Thanks Bob for another great video. I also practice broodlees wet comb splits learned from my late grandfather worked better with a fertile queens, boxes with a deep frames after extracting place above strong colonies using queens excluders in a early evening waiting for a hour or so and when lots of young house bees entered box to clean up a wet honey frames we remove boxes with a bees right before dark and place them on a bottom board and give them cover and move them to another yard next morning give them frame of food and queen and let them settle down a little for a couple days and apply a mite treatment which is very effective on a broodlees colonies and let them grow, working better in a early season. Thanks again for sharing your experience learning a lot from you!
Got to tell a story why i got purple bee boxes. Was walking in forrest with my son, 10 years of age, we where talking about the new beehives and the coulour they shuld have. My youngest kid, 2 years old, we asumed she was sleeping in her wagon, she said very loud and clear, bee house shall bee in purple.... It was so cute, she was listening and had her opinion, and today i learned this coulur actually is a good one too;)..
Thank you so much for your videos. I am a future beekeeper. I got interested almost two years ago now and I’ve been researching bees since then. I found you a few weeks back and you have really helped me bridge the gap on some things. It’s obvious that you have worked hard for many years to build a successful business. That said your no doing TH-cam for the money I would say. Sharing knowledge is so important and I wish more folks would put their arrogance aside and share the things they’ve learned about their specialty whatever that might be. Thank you again for helping me to get closer to raising my own 🐝!! One more thing. Terry I like your style 😀
What a great video! I completely agree with the drone saturation! It’s criminal that lots of people put in only worker comb!! In the wild when you look at natural colonies they have a much higher percentage! I’ve always said this!! Particularly like the idea of making up the nucs above the queen excluder the day before! I suffer from quite a few queens that travel away with the nuc when it’s made! But I would need a new load of extra material but it gives me food for thought! Thank you!
I always enjoy watching your videos Bob. You have such a nice polite manner that is often lost in the rush to get things done. It's so refreshing to hear people say "please" and "thank you" when asking for something. I do have one question for you: I heard you say that you were making those nucs in July and, in my area, it is very hot and a lot of the natural forage starts to go-over and wasps can start to become a problem. Do you feed the nuc at all or do they have enough to keep them going with natural forage? Like you, I'm not a huge fan of the smaller nucs with half frames or less. I like full frame nucs where the queen has enough space to establish a proper brood nest after mating. Thank you for another great video.
Hi Paul. You mentioned a couple of things I should have. Number one is full size nucs. I'm going to address the benefits of using these in a re-queening video I hope to make before long. That big frame of food will hold them until after mating is completed. We hesitate to feed before that to avoid robbing issues (and wasps) and disturbance.
Good video! A lot of good information packed inside here. Mr Binnie, perhaps you will do a follow up video on these nucs when the time is right?🤞🏻😁 Thanks, Phillip Hall
Impressive how swift and relaxed you are working with bees! I have one hive and I'd like to get more efficient but obviously that comes with a lot of experience. Fingers crossed as I attempt my first split this weekend! Thanks for the great videos!
I really appreciate these videos. You cover it all and it's possible to learn about beekeeping from viewing these. I feel like I am absorbing all this information and then can apply it in my small apiary. If I have any questions, I can always rewatch a video.
Bob I have to admit, everytime I watch a video I do admire what a lifetime of beekeeping has taught you. My Mentor kindly offered the suggested “you don’t even know the questions until you’ve kept bees for five years”. If accurate it is humbling to know I am still 2 years from that point. It also reinforces the comment I made earlier. Thank you for the learning experience.
Wow Bob, you have taken good care of your back over the years. I watch you over those singles and my back screams just seeing it! (Too many incorrect lifts loading jets in the Navy). Glad to hear about drones. We hammer that home at our once monthly beekeeper meetings. Also like the explanation on colors. Heard it once before, but it did not stick. I use shapes, but I need to switch my colors. And of course, great explanations and break down of frame combos for making those splits with excluders. Thanks, Always so very informative. Last time in the store I chose not to ask for you as you guys were loading trucks at about 100 mph, so I left well enough alone.
hello Bob I am from Romania I really appreciate the work you do very educationally what you present for me personally is something sensational I wish you much success still GOD BLESS YOU
@@bobbinnie9872 My first thought was that if I watched long enough, there was going to be something spelled out with them! After observing a bit, I realized there was no possibility this was going to happen.
Bob thank you for sharing your experience. I always learn something new in your videos; the way you make splits is unique and innovating. Watching you work with bees is a pleasure.
Nice to see that you pack your nuc's with a lot of bees. Some videos I see from others use a few bees to make a nuc and wonder why they failed. I am making walk-away splits and then I also use the extra queen cells they are making to make more nuc's. I am packing the nuc's with nurse bees and very young and old capped brood and by the time the queen emerges I end up with foragers and young nurse bees to take care of the new brood the new queen is rearing. I use 1 food frame and it last till til the queen is mated and by that time the forager brought in plenty of pollen to be used for the brood and filling some of the combs with nectar a excellent recipe for breeding. I am usually in the upper 90's %. This year it rained almost everyday here and I am down in the 80's%. I may try drafting next season with help of your videos. Got a dry spill of 4 days not raining the last days, even my drive way is drying up. Thank you very much for the video. Do you have a video how to treat hives and what you use to treat hives?
Thanks for the comment. We have a video on how we treat with oxalic vaporization in winter- th-cam.com/video/ACqrvbNJC7w/w-d-xo.html. We also use Apivar in late July and early August.
I discovered your channel 2 weeks ago and I want to thank you for sharing all of your knowledge with all of tricks that are so valuable to new beekeeper. You answered so many questions that I had that it will give me more confidence in the bee yard. One thing that surprise me is your ability to work without gloves in any circumstances. If you can share on this your progression I would be curious to know. You have a new French Canadian friend now !!!! Great video again.... already the end of the season in Quebec
Thanks for your comments. I believe that not wearing gloves instantly makes you a better beekeeper. You quickly learn to be more careful, graceful and strong. Although when I hire new beekeeping employees I never insist that they don't wear gloves I encourage them to give them up as soon as they can because as long as they wear them the more the rest of us get stung. Of course there is always that "special" occasion when you just simply have too.
Bob, really enjoy your presentation and videos. I know you said you are surprised at the response you are getting with your channel but I think it is your clear explanation and calm/soothing voice. Your stories mixed in certainly help as well. You do a very nice job. Sometime in your video travels I have a few questions that perhaps others might also be interested in. It seems like same questions come up in comments more than once and you answer repeats. Seems like you creators would set up a FAQ section somewhere for people to easily refer to rather than sift through hundreds of comments on multiple videos to figure out if someone already ask the same question. Here some things I wonder about. How do you keep bees from going up your sleeve cuffs? Talk about your smoker - fuel type, how you light and how do you store/transport between yards and at the end of the day. Closer view and discuss how you handle queens. A little more info on your dust collection setup at the radial arm. How to go about finding & convincing land owners to let you setup a yard. What does Landowner compensation typically entail? How often and you groom the grass & weeds in the yards. "Shelf life" or degradation of pollen frames from dead outs and keeping them until a place in a future hive. Keith in St. Louis, MO
Hi Keith. Your idea about having a FAQ is a good one. •I do occasionally have a bee or two go up my sleeve but it's not to much of a problem. I got in the habit of having loose sleeves to help counter the heat in summer. Summer heat is also what eventually led me to stop wearing gloves on a regular basis. Taking my gloves off when hot provides instant relief for me •We start our smokers with pine straw and then mix in hardwood wood stove pellets with more pine straw. Loaded properly, a smoker can go a couple of hours with that mix. We'll go heavy on the wood pellets when loading trucks. It's interesting to see a smoker glowing red hot when loading semi trucks. •I should have some queen management videos coming soon so I'll save that answer. •There is some good dust collection systems out there. I chose a "5HP Dust Gorilla Pro SMART Boost Dust Collector" because of the good reviews. It will keep up with two saws at once and is easy to use. •I don't have to search for yards much these days because so many people in our area know us and appreciate us and offer spots. In the beginning it was a combination of friends and knocking on doors. And yes, there was a lot of no thank you's and a few responses to colorful to repeat here. We usually pay yard rent of a case of honey per year. •We try to mow and weed eat every two to three weeks and have a man that does nothing but that for a couple of days each week in summer. •Pollen deteriorates fast and pollen from the previous year is not nearly as good as it was the year before. I spread it around in the spring anyway because the bees will use it up and I never try to save it for later.
I always figure removing drones from the colony will create unstable behaviour in the colony; there is a reason why they are there and when they aren’t needed the bees take care of then anyway.
Hello Bob. That's how I do my splits except I install a mated queen. I think it's the easiest way to do it. For a number of reasons. I call that type of split the over night split because you do it overnight. Some people call it the Dolittle split.
This was great going to do this this weekend I used Apivar for my mite treatment this year my first time ever , because u do do u leave it in there for the time span that they say on the package or do u leave it in there longer U are great TH-cam did not tell me u had put another video on here I wonder why u have a great day and keep the wonderful videos coming Thanks
Hi Frances. We leave our Apivar in for the recommended time. I don't think leaving it in longer helps. It might even hurt because it gets weak and delivers a sublethal dose which can cause resistance.
Bob, forgive me if this is a duplicate question (I searched a bit but didn't find a similar question). I didn't hear you distinguish between a good brood frame to take for the split vs one to leave behind for the mother colony. I paid attention to the frames you chose for each instance but haven't come to any conclusion about your reasoning. So, could you please clarify your decision making process? For instance, do you have a preference to leave behind capped/emerging brood frames for the mother colony to quickly repopulate with young bees while moving the egg/larvae brood frames to draw up nurse bees that are eventually packed in the NUCs and moved to your mating yard? OR vice versa so the NUCs in the mating yard have more emerging young bees and not as many larvae to feed since we know the bee population will be relatively small and may not be able to properly feed multiple frames of developing larvae? OR leave the mother queen with a frame of both old and young brood and all other brood moves up? Thanks in advance.
If I was making a nuc with three frames of brood I would choose two sealed brood, hopefully with some hatching, to populate the nuc with young bees quickly, and one frame of open brood which helps with queen exceptance. I try to do what's best for the nuc knowing the mother colony will bounce back.
I love this method of making splits. I discovered this my first year beekeeping and I still use it. This is an excellent video describing the process. I've found that a nuc made in this way can be placed nearby without substantial fly-back due to the bees being young. Have you noticed any such characteristics of this method?
Bob it ALWAYS a learning video that you put out . You were talking about the color an different design on the nuc box so the queen an Bee’s can find them better. You was talking about Red is it ok to use red on the main color of any bee hive or not . Thank you very much for all your great video’s an the information you give to us all .
Hi Bob great video are these nucs to over winter and will the 10 frame hives be strong enough for your winter with 2 gal feed regards Roland fromWestAust
Hi Roland. I should have addressed these questions in the video. I always think of more things after the video is up.They are queen mating nucs to raise a few rounds of queens for late season re-queening. On the last queen harvest we will combine three or four nucs with one of the queens to make a single for overwintering. The "restart" colonies in this video are now on their second two gallon bucket of thin syrup and are growing nicely. I expect them to go into winter with 5 to 7 frames of young bees which will work here.
Great video Bob, thanks. I'm assuming that the production colonies will be built back up and overwintered as single deeps? How many times a year are you able to harvest assets like that from a nuc production yard?
This yard is on it's fourth round of making nucs and that will be the last. They paused for a few weeks to make a little sourwood honey and then made this round. They are now on their second bucket of thin syrup since then and will be ready for winter.
My fellow beekeepers in the area are all adamant about all hives facing South, I noticed you do not do that. What are your experiences and considerations taken with hives facing specific directions?
Bob, I see that you are splitting late July according to your video commentary... Is this not in the middle of your honey flow? This yard seems strong so just wondering why there were no supers on... was this just after a honey pull? Thanks!
We make sourwood in the area this yard is located in until the 15th to the 20th of July so supers would have just come off. Another side note is that except for the three weeks with sourwood supers on this yard does nothing but make nucs the rest of the season. I have several yards that are dedicated to producing nucs until mid August at which time we begin building them up for winter.
I had a few pails of old red paint that we used to freshen up some mating boxes. I have the red boxes in with yellow , blue, green, violet. I bet those red stand out to the bees as grey or dark which in a way differentiates it as well as the visible colours . Those red boxes seem to always hold a mated queen
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog I wondered if the bees would see red as dark. Makes you wonder about colors that are right in front of us but we can't see them.
Hi. Thanks for a good explanation and demonstration of the splits. One thing I did not understand was where the 'queen cells' came from that you put in the nucs? Was there a queen inside the little red cages or a two day old larvae that you expect the bees to make into a queen? Since the nucs were queenless, wouldn't they just make their own queen as long as the frames of brood you put in had newly laid eggs?
H i Candee. They could make their own cells but we use our own. The video "How We Produce Queens" explains how we make cells. th-cam.com/video/c28O916sy48/w-d-xo.html
Bob I really enjoy and have learned a lot from your videos. My question is, I am thinking about doing splits this year after the major honey flow. I would like to use the 5 frame nucs, being that I am located in southern Virginia,
We often overwinter five frame nucs in a five frame box in our area. If they are less than five frames we overwinter on top of a double screen board on a good colony.
It definitely can but it also can reduce swarming to the point where the overall yard average is decent. It also allows us to ignore that colony for a while.
I am wanting to make some splits after my hives have produced a crop of honey and the honey has been pulled around mid/late July. Wondering how many frames of brood you would recommend leaving behind in each mother colony so they could build up to overwinter well in a double deep? Also how many frames of brood should be in each split/nuc. Thanks
Hi Donavan. It looks like you are in Tennessee. Three frames of brood started in mid July will make a moderately populated double by fall as long as it has a fairly young queen and you are willing to feed it properly. A moderate but steady stream of thin sucrose syrup will do this. This assumes they have at least some pollen coming in. Two frames of brood, treated the same way, should make a nice single for winter.
Hi Bob, thanks again for this. I’m looking to start my second year , if all comes through winter in mid state jersey , by splitting my 14 hives for nucs and queen rearing. I have 2 hobbies beek friends 1 with quite a successful business and 15 yrs experience the other with 4 yrs and about the same amount of hives as I have. At the point in this video. “ Friday the next day” I’m wondering what model trucks those are with flat beds. Also if you don’t mind how are you getting boxes on and off them? Do you have lifts like Ian Steppler? I’ve haven’t seen any videos from you harvesting yet. I’m still going through your library of videos. Excellent work!!
Hi Ray. We have three Dodge 4500 and one Dodge 5500. We also have two forklifts that we can use for harvesting honey if we choose too but we usually just carry it to the truck with one man stacking. The reason for this is that many of our yards are not conducive to using a forklift.
I hope u see my question the mother hive that you pulled your nukes from u left 2 frames of brood with the bees will they still make honey for you Thanks u sir are a wealth of wisdom thanks for sharing I am watching all your videos again. they are just so great.
Old beekeeper here, getting back into it after a long break. I was always told that mixing bees would cause trouble. It looks like you do not have any problems doing that, are there any negative effects of this, or did I just have bad information?
Bob, As always your video's are timely as well as informative. I do have a question. I'm will be pulling honey supers from my hives next week and need to do some splitting. I have several hives with six or so suppers on them. Once I pull the suppers I know there will be an abundance of bees. Should I go ahead within the first few days after honey extraction and make my splits? If so what method would you suggest? Again, thanks for being willing to share your vast knowledge with us.
Much of the mass quantity of bees you mention will disappear eventually so you'll need to act soon if you want to take advantage of them. We're currently making splits with two good frames of brood, one or two good frames of food, an extra shake of bees and a ripe queen cell. This will make a five or six frame colony of bees by fall if fed properly after new bees start hatching which will be approximately five weeks. If mated queens were used the number of frames of bees going into fall would be more.
Hi Bob. Silly question. I am using 8 frame boxes and my question is if you can use them instead of the 5 frame nuc boxes? I like to keep my equipment as manageable as possible. And thank you for the educational videos you post. We like them a lot.
Bob Binnie at Blue Ridge Honey Company I am glad I read the comments. I would never thought to ask this question. I would have missed learning something important otherwise! Thank you both questioner and Mr Binnie for you patience answers! Phillip Hall
Hi...I am not Bob. In another video Bob has told us that he uses carniolan bees and he has told us that he is now introducing caucasian bees into his bees . Both of these bee races are very gentle.
Hello Bob I just found this video of yours not sure how I have missed it but anyway . Talking about the green drone comb . I have never used any of it but planning to add one to everyone of my colonies this coming season. Kind of a odd question do you know or have you ever tried or found out if that comb would do any better attraction for the mites or not installing it on the hot side or the shade side of a colony. Was just thinking . I guess when we work our bees all day it is not over when we get home an throw our feet up . I really like your way you do your splits . I will be using this idea . THANKS
Hi Kathy. Although the bees would probably populate the drone comb earlier in the season if it was on the warm side of the box It doesn't seem like it would make a difference for the mites.
Bob great video. In the nuc boxes you have frames of food and brood, when you put the lid on it do they immediately start making queen cells if they find eggs, if so does the queen cell you placed in hatch out and kill off the cells the bees made. Is the reason you placed your own queen cell in because of genetics.
Most colonies begin making queen cells between eight and twenty four hours after becoming queenless. If ours hatches within a day they usually, but not always, will abort anything they've started. Yes, we're using our own cells to introduce the stock we want but also to keep the cost down when compared to purchasing a mated queen and also to keep the time it takes to have our own laying queen as short as possible.
If you were splitting hives for your own use Would you use the same method but make 10 frame queenless splits And add a new queen? Or do you always make splits in 5-F nucs? Thx
If it's spring and temps are a lot cooler, how do you go about adding more nurse bees? Do you add in another frame of bees or are you just shaking more nurse bees in? And if you shake them in, are you just taking the split out of a few larger hives to provide the bees for your nuc yard or do you skim a little from a bunch of colonies?
If we are using this method in the spring we may add an extra open brood or two in the upper box, shake the bees into the nuc, and then return those frames to the lower box when finished if we think the mother colony is strong enough to stand it. Depending on timing in the spring we may have more bees in colony to use. If it's early we have to be more careful.
Enjoy your videos. Thank you for posting. Question. Do you have any research about 1.3 to 1 syrup vs 1:1 for comb building and brood building? or that has been your experience.
Another great video, I noticed your tops appear to be made of plywood. I made some new tops for my boxes this year and after a few rains they started swelling up. I was told that treated wood was bad on bees, so, Could you tell me what type wood or plywood I should be using so rain would not harm it.
We use HDO (high density overlay) made with Douglas Fir. It's expensive and hard to find in some areas but it's the best plywood on the planet for bee lids. No warp and no rot. See our video "Making Bottom Boards for Commercial use" for more on that plywood. th-cam.com/video/L6XQKY-YfSw/w-d-xo.html
Bob I see where you added the two gallon feed to the queen right mother hives for food a quick wax build up. The question, when do you add food to the new Nukes? Again Thank You.
Bob Binnie at Blue Ridge Honey Company Thank you. I knew you had added the good food frames but was wondering about this. It is very kind of you in helping us by sharing so much good knowledge. This is knowledge you have spent a good many years putting together. So much more the reason I appreciate your help. Have you written a book? If not have you considered writing a book? Not wanting to be greedy, but I would like to have you autograph the first copy for me! 😊😊😊. Thanks again, Phillip Hall
I've been using drone frames for years, one in each deep, in the #2 spot as well. I'm going to give the #1 spot a try. I agree with Bob on all the reasons.
Bob, it looks like the feeder holes on your lids are not centered. Is your feeding hole placement intentional? Also, Have you found a use for the 70mm holes that are cut out of your lids and Snelgrove boards? The 70mm HDO rounds.
Hi Dan. The placement is generally centered but some were cut off center by mistake several years ago and that may be what you're seeing. It really doesn't matter though. I haven't found a good use for those round waste pieces but to be honest I haven't thought about it much.
We do not put the royal barrier on the day the honeymoon is placed. We leave the queen to lay eggs in the family and the mother cell. When there is a month left to harvest the honey, we put the royal barrier, knowing that the queen is in the family, meaning she is in the mother cell. Does this make sense, Bob? Thank you, if there is clarification
Well done, a great demo. Have you tried leaving the queenless split in place of the old hive, and moving the queenright (mother) colony to a new location? I’d love to hear why/why not. Thanks
We have done that for a variety of reasons, one being to allow the original location to make their own queen. Because the original location retains the field force it's not the best choice for queen or cell introduction.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks for the quick reply, Bob. Is that because the foragers will be aggressive with an introduced queen, one they do not recognize? I’m trying to come up with a successful way of requeening feral hives/splits. Some of our local bees are very aggressive. Thanks again
@@buzzedhoneysinc7487 Yes, It's the older bees that are more aggressive. To requeen aggressive colonies try moving it to another spot, allowing the field force to drift to other colonies and then the next day requeen. It will be a much nicer experience without the field force.
Do you just place your queen cells in your pocket? Or do you have some sort of carrier for them? I know some like to say putting them on their side can damage wings etc. Have you ever had any issues with that?
You said that this yard is dedicated to making nucleus hives. How many times do you go back and make nucs? Or is it only once in the year that you do this?
Could listen to this guy all day ..clearly spoken ..good job 🙋♂️👏👏👏
Thanks for the seamless effort and how you should choose brood for splits. Great video.
Thanks
Every video that I watch from you, Kamon Reynolds & Nathan from Duck River Hunting increases my knowledge!! I really love you folks!!
Thanks Bob for another great video. I also practice broodlees wet comb splits learned from my late grandfather worked better with a fertile queens, boxes with a deep frames after extracting place above strong colonies using queens excluders in a early evening waiting for a hour or so and when lots of young house bees entered box to clean up a wet honey frames we remove boxes with a bees right before dark and place them on a bottom board and give them cover and move them to another yard next morning give them frame of food and queen and let them settle down a little for a couple days and apply a mite treatment which is very effective on a broodlees colonies and let them grow, working better in a early season. Thanks again for sharing your experience learning a lot from you!
Thank you.
Great video. Love your professionalism
Thanks.
Got to tell a story why i got purple bee boxes. Was walking in forrest with my son, 10 years of age, we where talking about the new beehives and the coulour they shuld have. My youngest kid, 2 years old, we asumed she was sleeping in her wagon, she said very loud and clear, bee house shall bee in purple.... It was so cute, she was listening and had her opinion, and today i learned this coulur actually is a good one too;)..
Thank you so much for your videos. I am a future beekeeper. I got interested almost two years ago now and I’ve been researching bees since then. I found you a few weeks back and you have really helped me bridge the gap on some things. It’s obvious that you have worked hard for many years to build a successful business. That said your no doing TH-cam for the money I would say. Sharing knowledge is so important and I wish more folks would put their arrogance aside and share the things they’ve learned about their specialty whatever that might be. Thank you again for helping me to get closer to raising my own 🐝!!
One more thing. Terry I like your style 😀
Thanks and I'll be sure to let him know.
Thank you for posting this! Very informative, clear and concise. Thank God for bees! Hi from Belarus bee's forests!
What a great video! I completely agree with the drone saturation! It’s criminal that lots of people put in only worker comb!! In the wild when you look at natural colonies they have a much higher percentage! I’ve always said this!!
Particularly like the idea of making up the nucs above the queen excluder the day before! I suffer from quite a few queens that travel away with the nuc when it’s made! But I would need a new load of extra material but it gives me food for thought!
Thank you!
I always enjoy watching your videos Bob. You have such a nice polite manner that is often lost in the rush to get things done. It's so refreshing to hear people say "please" and "thank you" when asking for something.
I do have one question for you: I heard you say that you were making those nucs in July and, in my area, it is very hot and a lot of the natural forage starts to go-over and wasps can start to become a problem. Do you feed the nuc at all or do they have enough to keep them going with natural forage?
Like you, I'm not a huge fan of the smaller nucs with half frames or less. I like full frame nucs where the queen has enough space to establish a proper brood nest after mating.
Thank you for another great video.
Hi Paul. You mentioned a couple of things I should have. Number one is full size nucs. I'm going to address the benefits of using these in a re-queening video I hope to make before long. That big frame of food will hold them until after mating is completed. We hesitate to feed before that to avoid robbing issues (and wasps) and disturbance.
Good video! A lot of good information packed inside here. Mr Binnie, perhaps you will do a follow up video on these nucs when the time is right?🤞🏻😁 Thanks, Phillip Hall
Good job Bob I’m small beekeeper in NY with 100 hives but I learn a lot from you i like your wisdom thank you very much
Thank you.
Impressive how swift and relaxed you are working with bees! I have one hive and I'd like to get more efficient but obviously that comes with a lot of experience. Fingers crossed as I attempt my first split this weekend! Thanks for the great videos!
I really appreciate these videos. You cover it all and it's possible to learn about beekeeping from viewing these.
I feel like I am absorbing all this information and then can apply it in my small apiary. If I have any questions, I can always rewatch a video.
Bob I have to admit, everytime I watch a video I do admire what a lifetime of beekeeping has taught you.
My Mentor kindly offered the suggested “you don’t even know the questions until you’ve kept bees for five years”. If accurate it is humbling to know I am still 2 years from that point. It also reinforces the comment I made earlier.
Thank you for the learning experience.
I'm going to "borrow" your mentors line. I like it.
I really like this method of splitting. I plan on using it this year.
Wow Bob, you have taken good care of your back over the years. I watch you over those singles and my back screams just seeing it! (Too many incorrect lifts loading jets in the Navy). Glad to hear about drones. We hammer that home at our once monthly beekeeper meetings. Also like the explanation on colors. Heard it once before, but it did not stick. I use shapes, but I need to switch my colors. And of course, great explanations and break down of frame combos for making those splits with excluders. Thanks, Always so very informative. Last time in the store I chose not to ask for you as you guys were loading trucks at about 100 mph, so I left well enough alone.
Thanks, sorry I missed you.
hello Bob I am from Romania I really appreciate the work you do very educationally what you present for me personally is something sensational I wish you much success still GOD BLESS YOU
I'm glad I stuck around to the end! I was wondering why those markings were on the nucs..............Now I know.
It could be graffiti. You never know.
@@bobbinnie9872 My first thought was that if I watched long enough, there was going to be something spelled out with them! After observing a bit, I realized there was no possibility this was going to happen.
This is one of the most fascinating videos. Thank you!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Watching you gives enthusiasm to beekeepers and would be beekeepers as well it gives encouragement to global
Good advice, thanks
Bob thank you for sharing your experience. I always learn something new in your videos; the way you make splits is unique and innovating. Watching you work with bees is a pleasure.
Thank you.
would love to see the follow up video of you checking the nucs for mated queen success.
Will do
@@bobbinnie9872 Great !
Good Fun thanks for sharing your skills and knowledge Bob, 👍
Excellent as always. Thanks Bob!
Thanks.
Nice to see that you pack your nuc's with a lot of bees.
Some videos I see from others use a few bees to make a nuc and wonder why they failed.
I am making walk-away splits and then I also use the extra queen cells they are making to make more nuc's. I am packing the nuc's with nurse bees and very young and old capped brood and by the time the queen emerges I end up with foragers and young nurse bees to take care of the new brood the new queen is rearing. I use 1 food frame and it last till til the queen is mated and by that time the forager brought in plenty of pollen to be used for the brood and filling some of the combs with nectar a excellent recipe for breeding.
I am usually in the upper 90's %. This year it rained almost everyday here and I am down in the 80's%.
I may try drafting next season with help of your videos.
Got a dry spill of 4 days not raining the last days, even my drive way is drying up.
Thank you very much for the video.
Do you have a video how to treat hives and what you use to treat hives?
Thanks for the comment. We have a video on how we treat with oxalic vaporization in winter- th-cam.com/video/ACqrvbNJC7w/w-d-xo.html. We also use Apivar in late July and early August.
Bob, you amazed me on how fast you picked up the queen. I lost half my eye sight and it is a comical challenge to pickup the queen
Another excellent video with a wealth of information!
I discovered your channel 2 weeks ago and I want to thank you for sharing all of your knowledge with all of tricks that are so valuable to new beekeeper. You answered so many questions that I had that it will give me more confidence in the bee yard. One thing that surprise me is your ability to work without gloves in any circumstances. If you can share on this your progression I would be curious to know. You have a new French Canadian friend now !!!! Great video again.... already the end of the season in Quebec
Thanks for your comments. I believe that not wearing gloves instantly makes you a better beekeeper. You quickly learn to be more careful, graceful and strong. Although when I hire new beekeeping employees I never insist that they don't wear gloves I encourage them to give them up as soon as they can because as long as they wear them the more the rest of us get stung. Of course there is always that "special" occasion when you just simply have too.
Wow, I just turned on a Ian Steppler video and the first words out of his mouth were, "Bob Binnie was right".
That's exactly what I said when I saw it.
Glad to know about the colors that the bees pick up on.
Awesome video and information, thank you for your help and time 👌👌
Thank you.
Thanks. I learn so much from your vids.
thank you Mr. Bob. Iam a beekeper from Indonesia
Really like the videos. You have re engized my bee keeping.
Great Video ! Thanks Bob Love the story
Thanks for sharing Bob. Great video. Easy way to make splits
Thanks.
I enjoyed this as always. Thanks for sharing Bob!
Thanks.
Love your videos Bob , watching from Ireland
Ireland!!
Bob, really enjoy your presentation and videos. I know you said you are surprised at the response you are getting with your channel but I think it is your clear explanation and calm/soothing voice. Your stories mixed in certainly help as well. You do a very nice job. Sometime in your video travels I have a few questions that perhaps others might also be interested in. It seems like same questions come up in comments more than once and you answer repeats. Seems like you creators would set up a FAQ section somewhere for people to easily refer to rather than sift through hundreds of comments on multiple videos to figure out if someone already ask the same question. Here some things I wonder about. How do you keep bees from going up your sleeve cuffs? Talk about your smoker - fuel type, how you light and how do you store/transport between yards and at the end of the day. Closer view and discuss how you handle queens. A little more info on your dust collection setup at the radial arm. How to go about finding & convincing land owners to let you setup a yard. What does Landowner compensation typically entail? How often and you groom the grass & weeds in the yards. "Shelf life" or degradation of pollen frames from dead outs and keeping them until a place in a future hive. Keith in St. Louis, MO
Hi Keith. Your idea about having a FAQ is a good one.
•I do occasionally have a bee or two go up my sleeve but it's not to much of a problem. I got in the habit of having loose sleeves to help counter the heat in summer. Summer heat is also what eventually led me to stop wearing gloves on a regular basis. Taking my gloves off when hot provides instant relief for me •We start our smokers with pine straw and then mix in hardwood wood stove pellets with more pine straw. Loaded properly, a smoker can go a couple of hours with that mix. We'll go heavy on the wood pellets when loading trucks. It's interesting to see a smoker glowing red hot when loading semi trucks. •I should have some queen management videos coming soon so I'll save that answer. •There is some good dust collection systems out there. I chose a "5HP Dust Gorilla Pro SMART Boost Dust Collector" because of the good reviews. It will keep up with two saws at once and is easy to use. •I don't have to search for yards much these days because so many people in our area know us and appreciate us and offer spots. In the beginning it was a combination of friends and knocking on doors. And yes, there was a lot of no thank you's and a few responses to colorful to repeat here. We usually pay yard rent of a case of honey per year. •We try to mow and weed eat every two to three weeks and have a man that does nothing but that for a couple of days each week in summer. •Pollen deteriorates fast and pollen from the previous year is not nearly as good as it was the year before. I spread it around in the spring anyway because the bees will use it up and I never try to save it for later.
Tarry loved it he was like YES
Hey bob it’s me pj
Thank you for another excellent video. I very much appreciate you producing this awesome educational content.
Thank you.
Great video. I’ll try that on my Nucs.
I always figure removing drones from the colony will create unstable behaviour in the colony; there is a reason why they are there and when they aren’t needed the bees take care of then anyway.
Absolutely.
Hello Bob. That's how I do my splits except I install a mated queen. I think it's the easiest way to do it. For a number of reasons.
I call that type of split the over night split because you do it overnight. Some people call it the Dolittle split.
It works. Overnight split sounds good.
This was great going to do this this weekend I used Apivar for my mite treatment this year my first time ever , because u do do u leave it in there for the time span that they say on the package or do u leave it in there longer U are great TH-cam did not tell me u had put another video on here I wonder why u have a great day and keep the wonderful videos coming Thanks
Hi Frances. We leave our Apivar in for the recommended time. I don't think leaving it in longer helps. It might even hurt because it gets weak and delivers a sublethal dose which can cause resistance.
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you
Really appreciate this kind of info...thanks Bob!
I'm glad people find it worth while.
Bob, forgive me if this is a duplicate question (I searched a bit but didn't find a similar question). I didn't hear you distinguish between a good brood frame to take for the split vs one to leave behind for the mother colony. I paid attention to the frames you chose for each instance but haven't come to any conclusion about your reasoning. So, could you please clarify your decision making process? For instance, do you have a preference to leave behind capped/emerging brood frames for the mother colony to quickly repopulate with young bees while moving the egg/larvae brood frames to draw up nurse bees that are eventually packed in the NUCs and moved to your mating yard? OR vice versa so the NUCs in the mating yard have more emerging young bees and not as many larvae to feed since we know the bee population will be relatively small and may not be able to properly feed multiple frames of developing larvae? OR leave the mother queen with a frame of both old and young brood and all other brood moves up? Thanks in advance.
If I was making a nuc with three frames of brood I would choose two sealed brood, hopefully with some hatching, to populate the nuc with young bees quickly, and one frame of open brood which helps with queen exceptance. I try to do what's best for the nuc knowing the mother colony will bounce back.
Interesting about the colors
I love this method of making splits. I discovered this my first year beekeeping and I still use it. This is an excellent video describing the process.
I've found that a nuc made in this way can be placed nearby without substantial fly-back due to the bees being young. Have you noticed any such characteristics of this method?
Yes I have. We moved these nucs to specifically take advantage of the good mating yard mentioned.
Great Video Bob, very helpful...
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome update thank you for sharing
Thanks.
Another good informative video, thanks bob
Thank you.
Bob it ALWAYS a learning video that you put out . You were talking about the color an different design on the nuc box so the queen an Bee’s can find them better. You was talking about Red is it ok to use red on the main color of any bee hive or not . Thank you very much for all your great video’s an the information you give to us all .
I can't think of a reason why red wouldn't work OK.
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing😀
Than you.
Hi Bob great video are these nucs to over winter and will the 10 frame hives be strong enough for your winter with 2 gal feed regards Roland fromWestAust
Hi Roland. I should have addressed these questions in the video. I always think of more things after the video is up.They are queen mating nucs to raise a few rounds of queens for late season re-queening. On the last queen harvest we will combine three or four nucs with one of the queens to make a single for overwintering. The "restart" colonies in this video are now on their second two gallon bucket of thin syrup and are growing nicely. I expect them to go into winter with 5 to 7 frames of young bees which will work here.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks Bob have a good day
Man you can flat grow bees there, I watched workers killing a Drone yesterday, season went quick.. good info as Always Bob!Just seen this was July lol
Great video Bob, thanks. I'm assuming that the production colonies will be built back up and overwintered as single deeps? How many times a year are you able to harvest assets like that from a nuc production yard?
This yard is on it's fourth round of making nucs and that will be the last. They paused for a few weeks to make a little sourwood honey and then made this round. They are now on their second bucket of thin syrup since then and will be ready for winter.
My fellow beekeepers in the area are all adamant about all hives facing South, I noticed you do not do that.
What are your experiences and considerations taken with hives facing specific directions?
If they are all in the sun I've never noticed much difference.
Bob, I see that you are splitting late July according to your video commentary... Is this not in the middle of your honey flow? This yard seems strong so just wondering why there were no supers on... was this just after a honey pull? Thanks!
We make sourwood in the area this yard is located in until the 15th to the 20th of July so supers would have just come off. Another side note is that except for the three weeks with sourwood supers on this yard does nothing but make nucs the rest of the season. I have several yards that are dedicated to producing nucs until mid August at which time we begin building them up for winter.
Love the mating yard🐝
Thanks.
I had a few pails of old red paint that we used to freshen up some mating boxes. I have the red boxes in with yellow , blue, green, violet. I bet those red stand out to the bees as grey or dark which in a way differentiates it as well as the visible colours . Those red boxes seem to always hold a mated queen
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog I wondered if the bees would see red as dark. Makes you wonder about colors that are right in front of us but we can't see them.
Hi. Thanks for a good explanation and demonstration of the splits. One thing I did not understand was where the 'queen cells' came from that you put in the nucs? Was there a queen inside the little red cages or a two day old larvae that you expect the bees to make into a queen? Since the nucs were queenless, wouldn't they just make their own queen as long as the frames of brood you put in had newly laid eggs?
H i Candee. They could make their own cells but we use our own. The video "How We Produce Queens" explains how we make cells. th-cam.com/video/c28O916sy48/w-d-xo.html
Thanks!
Bob
I really enjoy and have learned a lot from your videos. My question is, I am thinking about doing splits this year after the major honey flow. I would like to use the 5 frame nucs, being that I am located in southern Virginia,
We often overwinter five frame nucs in a five frame box in our area. If they are less than five frames we overwinter on top of a double screen board on a good colony.
Great video thanks
You bet
Excellent! Very helpful 👍
Thanks.
Does cutting down the mother colony so much interfere with honey production from that particular hive?
It definitely can but it also can reduce swarming to the point where the overall yard average is decent. It also allows us to ignore that colony for a while.
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you. And thank you for your videos. So very informative.
I am going to try this method
Another great video Bob, they just keep coming! I love it! I forgot to ask about it last week, but do sell those little red queen cell protectors?
Hi Jeremy. Yes we have them. Most of the mail order catalogs also have them. Make sure you get the "Top Bar"protectors. They're orange.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks!
I am wanting to make some splits after my hives have produced a crop of honey and the honey has been pulled around mid/late July. Wondering how many frames of brood you would recommend leaving behind in each mother colony so they could build up to overwinter well in a double deep? Also how many frames of brood should be in each split/nuc. Thanks
Hi Donavan. It looks like you are in Tennessee. Three frames of brood started in mid July will make a moderately populated double by fall as long as it has a fairly young queen and you are willing to feed it properly. A moderate but steady stream of thin sucrose syrup will do this. This assumes they have at least some pollen coming in. Two frames of brood, treated the same way, should make a nice single for winter.
Hi Bob, thanks again for this. I’m looking to start my second year , if all comes through winter in mid state jersey , by splitting my 14 hives for nucs and queen rearing. I have 2 hobbies beek friends 1 with quite a successful business and 15 yrs experience the other with 4 yrs and about the same amount of hives as I have. At the point in this video. “ Friday the next day” I’m wondering what model trucks those are with flat beds. Also if you don’t mind how are you getting boxes on and off them? Do you have lifts like Ian Steppler? I’ve haven’t seen any videos from you harvesting yet. I’m still going through your library of videos. Excellent work!!
Hi Ray. We have three Dodge 4500 and one Dodge 5500. We also have two forklifts that we can use for harvesting honey if we choose too but we usually just carry it to the truck with one man stacking. The reason for this is that many of our yards are not conducive to using a forklift.
I hope u see my question the mother hive that you pulled your nukes from u left 2 frames of brood with the bees will they still make honey for you Thanks u sir are a wealth of wisdom thanks for sharing I am watching all your videos again. they are just so great.
Hi Frances. It depends on the date. If we have two frames of brood early enough we will make Sourwood honey in July.
Great video Bob keep them coming did you get that honey squared away from the last video howed the dryer turn out?
The mess is cleaned up but still waiting on parts for the dryer.
Old beekeeper here, getting back into it after a long break. I was always told that mixing bees would cause trouble. It looks like you do not have any problems doing that, are there any negative effects of this, or did I just have bad information?
Good job Sir i too would like to experience with your ideas
Thank you.
Bob, As always your video's are timely as well as informative. I do have a question. I'm will be pulling honey supers from my hives next week and need to do some splitting. I have several hives with six or so suppers on them. Once I pull the suppers I know there will be an abundance of bees. Should I go ahead within the first few days after honey extraction and make my splits? If so what method would you suggest? Again, thanks for being willing to share your vast knowledge with us.
Much of the mass quantity of bees you mention will disappear eventually so you'll need to act soon if you want to take advantage of them. We're currently making splits with two good frames of brood, one or two good frames of food, an extra shake of bees and a ripe queen cell. This will make a five or six frame colony of bees by fall if fed properly after new bees start hatching which will be approximately five weeks. If mated queens were used the number of frames of bees going into fall would be more.
Hi Bob. Silly question. I am using 8 frame boxes and my question is if you can use them instead of the 5 frame nuc boxes? I like to keep my equipment as manageable as possible. And thank you for the educational videos you post. We like them a lot.
Yes, using all 8 frame equipment is a legitimate strategy. There have been times when we've used anything we could get our hands on.
Why do you set the nukes on the ground rather than on a support?
You may not believe this but we have better mating success on the ground.
Bob Binnie at Blue Ridge Honey Company
I am glad I read the comments. I would never thought to ask this question. I would have missed learning something important otherwise! Thank you both questioner and Mr Binnie for you patience answers! Phillip Hall
Great video bob thanks
Thank you.
'La de de, one two three, Eric the half a bee'.
Have you noticed whether the happy face boxes have a better mating result compared to the others?
We would would like to think they would but I've not noticed a difference.🙂
Hello Bob.Success days to you. I'm living in Turkey. I want to ask the kind of bees.Thanks
Hi...I am not Bob. In another video Bob has told us that he uses carniolan bees and he has told us that he is now introducing caucasian bees into his bees . Both of these bee races are very gentle.
Hello Bob I just found this video of yours not sure how I have missed it but anyway . Talking about the green drone comb . I have never used any of it but planning to add one to everyone of my colonies this coming season. Kind of a odd question do you know or have you ever tried or found out if that comb would do any better attraction for the mites or not installing it on the hot side or the shade side of a colony. Was just thinking . I guess when we work our bees all day it is not over when we get home an throw our feet up . I really like your way you do your splits . I will be using this idea . THANKS
Hi Kathy. Although the bees would probably populate the drone comb earlier in the season if it was on the warm side of the box It doesn't seem like it would make a difference for the mites.
هل اطارات الطعام التي رفعتها إلى الاعلى هي عسل منتج من تغذية
Bob great video. In the nuc boxes you have frames of food and brood, when you put the lid on it do they immediately start making queen cells if they find eggs, if so does the queen cell you placed in hatch out and kill off the cells the bees made.
Is the reason you placed your own queen cell in because of genetics.
Most colonies begin making queen cells between eight and twenty four hours after becoming queenless. If ours hatches within a day they usually, but not always, will abort anything they've started. Yes, we're using our own cells to introduce the stock we want but also to keep the cost down when compared to purchasing a mated queen and also to keep the time it takes to have our own laying queen as short as possible.
@@bobbinnie9872 Got you thanks.
If you were splitting hives for your own use
Would you use the same method but make 10 frame queenless splits
And add a new queen?
Or do you always make splits in 5-F nucs?
Thx
Most of our nucs are actually made in ten frame deep boxes these days. I'm going to try to put out a field video on this soon.
If it's spring and temps are a lot cooler, how do you go about adding more nurse bees? Do you add in another frame of bees or are you just shaking more nurse bees in? And if you shake them in, are you just taking the split out of a few larger hives to provide the bees for your nuc yard or do you skim a little from a bunch of colonies?
If we are using this method in the spring we may add an extra open brood or two in the upper box, shake the bees into the nuc, and then return those frames to the lower box when finished if we think the mother colony is strong enough to stand it. Depending on timing in the spring we may have more bees in colony to use. If it's early we have to be more careful.
Bob if these nucs were for your operation typical how long would you keep them in nuc before moving to 10 frame?
I like to switch them over when the new queen in the nuc starts to have her own brood hatching.
Enjoy your videos. Thank you for posting. Question. Do you have any research about 1.3 to 1 syrup vs 1:1 for comb building and brood building? or that has been your experience.
Yes, I have read two independent studies that came to the same conclusion but I can't quote them because I can't find them again.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you! I read that somewhere about 1.3:1 but can't remember where.
Would you recommend over-wintering in that type box?
Another great video, I noticed your tops appear to be made of plywood. I made some new tops for my boxes this year and after a few rains they started swelling up. I was told that treated wood was bad on bees, so, Could you tell me what type wood or plywood I should be using so rain would not harm it.
We use HDO (high density overlay) made with Douglas Fir. It's expensive and hard to find in some areas but it's the best plywood on the planet for bee lids. No warp and no rot. See our video "Making Bottom Boards for Commercial use" for more on that plywood. th-cam.com/video/L6XQKY-YfSw/w-d-xo.html
@@bobbinnie9872 thank you sir, will watch now
Did those letters increased mating success?
Amazing videos btw, keep them coming.
To to completely honest I don't know. I have to assume they do.
Bob I see where you added the two gallon feed to the queen right mother hives for food a quick wax build up. The question, when do you add food to the new Nukes? Again Thank You.
After mating has been safely accomplished. Don't want any robbing behavior until they are queen-rite.
Bob Binnie at Blue Ridge Honey Company
Thank you. I knew you had added the good food frames but was wondering about this. It is very kind of you in helping us by sharing so much good knowledge. This is knowledge you have spent a good many years putting together. So much more the reason I appreciate your help. Have you written a book? If not have you considered writing a book? Not wanting to be greedy, but I would like to have you autograph the first copy for me! 😊😊😊. Thanks again, Phillip Hall
Now you tell me about the drone frame. I just put in 80:drone frames in the #2 spot.
I've been using drone frames for years, one in each deep, in the #2 spot as well. I'm going to give the #1 spot a try. I agree with Bob on all the reasons.
#2 is OK. That should also be a honey frame for winter.
Very good
Bob, it looks like the feeder holes on your lids are not centered. Is your feeding hole placement intentional? Also, Have you found a use for the 70mm holes that are cut out of your lids and Snelgrove boards? The 70mm HDO rounds.
Hi Dan. The placement is generally centered but some were cut off center by mistake several years ago and that may be what you're seeing. It really doesn't matter though. I haven't found a good use for those round waste pieces but to be honest I haven't thought about it much.
You might find a use for the 70mm rounds waste puck if you send them all to Ian...or street hockey....
Love all the videos...
We do not put the royal barrier on the day the honeymoon is placed. We leave the queen to lay eggs in the family and the mother cell. When there is a month left to harvest the honey, we put the royal barrier, knowing that the queen is in the family, meaning she is in the mother cell. Does this make sense, Bob? Thank you, if there is clarification
Leaving the queen in the home she hatched in is always best.
Do you always use plastic foundation? I bought some but couldnt get them drawn properly even though I tried different amounts of wax on them.
We only use plastic and have very little trouble. We use Rite Cell from Mann Lake because we've had better luck with it than other brands.
Well done, a great demo. Have you tried leaving the queenless split in place of the old hive, and moving the queenright (mother) colony to a new location? I’d love to hear why/why not. Thanks
We have done that for a variety of reasons, one being to allow the original location to make their own queen. Because the original location retains the field force it's not the best choice for queen or cell introduction.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks for the quick reply, Bob. Is that because the foragers will be aggressive with an introduced queen, one they do not recognize?
I’m trying to come up with a successful way of requeening feral hives/splits. Some of our local bees are very aggressive. Thanks again
@@buzzedhoneysinc7487 Yes, It's the older bees that are more aggressive. To requeen aggressive colonies try moving it to another spot, allowing the field force to drift to other colonies and then the next day requeen. It will be a much nicer experience without the field force.
Do you just place your queen cells in your pocket? Or do you have some sort of carrier for them? I know some like to say putting them on their side can damage wings etc. Have you ever had any issues with that?
We have electric styrofoam egg incubators that we keep that we use for transporting our cells with. Works great.
You said that this yard is dedicated to making nucleus hives. How many times do you go back and make nucs? Or is it only once in the year that you do this?
Each year is different depending on needs. This last season was four. The year before was five.