วีดีโอ

Ive got some ideas...they might be conducting heat away from the board...or they might be hydrating the front to evaporate the heat or they might be polishing it to increase its reflectivity...i think its a high temperature phenomena most likely...cheers :)

You speak the tewth

What do you do about the soapy equipment?

Most feral bees in Southern California are Africanized Honey Bees. I'm not a beekeeper, but bees recently invaded my off-grid trailer. They are extremely aggressive. I can't see where they are going in and out because every time I stand out there, they come after me, even from 30 ft. away. How can I get rid of them? I have no problem euthanizing.

Can the frames be rinsed and reused if you have to pour the soapy water in the hive?

On the older version of the slatted rack, were the slats spaced 3/8" apart or were they spaced more than than?

Great info and well presented!! Is there a min-max "bee-space" required between the bottom of your frames and the floor of the hive?

This has to be one of the worst times of bee keeping,having to make that decision!

What if the qween right hive is small and week? Like a freshly caught swarm??

The demonstration does not make sense to me as everyone gets a mean hive at times.. You can set-up a dummy hive in place of the mean hive and relocate the brood nest, this helps to re-queen because the angry bees stay at the old location.. I get an angry hive every year and after queen is replaced the bees calm down within a month.. Sometimes I split the hive into NUC boxes and introduce queen cells, the old bees die off before the NUC matures.. Working with a strong hive that has an attitude is very unpleasant.

Greetings and salutations. I shall command a thousand angels to sound their horns in your honor. Great jubilance shall rise within your breast and you will beat a kettle drum. It is good that the bees are dead, he delights in their death and he shsll command the living ones to sting the faces if your enemies. He shall bend your ear and whisper into it the words of the devil. REJOICE!! REJOICE!!

I just had to do this with one of my colonies as they were very defensive and stinging my neighbours

One of my hives has a sizable group that hangs out on the landing washboarding every day.

Thank you for this. It started pouring right after I got home from picking my packages up and this technique really was quite effective for keeping them together and reduced loss.

Marvelous … thanks! Can you add a swarm and dump all the bees into an empty box (empty of frames) above the weak colony? Wouldn’t the swarm strengthen the weak colony?

Thanks James, absolutely fascinating. Did beekeepers used to strap the collateral hives together? Seems to me that collateral hives do not have the advantage of gravity to keep the boxes in a consolidated format. I am enjoying hearing about your transition from big colonies to smaller more manageable ones, not least due to your declining capacity to lift heavy boxes in your senior years. Adaptation is everything! Long may you continue to enjoy beekeeping, researching and educating. All the best, From Melbourne Australia

Great video my man. Simple, right to the point & wholesome too.

Thanks, Jim.👍🌞🌻🐝🌨💦

🌞🌻🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Aren't smaller beehives more vulnerable to heat? So is there a way to counter this?

3:06 I guess, by definition, about 50% of queens, or of any things, will be average or below. You just made me realize that. 🌞🌻🐝💛

🌞🌻🐝💛

Sorry all of your splits didn’t pan out, but it’s good to see you. I found you from the three podcasts and recently enjoyed last year’s combined Holiday Special. 💛🎄🌟🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Merry Christmas to you, Jim. Have a good Winter.

I liked how you released the package into the colony boxes with less stress. This is good. They don't need extra stress.

I like packages. I've done both nucs and packages. But I like that the packages are often from companies that have more refined genetics, and more chosen genetics also. This is part of why I like them. The more recent packages I had seemed to do as well as the nucs and had better temperament. The pakcage companies have had more time to work on getting the bees they want also. Both are good. Its just really fun to get bees even when you've been doing it a few years and how the joy of building something. I'm not as old as you but I also feel the sting of not as much energy as I used to have. With livestock one of the really interesting things about doing them, is you are harnessing the animals work energy to compensate for you not being able to do as much. This lets you overcome your own disadvantages in still producing something.

It would be interesting to compare overwintering survival rates with smaller improvised boxes where the bees choose the comb orientation with modern non-improvised commercial structured colonies and the differences between those rates of which live and which die.

I liked seeing the cover pic and other pics like it when you show pics of the colonies spread out in foresty tree areas. Hope to see more of it. It looks beautiful.

I wanted to ask... in this video you have 4 big boxes on each of those 2 colonies. Can you overwinter them this way with that many boxes and if they are full of honey? I've been wondering about this and ways to pull honey in spring instead of fall to see if overwintering success can go up. But it invites the added question of if extra space is going to harm that instead. And how many boxes is tested? Usually people pull as many boxes as possible. But when they talk about this, they cite economic reasons instead of survival reasons. So it doesn't really tell you if this would work or wouldn't. Thanks.

One of the most famous beekeeper in my country says his book that this phenomenon indicates a disease in the hive. He advise to treat the swarm as quickly as possible to check frame by frame. He suggests giving the colony honey with medicinal plants or honey with the extract of medicinal plants Chamomile tea. .

I will never understand why some people think there is only one correct way to do something.

Bro. Beekeeping aside, why aren't you doing book narrations? You have the perfect voice and speaking manner for it. Audible. Go for it.

I think it's a show of force to invaders

No reason to use soap in the pour only in the Pan below the boxes. No reason to damage the comb.

Beekeeping near people has to be the most antisocial, selfish hobby imaginable. This beekeeper should get rid of his bees and respect his neighbour’s right to enjoy his property without being stung.

You make a great point. And how about the precision of their temp control of both the colony in summer and the queen ball in winter? Or how they manage food reserves?Or how they manage staffing within the colony to address so many variables? It truly is mind boggling. Excellent video discussion; can’t wait to read the article.

Always appreciate your insight and useful tips.

So is what your saying is the neighbor just has to put up with all that. I have planted nectar plants for butterflies and have hummingbird feeders that my neighbor who just started, bees are swarming. So I should or maybe will have to stop because of his new toy, bees. Unfair!

I have worker laying bees and I was told to either kill it with soapy water or try to let it just die off naturally. The Bees are kind of psycho

I would completely agree. If you have hives that have survived the winter, they have probably some good genetics that you would like to continue. You also are becoming a self sufficient bee keeper

Well, Jim, you DID entertain me as you always do. Thanks and please keep these wonderful videos coming…

Thank you so much for this. As a bee keeper I know how painful and dispiriting this decision is.

thank you.

𝓟Ř𝔬𝓂𝔬𝐒ϻ

Great job! Have to now read the article which I'm sure is just as entertaining and informative.

Thanks Sir

Adjustable hive stands, you have me thinking...I use cinder blocks now, adjustable but you have to remove the hive to add or subtract blocks. A pallet jack has what I need but an expensive way to raise or lower one hive, or even 4. I'll keep thinking, thanks for posting!

This is primarily the reason I have almost all long hives. Only thing I have to lift is the top and the frames. What’s more, is I’ve built them with legs about 3 ‘ long so the hives are at comfortable heights and I don’t have to bend. Makes the hobby much more enjoyable!

You did a good job on a bad day. But you showed us how to get the most bees in the new hive in the best possible way. Thanks, Jim - much appreciated…

Fascinating..... I'll be sharing this

Jim, you are my favorite article in Bee Culture every month. Thank you for sharing your wealth of experience.