I really appreciate how you explain in detail, show what things look like, explain what you are looking for, why you are doing what you are doing, and most importantly what you are thinking about when you make your decisions. You are a great instructor.
Excellent info. Thanks again Devan. I really appreciate the amount of time and energy you put in to making these very informative and high quality videos.
I was wondering if you had an opinion about upper honey super entrance to allow the foragers direct access to the comb. I'm wondering if it benefits the harvest and also wonder if it promotes an increased risk for robbing.
You are a wealth of info my friend. I hope your plan is to show how you manage the single deeps throughout the year? I do this as well but with 8 frame colonies.
Devan thanks for your method, i took 75lbs of honey on may 6th from a hive i super last october. thanks again bro .i had three super may 15th the same day you did your scale hive ... keep up the good work ,...Ray jamaica
You need to add the weight of the honey frame you removed from the green hive! That's why the weight difference between the two hives is not the same before and after you added the supers. Thanks for the great videos. Pleasure to watch and learn from.
I like this video its very nice the way he explains his work on the hive. What kind of bees do he keep Buckfast or other breeds? Myself here in calabria i put the first super in March on may normally may I harvest the first honey. Greetings from Tropea.
Hey Devan, great video. Question about the queen excluder. I have three mentors and none of them use the queen excluders anymore because they say they are more of a honey excluder than they are for the queen. What are your thoughts on this. I'm going into my big flow and need to make up my mind whether or not to use them. I realize I take the chance of having the queen go up and lay, but I guess I would have to monitor that. Also, my mentors mentioned, if she does go up and lay, when the brood emerges the bees almost always fill those cells up with honey afterward. do you agree with all this? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks you brother. Brad
My preference is wooden frames with plastic foundation. For foundation I've used pretty much every brand (Rite-cell, pierco, permadent) and I don't have a strong preference for any of them. I pretty much always get frames drawn out for the first time only when there is a strong honey flow and the bees are up in the supers making honey. Then in the future, after I've extracted the honey, I'll use the drawn comb in brood chambers. Some people swear by pure beeswax foundation, I'm not one of them. Of course the bees will prefer to work on it, and likely draw it out more quickly, especially when there is no real nectar flow. But in the height of summer when the nectar flow is strong, I've had no problems with my bees getting right to work on plastic foundation.
I am confused, There r different types of frames in different boxes, in first box which type of frames is to put there, some people shows like a cardboard some open, what to do.
In my experience, if frames have never had brood or much pollen stored in them and only been used for honey, the wax moths aren't that interested in them. On top of that I just stack them up in the storage shed where it is uninsulated and can be exposed to the cold all winter long.
Thanks for the reply, I am just beginning to use queen excluders so in the past I have tried to store frames that had some brood. That may be why. Thanks again.
Hi Devan, how were you winter loses ? I know Ontario was hit hard this winter, I lost 3 of 7. I'd be curious to compare the survival rates of single vs double boxes.
Richard Maclachlan my losses were somewhere between 12-15% this year, which is fine relatively speaking. Keep in mind that around half of all colonies in Ontario are managed in single brood chambers.
I lost several hives this winter. I have 6 deeps of honey/pollen frames left after I made up the boxes for my 5 new packages. What do i do with those frames? Will the bees rob out the old honey? Do they move pollen in order to claim more room? Thx!
Ya, for the most part they're pretty good at rearranging stuff once there's a laying queen. If it were my stuff I would make splits using those frames, but I don't know if you want more bees. I'm not a fan of letting bees rob out old brood frames - you need to make sure you know why your bees died in there. I think it's best to get bees onto that equipment before wax moth claims it.
Hi devan. I started bee keeping last year. I am going to be moving and I will be moving the bees with me in august. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind doing a video how to move a hive properly so I don't hurt my bees and myself? Thanks, Steve McGuire
Did you see the first scale hive video where I moved these hives in? I don't know where you are or what your year is like, but moving hives in August is a tough time because of honey production.
Yep, 9 frames in the supers. I'm sure you've noticed that when bees put just honey into cells, they will often draw them out much thicker compared to a cell that's just used for brood. This means the surface area of 10 frames isn't as important in the honey super. They will simply draw 9 thicker frames with just as much volume of honey. This means 10% less frames to handle during extraction. And with thick honey frames there's no "low spots" that get missed by my automatic uncapper. NOTE: this works best after comb is already drawn nicely. Starting from pure foundation with 9 frames might cause the bees to do a lot of bridging and whatever between frames.
I like to use queen excluders. I see no negative effects from them on the bees, and I haven't seen anyone make the claim with any real proof to back it up. Of course, they aren't a necessary piece of equipment for everyone, so I don't really care if other people use them or not.
I will add that I think the claim of damage to workers could be a hold out from a very long time ago. Back 30-40 years ago and more, zinc queen excluders were very common, and they were made with a thin flat sheet of the metal that had slots punched out of it for the workers to pass through. This meant that the bees were passing by a potentially sharp edge that may have damaged wings occasionally. This is more just a thought of mine. I've worked for beekeepers who still had this type of excluder and can't say I directly saw damage. But I also wasn't looking for it. Modern queen excluders made of the thin round metal bars don't have any sharp edges.
No, I never use foundation-less frames. All my honey supers are the same as my brood chamber frames which is wooden frame with plastic foundation. I extract my honey in a pretty conventional way, which pretty much requires foundation to go through the spinning action of the extractor without any headaches.
If you're a beginner, stick to 2. If you've got a lot of experience and don't mine some intensive management, I've seen 1 done, but I don't know if there's still the same advantages.
I breed my own bees and make no claims about what variety/race/subspecies they are. Too many people focus on a branding given to their bees, and not how they actually perform.
What makes you say that? There's no issues here with gently standing a frame on its end and leaning it against to hive for a few minutes. I don't have to deal with fire ants or anything like that, though.
*copy and pasted from another answer on this video* You should make sure there's still a queen in there laying, then cut down all the developing swarm cells after shaking the bees off each frame and carefully inspecting. Then try to understand why they were inclined to swarm. were they limited for honey storage space? was the queen limited in egg-laying space? Do they have lots of room and it's just swarmy genetics? Then solve that issue.
Just what I was thinking. You have mentioned adding a capped frame like the one you removed yesterday for the winter instead of fondant. If so how would you store it until then?
Christopher jones I live in southern Ontario, Canada. This is easy to find on the “about” section of my channel and I mention it in a lot of other videos when it is applicable.
That was some impressive camera work, Devan. I really enjoyed seeing the new bees emerging from their cells. Great job and keep the videos coming. Did you have a top entrance (on your inner cover) over the honey super on the back of these two hives? Thanks for the content, I always look forward to your new posts.
Thomas Paige thanks. You’re right, I turn the top entrance around to the back. Generally the bees are trained to the front of the hive now and they’ll use the main entrance at the bottom. It’s an attempt to not have them store incoming pollen in the honey super. I’m also fine with no top entrance at all for the summer, but this style of inner cover won’t allow that.
Thanks for the quick reply, Devan. When you put the bee escapes on later in the fall before you harvest honey, do you tape over those top entrances or just turn the inner cover over? Awesome videos, keep up the great work!
You should make sure there's still a queen in there laying, then cut down all the developing swarm cells after shaking the bees off each frame and carefully inspecting. Then try to understand why they were inclined to swarm. were they limited for honey storage space? was the queen limited in egg-laying space? Do they have lots of room and it's just swarmy genetics? Then solve that issue.
I really appreciate how you explain in detail, show what things look like, explain what you are looking for, why you are doing what you are doing, and most importantly what you are thinking about when you make your decisions. You are a great instructor.
Excellent info. Thanks again Devan. I really appreciate the amount of time and energy you put in to making these very informative and high quality videos.
Another great video. I love how you were able to show the bees emerging. I can't wait for your new videos.
I truly appreciate the way you work with the bees, not aggressive and not timid. Looking forward to learning more.
Loved the problem solving around giving the queen room to lay eggs. Super helpful.
I was wondering if you had an opinion about upper honey super entrance to allow the foragers direct access to the comb. I'm wondering if it benefits the harvest and also wonder if it promotes an increased risk for robbing.
Watch every one of your vids here in Marengo, WI. Devan with a BIG thank you!
Love the closeup of emerging bees. Great instruction!
You are a wealth of info my friend. I hope your plan is to show how you manage the single deeps throughout the year? I do this as well but with 8 frame colonies.
Devan thanks for your method, i took 75lbs of honey on may 6th from a hive i super last october. thanks again bro .i had three super may 15th the same day you did your scale hive ... keep up the good work ,...Ray jamaica
Nice video Devan! Spring management videos thru to harvesting and winter prep you do a great job with and detailed!
Thank you for interesting video! Hope your bees are doing well! Hi from Belarus bee's forests! ✊🙏
You are a fantastic and awesome teacher. I just want to make sure you know that. Thank you.
great shot of the young bees, very good video
Hi Devan
Where abouts do you in Ontario?
Like your videos
Thanks Raul
You need to add the weight of the honey frame you removed from the green hive! That's why the weight difference between the two hives is not the same before and after you added the supers. Thanks for the great videos. Pleasure to watch and learn from.
Atlas531 I didn’t think this really needed to be pointed out beyond a quick mention. It was pretty obvious what happened.
I like this video its very nice the way he explains his work on the hive. What kind of bees do he keep Buckfast or other breeds? Myself here in calabria i put the first super in March on may normally may I harvest the first honey. Greetings from Tropea.
thanks for all your informative vids from south western Quebec.
Hey Devan, great video. Question about the queen excluder. I have three mentors and none of them use the queen excluders anymore because they say they are more of a honey excluder than they are for the queen. What are your thoughts on this. I'm going into my big flow and need to make up my mind whether or not to use them. I realize I take the chance of having the queen go up and lay, but I guess I would have to monitor that. Also, my mentors mentioned, if she does go up and lay, when the brood emerges the bees almost always fill those cells up with honey afterward. do you agree with all this? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks you brother. Brad
hi Devan i was wondering what brand and where you purchased your hat and veil as i am in Australia thanks
We are missing your great videos please make more.
Brand new beekeeper brand new subscriber just love the way you put your videos together very interesting
Thanks Devan for the great videos
Any advice on what type of frame and foundation to use would be appreciated. Thanks for the excellent videos.
My preference is wooden frames with plastic foundation. For foundation I've used pretty much every brand (Rite-cell, pierco, permadent) and I don't have a strong preference for any of them. I pretty much always get frames drawn out for the first time only when there is a strong honey flow and the bees are up in the supers making honey. Then in the future, after I've extracted the honey, I'll use the drawn comb in brood chambers.
Some people swear by pure beeswax foundation, I'm not one of them. Of course the bees will prefer to work on it, and likely draw it out more quickly, especially when there is no real nectar flow. But in the height of summer when the nectar flow is strong, I've had no problems with my bees getting right to work on plastic foundation.
so cool watching the bee emerging
I am confused, There r different types of frames in different boxes, in first box which type of frames is to put there, some people shows like a cardboard some open, what to do.
Love your videos. I wish I would have gotten into beekeeping when I was at your age. I'd be rich now... Keep up the good work.
Love your videos. How do you store your extracted frames of comb without the moths taking over?
In my experience, if frames have never had brood or much pollen stored in them and only been used for honey, the wax moths aren't that interested in them. On top of that I just stack them up in the storage shed where it is uninsulated and can be exposed to the cold all winter long.
Thanks for the reply, I am just beginning to use queen excluders so in the past I have tried to store frames that had some brood. That may be why. Thanks again.
@@DevanRawn mouse proof shed?'
Why do you use only 9 frames in your honey supers? Please explain if it's for a particular reason. Thank you.
Can you tell me what's in bloom when you put the first supers on.
I've put honey supers on as early as the maple bloom.
Hi Devan, how were you winter loses ? I know Ontario was hit hard this winter, I lost 3 of 7. I'd be curious to compare the survival rates of single vs double boxes.
Richard Maclachlan my losses were somewhere between 12-15% this year, which is fine relatively speaking. Keep in mind that around half of all colonies in Ontario are managed in single brood chambers.
I lost several hives this winter. I have 6 deeps of honey/pollen frames left after I made up the boxes for my 5 new packages. What do i do with those frames? Will the bees rob out the old honey? Do they move pollen in order to claim more room?
Thx!
Ya, for the most part they're pretty good at rearranging stuff once there's a laying queen. If it were my stuff I would make splits using those frames, but I don't know if you want more bees. I'm not a fan of letting bees rob out old brood frames - you need to make sure you know why your bees died in there. I think it's best to get bees onto that equipment before wax moth claims it.
Hi devan. I started bee keeping last year. I am going to be moving and I will be moving the bees with me in august. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind doing a video how to move a hive properly so I don't hurt my bees and myself? Thanks, Steve McGuire
Did you see the first scale hive video where I moved these hives in? I don't know where you are or what your year is like, but moving hives in August is a tough time because of honey production.
What did you do with the honey frame you removed
Hi Devan ... did the honey super have 9 frames as apposed to the bottom hive, which had 10? If that is the case, why so? Thanks!
Yep, 9 frames in the supers. I'm sure you've noticed that when bees put just honey into cells, they will often draw them out much thicker compared to a cell that's just used for brood. This means the surface area of 10 frames isn't as important in the honey super. They will simply draw 9 thicker frames with just as much volume of honey. This means 10% less frames to handle during extraction. And with thick honey frames there's no "low spots" that get missed by my automatic uncapper.
NOTE: this works best after comb is already drawn nicely. Starting from pure foundation with 9 frames might cause the bees to do a lot of bridging and whatever between frames.
Thanks for your insightful response ... especially your “note” at then end.
Do you recommend using a Queen excluders? Some people say not to because its harder on the workers. Your thoughts on that?? Thanks for the videos.
I like to use queen excluders. I see no negative effects from them on the bees, and I haven't seen anyone make the claim with any real proof to back it up. Of course, they aren't a necessary piece of equipment for everyone, so I don't really care if other people use them or not.
I will add that I think the claim of damage to workers could be a hold out from a very long time ago. Back 30-40 years ago and more, zinc queen excluders were very common, and they were made with a thin flat sheet of the metal that had slots punched out of it for the workers to pass through. This meant that the bees were passing by a potentially sharp edge that may have damaged wings occasionally.
This is more just a thought of mine. I've worked for beekeepers who still had this type of excluder and can't say I directly saw damage. But I also wasn't looking for it. Modern queen excluders made of the thin round metal bars don't have any sharp edges.
Thanks that makes me feel better about using them.
Are your honey supers foundation less? What are your thoughts on foundation and/or plastic frames in the honey supers?
No, I never use foundation-less frames. All my honey supers are the same as my brood chamber frames which is wooden frame with plastic foundation. I extract my honey in a pretty conventional way, which pretty much requires foundation to go through the spinning action of the extractor without any headaches.
what were the insects crawling on the inside of the top?
of the green hive
Can you do the single brood box with the medium-sized frames? Or should I do 2?
If you're a beginner, stick to 2. If you've got a lot of experience and don't mine some intensive management, I've seen 1 done, but I don't know if there's still the same advantages.
Thanks, it's my first hive
great channel! what variety of bees are these two hives?
I breed my own bees and make no claims about what variety/race/subspecies they are. Too many people focus on a branding given to their bees, and not how they actually perform.
Surely putting frames on the ground is a big no-no?
What makes you say that? There's no issues here with gently standing a frame on its end and leaning it against to hive for a few minutes. I don't have to deal with fire ants or anything like that, though.
The way you speak and move about you really remind me of Fred Rogers.
haha, I am partial to a nice cardigan.
What do you do when you start to see queen cells?
*copy and pasted from another answer on this video*
You should make sure there's still a queen in there laying, then cut down all the developing swarm cells after shaking the bees off each frame and carefully inspecting. Then try to understand why they were inclined to swarm. were they limited for honey storage space? was the queen limited in egg-laying space? Do they have lots of room and it's just swarmy genetics? Then solve that issue.
What will you do with that frame of honey? Leave it out and let it be robbed?
Just what I was thinking. You have mentioned adding a capped frame like the one you removed yesterday for the winter instead of fondant. If so how would you store it until then?
No, I don’t like letting bees rob any honey. I’ll use it in a nuc within the next couple of weeks.
What is your location? It helps to know climate...
Christopher jones I live in southern Ontario, Canada. This is easy to find on the “about” section of my channel and I mention it in a lot of other videos when it is applicable.
That was some impressive camera work, Devan. I really enjoyed seeing the new bees emerging from their cells. Great job and keep the videos coming. Did you have a top entrance (on your inner cover) over the honey super on the back of these two hives? Thanks for the content, I always look forward to your new posts.
Thomas Paige thanks. You’re right, I turn the top entrance around to the back. Generally the bees are trained to the front of the hive now and they’ll use the main entrance at the bottom. It’s an attempt to not have them store incoming pollen in the honey super. I’m also fine with no top entrance at all for the summer, but this style of inner cover won’t allow that.
Thanks for the quick reply, Devan. When you put the bee escapes on later in the fall before you harvest honey, do you tape over those top entrances or just turn the inner cover over? Awesome videos, keep up the great work!
Either way, it doesn't matter.
Thanks
So useful video.. keep doing like that.. Thank you.
odd supers on may 15th
I had queen cells. Mine swarmed. I caught the swarm and put it in a new hive. If I find queen cells in my other hives what should I do?
You should make sure there's still a queen in there laying, then cut down all the developing swarm cells after shaking the bees off each frame and carefully inspecting. Then try to understand why they were inclined to swarm. were they limited for honey storage space? was the queen limited in egg-laying space? Do they have lots of room and it's just swarmy genetics? Then solve that issue.
Thank you. Swarmy genetics most likely. My first year. Got nucs to start. They had filled 80% of the brood box. Your hand with bees is unparalleled.
Excellent- thanks