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Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 30 เม.ย. 2015
Michael Bush, Wintering Nucs
Michael Bush talks about Wintering Nuc Hives to Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association members and guest.
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Michael Bush, Top Bar Hives
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Michael Bush talks about Top Bar Hives to Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association members and guest.
Michael Bush, Common Beekeeping Issues
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Michael Bush talks about Common Beekeeping Issues to Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association members and guest.
Michael Bush, Four Simple Steps to Healthier Bees
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Michael Bush talks about Four Simple Steps to Healthier Bees with Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association members and guest.
Michael Bush, Huber's Amazing "New Observations"
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Michael Bush talks about 18th / 19th century research in beekeeping by Swiss beekeeper Francis Huber.
Michael Bush, Lazy Beekeeping
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Michael Bush talks about beekeeping practices using minimum effort for healthier bees with Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association members and guest.
Why do you need to put a new queen in a queenless hive? Won't ahive simply GROW its own new queen?
Puzzled: WHY should a hive only WANT one queen?
longer days than ga in the summer in The north
great presentation
I've never had a hive of any kind, but I'm in the barn building a few top bar hives this week. Let's say I misjudged how many honey filled combs I removed from the hive. But, instead of harvesting the honey from the comb, I stored the bar, comb and all, in the freezer. Could I take some of these frozen combs and put them back in the hive to make up for my miscalculation?
Being in my sixties and starting this be adventure I’m all about the easiest way. Great info. Plus. I will definitely be doing horizontal hives.
Awesome content!
Really appreciated this talk. Wonder if anyone still puts their nucs in a root cellar? Would they heat the room up too much? We're up in Northern Alberta and this winter we had 2 weeks of -40C!
Thanks from Ireland.
Just leave them enough honey for themselves to survive? This man is a genius.
You have hit the nail on the head on sooooooooooooo many marks. Congratulations!!!! This is amazing. Listen up Beekeepers around the world.
Michael Bush, what are you feeding new colonies and the bees in the winter? If you feeding them anything. Thanks.
I completely understand and believe everything you are saying. For 9 years I NEVER TREATED NOR FED my bees in Texas and they thrived!!!!!! I'm starting beekeeping again next year in NY and I will not treat again , nor feed. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We need a change. Our old ways need to change to save the bees. Listen up all beekeepers. This guy is on to something amazing.
You can not compare honey and sugar syrup the way Bush did. It is just not valid. Honey was processed by the bees from natural nectar and that is why it got a high ph. Natural nectar does not have such high ph neither. So open honey cells may not have that high ph yet since the bees may have not processed that nectar yet and the bees keep open nectar and honey cells around brood to raise them. Processing that nectar into honey by bees will get it that high ph. Suger syrup will get a high ph like real honey after the bees turn it into sugar honey or funny honey which looks like real honey with a slight different consistency and a different flavor. However, real honey has enzymes and vitamins and other elements that sugar honey or sugar syrup does not have, but sugar is still the closest thing that can help and keep bees alive if the bees need food. A bee can only survive about 3 days without food.
so Michael Bush does not do anything to treat varroa?
So do bees get high off bee bread?
We call those giant looking mosquitos mosquito hawks here in Alaska. 😂
The one guy who says “we’re hands off bee Keeper” what he meant to say is I’ve never had bees in my life and I have no idea what I’m doing. I say to him your not a bee keeper, your someone who has bees. I’m a “hands off bee keeper” is like saying I’m a hand off pet owner, I’m a hands off farmer. Bees are livestock. Your honey bees are domesticated they are NOT wild. The survival of your colony depends on you to practice some animal husbandry. You wouldn’t take a hands off approach to cows, chickens, goats or cats and dogs, all were once wild but you’d make sure they were fed, dewormed, have a clean stalls, have water. Nonsense if you think your gonna have bees and not do anything, then just don’t get them at all. These kind of people infuriates me and I really wish he’d not kid glove them and just call them out.
How do they move the dead bees out
sick power point bro
did he really recommend putting wood hives against each other to keep in warmth versus wrapping them in some random insulation?? makes no sense....
Very good video full of great information but I have to disagree with you on one point. Gravity does not get stronger - the earth sucks. Thanks so much.
I was trucking right along until this idiot proclaimed at around 30:00.. "if I could only get the farmers to quit spraying everything." If the farmers didn't spray, there would be no viable crop left to harvest. Pound your gums to the contrary, but the facts remain the same. The beetles and aphids and borers and caterpillars would consume the crop before the farmer could harvest anything. Everybody likes to fill their pot bellies and bitch with a mouthful of food about all the pesticides. Most haven't got a clue about what it takes to produce the food they gobble down like pigs. Bees don't become immune to mites. That's a lie. Have humans become immune to mosquitos? How about lice? Come on..you've got this crowd of quasi experts telling you that 30-40 years after varroa showed up in America, they've already developed mite resistant strains of bees by natural selection. If that was the case....why aren't humans resistant mosquitos and lice after 40,000 years? Why aren't bees mite resistant where the problem originated? Don't tell me they are....where do you think American bee keepers learned what to use against mites? If mites were brought here by contaminated bees....obviously the trek here began where the problem originated. If you don't treat your bees for mites, THEY WILL DIE. If you don't treat your children for lice they bring home from school, the entire family will soon have them. You can choose to be lousy or kill them. Same with mites. Back in the sixties, farmers used lots of pesticides no longer on the market.....and bees were abundant. Yes, they were! I'm 62 years old and grew up in the sixties....if you went barefoot, it was at your own peril! Especially if the white clover was blooming in your yard. The bees were everywhere. The change came somewhere in the 80s. What happened in the 80s? The varroa mite landed on our shores and bees began to die.....they coined a term for it; colony collapse disorder. It's no disorder! The bees were ate up by parasitical mites. Be the same if the school nurse sends a note home with little Susie.....your child has hygenic collapse disorder. Huh? Translated: your kid is ate up with lice....pour on Nix or Triple X or kerosene.....do not encourage them to chew the lice! And what do people do?They'll not hesitate to pour chemical treatment on their kids to kill the bugs. Yet they'll cry against treating bees and spraying crops. Explain the logic behind that while reading another chapter of Rachel Carson's lunacy.
Such a big entrance, how do they protect it all of that from wasps and robbers? Each hive stressor adds up, just like in humans
We need to be able to test our own comb to see how much contaminants are there. Changing out comb is ok, but if it bears out that Varroa D has lower fecundity on old dark comb and I swap my bees all over to foundationless, I'm going to want to hang onto that comb as long as I can. I just bought a bunch of wax foundation last year because my installation of bees were building so slow I thought it would speed them up, and now I've decided to get all that cycled out. Well, dripping with VD here, that knocks back aging comb and getting them past this phase. If I could test that foundation I bought and maybe it really is clean and not full of contaminates I wouldn't have to cycle it out so soon. Is there a way beeks can get our wax tested or do it ourselves?
Michael, Thank you for this very informative video. Really helpful!
So is chalkbrood not as dangerous as foulbrood?
If you are going through all the trouble to heat the hives in order to overwinter them, they how are they more valuable than a hive from georgia? I'm not getting it. If you are heating the hive, you are not getting "winter survivors", you are getting pampered queens....
not hard, produce some warmth for them to keep them around in winter, keep some food to keep them around all year, treat random pests, and bam! you are a beekeeper and are pretty good at it.
Don't know if you have anything relevant to say. Started with a sales pitch for ALL your books...turned off!
You did yourself a disservice and should actually listen to what the man ACTUALLY said instead of assuming something that wasn't said.
Michael, how can we treat bees with vegetable (herbal) oil? Smoker? I hope the how-to can be shown, too. Thanks ~ ^_^
You said you do not use queen excluders, would you be so kind to explain to me as a new bee keeper, why you prefer not to use them . Thanks Craig from Virginia.
Is there a correlation between infestation of mites and drone populations increasing
karl stine it very possibly could be. Mites prefer drone cell because of the longer gestation period of drone brood.
Thank you for the WEALTH of information. This is my first hive. I have watched so many videos, read blogs and there are so many different answers. I just want my little babies to be safe and happy. I really connect with the simplicity of management and care.
What a great discussion Sir! Thank you for taking the time to upload this video.
But we did treat for varroa though. This is something that these treatment freeors, or thought freeors have trouble grasping for some strange and unknown reason. How could anyone go treatment free now-a-days when all or most of the drones flying around out there come from treated colonies? If an individual desires to go treatment free, and their neighbour is treating, they unfortunately don't have a chance in hell. If all the beekeepers around a treatment free beekeeper are not treating, then maybe, just maybe, they might have a chance but first they'll be going through some heavy losses and may even end up losing their entire operation. If beekeeping is your livelihood, this would be an extremely foolish decision. We, as rationally thinking individuals, need to focus on the here and now, in other words, we have to be realistic, what we should have done and didn't do years ago doesn't help us now. Now, in 2019, either treat your bees, or they're dead. What other choice is there? Sure you can decide not to treat, but your neighbours will most likely burn down your house since you'll be sharing your mites with them and making it more difficult for yourself and everyone else around you. Focus on reality people, that's all that matters now.
I appreciate his no BS attitude. Refreshing.
By changing the entrance to the top you will interrupt foraging everytime you inspect, the bees will get confused and look for the entrance, personally I use the Vivaldi board and so far so good.
Sounds nice, but when we return back to reality this philosophy has no place in the real world, yet. We all want treatment free bees, that is what researchers and scientists are striving towards but it unfortunately is going to take longer than we would like. In the meantime, our bees cannot handle varroa on their own, and as animal husbandry practitioners, we have to assume the role of care takers and insure our bees have low mite levels at all times to insure their health and well being, anything less is a form of neglect. Manage and control varroa people, or find another hobby.
We're already there,past varroa issues in the tf community at large. We all took and take the losses for all the treaters who want to halt the bees evolution perpetuating the problem today breeding stronger mites everywhere so thanks for being part of the solution...
Thanks for the video I am in Alberta Canada we see -45 below with a 50 plus wind so wind chill around -50ish early morning the coldest. Next year is my first year ay this I have 2 complete hives and hope to be around 10 in the fall cheers
This here should be taken as a grain of salt... new to bee keeping...learn whats been working for hundreds of years before trying to reinvent the wheel like this guy .. pic the pile of rotten dead bees and everything else without bottom entrance.. hive needs to breath one entrance at top not going to pull air thru ... 90 lbs to much then pull a few frames
he is saying, if what beekeepers were doing for hundreds of years, was fighting against bee preferences, hit don mattha. Ya'll air gonna be doin nothin good fer yee bees. Listen to this character, because he knows what he is talking about senior.
Not sure where he gets 170 mites from, I've looked high and low and can't find 170 different kinds of mites in any of my hives, just one, the varroa mite. I think he gets a little carried away sometimes because there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. I've looked everywhere online for this fact, talked to several beekeepers throughout Canada and the U.S and still have no idea what he's talking about.
I bought a full functioning hive which was treated with essential oils. These bees are aggressive. I will be transferring to top bar hive (Corwin Bell design) and not treating for varroa and hopefully within a few generations they will be stronger and happier. Also, these bees are big which indicates the use of large stamped foundation. My intention is to be a holistic bee keeper. This presentation by Michael Bush is very helpful.
So I have a question. He says you don't feed your bees unless you have to because feeding is not as good as honey and you don't want them to die. OK makes absolute perfect sense!!!! But shouldn't folks be viewing the mite treatments the exact same way? I know a bee keeper that has done controls with equal mite counts in yards one yard they treated with oxelic acid late fall and spring hive loss count was 10% and spring mite count was 0. Non treated bees Spring hive loss count was 75% with a mite count identical to how they went into winter. Other than treatment conditions were identical and all hives wintered in the same location under the exact same conditions. I agree 100% that bees can eventually or hopefully kick varoa mites issue on their own. But, their survival is totally dependent on their learned response to the mite. Then the passing of that learned response over time until it becomes basically hereditary or in other words evolution. I fail to see how the steadfast answer don't treat ever at all or "let them die"is the solution. Bees are the product of successful evolution but extinction is the product of non successful evolution. Death of your hive from a mite infestation is simply that your hive has not acquired the learned response to the mites. If you are willing to feed to keep them alive until they can fend for themselves then why would you not treat if absolutely necessary for the exact same reason. I fail to see how dead bee's or dead hives evolve. From all i'm reading on the issue the mites aren't that big of an issue for the bees The mites slightly weaken the bees making them susceptible to vectors. In humans it takes time and study to find causes for susceptibility to vectors. Yet I see this "let them die" mentality. Are bees expected to figure this out as quickly as we did? Why feed? Why not "let them die" With the same steadfast resolution? I am not trying to be combative about these issues but I see naturalists reaming the hell out of anyone that treats and yet when I see this video it seems like the "let them die" idea only applies where and when the naturalists say so. I don't look at bees as pets. I look at bees as livestock under my care. They are most certainly a substantial investment. I grew up on a farm with livestock. We didn't treat an issue unless we had to. But when we had to we did it. Like it or not it was a part of that job just as the slaughter was. But the idea was that the death of this animal that we put so much effort into raising and maintaining actually served a purpose. I do believe that bees can learn to deal with varroa but I believe the key to that learned response is the survival of the hive first and foremost. Just like ticks or anything else. Infestation kills without treatment even in a natural environment and animals evolved to deal with the issue. I scratch my head and roll my eyes over the entire argument on both sides. The problem is not treatment as I see it. It's unnecessary and incorrect application of treatments when it's absolutely unnecessary or improper to lack of treatment when it is necessary for the hive to survive. Both of these arguments are for our beliefs and agenda and both sides harm the bees. Making the argument to not treat bees at all so they evolve to handle a large varroa infestation or die is the same as me saying pesticides and herbicides are an issue so you should visit your hives with a spray can application of raid and round up once a week. Good to have that in the honey also so we build tolerance also. Weak hives we micromanage with chemicals won't survive but neither do hives that are infested with issues we don't manage at all. What they both have in common is in both cases the hives are dead and DEAD HIVES DO NOT EVOLVE! A dead bee does not learn and does not pass on knowledge. Why is this comment this long? Because the issue is a lot bigger than a one liner.
I think his point on mites is that you have to weather the losses to get to the bees that can deal with the issue. If you keep treating, you never get bees that can survive the mites on their own, and you get stronger mites. (just noticed your post had a read more link, so my comment may be superfluous)
@@kylecostlow1 I know what he's saying. But a hive that is being over run has very little chance of survival. Dead hives do not evolve is what I'm saying. I understand that if you constantly keep every mite killed on sight with treatment that evolution may never happen. but, we have species going extinct from issues like this every day. All I am talking about is common sense management. If naturalists will criticize you for treating a pest crawling hive because the moral thing to do is leave them die then I say it's the same for feeding a starving hive. Can't fend off mites or can't feed themselves. How is it different? I'm not criticizing the people. It's extremist arguments I criticize. Some newbie is out there right now after a large investment into bees. They want to be as natural as possible. But thanks to the my way or the highway attitude of some beekeepers they are destroying the fun of it and costing a lot of people money. I have literally seen this happen.
@Mara A I use all plastic foundation and feed sugar water. Bees are fine and healthy. There again the same issue again. Opinions are great but they have to be backed with some type of evidence to actually be factual. I know commercial honey producers running all plastic frames and feeding sugar water and pollen patties and queen excluders and treating for disease. Their entire business to be successful and profitable requires huge healthy bee populations in each hive. Now what do Natural bee keepers say about plastic frames? feeding? What do they say about queen excluders? What do they say about treating for diseases. K lets go through it. Plastic frames, Feeding? Bad unhealthy and unnatural for bees. Queen excluders? They say shorten a bees lifespan by 50%. Treatments are dangerous and harmful to bees. What are the real life results of what naturalists lay out to be a perfect storm to kill a hive? "Canadian bee keepers blog" is a commercial honey producer that actually shows his hives and shares what he does which includes all this bad for bees stuff. He has massive hives, pulls 200 to 250lbs of honey per hive and he uses single box management that any naturalist will also say in a no no also. His entire business requires massive populations in healthy hives and their survival. You tell me how that is possible when he is doing everything that naturalists call harmful, unnatural and unhealthy? It's not one or two fluke hives because he is running over 1000 every single year. I have watched hundreds of videos on youtube about every management practice and equipment under the sun and I have learned one thing. Bees do poorly and die for many reasons including ignorance. The only thing that kills bees is negligence. Best chance of healthy happy bees is to put bees needs before our wants. Humans, livestock, pets or plants, if our needs are met we live healthy, longer and more productive lives. Facts matter. Numbers matter. Someone says something is bad or good, better or worse, then they have to provide proof. The guy lying his ass off to sell his unnecessary invention of equipment or drug is no more unscrupulous then the guy lying his ass off for position to sell books, classes, guest speaker services or videos. Same shit. They are lying to the ignorant and feeding off of it. The commercial bee keeper I mention above is the one that did the experiment. All hives are treated identically other than the control yard that didn't receive Oxelic acid vaporization in fall and all hives were wintered in the same temperature controlled building. By yard I mean certain number of hives He is a honey producer targeting local crops so he may have more than one yard on a specific field. Or in other words Identical variable natural conditions and co mingling of bees. He has his bees lab tested to monitor for unseen disease issues. he said the Oxelic acid was the only notable difference going into winter. That's the problem with your argument. His use of Oxcelic acid was an experiment he did to judge actual effectiveness against rumors. As I said before facts matter. You can't criticize his experiment or his results because what you claim to have interest in, you yourself, have not done. If you want to see a test with foundation-less and no supplemental feeding in a 1000+ hive apiary with a control then use your own 1000 hive foundation-less, no supplemental feeding apiary to do that test or find a naturalist out there willing to do that test with their own 1000 hive apiary. I believe the first challenge will be to find a naturalist with a 1000+ hive honey producing apiary. PS... Sick bees don't produce 200+lbs of honey per hive, every year. Results actually mean something. If's and but's don't
If there was a 100% kill, you would be correct. But even with only a 10% survival, you have something to work with. It does underscore that you can't just go cold turkey on a whole operation. Low survival rates are only a problem if they keep happening. The second year, losses should be 30% instead of 10. By the 3rd or fourth year, it might match treated. Then you could take the selected untreated group and use them to requeen your treated hives. Black Death did something similar with humans. The first epidemic wiped out 90% The 2nd, 30%, and the last major one only ~15%. Actually, it's more complicated. You need to be able to isolate from treated drones which is difficult if you don't have a really isolated yard. It would faster to requeen hives midseason if mite counts are rising rather than letting them die out.
@@RoughAndWretchedRAW I really enjoyed when you said "The only thing that kills bees is negligence." It was very enlightening. It's these sort of insights that I come to the youtube comments section for. I mean who could have imagined that bees only die when humans neglect them!! What an amazing insight, utterly blown away. I also really like the part where you explain dead things don't evolve. You don't have it backwards or anything!! I think you might have stole it from Darwin but nonetheless. And to think average joe schmo believes that it is what remains alive which is what continues to contribute to the gene pool. Backwards fools. How deep are Bayer's pockets?
I like Michael Bush's presentations. I always learn a lot. I agree that science can be oversimplified and conclusions drawn from one experiment are a classic mistake to make. Lab experimentation has to field trial before you apply results broadly.
Heaters might be excessive.
Michael, such a great presentation. concise and to the point with the right amount of explanation. Thanks
❤
Best spring greetings from beekeepers in Ukraine!
what is a "hot hive"?
mitch rawles an aggressive hive. They are fast to defend the hive
thanks
one that you want to requeen. end of story
Very helpful ... thanks!