More beekeeping work after splitting our colonies including further inspections, adding the second brood box and swarm control along with checkerboarding. / beesmarts103
Will u super off the double deep for spring flow, or move queen to bottom, place a queen excluder between two deeps and let them back fill second deep?
@@bobbinnie9872 Great video. It's well past time for me to move on up to a pump truck. Where's the cheapest 2 gal buckets? They seem to go for 2X the price of 5 gal buckets.
@@DoubleTopHoneyCo I don't know if they are the cheapest but the buckets we use come from Pipeline Packaging and All American Container. Any good container warehouse should carry two gallon buckets.
I always heard a “Holler” was a small valley only large enough one could stand at one side and be able to “holler” to someone on the other side. Great looking bees Bob. I think you are hands down the best bee keeping teacher of our time. You are so knowledgeable and the way you teach others is so easy to take it in. What a blessing you are!
One person lives on one side and another on the other side of the hollow. They had to Holler across the hollow to talk. So the Natives heard em hollering. They started calling them Hollers instead of hollows! Or so the story goes Bob! God Bless!!!
Bob I started beekeeping at 16, at 46 I can't get enough of your videos. You are a special person and so knowledgeable, your the All American Beekeeper! I know there are many great beekeepers out there, thankyou for sharing all your knowledge, I think that beekeeping makes us appreciate God's creation so much more!
Hollar is a valley in which a family can live on one side of the mountain and "Hollar" over to another family living on the other mountain. The two mountains are close together. Everyone can hear you up and down the valley.
Bob, I can’t imagine life without hollers or hollows. I grew up in AL and we use the word hollow. I was transferred to a job in southeast KY where I met my wife and the folks there call them hollers. They also call eggs “aigs” so that may just be a Appalachian slang or draw. Please don’t think I’m making fun of anyone because I love the Appalachian mountains and it’s people! I really enjoyed you bringing out the different terminology!
What was used to hold the screen tops on to hives going to Nabraska please ? Thank you Bob you are a great teacher care taker of Gods Creation helping replenish the earth with food and fostering the future of bee keeping
Splits are looking great Bob. Not only taking care of the Bees but taking care of your Crew with dinner once a week. Awesome 👍 thanks, good health and God bless
Bob we have Cotton Hollow on our farm, named for the Cotton family who lived there well before my 100 year old grandmother was born. Here we pronounce it “holla” with the w silent.
They try to keep the dandelions mowed down while apples are blooming now. They want the bees in the trees. I wish they wouldn’t, it would be so helpful. This year was crazy it snowed two or three times while trees were in bloom. Bees started to run out of food because how cold it was and couldn’t go out and forage and the hives were a good size
SW WA, Bob, Ty for your videos you where the first beekeeper I came across when searching for NW beekeeping videos. You have been an immense source of information for me on my way to becoming a new beekeeper. Now I get to see what wisdom I have gained from watching you and many others for 4+mo :) I love that that most beekeepers put their best stock out there :) shows a people of good character. I grow veggies and really enjoy giving my best to ppl to take home. :) Question, have you noticed if that mill yard colonies produce more propolis? Curios if they use more wood resins with easier access to it? Ty much, Happy Easter, Blessed Days...
Bob, you are way out of my league. I'm a 2nd yr beginner. The way you present information is valuable and very understandable . Thanks for taking the time, take care, Brice
thats an EXCELLENT vid on swarm checks an WHERE to look,,,im a little north of Castle Hives(brian) unless u swim to Canada,,lol,,,,,,he got me ready to watch for swarmin up here in 2wks or so,,,,THANX MAN
Sounds like holler is really hallow. It looks nordic the way it is spelt. The Nordic words are when the vocabulary is much smaller and most people could read. Like bed can mean a mattress, a place to lie down and also a verb to bed. An area flanked by higher elevation form a hallow within a group of hills. Hallow is a enclosed empty space. You should feel contained in a hallow. Canyon is Spanish but Spaniards originally charted the unkown Western America. Spanish and other high context languages tend to have a generally definition with the specific meaning determined by the context of the sentence or situation.
Awesome once again. I just equalized my hives on Thursday and Friday. I'm waiting ten days and removing the queen excluder. It got cold up here in south east Pa and I can't quite get the queen yet to install. I wanted to do it this week, but I'll wait for the weekend. I'm going to move my queen into the top box and move the old box up to the top above a few honey supers. Install a queen with a screen board and then see if I can get her to build hard enough to go two queen for comb honey. I just don't have the legal honey house (friend stopped bees) to use for extracting. I'm looking at going a different route this year. I can process the comb at the farm market where I have my bees. Hoping you're all safe.
@@bobbinnie9872 It's very similar to the Juniper Hill Split used by Herman Danenhower. The difference is that he doesn't do a two queen system. He's a well known comb honey producer. He's on youtube and has had articles done in the bee journals.
Hi Bob , thanks for the videos. Here in South of Spain Andalucia Region , it is swarming season, especially this year with the last rains, and the abundance of pollen. We are obliged to make visits every 5 or 7 days to take out the swarm cells, it is hard work when we have doubles or thirds and we put pollen traps too, to avoid pollen blockage. That's why I would like to know how you do to avoid the blockage of the queen by pollen, and do the pollen traps have a negative effect on the production of honey. Thanks,
Hi Iahcen. I don't have very much experience with pollen traps but i have read that colonies will increase the number of pollen foragers to compensate for a lack of pollen coming in if a pollen trap is getting a lot of it. This would have to effect honey production some but with what you're describing it doesn't seem like you would see much difference. There have been a few times when we have removed full frames of pollen, stored them in a freezer and replaced them with empty comb so the queen would have a place to lay. Good luck with your work, Bob
Hey Bob. Im from western NC. My last name originated from the term Holler. The spelling was changed in the late 1700s I think. Hope to see you at Toe Cane beekeepers meeting this month.
Hollow sound being the sound of a close echo. And sometimes the wind makes them sound hollow. Least that's two good ones I've heard. And any tips on sourwood are always appreciated.
Thanks. Strong bees peaking at the right time is the key. The last yard in this video is one our best sourwood yards. It usually starts around the sixth of July.
Hi Bob, I enjoy your videos and tips which I use often. This video brought up a question though. Do you or the owner of the yards keep the area mowed?? Thanks and keep them coming!! Honeysuckle Hill Bee Farm!!
As I sit here being once again serenaded by one of the best Bobs of all time. I wonder if Bob watched the other soft spoken Bob? You and the brush wielding afro man are a little too similar for me to be comfortable.
@@bobbinnie9872 Yea Ian needs a break from Ground Hog Day. Put him on a crew with your front office lady, Miss Melody?? maybe she could show him how to keep track of a smoker. Some how I was expecting to see her out in the yards again, she enjoyed the experience and we enjoyed watching her enthusiasm.
Another great video Bob! Nice to see Kevin was able to visit and work the yards with you. I noticed when you added the second box that you didn’t pull any frames of brood up. I’ve seen other beekeepers pull at least one frame of brood up to the second box. What is your opinion on that?
How do you go about selecting and gaining access to your out yards? As a backyard beekeeper expands into a side liner more space/property might be needed. How should I go about that?
@@Rob_Brock My favorite line is "There's honey involved". I give a case or two to land owners for rent. I have a couple that don't want any honey at all. They just like having the bees around.
Ha Bob good to see you, the video was great I wish they were longer where u have all your bees is there a creek for water if not how do you give them the water they need to cool there hives where I have my bees there is no fresh water water supply any where at 1 location I have a river but it is salt water, I have to come up with ideas for the water, another question when u over wintered your 4 frames of bees did u stack them on larger hives, or do any thing special to help them make it, the hives i over wintered with 4 frames died it did not work to good for me. My bees are doing great as well they are doing the best I have ever seen them the flow has started here I do not know how much but they are really bringing it in the hives,they are so very strong I am getting some cells out and keeping them for extra queens if they get back I go in them every week I am so much enjoying it I am not trying to do them all in 1 day I work and get 1 hr for lunch and do bees doing my lunch break. and Saturdays and Sundays I finish them up it makes it really nice I wish I had more drawn comb I love the videos hope u keep them coming God Bless and I hope u have a wonderful Easter
Hi Frances. It rains a lot here all year long so there is water sources everywhere. Hives under four frames were overwintered over stronger colonies on double screen boards. Four frames or more seem to make it OK as long as they're in a sunny spot protected from the north wind. Happy Easter.
Good morning Bob. I recently did a walk away split. When should I check the queenless hive for a queen? 3 weeks? 4 weeks? At what point should I see eggs? I don't want to get into a laying worker situation. So if no eggs, should I purchase a mated queen or introduce a frame with eggs, larvae and capped brood? Thanks for all you do.
Hi Linda. You will normally see eggs in a little over 3 weeks or 3-1/2 weeks. Colonies will begin to turn laying worker very shortly after that. It can be tricky introducing a queen to a colony that has been queenless that long. If you try it, you'll have the best luck by also giving them a couple frames of open brood with adhering bees at the same time. Also, don't let the colony release the queen too quickly. The old bees left over will not except a new queen easily. Take at least a few days. As you mentioned you could also give them some eggs to raise another queen and see what happens. It does work some times. Make sure to shake in an extra frame or two of young nurse bees off of open brood from another colony. The older bees left in the queenless colony will not do a great job of raising a new queen. I would also trickle feed them some thin sucrose syrup. Good luck.
What was the date of the original splits when you left 3 frames of brood behind? Mid march? Also at that time how big of a split did you make? 3 brood frame splits?
We left 3 frames of brood with lots of bees in March, three weeks before this video was made. We made three frames of brood splits at that time but not every colony could give a full three frames.
Important question. I know if my colony doesn't have a queen it will buzz. Question is will they stop buzzing if I put fresh eggs in or do they stop buzzing once they smell the pheromones of a laying Queen or an Queen cell even
When are you selling colonies? March? What price are you selling them for? I would like to make the drive and get some next spring. I’d like to spend some time helping out with the grafting. I’ve watched that video a dozen times at least. It’s my 5th year and I’m trying grafting this month for the first time.
Hi Ray. We sell nucs in the spring, which are sold out of this year, and colonies in late summer and fall. You would be welcome to come any time to check out our grafting. Our operation isn't anything special but seeing how someone else does it can be helpful. Use the email address on the "About" page to communicate if need be.
I need help . I split my hive making a 2frame nuc . The 2 frame nuc has eggs and I had shaked some bees in . I don't know is that brood alive or chilled . If the eggs are dead what should I do . Because they are not making queen cups yet . How many days they need to make queen cup . Please help
Most colonies that become queen-less will begin constructing emergency queen cells between 8 and 24 hours. If there are a good number of bees present there should be eggs alive and if they are queen-less they should start cells.
Bob. I have been running my yard for over a 10 years. Varroa is the biggest issue for all of us but I would aim my question to the feeding and honey production. What is a average pounds of sugar per colony you feed during the season? Not counting winter feeding. What is your average honey production for those hives you dedicated for honey production?
Quantity of sugar fed to each colony depends on what each one is doing. Colonies that are split hard may get 20 to 40 pounds. Colonies just needing to be topped off for winter may only get 10 to 30 in a year. I look at average honey production from a ten year average which for a dedicated colony in our area would be around 120.
@bobbinnie9872 Bob. Thank you for a reply. Does you number reflect stationary or migratory beekeeping? What is hard spitting? :) 1 to 4 and afterwards 1 to 2???
Hi BoB, i have a question. On 12 April i checked my colonies 2 - 3 have 6 frames brood some 5 some 4 and some 3. I equalized them to 4 brood frames each and i was wondering now do i have to pull another frames of brood from them. 1st main honey flow is black locust usually around 5 -15 may starts to bloom.
Your flow is still some time away. Four frames of brood on April 12 should be plenty strong by then. We keep shuffling brood into the bottom box and skimming off the extra if we feel they're getting too big, too fast. If they peak before the flow starts, and you can't remove any more brood, then checkerboarding once a week may be your best option.
@@deyvidtsenov3472 It depends on so many things. In a double deep brood nest , three weeks out, I would shoot for six frames of brood. I like the colonies to peak a little after the beginning of the flow to reduce swarming. We do this because we can't get back to check on teach colony for at least two weeks in the spring. Someone that could work the colonies more often may choose for more.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks. So i will shoot for 6 frames on 25 april and will add the drone frame then for varroa trap and cut it every 3 weeks to 30juny 10 july.
When you are feeding in a 2 gallon bucket are you using Pro Sweet? If you were mixing up sugar syrup do you add anything to prevent the syrup from fermenting?
In warm weather we ether add one teaspoon of bleach per gallon or a normal dose of Honey B Healthy to slow fermentation. If your interested, this video link shows how we make our own syrup. czcams.com/video/cFysk1N8XIk/video.html
We do if the wax has been stripped off by the bees. An example would be foundation that didn't get drawn out the previous year. If it's left on for any time at all the bees will strip off all wax.
We have an older Swinger that has been rebuilt and a newer Hummerbee. I think the Ezyloader would be a good choice for someone that is not going to move long distance and has relatively level ground. It would not be a good choice for someone like me because of our terrain.
We will let them use it as a brood box through swarming season and then put the queen down in the bottom under an excluder, allowing the second box to backfill with nectar as the brood hatches. We'll harvest it as wildflower in early July as we put on empty supers for the sourwood flow.
It depends on whether the second box will initially be allowed to have brood in it. If not we put the excluders on when the supers are added. If so then two or three weeks after given the second box. You might like our video "A Problem With Single Story Bee Colonies". czcams.com/video/UsxM4htq4Hw/video.html
I had a large hive abscond but left a new queen and about 4/10 frames of bees. There were eggs & larva. I reduced the colony down to a deep & medium. The bees are staying are staying on only 1 side of the ten frame…. Will they eventually move over or is there anything I can do to help? Out of my 11 colonies, this one had a 25 mite count…. I was planning on A. O/A drip or B. O/A vaporizer. From your past educational videos, mites could disturb the queen from laying? The hive has plenty of food and my area right now has a flow. What do you suggest? Thanks Bob!!
If your 25 mite count is from 300 bees, that is quite high for a spring colony with brood. Bringing that count down should be your priority. Dribble works well when the bees are broodless but it shouldn't be used multiple times, which is needed when brood is present, because it's hard on the bees. Research has recently showed that it's OK to vaporize with supers on so you could do that multiple times. Your queen should continue to lay.
At this time we're using four drawn comb and six frames with foundation. The more drawn comb the better but we don't have enough deep drawn comb to add more.
It will in warm weather. If it gets cool or cold at night it will last a long time. In hot weather we add one teaspoon of bleach to on gallon of syrup to buy us more time. It doesn't hurt the bees and is a common practice among large beekeepers.
At the time of this video we had just finished feeding sugar syrup made with one part sugar and one part water with bucket feeders over a hole in the colony lid.
We often expand the brood nest by adding a deep box on an overwintered single in the spring. Sometimes we get it back in the form of a honey super later and sometimes not. Check out our video "A Problem With Single Story Bee Colonies" for more on this. czcams.com/video/UsxM4htq4Hw/video.html
I don't know. I've heard it called that all my life. This what I found online. "Hardware cloth is an old term that refers to metal cloth made from stainless steel, galvanized steel, or other metals woven into a flexible metal fabric. The original hardware cloth was very sturdy and durable and was made in a variety of designs depending on its use and type of weaving".
Thanks for the information, I would be interested to know Bob if you knew the following , may be one for the book. The rules for naming different species come from the Swedish botanist Linnaeus (Carl von Linne,1707-78). When he categorizedthe honey bee, in 1758 , he called it Apis mellifera , meaning 'honey-carrying bee' implying that bees merely carried honey from flowers to comb. In 1761 Linnaeus (whose brother was a bee-keeper) spotted his mistake and changed the name to Apis mellifica, meaning ' honey - making bee'. It was to late. THE EARLIER NAME SOMEHOW STUCK . Read it the other day made me think , Peter 🇦🇺
Will u super off the double deep for spring flow, or move queen to bottom, place a queen excluder between two deeps and let them back fill second deep?
We hope to push them back to a single with an excluder after swarming season is over. Even with supers added there will be no excluders until then.
@@bobbinnie9872 You really like running single brood chambers if u can during honey flow!?
@@bobbinnie9872 about to go pull my excluders now😂
@@bobbinnie9872 Great video. It's well past time for me to move on up to a pump truck. Where's the cheapest 2 gal buckets? They seem to go for 2X the price of 5 gal buckets.
@@DoubleTopHoneyCo I don't know if they are the cheapest but the buckets we use come from Pipeline Packaging and All American Container. Any good container warehouse should carry two gallon buckets.
Over here in Oklahoma. We call em hollers also.
Must be a southern thing.
I always heard a “Holler” was a small valley only large enough one could stand at one side and be able to “holler” to someone on the other side.
Great looking bees Bob. I think you are hands down the best bee keeping teacher of our time. You are so knowledgeable and the way you teach others is so easy to take it in. What a blessing you are!
One person lives on one side and another on the other side of the hollow. They had to Holler across the hollow to talk. So the Natives heard em hollering. They started calling them Hollers instead of hollows! Or so the story goes Bob! God Bless!!!
Огромная благодарность Боб.Thanks you very match Bob.
Bob I started beekeeping at 16, at 46 I can't get enough of your videos. You are a special person and so knowledgeable, your the All American Beekeeper! I know there are many great beekeepers out there, thankyou for sharing all your knowledge, I think that beekeeping makes us appreciate God's creation so much more!
Bob,
You have the best videos going right now for beekeeping. Love watching the steps and follow up videos your doing. Thank you.
Bob your a fabalous bee keeper. and bees are buitifull animals. you a great bee keeper, happy bee keeping for 2024.
Gotta say I do love the bits of facts you give in these videos. Good show cheeers
Nice work Bob and the way you treat your workers is much appreciated, they look happy!
What a nice guy you are Bob...buying your crew lunch once a week. More than just bee stuff that I learn from you.
Dandelion in our area has a bright orange pollen.
Great video, glad to see how commercial beekeepers do things. Thanks from down under 🇦🇺👍🐝🍯
Those colonies were looking great! And I have to agree, that property is absolutely Beautiful! Happy Easter!
Thanks and the same to you.
That must be a great feeling, doing everything right and lunch time ☺️ Thank you Bob and team for sharing!
Great info there for splitting equalizing making nucs and growing an apiary. Boy that draen comb is like gold. Thanks
👍🐝👍🐝👍
Thanks for the update on the splits. Amazing looking boxes of bees!
Thanks for sharing.
You finished splitting, I'm waiting for it to warm up enough to do my first inspection...jeez...c'mon spring
Cheers Bob! Always enjoy watching and learning from your videos.
Hollar is a valley in which a family can live on one side of the mountain and "Hollar" over to another family living on the other mountain.
The two mountains are close together. Everyone can hear you up and down the valley.
Replay on this video today. like it.
A holler is where the sun comes up late and goes down early. My company is Holler Honey Apiaries.
you get to work bees all day and see those views! the wife and I love that region of the country! i'm excited to get back down there
bees are so sweet animals and kind to humans and to plants and all animals.bees would talk to you.
bees are part of our family Bob.
Bob, I can’t imagine life without hollers or hollows. I grew up in AL and we use the word hollow. I was transferred to a job in southeast KY where I met my wife and the folks there call them hollers. They also call eggs “aigs” so that may just be a Appalachian slang or draw. Please don’t think I’m making fun of anyone because I love the Appalachian mountains and it’s people! I really enjoyed you bringing out the different terminology!
Hi Don. When I first moved here I asked people to repeat themselves a lot.
What was used to hold the screen tops on to hives going to Nabraska please ? Thank you Bob you are a great teacher care taker of Gods Creation helping replenish the earth with food and fostering the future of bee keeping
6 penny finish nails. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing hope everyone has a wonderful Easter god bless
Great video Bob. I always learn something new with your videos.
Splits are looking great Bob. Not only taking care of the Bees but taking care of your Crew with dinner once a week. Awesome 👍 thanks, good health and God bless
Thanks.
Happy Easter Bob, enjoy all your videos and talks. Thanks for what you're doing from the bees in Paint Bank, VA.
Nice
Best bee keeping videos on CZcams!!
Great Video Bob, love what your doing keep up the great work!
Everyone here in TN knows what a holler is lol
Happy Easter Bob! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you and the same for you.
Happy Easter Bob, and many to come.
I do have those screened rims, very handy in the cold season states.
My best to you.
Dan
Thank you.
Bob we have Cotton Hollow on our farm, named for the Cotton family who lived there well before my 100 year old grandmother was born. Here we pronounce it “holla” with the w silent.
what a great location
Cool. I bought some of those bees in Nebraska
They try to keep the dandelions mowed down while apples are blooming now. They want the bees in the trees. I wish they wouldn’t, it would be so helpful. This year was crazy it snowed two or three times while trees were in bloom. Bees started to run out of food because how cold it was and couldn’t go out and forage and the hives were a good size
Us loggers in southern Oregon would call that a saddle
SW WA, Bob, Ty for your videos you where the first beekeeper I came across when searching for NW beekeeping videos. You have been an immense source of information for me on my way to becoming a new beekeeper. Now I get to see what wisdom I have gained from watching you and many others for 4+mo :)
I love that that most beekeepers put their best stock out there :) shows a people of good character. I grow veggies and really enjoy giving my best to ppl to take home. :)
Question, have you noticed if that mill yard colonies produce more propolis? Curios if they use more wood resins with easier access to it?
Ty much, Happy Easter, Blessed Days...
Thanks. We have not noticed any more propolis in that yard. I don't notice bees working on the logs at all.
Bob, you are way out of my league. I'm a 2nd yr beginner. The way you present information is valuable and very understandable . Thanks for taking the time, take care, Brice
thats an EXCELLENT vid on swarm checks an WHERE to look,,,im a little north of Castle Hives(brian) unless u swim to Canada,,lol,,,,,,he got me ready to watch for swarmin up here in 2wks or so,,,,THANX MAN
It's a holler and a creek here in NW Arkansas, lol!
Haller got its name cause you could haller from the bottom to the top
Of the yards we worked on my visit I really liked the one with the unusual cattle. It was just a nice setting there.
I agree.
Sounds like holler is really hallow. It looks nordic the way it is spelt. The Nordic words are when the vocabulary is much smaller and most people could read. Like bed can mean a mattress, a place to lie down and also a verb to bed. An area flanked by higher elevation form a hallow within a group of hills. Hallow is a enclosed empty space. You should feel contained in a hallow. Canyon is Spanish but Spaniards originally charted the unkown Western America. Spanish and other high context languages tend to have a generally definition with the specific meaning determined by the context of the sentence or situation.
Oregon has a lot of snap dragon also
Awesome once again. I just equalized my hives on Thursday and Friday. I'm waiting ten days and removing the queen excluder. It got cold up here in south east Pa and I can't quite get the queen yet to install. I wanted to do it this week, but I'll wait for the weekend. I'm going to move my queen into the top box and move the old box up to the top above a few honey supers. Install a queen with a screen board and then see if I can get her to build hard enough to go two queen for comb honey. I just don't have the legal honey house (friend stopped bees) to use for extracting. I'm looking at going a different route this year. I can process the comb at the farm market where I have my bees.
Hoping you're all safe.
Sounds interesting.
@@bobbinnie9872 It's very similar to the Juniper Hill Split used by Herman Danenhower. The difference is that he doesn't do a two queen system. He's a well known comb honey producer.
He's on youtube and has had articles done in the bee journals.
Hi Bob , thanks for the videos. Here in South of Spain Andalucia Region , it is swarming season, especially this year with the last rains, and the abundance of pollen. We are obliged to make visits every 5 or 7 days to take out the swarm cells, it is hard work when we have doubles or thirds and we put pollen traps too, to avoid pollen blockage. That's why I would like to know how you do to avoid the blockage of the queen by pollen, and do the pollen traps have a negative effect on the production of honey.
Thanks,
Hi Iahcen. I don't have very much experience with pollen traps but i have read that colonies will increase the number of pollen foragers to compensate for a lack of pollen coming in if a pollen trap is getting a lot of it. This would have to effect honey production some but with what you're describing it doesn't seem like you would see much difference. There have been a few times when we have removed full frames of pollen, stored them in a freezer and replaced them with empty comb so the queen would have a place to lay.
Good luck with your work, Bob
Hey Bob. Im from western NC. My last name originated from the term Holler. The spelling was changed in the late 1700s I think. Hope to see you at Toe Cane beekeepers meeting this month.
That meeting is coming up soon. Looking forward to it.
I picked up some packages (from Georgia) yesterday here in Illinois. My survivors have some drone but no queen cells yet.
Loretta Lynn made Butcher Holler famous in her song "Coal Miners Daughter", about where she was born and raised.
Great song.
Logging lingo here in Oregon is “draw” for canyon or holler
Hollow sound being the sound of a close echo. And sometimes the wind makes them sound hollow. Least that's two good ones I've heard. And any tips on sourwood are always appreciated.
Thanks. Strong bees peaking at the right time is the key. The last yard in this video is one our best sourwood yards. It usually starts around the sixth of July.
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Hi Bob, I enjoy your videos and tips which I use often. This video brought up a question though. Do you or the owner of the yards keep the area mowed??
Thanks and keep them coming!!
Honeysuckle Hill Bee Farm!!
We always mow our yards and create a perimeter so the land owner doesn't have to get too close with their mower.
Happy Easter to you and your family Mr. Binnie
Thank you and the same to you.
As I sit here being once again serenaded by one of the best Bobs of all time. I wonder if Bob watched the other soft spoken Bob? You and the brush wielding afro man are a little too similar for me to be comfortable.
Puts me in the bee working mood
Ian, I think you need to visit us in spring and get a tan before you bring your bees out.
LOL!! I’d be a good worker too! I’d do what I’m told 😂
But as they say, once a boss never an employee ha ha ha
@@bobbinnie9872 Yea Ian needs a break from Ground Hog Day.
Put him on a crew with your front office lady, Miss Melody?? maybe she could show him how to keep track of a smoker.
Some how I was expecting to see her out in the yards again, she enjoyed the experience and we enjoyed watching her enthusiasm.
Hi Bob, Dandeloin and wild cherry is blooming in Germany as well, right now.
I wonder if it's the same variety of wild cherry.
@@bobbinnie9872 we have different varietys here. I don’t know the name though.
Another great video Bob! Nice to see Kevin was able to visit and work the yards with you. I noticed when you added the second box that you didn’t pull any frames of brood up. I’ve seen other beekeepers pull at least one frame of brood up to the second box. What is your opinion on that?
Hi Dawn. As long as there is good drawn comb above the bees are moving up anyway.
We had a great time, looking forward to our next trip..
How do you go about selecting and gaining access to your out yards? As a backyard beekeeper expands into a side liner more space/property might be needed. How should I go about that?
In the beginning I simply knocked on doors at places I thought might work. Large properties and farms are a good place to start.
What kind of agreement do you have with the land owners? Do you pay them rent or barter? What’s your approach when you knock on their door?
@@Rob_Brock My favorite line is "There's honey involved". I give a case or two to land owners for rent. I have a couple that don't want any honey at all. They just like having the bees around.
Ha Bob good to see you, the video was great I wish they were longer where u have all your bees is there a creek for water if not how do you give them the water they need to cool there hives where I have my bees there is no fresh water water supply any where at 1 location I have a river but it is salt water, I have to come up with ideas for the water, another question when u over wintered your 4 frames of bees did u stack them on larger hives, or do any thing special to help them make it, the hives i over wintered with 4 frames died it did not work to good for me. My bees are doing great as well they are doing the best I have ever seen them the flow has started here I do not know how much but they are really bringing it in the hives,they are so very strong I am getting some cells out and keeping them for extra queens if they get back I go in them every week I am so much enjoying it I am not trying to do them all in 1 day I work and get 1 hr for lunch and do bees doing my lunch break. and Saturdays and Sundays
I finish them up it makes it really nice I wish I had more drawn comb I love the videos hope u keep them coming God Bless and I hope u have a wonderful Easter
Hi Frances. It rains a lot here all year long so there is water sources everywhere. Hives under four frames were overwintered over stronger colonies on double screen boards. Four frames or more seem to make it OK as long as they're in a sunny spot protected from the north wind. Happy Easter.
Great videos Bob. Question you are a Mann lake dealer , I have never used their plastic foundation do you prefer heavy wax or regular wax coating?
Although I'm sure the heavier wax would get drawn quicker., we use the regular wax with no issues.
Hi Bob,
Do you do any spring mite control?
If so what treatment do you use
We're watching for mites closely. If we feel we need to treat we'll probably use one full dose of Apiguard.
Good morning Bob. I recently did a walk away split. When should I check the queenless hive for a queen? 3 weeks? 4 weeks? At what point should I see eggs? I don't want to get into a laying worker situation. So if no eggs, should I purchase a mated queen or introduce a frame with eggs, larvae and capped brood? Thanks for all you do.
Hi Linda. You will normally see eggs in a little over 3 weeks or 3-1/2 weeks. Colonies will begin to turn laying worker very shortly after that. It can be tricky introducing a queen to a colony that has been queenless that long. If you try it, you'll have the best luck by also giving them a couple frames of open brood with adhering bees at the same time. Also, don't let the colony release the queen too quickly. The old bees left over will not except a new queen easily. Take at least a few days. As you mentioned you could also give them some eggs to raise another queen and see what happens. It does work some times. Make sure to shake in an extra frame or two of young nurse bees off of open brood from another colony. The older bees left in the queenless colony will not do a great job of raising a new queen. I would also trickle feed them some thin sucrose syrup. Good luck.
So do you plan to run double brood boxes or are you planning on splitting them back down to a single later in the season?
We hope to push them back to a single with an excluder after swarming season is over. No excluders until then.
@@bobbinnie9872 got it. Thanks for the reply
What was the date of the original splits when you left 3 frames of brood behind? Mid march? Also at that time how big of a split did you make? 3 brood frame splits?
We left 3 frames of brood with lots of bees in March, three weeks before this video was made. We made three frames of brood splits at that time but not every colony could give a full three frames.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you for sharing such valuable information!!! You are teaching and training the next generation and it is so needed.
Important question. I know if my colony doesn't have a queen it will buzz. Question is will they stop buzzing if I put fresh eggs in or do they stop buzzing once they smell the pheromones of a laying Queen or an Queen cell even
Good question. I've never waited to see.
@@bobbinnie9872 dam. I see two gueen cells and humming has stopped but I didn't see eggs or new queen. Figured you would know hahahah.
When are you selling colonies? March? What price are you selling them for? I would like to make the drive and get some next spring. I’d like to spend some time helping out with the grafting. I’ve watched that video a dozen times at least. It’s my 5th year and I’m trying grafting this month for the first time.
Hi Ray. We sell nucs in the spring, which are sold out of this year, and colonies in late summer and fall. You would be welcome to come any time to check out our grafting. Our operation isn't anything special but seeing how someone else does it can be helpful. Use the email address on the "About" page to communicate if need be.
I need help . I split my hive making a 2frame nuc . The 2 frame nuc has eggs and I had shaked some bees in . I don't know is that brood alive or chilled . If the eggs are dead what should I do . Because they are not making queen cups yet . How many days they need to make queen cup . Please help
Most colonies that become queen-less will begin constructing emergency queen cells between 8 and 24 hours. If there are a good number of bees present there should be eggs alive and if they are queen-less they should start cells.
Bob. I have been running my yard for over a 10 years.
Varroa is the biggest issue for all of us but I would aim my question to the feeding and honey production.
What is a average pounds of sugar per colony you feed during the season? Not counting winter feeding.
What is your average honey production for those hives you dedicated for honey production?
Quantity of sugar fed to each colony depends on what each one is doing. Colonies that are split hard may get 20 to 40 pounds. Colonies just needing to be topped off for winter may only get 10 to 30 in a year. I look at average honey production from a ten year average which for a dedicated colony in our area would be around 120.
@bobbinnie9872 Bob. Thank you for a reply.
Does you number reflect stationary or migratory beekeeping?
What is hard spitting? :)
1 to 4 and afterwards 1 to 2???
Mostly stationary. Hard splitting would be two nucs or more.@@kmichal9648
Hi BoB, i have a question. On 12 April i checked my colonies 2 - 3 have 6 frames brood some 5 some 4 and some 3. I equalized them to 4 brood frames each and i was wondering now do i have to pull another frames of brood from them. 1st main honey flow is black locust usually around 5 -15 may starts to bloom.
Your flow is still some time away. Four frames of brood on April 12 should be plenty strong by then. We keep shuffling brood into the bottom box and skimming off the extra if we feel they're getting too big, too fast. If they peak before the flow starts, and you can't remove any more brood, then checkerboarding once a week may be your best option.
@@bobbinnie9872 Ok, so whats is the ideal brood frames number lets say 20-25 april if the flow starts on 15 may
@@deyvidtsenov3472 It depends on so many things. In a double deep brood nest , three weeks out, I would shoot for six frames of brood. I like the colonies to peak a little after the beginning of the flow to reduce swarming. We do this because we can't get back to check on teach colony for at least two weeks in the spring. Someone that could work the colonies more often may choose for more.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks. So i will shoot for 6 frames on 25 april and will add the drone frame then for varroa trap and cut it every 3 weeks to 30juny 10 july.
Did you put excluders on?
We hope to push them back to a single with an excluder after swarming season is over. Even with supers added there will be no excluders until then.
When you are feeding in a 2 gallon bucket are you using Pro Sweet? If you were mixing up sugar syrup do you add anything to prevent the syrup from fermenting?
In warm weather we ether add one teaspoon of bleach per gallon or a normal dose of Honey B Healthy to slow fermentation. If your interested, this video link shows how we make our own syrup. czcams.com/video/cFysk1N8XIk/video.html
Hi Bob another great video thank you, do you wax your plastic foundation.
We do if the wax has been stripped off by the bees. An example would be foundation that didn't get drawn out the previous year. If it's left on for any time at all the bees will strip off all wax.
Hay Bob, do you use a swinger forklift?
Also what are you're thoughts on an ezyloader?
Thanks for all you videos.
We have an older Swinger that has been rebuilt and a newer Hummerbee. I think the Ezyloader would be a good choice for someone that is not going to move long distance and has relatively level ground. It would not be a good choice for someone like me because of our terrain.
So is that top deep for honey or brood?
We will let them use it as a brood box through swarming season and then put the queen down in the bottom under an excluder, allowing the second box to backfill with nectar as the brood hatches. We'll harvest it as wildflower in early July as we put on empty supers for the sourwood flow.
Bob when do you add or do you use excluders on your singles?
It depends on whether the second box will initially be allowed to have brood in it. If not we put the excluders on when the supers are added. If so then two or three weeks after given the second box. You might like our video "A Problem With Single Story Bee Colonies". czcams.com/video/UsxM4htq4Hw/video.html
I had a large hive abscond but left a new queen and about 4/10 frames of bees. There were eggs & larva. I reduced the colony down to a deep & medium. The bees are staying are staying on only 1 side of the ten frame…. Will they eventually move over or is there anything I can do to help? Out of my 11 colonies, this one had a 25 mite count…. I was planning on A. O/A drip or B. O/A vaporizer. From your past educational videos, mites could disturb the queen from laying? The hive has plenty of food and my area right now has a flow. What do you suggest? Thanks Bob!!
If your 25 mite count is from 300 bees, that is quite high for a spring colony with brood. Bringing that count down should be your priority. Dribble works well when the bees are broodless but it shouldn't be used multiple times, which is needed when brood is present, because it's hard on the bees. Research has recently showed that it's OK to vaporize with supers on so you could do that multiple times. Your queen should continue to lay.
@@bobbinnie9872 Ok great! Thanks Bob! 4gms of O/A still ok?
So nice team , and so nice bee yard :)
What happen with first hive that you have open ?
Have egs ?
With respect
Yes, the first hive had lots of eggs and larva and looked good.
@@bobbinnie9872 So nice
How many drawn supers versus foundation in the second brood box you're tossing on?
At this time we're using four drawn comb and six frames with foundation. The more drawn comb the better but we don't have enough deep drawn comb to add more.
Hi Bob, too early to split up her in CT but I sure would love to get my hands on some of that Caucasian stock. Do you ship your queens? - Joe
Hi Joe. Sorry to say we're not shipping at this time.
Hello Bob. Does the syrup spoil in a bucket exposed to the sun?
It will in warm weather. If it gets cool or cold at night it will last a long time. In hot weather we add one teaspoon of bleach to on gallon of syrup to buy us more time. It doesn't hurt the bees and is a common practice among large beekeepers.
@@bobbinnie9872 Okay, thanks! Just to ask Is it a bleach for bleaching laundry or?
@@nn54657 Yes, household bleach.
What’s your price when selling a colony? Single deep I assume?
In late summer or fall, $200 to $250 depending on equipment and quantity.
Hey Mr Bob just wondering if that electric fence keeps raccoons from turning over the feed buckets? Thanks
It will if the bottom wire is low enough.
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you very much I'm have war with raccoons now
Holler is hollow.
Can you explain to me the system to feed bees?
At the time of this video we had just finished feeding sugar syrup made with one part sugar and one part water with bucket feeders over a hole in the colony lid.
Any follow ups on the Caucasian queens? How do you like them? Thanks Tim
I like them a lot and I need to do an update video. Thanks.
How would I go about coming to help?
Email me at the address on the "About" page on our channel.
What is the ratio of sugar 🤔 water feeding bees
Check out our video"The Chemistry Behind Feeding Bees Part 1" at minute 21:20. czcams.com/video/aN428TJpDuw/video.html
How do you get the propolis off your hands? I always wear nitrile gloves just for that reason, lol
If it gets heavy we scrape it off with the hive tool. Of course this doesn't get all of it.
so why did you put deeps on instead of an empty super?? wouldn't now be the time to super??
We often expand the brood nest by adding a deep box on an overwintered single in the spring. Sometimes we get it back in the form of a honey super later and sometimes not. Check out our video "A Problem With Single Story Bee Colonies" for more on this. czcams.com/video/UsxM4htq4Hw/video.html
No queen excluders?
Not yet. That will come later. We allow the queen to have this box until the tendency to swarm has lessoned.
@@bobbinnie9872 ahh, thank you, and great videos I might add!
This colonies very great but I think you are to late with the second room. There are so many cells. They all want to swarming.
The cells shown had nothing in them. That colony won't swarm if treated properly.
Why do they call it Hardware Cloth , when it's made of steel ???, we call it steel mesh. The word cloth is I think another word for fabric. Peter 🇦🇺
I don't know. I've heard it called that all my life. This what I found online. "Hardware cloth is an old term that refers to metal cloth made from stainless steel, galvanized steel, or other metals woven into a flexible metal fabric. The original hardware cloth was very sturdy and durable and was made in a variety of designs depending on its use and type of weaving".
Thanks for the information, I would be interested to know Bob if you knew the following , may be one for the book.
The rules for naming different species come from the Swedish botanist Linnaeus (Carl von Linne,1707-78).
When he categorizedthe honey bee, in 1758 , he called it Apis mellifera , meaning 'honey-carrying bee' implying that bees merely carried honey from flowers to comb. In 1761 Linnaeus (whose brother was a bee-keeper) spotted his mistake and changed the name to Apis mellifica, meaning '
honey - making bee'.
It was to late. THE EARLIER NAME SOMEHOW STUCK .
Read it the other day made me think , Peter 🇦🇺
@@peterlightbody8443 No, I didn't know that.