 Have u thought about making a video about your mating yard or the steps you take on getting all those queens mated? Just a thought. I enjoy your videos, been watching them for years they’ve helped me tremendously thank you
I do give some to friends that understand what they are getting but have a policy of not selling them to the general public because of potential issues.
Bob I had something weird happen today. I've only grafted a few times since your video convinced me to try a couple years ago. I normally get about a 50 -60% take. I can't see like I use too but I'm happy with what I get. I grafted 20 cups and had 11 take. They built them out nicely and I was going to do splits today. But when I pulled them out this morning you could see through the bottom of the cups. I opened a couple of the cells. The queens were all dead in the cups. They looked like queens but were still all white. Did they not get enough nutrition, there was not any royal jelly left in the bottom of the cup. They were 14 days old.
It's hard to say. Keep in mind that even though leftover royal jelly is often seen as a sign of ample nutrition many good queen cells run out before they hatch and turn out great so that may not be the problem. But, although we occasionally have issues that we don't understand we always try to make sure there is stimulative feed while the cells are being built. It can be either a nectar flow or thin sucrose syrup.
I’ve been keeping bee’s for about 4 years now. This year has been the first that I am making a sincere effort to do everything correctly and expand my numbers for next spring. I have learned a tremendous amount watching your videos. This is the first year where I feel like things are making good sense to me. So much more to learn but I am enjoying the process.
Grand! Getting into a pattern with a notebook helps. Mr. Binnie, great teacher!
Yes indeed, beekeeping forces us to pay attention to mother nature, and this certainly includes the flowers. Keep up the good work, Bob and thanks for the wonderful videos. I've learned a lot from you. 🐝🐝
Kind of funny how All Beekeepers begin to Love Flowers, even those that make us sneeze.😂Blessed Days Bob...
Sunday morning coffee with the crew. Been a few weeks so catching up was interesting. Glad to see my missing some videos didn’t disrupt the bee work!
Kind of a relief when the season slows down!
We'll be getting them ready for winter before we know it.
@@bobbinnie9872 You stop it now!
Morning Bob. Thank you for the video, alwaya enjoy watching. How other people work their bees and time frames of when done.
You taught me to requeen every year and I appreciate that. That's the way to go Bob. Thanks for sharing this. I spray in between my Muscadines vines so I have nothing growing in aisles. Only time my bees are in my small vineyard is when the old fruit falls on the ground. Thanks again Bob and Thanks to your crew as well.
I did the masking tape trick this year and it truly helped with slowing them down. Thanks again for letting us know all your little "tricks".
Yeah that is an interesting idea isn't it with the masking tape. I think I'll try it myself too
I keep rope calk on hand to plug up those gaps and cracks. The girls like to collect it when the propolis is harder to collect resources for. I see them pulling on it and sticking it on their saddle bags....then off they go...back to their hive. And then find it in the gaps and holes they plug up with it. Caught a worker helping herself to the roll on my desk just yesterday.
Bob I love you said we are just as good at screwing things up. Refreshing
Hello Bob. It’s very hot and dry here. I replaced some of my queens. In the past couple of weeks. I doesn’t look like I’m going to have a big honey crop this year. This is one of those years. I’m glad I’m not a commercial beekeeper.
Thanks Bob for all the great photography while you and your crews work the many yards there in Georgia. Much noteworthy advice and knowledge on how and what we should be doing with our own area honeybees. Here in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, California. Thanks
Thanks 👍
Our sourwood is almost done, caught me off guard coming in alot earlier than last year, few trees we have are at 990ft elevation, temps in 90's, ive got buckwheat, sunflower planted for backup, waiting on goldenrod, taft,tn
Thanks for another video with great information
Hi from central Otago southern New Zealand 👋🥝😄 Wow what beautiful locations to have apairys, that's really nice. Great to see you being proactive and requeening early but yeah it's always a grit your teeth moment when you've got a great Queen and you bump her😅 I completely agree with your methodology there, it's absolutely better to requeen proactively than reactively. I hope you have a great sourwood flow this year, our main crop in this part of central Otago is Thyme honey in December and January which is our summer with a willow bump in the spring late September and it's shaping up to be a great year, lot of rain now in our winter which pushes the ground moisture up👍😆
Thanks👍
Motherlode company makes plastic excluders, plastic frames,frame feeders, propolis traps, and bear bottle spouts MADE IN USA , great guys to deal with
As always a great learning process from everything you share Thank You. Our not so secret prayer right now is that we reach two inches of rain for the year by July one ..................................................... not likely!
You got a nice garden
Mamosa trees give you nectar while when I see it in bloom it means the end of the spring flows.
I’m going wild black raspberry picking and seeing mamosa in bloom. Sorry for the spelling error on the tree
Hola que lindo ver sus videos gracias 🐝🐝🐝🐝🇦🇷💪💪💪💪💪
I totally know you are right requeening my best queen started laying drones at the worst possible time in early spring .
I never lost the bees I just doubled it up with a smaller hive . . But hive count went down ..
I tried our small wild flower honey mostly fruit this spring very tasty !!
But never got to taste anything like robotussen 😢
Ha Bob another great video, glad everything is working good for u. Thanks again for talking to me on the phone and answering my questions I am trickle feeding now thanks again for everything hope u and your family and crew have a very blessed week. looking forward to your next video.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear from you.
In addition to queen excluder failure, unstacking/restacking during a hive inspection gives a queen the opportunity to jump ship and end up above the excluder. I'm always careful not to stack or lean anything on supers.
Thank you for addressing mimosa honey. There’s not a lot of information on it.
Sourwood just started for me in southern WV, about a week early this year. I hope all goes well. Sadly we’ve been in a drought for a few weeks. Might get some rain tonight, hopefully that will prolong it.
Do you find that bees are more reluctant to go through a plastic Queen excluder than a metal one? Thank you for taking the time to provide CZcams videos. They are very informative and helpful. I know it is one more thing on an already full agenda when going to a bee yard. You are appreciated!
If the dimensions are correct I think you will do better with a metal excluder. The question is, is the dimension correct. Plastic excluders are stamped and tend to be right. Right now we are seeing metal excluders too small and too big. Thanks.
Good morning Bob, Sourwood is just getting started here in Mills River, outside of Hendersonville NC. One question , Mimosas usually bloom here just as Sourwood is finishing. Is it earlier than last year for you? It seems to me that you said years ago, that one out of five years are great for Tulip Poplar in our area. Dearth may be a bit harder this year. Thanks for the continuous education. Antoine Ignizio Henderson county Beekeepers 🐝😊
Good morning. Mimosa has always bloomed ahead of the Sourwood in our area. Decades ago Tulip Poplar was a little more dependable. Last year we made a good bit but this year we did not. With the heat and lack of rain we're currently experiencing it could be a struggle in late summer this year.
Thank you Bob, keep up the great work 👍
You have made my day today. My area is a country agriculture area. Around the dearth the cotton blooms. Never had any problems with pesticide. Until this year. A crop duster came in and dusted in front and behind our little 14 acre property. I don't know who, what or why but am now on the search to find d out.
Also, Bless you for talking about Mimosa honey and even showing the tree. A group of beekeepers were adamant that they don't work Mimosa. There is a Lot of it in my area and has helped me with my wildflower honey and a little extension in the honey flow. Just enough to give a little different flavor and beautiful golden color.
I pro.ise not to do "Bob said, told you so" lol.
Your verification is enough for me.
Maybe a video on what pesticide poisoning looks like.
I was feeling pretty sad.
Thank you so much.
Susan
NW Georgia
Sorry to hear of your trouble. If I see an issue this season I'll show it. Thank you.
I hope that's not a video you ever have to make. I saw the one video where you had the problem. Hopefully never again.
Good morning Bob. It was great seeing you yesterday at the shop. I did forget my inner covers at the register 😢.
Call the store and they can help you with that. 706 782 6722.
@@bobbinnie9872 I already have. Thank you.
We need a seth update see how he's going
Bob- have you thought about selling your established “used” queens? I’ll bet people would be happy to have them since most are backyard beekeepers. Something is better than nothing $30 queen vs newly mated $45 one- sounds good to me😀
Good Morning Bob !
Good morning sir!
Bob I ever get enough supers I would do the same as you but with the basswood we don't have sourwood but I believe basswood is are best option here in pa but right now I have all my supers on and need more like I always do for basswood so looks like they are gonna plug up and swarm in the next two weeks I'm trying to cut down on my numbers and move bees to just one yard ND make things easier
Hi Bob, 4th year with bees, just south of you in Canton, GA. Wondering what your record keeping process looks like and how you keep up with the status of each yard and the colonies within each yard? Really love how you explain all the little insights/tips/situations/problems that pop up. Most helpful. Thanks!
I get asked about this often and I will put this in a video very soon. Thanks for the idea.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you! Looking forward to it.
❤ saya sangat menyukai peternakan lebah seperti Anda.
Saya di Indonesia Baru saja belajar budidaya lebah 🐝 🍯
My sourwood tree has bloomed this June. Month early Charlotte NC.
I think it's early everywhere.
Hello Bob. Back in Romania we used to do pastoral beekeeping. I approached the same practices here in N Texas. The difference is that here we have no agricultural fields with sunflower or Canola fields. Wild flowers only. I understand that you use to go to Ca for almond pollination. With this idea/ practices in mind I have to ask this, considering the beekeeping low in Ga. I am allowed to bring bees from Tx to Ga? I am not intending to bring more than 60 colonies but I am so interested to see you and your facility and 2 learn…. This is my dream project. Thank you so much for keeping posting.
Georgia does allow bees to enter from out of state but you would of course have to find locations first. You would be most welcome to visit our business if you get to Georgia.
Hope the towels that you are not using, are helping. I wonder if you could pot the culled queens in a 1 oz bottles with alcohol and sell those. I know some folks love putting that in there swarm lure.
Mr Binnie, I understand you wanting to requeen yearly. I also understand you not wanting to sell the old queens due to not wanting to complicate your process. What I dont understand is how it takes longer to put a queen in a cage and stick her in your pocket than it does to find and pinch her, other than about 10 seconds, of course. You could simply drop them at the store at the end of the day and let the retail team deal with them. I think there are plenty of people who would pay 1/2 price for them. Not for their production value but for the genetics. They could be thrown out after a day or so. Kind of a day-old bread concept. Take care, I really enjoy your videos.
Thanks. It's hard to explain my feelings on selling or giving away used queens. It's something that has developed over time. I actually have, and still do, give away many to friends that understand what they are getting. I never charge anything. The problem is that in the past I've given many away to people I didn't know very well just to hear negative comments through the grape vine that they had issues or were unimpressed. Perhaps its vanity or maybe it's simply because of the experiences I've had in the past that I don't want to do it.
Thank you for the clarification.It does seem sometimes that people base their value of something on what they pay for it. I guess that human nature. Skin in the game, ownership, etc.
Good morning Bob… i got a question. I live in Oregon. 10 hives did mite check yesterday all of em look really good except 1 hive. Seems to have way to many mites we are in middle of flow got honey supers on. Should i wait for flow to end or how should I handle this. Thank you much
For the feeder hole in your hive cover, is that an upside down jar lid? I want to switch to bucket top feeders and am wondering the most effective way to plug the hole without leaking.
I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for making them!
If you are only using buckets, any size hole with an appropriate cap or plug will do. We use a 71mm hole saw which works with a 70mm jar cap (70G), because we still use 5 pound honey jars for feeding at times. Thanks.
For my nucks l found a plastic 2L bottle that won't collapse in from the vacuum. And now I use those caps for the top hole and the round entrances on the nucks. Even for my baby queen mating boxes. That plastic bottle cap became a multi purpose entrance and feeding hole cap. And it seals good. I think it's 3/4 in yours... 21mm
A round entrance is much easier for bees to protect from robbing the nucleus hives.
I bought 10 from Mann lake and had two strong hives that the queen went through two excluders to the top. She was marked and up top laying. Not a major deal just frustrating to have to wait to pull the mostly capped honey.
I feel the same frustration.
Here l found a Turkish made plastic ones with bee space between boxes and after 5 years l still didn't have a queen pass through one. Now I use them and the metal ones are in storage. Bees have no problems passing through and my yards moving is much lighter.
I think they even have a name.. don't have one in hand but if I remember it right it's Ciprus or Cyprus like the island
I ordered mutt queens from Nature Image Farms. I read that line has some of your Caucasian genetics in it. Requeening some Heavy Italian influenced queens. Hope to cut back on Robbing some.
I hope you get some great queens. It's been a while since Greg got bees from us.
Just curious, have you measured the bar space in these excluders you were mentioning? I don't have enough to get a good number but I have seen quite a few videos lately, from different channels, talking about how some queens are just a little smaller than the norm. I'm personally just curious if there's something going on with the "genetics" of the bees themselves...something stunting their growth as side effect of local pesticides, herbicides and such. BUT, I'm hoping your just right and it's poor manufacturing!
Have a great weekend, still loving your videos!
We're seeing excluders running from .156 to .194 and many have bent wires out of the factory. I think .160 to .172 works the best. The Hive and the Honeybee says .163 is correct. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Bob. Just to confirm, you add the new queen as soon as you "eliminate" the old one?
We are in this case. The nectar flow is very helpful. It would be ideal to wait 6 to 8 hours.
Dream Big brother 🙏
Why can't you resale the queens
Still wondering how you requeen with a nuc? Also if you have deeps for honey supers, how do you tell them apart from brood boxes that may have mite treatments in them at one point? I do think I'd want to use a brood box that has had treatment in it for a honey super the following year? Or that not a issue?
Some of the comb in our deep supers has been exposed to treatments but not many and we are using organic treatments these days which cause little trouble.
Bob is there a welded wire machine cloth that the workers can get through but a queen can't?
I know that 1/5 of an inch is used in pollen traps and that queens can get through 1/4. I'm not sure if there is something in between that would work. There actually are few metal excluders that have good spacing but the overall design is not good.
How do you go about determining the percentages of different nectar sources in your honey?
Taste. Not to scientific.
Hey how do you replace the frame rest area I have a couple boxes that I cannot use because the frame rest bowed out in one end
I trim that strip off on the table saw and replace it with another thin strip.
Bob, are those old queens from last year, or are they 2022 queens? Just wondering if they would have value to other smaller beekeepers.
Most are from last year. We've only found a handful from 2022. I know the used queens could be of value but I decided a long time ago to only give them to close friends because I didn't want to risk getting bad comments from someone that doesn't understand what they got.
In Oregon Portland I didn’t treat for varroa from end off April When I treated With acid oxalic what . It is your recommendation ? to wait until the end of July when hopefully we have honey, or treat now with quick strips or acid oxalic ?
We are doing mite checks in each yard to determine our numbers. Most of our yards are low but a few yards are high. The high mite level yards are getting treated later this week with oxalic acid vaporization to keep numbers from getting higher until we treat with Apiguard around August 1st.
Thank you ! Sorry for the misspelling
Bob, what does the Sourwood taste like? Do you have any at the shop to buy? I think the only way I am going to know if I have sourwood coming in for sure is to learn to be able to taste it.
Also, What is the difference in color between white clover and sourwood?
I have never been good at describing the different tastes of honey. Sourwood has a mellow sweetness and I have heard otherts say it has a nutty, buttery taste. White sweet clover is lighter in color and Dutch white is about the same if they are both pure. It doesn't take much other honey to darken Sourwood a bit.
I pick up a very subtle anise flavor and smell from my sourwood honey.
It smells exactly like the flowers from the sourwood trees. The flowers have a very strong scent
Do you find that the extra day for introduction of the queen is beneficial for acceptance?
Definitely.
@@bobbinnie9872 thanks for that Bob
Hey bob this Albee seeing if you will have anymore cells the ones I got are great and are laying well I still got the first box I got from you you was going to trade it that day and I asked you to let me keep it it was one of your boxes that you had repaired that was sept 9 2020 I met my bee mentor he was 85 years old still had his first bees he had ordered from spell bee he had raised on all his beekeeping years I also met him in sept9 2010 I have both of my mentors boxes hanging in my bee shed have a good day ps tell Jessie hey
We did our last graft of the season today and may have extra cells next week if we have a good take. Contact us on Wednesday and we will know. These are cells to install on Friday.
@@bobbinnie9872 thanks bob Jessie said you might have a day in late march that I could come over and help with maybe learning some of your techniques for grafting it would be a honor to hang out and buy your lunch for the crew seeing if you have any sheets of the plywood for sale I made that trip down to the plywood shack below Atlanta long haul needing to make some tops and where do you get your lid cut out bit got one I think it came from china lids are super tight on the fit
@@albeethebeeman5506 We do have HDO plywood and you could pick some up when you could pick some up the next time you are here.
Hy Mr. Bob,how are You.I wonder is there some bees with the queen in the queen cage.Thank You.
No. They travel with attendants in the queen bank box. We get better acceptance if there aren't any attendants with the queen in the cage.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank You very much Sir.
Good morning sir, how are you coexisting with fungicides? I was going to set bees on a friend of mines farm until I read about the fungicides he was using. Said it is damaging to the gut health of the bees based on studies. Most of his crop is soy beans,corn,and turf. But the grapes are where the fungicides are being used.
Although fungicides aren't as bad as pesticides they are made to kill things too. If the bees are in it they will be affected in an insidious way. If there isn't anything blooming when spray is applied you may be OK.
@@bobbinnie9872 the guy with the vineyard is just a.....
Where l am it's full with vineyards and olives. But the owners, me being one of them spent some time weed eating, mowing or turning the top soil over to conserve the humidity in the ground.. so the bees simply have no interest going there. And spraying with a wind is strictly forbidden.
I can't even imagine the problems l would have when they inspect my honey or pollen and find fungicides with the contracts already done for the season. I would be marked for ever. By by organic standards and good prices for the products
One more question Mr. Bob,do You fill candy in all pipe long in queen cage
Yes.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank You Mr. Bob.
Bob after you kill the old queen how long do you wait before you install the new queen?
It depends on the circumstances. In this instance we installed on the same visit. There was a slight nectar flow and the bees were preoccupied and very gentle. If it was a dearth and the bees were feeling ill tempered we might try to wait 6 to 8 hours.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank You !!!
Just curious when you requeen if they are virgins you put in or have they been mated
Mated queens.
@@bobbinnie9872
Have u thought about making a video about your mating yard or the steps you take on getting all those queens mated? Just a thought. I enjoy your videos, been watching them for years they’ve helped me tremendously thank you
Bob are these queens you have raised or are they some you bought?
This one batch of 50 queens was purchased. I'm experimenting with a different line and will be reporting on it later when I know more.
@@bobbinnie9872 will be interested to see what you come up with
Question- if you’re going to treat all hives anyway why bother doing mite counts?
To know wether I'm in a rush or need to treat immediately.
Have you ever had brown knapweed honey ?
I can't say that I have. I've had the purple starthistle variety of knapweed and thought it was very good.
@@bobbinnie9872 it’s nice it’s a light amber with a hint taste of hazel nut
Do you think it matters whether you 70% or 91% alcohol?
Both work fine. Some people stretch it with a little water.
Are you killing the old queens and placing the new queens in the hive at the same time ?
We are in this instance. The nectar flow is helping us with acceptance here but it would be more ideal to wait 6 to 8 hours.
Thank you for the reply , is June your preferred requeening month?
don't understand why you kill the queens , why don't you sell them , give the people the oppotunity of buying them , its a source of income
I do give some to friends that understand what they are getting but have a policy of not selling them to the general public because of potential issues.
Bob I had something weird happen today. I've only grafted a few times since your video convinced me to try a couple years ago. I normally get about a 50 -60% take. I can't see like I use too but I'm happy with what I get. I grafted 20 cups and had 11 take. They built them out nicely and I was going to do splits today. But when I pulled them out this morning you could see through the bottom of the cups. I opened a couple of the cells. The queens were all dead in the cups. They looked like queens but were still all white. Did they not get enough nutrition, there was not any royal jelly left in the bottom of the cup. They were 14 days old.
It's hard to say. Keep in mind that even though leftover royal jelly is often seen as a sign of ample nutrition many good queen cells run out before they hatch and turn out great so that may not be the problem. But, although we occasionally have issues that we don't understand we always try to make sure there is stimulative feed while the cells are being built. It can be either a nectar flow or thin sucrose syrup.