Weekly Inspection of Beginner Beehive and Checking Super for Nectar Flow
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Following on from adding a queen excluder and super last week we revert to carrying out a standard inspection checking for a queenright colony and looking out for queen cells.
In this series of video we aim to help the beginner beekeeper by setting up an apiary from the start of the 2017 season and establishing a new bee hive by selecting a nucleus colony as if we had purchased it and following it's progress through the entire season.
Week by week we will show you all you need to know about making your first season in beekeeping as simple and as straightforward as possible.
Check out the playlist for all the previous videos.
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USA: The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum
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Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper
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Hi Stewart, my girls had built brace comb attached to the crown board, just as yours had. It was full of nectar. I wish I had known or thought of leaving it in the roof space for them to recycle. All that work... I panicked a bit, didn't really know what to do, and removed it and took it down to the house, drained it and added it to some homemade lemon cordial. I feel terrible now! It's a steep learning curve, but thanks to your videos, next year won't be half as scary and fraught with guilt! (My poor, poor, starving girls :( )
I am amazed how calm and collected your inspections are. As a beginning beekeeper I feel mine are like a old time comedy. Stuff is not at hand... eek where's the brush .... the smoker is out ..... dang the queen is on the first frame now what?..... bees everywhere.... squished bees underfoot....... where to put this box etc.
Hi Joanne,
Thanks for commenting.
I love the thought of an "old time comedy" style inspection, made me smile! I've been through that stage and sometimes when I get a really defensive colony it feels a bit like that for me. Keep going and have everything to hand and you will see it all calm down as your experience grows. Good luck with your beekeeping.
Stewart
I've binge watched so many of your videos today! I love watching the hive inspections, it's like watching a graceful dance. I've already noticed you follow a outline of movements - and make it look very easy!
Good Video, I can respect the hive protocols explained in this video.
Hi Adrezej,
Thanks for your comments.
Stewart
They are truly amazing creatures. Thank you Stewart once again, great video.
Hi Jeffrey,
thanks for commenting.
Stewart
Very nice looking hive. Thank You
Hi GR,
It worked out to be a really good colony all round.
Stewart
Looks good. We have had a terrible spring here. Record level of ran. Flooding. Hopefully summer is better. Looks like things are couple months behind.
Hi Jay,
I think I have been very lucky this season, the weather has been very good generally.
Stewart
Thanks, Great video! As a new bee I was wondering if you could comment or do a video regarding bee space and frames.
Here most of the hives are sold as 10 frame. Often people use 9 instead and space it out. I try and watch how you space to get a better idea but sometimes a dummy board is used and I can't tell if the frames are pressed tightly together or not. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for commenting.
Great idea about a video regarding the number of frames and bee space. I have produced a video in my earlier Winter series of getting started videos about the bee space but no harm in going over it again. Basically in the brood box all the frames are pushed tightly together but are self spacing frames. In the Super (honey box) there are metal castellated runners which fixes the position of the frames.
Stewart
From where do to obtain the NUMBERED White Chips that you use to ID the queens in a hive? Thanks very much for your program. I am in my 4th year of bee keeping and still learning from folks like you.
Hi Walter,
Thanks for commenting. As with most things these days, the discs came from the internet. Some of the black numbering is starting to peel off so I think next time I need discs I will just go with plain white and use a marker pen to write the numbers on.
Stewart
Good morning Stewart, just intrigued to know what fuel you use in your smoker? It seems to give a virtually invisible smoke, but has the desired effect!
Hi Christopher,
Thanks for the question. I'm currently using some lichen that is freely available at one of my apiaries, it does smoke quite well but when I get to the allotment apiary I only have one colony here so I don't tend to get the smoker so well lit that it bellows out. The residual smoke in the body of the smoker is enough to keep these bees down, they are nice and calm currently.
Stewart
Another great video .
Hi Dean,
Thanks for the comments.
Stewart
Hi Stewart, How old is this hive? and how long did it take to build out the brood box from the original 3 frames?
Hi Jon,
This colony started life as an overwintered five frame nuc. The series of videos starts with the selection of the nuc and then follows it through the season. Check out the playlist "Getting Started 2017".
Stewart
Hi Stewart thanks for your great videos ,I'm having a problem with one of my colonies that had a drone layer Queen tens of eggs in each cell .I destroyed her and unite the colony with another using news paper method but later it seems they killed the Queen . I tried to put comb with eggs and larvae to encouraged them to make a Queen but failed pls what's the remedy for not loosing both colonies thanks.
Hi Adel,
Drop me a message via my contact page on my website (www.norfolk-honey.co.uk). The answer may be a little longer than will easily fit in the comments section.
Stewart
Multiple eggs in each cell is more usually associated with laying workers, rather than with a drone-laying queen.
Also -
1. Laying workers don't have abdomens as long as a queen's, so eggs are not laid right at the base of the cell. A drone-laying queen is still capable of laying a single egg in the base of the cell.
2. The brood pattern is different. A queen will keep laying a normal pattern, but with a increasing proportion of drones. Laying workers are all over the place in a random pattern.
Hi Patrick,
I agree, this is the basis of the advice I've given Adel.
Thanks for commenting.
Stewart
Hi Stewart, I just thought it might be good to throw it out there, if only as general knowledge.
Must get myself over to your patreon page later today Stewart, I've gotten so much from your channel and enjoy it greatly.
Keep up the great work,
Patrick
Hey Stewart! at about 10:01 in the video as your were putting the frame into the box i noticed a little bug or fly of some sort at the bottom right hand corner. is that from when you had it sitting on the floor? or is that some sort of pest?
Keep up the good work!
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for commenting.
Yes, well spotted it's a Greater Wax Moth. It's amazing how large they are and yet I didn't spot it! I will be on the hunt for it and others in next weeks inspection!
Stewart
The super looks fully drawn and is mostly full of nectar at about 13 minutes in. It needs another super right now not after the hive swarms next week.
Hi Gordon,
This video was from last year and was shot towards the end of the nectar flow. The colony was a nucleus colony transferred into a full-size hive in its first year and developed nicely. As it happens it didn't need any more supers and didn't swarm at all for the entire year.
It has overwintered successfully and will be appearing in more videos this year as we go on to show how to split it using one of the many swarm prevention techniques.
Stewart
Thanks for another useful episode. Was that a wax moth running about?
Hi Mark,
Thanks for commenting, oh I hope I didn't miss a wax moth, sometimes when I'm producing the videos I'm so focussed on what I'm trying to say and show I miss the obvious! I'll be sure to check a bit closer next time.
Stewart
On the video it appears at 10:14 and disappears at 10:36 or thereabouts. I guess a single moth the bees are more than able to deal with it.
To say the bees will not carrey the suger in to the super is wrong
I have left small amounts of honey from the year before in spring and when the honey from the spring was tested they found
lime tree honey and pollen and that was honey from May ??
This is the reason I question this practes as the bees will move there reserves into the super
Hi Richard,
I've not had that problem when there has been a strong honey flow on, the bees seem more concerned with moving nectar up into the super rather than uncapping stores in brood frames and moving them in preference to uncapped nectar in brood cells required for eggs and larvae. I will take a sample from this super and get it analysed to see what the various levels of sugars are. When I've done that I'll let you know the results.
Stewart