I'd call the frame design a Langstroth-Layens hybrid. The extra depth is part of the Layens design, but, as you pointed out a while back, Layens are sealed across the top. Great adaptation!
Jim, just to reaffirm your concept. With my insulated hives here in KY (and using single brood box management) I put my first super on my hives in MARCH! By mid to end of March here the queens are well into their first strong push of brood and to get ahead of swarming I am finding good success with supering my hives a full month head of people with uninsulated hives.
This is GREAT to hear. I’m planning on supering like crazy. The extra deep brood boxes do a great job of keeping that swarm urge down. I just need to keep them clear of honey. I’ll be adding empty frames down there soon to replace any un-used packed honey frames. Really loving how this is all coming together!
Thank you so very much for putting yourself in a position to have people who are less than loving and open minded be critical towards your methods by sharing your journey with Beekeeping and sharing your experience so that those who choose to open their mind can benefit by it. You've given me hope for getting back into Beekeeping.
Thanks Jim for taking the time to experiment with your hives and beeyard. We had taken a year off because of the same issues that you were having. We live a few towns over and have clear cut our woods, now we have more wind and this is one of our problems. We will be back at it again this year thanks to Autumn Morning Farm. We had used insulation for boxes one year with great success but lost them to a tree falling on our hives. So we our reconfiguring our hives to help with the temperture flucuation. So again thank you for this added information that we can use for our own bee yard. It is so nice to see your success. the bee boxes are slamming.
While I did loose 2 hives to starvation, the rest have a rather large population. We're behind you by quite a bit here in Canada (Silver maples are just starting to bloom and the snow is just done melting). Making these insulation shells with R25 tops REALLY helped me. Etienne Tardif's advice is gold!
Estrie here. I used R10 (pink) polystyrene insulation to make something similar to Jim's Bee Barn and it was phenomenal! The insulation was so good, that I had 10 deep frames worth of honey (mix feeding syrup) that I had to take out because they were honey bound in April. Even a 10-frame nuc (used 2 5-frame supers, superimposed) came through with enough resources for spring! LOVE this concept!
Wow Jim... I am so happy for you. The difference in your voice in a year is huge. My heart broke with your huge loss video, you sound so much happier and enthused. Poor Ian is having a rough time with the snow there.
it is fresh nectar. It is out there, even by you. I start seeing it in March, but they often use it before the flow. My first year I used those deep frames, but I need to go back to regular deeps so I could mix and match all the equipment. I would have to do a total reboot like you if I wanted to go back to deep. Unfortunately I keep bees on my roof and hauling stuff up and down is brutal, so I need to keep things portable in that respect.. Looking good. I think you will very busy May and June with those ladies building up so fast.
I like the idea of a spacer board. I only have eight frame hives but the thought of removing a frame to a 'Stand; with brood and bees worries me a bit that fallen bees might not find there way home, and of course it might have the unseen Queen. I think I will adopt this come next season, ( I'm in Australia, season is finished).
The best, thanks. Two years ago I lost three of three hives to winter. This past winter I used two inch insulation on two regular hives and an insulated long hive I built and they all made it, until I fed them just prior to a 10 day trip last month and raccoons 🦝 after the sugar water ripped off the straps holding the tops of the two boxes exposing the cluster to both cold and rain. I’ll keep the one hive and spend time rebuilding the old boxes as you suggested.
Your hives are looking great. I agree, the deep frames are a game changer. My hives are all overflowing with bees and have been supered already. I am way ahead of where I was last year at this time. Although I am concentrating on creating healthy hives and settling my colonies into these new Bee Barns I think it may turn out to be a record honey season this year. I am firmly in the Bee Barn camp.
Hi im new to bee keeping and I really am impressed with the bee barns. Im looking for infos on size and dimensions and how to build the frames. Do you have any advice? Thank you
I'm still 100% sold on the design, the frames in particular. Inspecting through double deeps is a lot of work! Im just about an hour North and East of you, its always great comparing what you see to what I see, helps me know if I am way off or not with whats going on with the seasons at least. This year my hives in standard langstroths (double deeps) came out really strong as well, so I do think the season is part of the reason. But I did tighten up the boxes over the winter, reduced the entrance and such. Changed my thinking based on what you are doing and I think that made a difference too. Really enjoying this journey! Can't wait to see how it develops and hopefully maybe give it a go myself!
Hi Jim. Great news. I have started putting on supers here in the UK as the spring flow has started. it shows the new hives are working well beyond your expectations. Keep the Vids coming. Chris UK.
I have had similar results with my super insulated Layens hive with extra deep[18"] frames, in central NH. They are used any where in the hive and they fit in a large frame extractor. Thanks for the video. Take care, Brice
Been absolutely miserable spring here in north Iowa. We had 4 inches of snow last week. Glad to see it’s getting started in your area it gives me hope!
i dont know for sure if you were getting fresh nectar but it will drip out of the comb if its fresh. uncapped honey will look fresh as well. It trips me up sometimes! glad you're happy with the new hives
i am close by in mass i live in the brookfields and seeing how your hives made it through the winter makes me really want these bee barns looks like a good choice
I so agree with you Vino. My hives all have frames that are 18.5" deep housed in two deep boxes and I see a huge difference in honey, laying patterns, and bee health.
There is a material called Starboard that might be a better material for the hive cover that you had the moisture issue with. It is a material used in boat building and outdoor kitchen cabinets. It would not absorb or hold moisture and then the burlap would draw the moisture off the starboard instead of some of the moisture going into the plywood. It comes in different thickness (1/4"-1/2"-3/4") The 3/4" might be a better material for the end spacers because it would not warp like the plywood did. I think the plywood warped because the moisture was higher on one side than the other. The side next to the frames would be higher then the outside may have been. Just a thought
Hi, Jim. What a fantastic April inspection. You were right about the Bee Barn's high capacity insulation. Seems like they ALL did just fine all winter. And the larger Bee Barn frames! All the bees seem to love the continuous frames. This is a great innovation. I wish I were more skilled, but when it comes to carpentry, I'm all thumbs. Looking forward to see how the honey production will be with such huge hive populations so early. I'd love to see how much they move up into the supers and if they draw comb if any of the frames were undrawn. I'd also keep an eye out for more queen cells since one the new capped brood emerges, the swarm tendency will be high. LOVE your videos. The 'Bee Barn' concept is a win-win innovation any way you look at it. Can't wait to see your next inspection. To date, I now only follow you, Frederick Dunn in PA, Bob Binnie in N. Georgia (Commercial Beekeeper), Kaymon Reynolds in TN, and a few others every once in awhile. Keep up the good research and work.
got an idea Jim, thanks for sharing this video, i will apply this here in the Philippines, we don't have winter here in the Philippines, so the huge insolation is not applicable for me, BUT the deep and a medium foundation that attached together that's make sense to me. That's a big circle of brood. I'll try it here in the Philippines...for a massive production of bees send to the fields gathered nectar an pollen on our coconuts all year round
Your hives look terrific. I have an insulated nuc and it swarmed on April 7th, usually the swarms start in May. It's a different year and you will be adding more supers in 2-3 weeks
This is wonderful, a smile on your face and ours. Great work, You have opened a new beekeeping avenue for those interested. I am interested. I am sold on the design, the way you present and set up of your apiary. Keen to see the first harvest of those two supers.
So glad your hives are doing so great I hope this helps make up a little for the year you had a few years back coming out of winter ( it was bad ) . I think you have the bull by the horns now . Thanks for bringing us a long on you bee journey. I hope you have the best season ever.
I’m up in Northern California and could’ve put my supers on in February but didn’t want to loose them to a frost. I run regular 2x deep Langstroph and they made it beautifully through the winter (with the help of my dryer vent being close to the hives.) all is well though. I did a mite treatment before the brood boom and then put my super on in march which is unheard of for the on and off store that have been coming through here. Love the stuff you post as it is informative and really helps knowing what to do in different situations.
So exciting ! Weather has been gloomy for 2 weeks but I'm grateful for every drop of rain. We get queens in on Saturday and split campus hives the next day
Still hoping you'll put up a video on the barn hive (top) redesign V2.0 or V3.0. I know your moisture problems are gone now, but I've been collecting wood for months now in hopes to rebuild all my hives into barn hives, - just want to see what your fix is to address the winter moisture problems. Keep up thew good work!
I went to a deep+medium for brood chambers a few years ago...made sense to me...I started adding permanent insulation as well..that also made sense to me .. Glad to see others have come to the same conclusion.
Hi Jim congrats on all your hard work and your successful channel. I’d like to upgrade my few hives into bee barns. I understand the insulation part as you explained it great. But I’m having troubles with the plans, size and dimensions of the frames. Can you post the how to or the dimensions when you get a chance? Thank you
Hello! These aren’t exactly the same, but an option. I’m starting with these this spring after a break of several years .... wishing you much luck!! horizontalhive.com/
Watching You handling equipment that ibuprofen counter from last year makes more and more sense. Not to mention bee barn advantages for the bees themselves.
I'm about an hour east of you..... Our hives are absolutely exploding this Spring. Way earlier than we've ever witnessed. Even a hive that was torn apart (2x) by a bear last Fall survived the winter. We added supers this past weekend. I think if we had let them go another week to 10days, they most likely would have swarmed. We have Langstroth hives; I'm thinking the relatively mild winter combined with treating for mites last Fall were two reasons they came through winter so strong. Happy Spring All
This was amazing to watch, so satisfying to see the bees thriving! I am wondering what you will do if/when the bees decide to swarm? Usually you split off into a nuc right? But you're happy with the number you'd have so will you just try to destroy all the queen cups?
Add supers, shuffle brood frames to weaker hives, split off queens if necessary. I’m not doing this for a living, so if I lose a couple swarms, it’s not a big deal.
Nice update. I'm enjoying your bee barn journey. If you feed syrup and put food coloring in it, you'll be able to tell to if it's sugar syrup being moved or stored or if it's new nectar coming in.
The larger frame area is one of the benefits to the Layens hive design as well. I totally agree that the insulation and the frame size/area are the two key points.
I've been thinking about creating something similar to your inner cover feeder/top entrance and was wondering if having that top entrance on both sides ends up getting your bees moving into your feeder box at all? I can imagine that they can sniff out that syrup up there too.
Those hives look HUGE, i think this is the first time I have seen your hives so prosperous, Hope you let them get as big as they can. and i would like if they gave you honey in those upper levels, given that you took them out of the supplements that honey would be harvestable, if the chemics from the varoa treatments let you.
did you make your own frames??? .. which I probably know the answer to but what I really want is a template to go by to make my own .. you have given me an inspiration to quit struggling and succeed as a 3rd year beekeep!!
Your bee barn would do very well in northern BC Canada, a friend has lost his langforth hives every year for the last 6 years expensive here,question could the inner box be 5/8th ply with 1/4 inch riser ends to hold in the frames, have you published plans for this jewel
Down here in southeast MA swarm season usually starts in late April, but a few people have reported capped queen cells already this week. Slighlty ahead of schedule.
Seen a lot of amazing pictures from other beekeepers in the UK with similar stories oh and swarms.....glad mine are not that advanced just glad to achieve my first over wintering success.
Greetings from Poland! Well, I'm really jealous when I'm looking at your colonies :) Here, we have a really cold spring this year. Wild plums, dogwoods are flowering, friut orchards are about to bloom in week or so, but the weather is terrible and my bees are stuck in their hives :(
Bees would think it was beeswax anyway and probably steal it all or build comb on it. Probably could find another waterproofing solution, but all we need is a bee safe material that doesn't care about moisture.
Another reason to put the pollen in the center The mold was around the outsides of the top covers. Putting the pollen in the middle avoids the moisture and mold
Thanks for sharing! The bee barn is a cool idea! Do you use queen excluders? I'll be very interested to see how honey production does this year! Too many nucs is a great problem to have! lol
You did make an excellent video explaining the bee barn frame concept... but another one updated with your excellent experiences would of course be welcome!
So many videos in my head that need to be made… I have too many things going on right now. Videos are very time consuming. I will get to all my plans eventually.
This is awesome :D so excited to see what this year brings! It is awesome to see you flourish after addressing what went wrong- clearly shows the growth and your understanding of your bees and what they need
Loving the bee-barn design. Have you looked @ Layens frames/hives? They may give you the frame dimensions you’re looking for while staying with a ‘standard’ frame. Maybe Layens frames in the core, with Lanstroth supers?
Hiveware aside, it's amazing the difference between a treated hive and untreated coming out of winter Are you using formic pro as you're supering already?
Very awesome Jim congratulations on your success with these, seems like you may have figured this out. I know you don’t want to sell nucs but what are you going to do when they want to swarm? Those hives are so big they are going to want to be swarm machines soon. As soon as the environment gets going they are gonna pop off. Congratulations again
Nice Mandalorian reference! I would suggest taking that ring off while playing with bees. It wouldn’t be good if you got stung on that finger. That fact that it’s black may make it a target.
I'm interested in duplicating you bee barns in Northern Illinois climate. Have you considered swarm control and how you would do that? Also, not sure if I missed it but how did you introduce existing brood from old hives into the barn?
I was wondering if your bees are "gluing" (for lack of a better term) the extra long frames frames together. Mine seem to put wax and propolis between the frame ends to lock them in place.
This video put a huge smile on my face, especially with the sound effect when you said "This is the way." LOL. Yes, having beebarns IS the way.
I'd call the frame design a Langstroth-Layens hybrid. The extra depth is part of the Layens design, but, as you pointed out a while back, Layens are sealed across the top. Great adaptation!
Jim, just to reaffirm your concept. With my insulated hives here in KY (and using single brood box management) I put my first super on my hives in MARCH! By mid to end of March here the queens are well into their first strong push of brood and to get ahead of swarming I am finding good success with supering my hives a full month head of people with uninsulated hives.
This is GREAT to hear. I’m planning on supering like crazy. The extra deep brood boxes do a great job of keeping that swarm urge down. I just need to keep them clear of honey. I’ll be adding empty frames down there soon to replace any un-used packed honey frames. Really loving how this is all coming together!
Thank you so very much for putting yourself in a position to have people who are less than loving and open minded be critical towards your methods by sharing your journey with Beekeeping and sharing your experience so that those who choose to open their mind can benefit by it. You've given me hope for getting back into Beekeeping.
2:00 HAHA, love it.
To this day I appreciate you adding Celsius conversions to your videos. Not sure if I've said that before, so I thought I'd say it now. Thank you 😄
Thanks Jim for taking the time to experiment with your hives and beeyard. We had taken a year off because of the same issues that you were having. We live a few towns over and have clear cut our woods, now we have more wind and this is one of our problems. We will be back at it again this year thanks to Autumn Morning Farm. We had used insulation for boxes one year with great success but lost them to a tree falling on our hives. So we our reconfiguring our hives to help with the temperture flucuation. So again thank you for this added information that we can use for our own bee yard. It is so nice to see your success. the bee boxes are slamming.
While I did loose 2 hives to starvation, the rest have a rather large population. We're behind you by quite a bit here in Canada (Silver maples are just starting to bloom and the snow is just done melting). Making these insulation shells with R25 tops REALLY helped me. Etienne Tardif's advice is gold!
Estrie here. I used R10 (pink) polystyrene insulation to make something similar to Jim's Bee Barn and it was phenomenal! The insulation was so good, that I had 10 deep frames worth of honey (mix feeding syrup) that I had to take out because they were honey bound in April. Even a 10-frame nuc (used 2 5-frame supers, superimposed) came through with enough resources for spring! LOVE this concept!
Wow Jim... I am so happy for you. The difference in your voice in a year is huge. My heart broke with your huge loss video, you sound so much happier and enthused. Poor Ian is having a rough time with the snow there.
it is fresh nectar. It is out there, even by you. I start seeing it in March, but they often use it before the flow. My first year I used those deep frames, but I need to go back to regular deeps so I could mix and match all the equipment. I would have to do a total reboot like you if I wanted to go back to deep. Unfortunately I keep bees on my roof and hauling stuff up and down is brutal, so I need to keep things portable in that respect.. Looking good. I think you will very busy May and June with those ladies building up so fast.
Given everything else that is going on in the world, it is always great to get another good news video from the bee yard. Thank you! Well done!
I like the idea of a spacer board. I only have eight frame hives but the thought of removing a frame to a 'Stand; with brood and bees worries me a bit that fallen bees might not find there way home, and of course it might have the unseen Queen. I think I will adopt this come next season, ( I'm in Australia, season is finished).
The best, thanks. Two years ago I lost three of three hives to winter. This past winter I used two inch insulation on two regular hives and an insulated long hive I built and they all made it, until I fed them just prior to a 10 day trip last month and raccoons 🦝 after the sugar water ripped off the straps holding the tops of the two boxes exposing the cluster to both cold and rain. I’ll keep the one hive and spend time rebuilding the old boxes as you suggested.
This is the way.
It's pretty neat seeing that circle pattern on all those frames!
The sheer excitement i get from seeing your bees is awesome
Thanks for the update. and as always..... GO BALBOA!!!
Your hives are looking great. I agree, the deep frames are a game changer. My hives are all overflowing with bees and have been supered already. I am way ahead of where I was last year at this time. Although I am concentrating on creating healthy hives and settling my colonies into these new Bee Barns I think it may turn out to be a record honey season this year. I am firmly in the Bee Barn camp.
Hi im new to bee keeping and I really am impressed with the bee barns. Im looking for infos on size and dimensions and how to build the frames. Do you have any advice? Thank you
I'm still 100% sold on the design, the frames in particular. Inspecting through double deeps is a lot of work!
Im just about an hour North and East of you, its always great comparing what you see to what I see, helps me know if I am way off or not with whats going on with the seasons at least. This year my hives in standard langstroths (double deeps) came out really strong as well, so I do think the season is part of the reason. But I did tighten up the boxes over the winter, reduced the entrance and such. Changed my thinking based on what you are doing and I think that made a difference too.
Really enjoying this journey! Can't wait to see how it develops and hopefully maybe give it a go myself!
Looking good Jim! Thanks for posting.
“This is the way”… looking forward to the Grogu hive!!
Looking great, my compliments you have complete your task.
I get a peaceful mind watching your videos. Thanks for sharing with us.
And by peaceful mind, do you mean a mind filled with toxic chemicals?
@@vinofarm 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Holy-moly, macaroni! That is a lot of bees.
Wonderful watch. Thanks.
Hi Jim. Great news. I have started putting on supers here in the UK as the spring flow has started. it shows the new hives are working well beyond your expectations. Keep the Vids coming. Chris UK.
Nice Hives! Insulate the supers and you will get honey faster with less moisture.
Great video 👍
Nice looking hives, good job
I am really enjoying the journey you are having with these barns. I would like to hear your pro's n con's after a full year.
I’ve been keeping a list. Every time I think of a new one, I realize I need to make that video. Stay tuned.
Ok insulation for winter hives check large frames check. Nice, thank you. I am getting my first bees in a month.
I have had similar results with my super insulated Layens hive with extra deep[18"] frames, in central NH. They are used any where in the hive and they fit in a large frame extractor. Thanks for the video. Take care, Brice
Just waiting for the honey dance now lol 😆
Been absolutely miserable spring here in north Iowa. We had 4 inches of snow last week. Glad to see it’s getting started in your area it gives me hope!
Hi Jim. Any blueprints of the insulated double deep to share? Nice work you have there
i dont know for sure if you were getting fresh nectar but it will drip out of the comb if its fresh. uncapped honey will look fresh as well. It trips me up sometimes! glad you're happy with the new hives
Your great invention has a name… BeeBarn. Wonderful!
i am close by in mass i live in the brookfields and seeing how your hives made it through the winter makes me really want these bee barns looks like a good choice
Really impressive! Thanks!!!
Beautiful.
So excited and happy for you! Any plans to share the plans?
I so agree with you Vino. My hives all have frames that are 18.5" deep housed in two deep boxes and I see a huge difference in honey, laying patterns, and bee health.
There is a material called Starboard that might be a better material for the hive cover that you had the moisture issue with. It is a material used in boat building and outdoor kitchen cabinets. It would not absorb or hold moisture and then the burlap would draw the moisture off the starboard instead of some of the moisture going into the plywood. It comes in different thickness (1/4"-1/2"-3/4") The 3/4" might be a better material for the end spacers because it would not warp like the plywood did. I think the plywood warped because the moisture was higher on one side than the other. The side next to the frames would be higher then the outside may have been. Just a thought
Yup. And it’s about $700 for a 4x8 sheet. I shopped around for that a couple months ago. I found something similar for a lot less… stay tuned!
Very cool and thanks for mentioning that the BEES manage the humidity. :)
Hi, Jim. What a fantastic April inspection. You were right about the Bee Barn's high capacity insulation. Seems like they ALL did just fine all winter. And the larger Bee Barn frames! All the bees seem to love the continuous frames. This is a great innovation. I wish I were more skilled, but when it comes to carpentry, I'm all thumbs. Looking forward to see how the honey production will be with such huge hive populations so early. I'd love to see how much they move up into the supers and if they draw comb if any of the frames were undrawn. I'd also keep an eye out for more queen cells since one the new capped brood emerges, the swarm tendency will be high. LOVE your videos. The 'Bee Barn' concept is a win-win innovation any way you look at it. Can't wait to see your next inspection. To date, I now only follow you, Frederick Dunn in PA, Bob Binnie in N. Georgia (Commercial Beekeeper), Kaymon Reynolds in TN, and a few others every once in awhile. Keep up the good research and work.
Thank you!
Awesome! Those were some nice brood frames sir! It's going to be interesting to see this year honey yield.
got an idea Jim, thanks for sharing this video, i will apply this here in the Philippines, we don't have winter here in the Philippines, so the huge insolation is not applicable for me, BUT the deep and a medium foundation that attached together that's make sense to me. That's a big circle of brood.
I'll try it here in the Philippines...for a massive production of bees send to the fields gathered nectar an pollen on our coconuts all year round
Your hives look terrific. I have an insulated nuc and it swarmed on April 7th, usually the swarms start in May. It's a different year and you will be adding more supers in 2-3 weeks
This is wonderful, a smile on your face and ours. Great work, You have opened a new beekeeping avenue for those interested. I am interested. I am sold on the design, the way you present and set up of your apiary. Keen to see the first harvest of those two supers.
I am glad the moisture problem sorted itself out. I was wondering about that. Looking good. Hope you have a great season.
THIS IS SO EXCITING!! KEEP LEARNING AND DOING WHAT YOU FEEL IS BEST FOR YOUR HIVES!!
Congratulations on 100k
WOW Jim!!!!
✨MOISTNESS✨ 😂😂😂
So glad your hives are doing so great I hope this helps make up a little for the year you had a few years back coming out of winter ( it was bad ) . I think you have the bull by the horns now . Thanks for bringing us a long on you bee journey. I hope you have the best season ever.
I’m up in Northern California and could’ve put my supers on in February but didn’t want to loose them to a frost. I run regular 2x deep Langstroph and they made it beautifully through the winter (with the help of my dryer vent being close to the hives.) all is well though. I did a mite treatment before the brood boom and then put my super on in march which is unheard of for the on and off store that have been coming through here. Love the stuff you post as it is informative and really helps knowing what to do in different situations.
Your hives are awesome. Happy for you!! Whole lot better than last year for you. Hope you get a great honey crop.
Jim, can you do a quick video on how you make your double deep frames?
So exciting ! Weather has been gloomy for 2 weeks but I'm grateful for every drop of rain. We get queens in on Saturday and split campus hives the next day
Still hoping you'll put up a video on the barn hive (top) redesign V2.0 or V3.0. I know your moisture problems are gone now, but I've been collecting wood for months now in hopes to rebuild all my hives into barn hives, - just want to see what your fix is to address the winter moisture problems. Keep up thew good work!
I went to a deep+medium for brood chambers a few years ago...made sense to me...I started adding permanent insulation as well..that also made sense to me .. Glad to see others have come to the same conclusion.
Woohoo!! So happy for you👍👍
Hi Jim congrats on all your hard work and your successful channel. I’d like to upgrade my few hives into bee barns. I understand the insulation part as you explained it great. But I’m having troubles with the plans, size and dimensions of the frames. Can you post the how to or the dimensions when you get a chance? Thank you
Hello! These aren’t exactly the same, but an option. I’m starting with these this spring after a break of several years .... wishing you much luck!!
horizontalhive.com/
Watching You handling equipment that ibuprofen counter from last year makes more and more sense. Not to mention bee barn advantages for the bees themselves.
You need to patent that design. My back would be much happier with your design. Nice work! 😊🐝
It is an open source concept. Build away.
That's awesome Jim. .
I'm about an hour east of you..... Our hives are absolutely exploding this Spring. Way earlier than we've ever witnessed. Even a hive that was torn apart (2x) by a bear last Fall survived the winter. We added supers this past weekend. I think if we had let them go another week to 10days, they most likely would have swarmed. We have Langstroth hives; I'm thinking the relatively mild winter combined with treating for mites last Fall were two reasons they came through winter so strong. Happy Spring All
This was amazing to watch, so satisfying to see the bees thriving!
I am wondering what you will do if/when the bees decide to swarm? Usually you split off into a nuc right? But you're happy with the number you'd have so will you just try to destroy all the queen cups?
Add supers, shuffle brood frames to weaker hives, split off queens if necessary. I’m not doing this for a living, so if I lose a couple swarms, it’s not a big deal.
Nice update. I'm enjoying your bee barn journey. If you feed syrup and put food coloring in it, you'll be able to tell to if it's sugar syrup being moved or stored or if it's new nectar coming in.
I have been adding supers and making splits in the 2nd week of April for the very first time
Way to go maan!! keep it up !
Thankyou for another vlog. Loved watching your channel grow, and the wealth of knowledge you share with the 🌎 . Thankyou
So do you have extra bee barns laying around to splits? Or if you catch a swarm? This idea looks great. Nice job
The larger frame area is one of the benefits to the Layens hive design as well. I totally agree that the insulation and the frame size/area are the two key points.
These are 50% larger than Layens frames.
I've been thinking about creating something similar to your inner cover feeder/top entrance and was wondering if having that top entrance on both sides ends up getting your bees moving into your feeder box at all? I can imagine that they can sniff out that syrup up there too.
Those hives look HUGE, i think this is the first time I have seen your hives so prosperous, Hope you let them get as big as they can. and i would like if they gave you honey in those upper levels, given that you took them out of the supplements that honey would be harvestable, if the chemics from the varoa treatments let you.
thumbs up just for the degrees farenheit to celsius convertions
did you make your own frames??? .. which I probably know the answer to but what I really want is a template to go by to make my own .. you have given me an inspiration to quit struggling and succeed as a 3rd year beekeep!!
Your bee barn would do very well in northern BC Canada, a friend has lost his langforth hives every year for the last 6 years expensive
here,question could the inner box be 5/8th ply with 1/4 inch riser ends to hold in the frames, have you published plans for this jewel
Down here in southeast MA swarm season usually starts in late April, but a few people have reported capped queen cells already this week. Slighlty ahead of schedule.
Seen a lot of amazing pictures from other beekeepers in the UK with similar stories oh and swarms.....glad mine are not that advanced just glad to achieve my first over wintering success.
Greetings from Poland! Well, I'm really jealous when I'm looking at your colonies :) Here, we have a really cold spring this year. Wild plums, dogwoods are flowering, friut orchards are about to bloom in week or so, but the weather is terrible and my bees are stuck in their hives :(
So happy for you ^^ thankfully this year seems very promising hopefully it continues! Best of luck :D
Have you thought about dipping your spacer boards in hot parrafin wax, to prevent warping?
Bees would think it was beeswax anyway and probably steal it all or build comb on it.
Probably could find another waterproofing solution, but all we need is a bee safe material that doesn't care about moisture.
Another reason to put the pollen in the center
The mold was around the outsides of the top covers. Putting the pollen in the middle avoids the moisture and mold
Ive noticed even in Layens type hives the bees are doing really well having bigger frames with more surface, especially longer vertically in depth
Thanks for sharing! The bee barn is a cool idea! Do you use queen excluders? I'll be very interested to see how honey production does this year! Too many nucs is a great problem to have! lol
Yes. I showed three queen excluders in the video!
@@vinofarm OK sorry I guess I missed it. Thanks for answering! Keep up the great work!
You did make an excellent video explaining the bee barn frame concept... but another one updated with your excellent experiences would of course be welcome!
So many videos in my head that need to be made… I have too many things going on right now. Videos are very time consuming. I will get to all my plans eventually.
This is awesome :D so excited to see what this year brings! It is awesome to see you flourish after addressing what went wrong- clearly shows the growth and your understanding of your bees and what they need
Loving the bee-barn design. Have you looked @ Layens frames/hives? They may give you the frame dimensions you’re looking for while staying with a ‘standard’ frame. Maybe Layens frames in the core, with Lanstroth supers?
Please do a video or release the plans of your version of the new hives you built!!
Another bee having gas!!! 😉🤣🤣🤣
Hiveware aside, it's amazing the difference between a treated hive and untreated coming out of winter
Are you using formic pro as you're supering already?
Very awesome Jim congratulations on your success with these, seems like you may have figured this out. I know you don’t want to sell nucs but what are you going to do when they want to swarm? Those hives are so big they are going to want to be swarm machines soon. As soon as the environment gets going they are gonna pop off. Congratulations again
Can you show how you built these hives please? I would love to make one or buy one from you.
Nice Mandalorian reference! I would suggest taking that ring off while playing with bees. It wouldn’t be good if you got stung on that finger. That fact that it’s black may make it a target.
It’s silicone. I made a whole video about it.
We've been seeing nectar coming in the beginning of April and pollen in the last 10-14 days. I think they are getting maple sap.
Do you have blueprints for the beebarns?
I'm interested in duplicating you bee barns in Northern Illinois climate. Have you considered swarm control and how you would do that? Also, not sure if I missed it but how did you introduce existing brood from old hives into the barn?
I was wondering if your bees are "gluing" (for lack of a better term) the extra long frames frames together. Mine seem to put wax and propolis between the frame ends to lock them in place.
No. Did you leave them full dimension all the way to the bottom or shave down the sidebars for bee space?