🔵Small queen mating nucs can have big impacts!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Checking our 2 way mating nuc and finding 2 great new queens!
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#Beekeeping #Beekeeper #Honeybee
20.5K and STILL keeping it real..I admire that!!!
1 frame of brood = 3 frames of bees
I captured a swarm this morning!
I train my colony to be aggressive. Lol. I have noticed they are very protective of a new hive around the time of the first brood hatching. At least mine have been but have seemed to calm a little once the hatching has started. 5 weeks since install and they have built from scratch. About 4 full frames drawn out already. Although it was a small package it has truly been an honor to grow with my bees in this short time.
the birds in the background want to talk as you are doing great job both of you
I am learning so much by watching your videos. Many thanks.
i like to take a 5 frame and condence it down with spacer then as it grows open it up i have one with a queen cell in it right now hopeing she hatches and comme back mated
Kamon!! First year beekeeper here. I grafted some cells. 2 of 17 took, but I put both cells in queenless hives, came back from their mating flights and they are laying! One of them has some full frame coverage going on and the other is kinda, meh. I’m happy to have her though. Thank you for your videos! I have some new found confidence that I can keep this interesting hobby going!
Erin O'Malley Same here, 1st year being serious after some half assed attempts, and I put some Nicot grids in a few hives, got 15 queens out of about 20 cells from 45 grafts... got 10 of these in jester EZnucs. Waiting to see some brood.. this hobby is FUN! And Kamon is the most down to earth and fun to watch TH-camr out of the handful I watch. I learned that whatever works for me is cool... no stress from being told I need to slow down or take advice from people who won’t learn from new things..,
I convert older deeps into queen castles and duplex. Six queen castles and 9 duplex hives along with skinny boxes for stacking on the duplexes. It's a lot of suff but at this time of year everything has bees in it or about to have. I build up and collapse every season. It's part of KEEPING bees.
It surely is!
Yesterday I was putting mated queens and their bees into bigger boxes. Queen castles to duplexes. I look up and there's a nice swarm in a mulberry tree. I was too tired and it was too high.
I came back later and watched it move into a deadout from last winter. Nice... love when they place nice
So glad the Sun is shinning for you there!
We are FINALLY getting some rain here, and it has kicked off a blossom burst on our native trees + the cotton is in full bloom. :)
For me, nucs (I consider any single box hive to be a nucleus colony) are the most enjoyable hives to work with. I don't think it is a mistake to keep at least as many nucs as full size colonies.
After trying every size of nuc down to 3 frame medium I have settled on this - I use a standard hive setup for EVERYTHING. For mating nucs I put a frame of brood and a frame of food in a standard setup and fill the empty space with undrawn plastic foundation - then reduce the entrance.
If I want to keep them small I rob them of resources, otherwise they grow on into full hives and I add another box.
It's not perfect, but most of the imagined issues ("small colonies do better in small boxes" for example) are not all that substantial in practice. And it means that ALL of my equipment is completely interchangeable.
The point is not to criticize other practices or equipment, but rather to say that you don't have to buy special equipment for queen rearing or nucleus hives. You can totally use whatever you have.
it is amazing sometimes how keeping it simple works the best! Or at the least, the most affordable!
I agree. If you are in a worme part of the world ther is no need for a small box.
David LaFerney m
I really like that nuc thanks for sharing!!!
Kamon, when your smoker is burning too good please try laying in on it’s side, it will slow down the burning and the smoke! Thanks for the video.
Last year I made 3 frame mating nucs for expansion. They will grow to a nice 6.5 - 8 frame hive to go into winter and just really explode in spring . I am able to treat mites heavier and produce a stronger winter nest than a honey production hive that I can not treat as aggressive. Loss on younger hives versus older production hive astonishing.
👍👍
I've been using my extra supercedure cells off from my main hives. Come out with 7 out of 8 so far. Which is plenty for me trying to stay around 40 hives.
I just got my Apimaye double nuc a few days ago! Thanks for reading my mind, dude!
Now if I could just read Laurels mind! haha
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees I gotta say her chuckling at your dry humor is my favorite part of the videos..
Sorry Kamon this is not on this topic but I want to dip my own boxes. I know it is paraffin wax and another ingredient (can’t remember name) if you can indicate ratio. Also waxsol dipping does it work as great as your dipping. New beekeeper from South Africa your videos is helping me a lot. Love the way all you can work your bees with only a vail here in SA we have the bees that most refer to as killer bees but I love working with them even if I need the full gear every time. Thanks to you and Lorrel learning so match wishing you all the best.
I'm always surprised to read all the unsolicited advice your all knowing viewers offer. I mean honestly Kamon, how can you not control the weeds and bio structure and diversity of your yard flora! As for operating a smoker, refer to the supplied manual...hehe!
I can't find anything negative about your efforts, great job.
Im sure thats why so many great you tubers stop producing content.
Im no expert but I cant believe producing this content pays anything other than maybe some free advertising. Add in having to listen to all the fools wanting to stick in their 2 cents and its just a matter of time before these guys stop posting
Choclolate cake! Yum!
I am really glad I met you and Laurel! I am so very much happy for all the help I get from your videos! I tried my first found of grafting and failed. It is ok. I have a wooden grafting frame and forgot to put some wax into it. Newbie as I am. Trying out an other 9 cells Tomorrow again. Crossing my fingers I will do it right this time. I am a bit in that mood I just wanna make it work since my teacher told me I am to inexperienced and it is so hard to do. Really I do apriciate the whole Reynolds family kids and you two both! For all the time and efforts you are putting down to make it easier for ALL beekeepers! I do love you! Lot's of love from Sweden!
Yes Keep trying! My first round I ever did was a flop and the next set I made 5 nice cells and let one emerge before I separated them and the virgin killed the other 4! Today I am have 60 cells in my incubator and almost that many that should be mating currently. Placing 30 ripe cells into mating nucs today. If you can grow a garden you can grow a queen just takes practice and I am sure you will get it! :-)
@@kamonreynolds Thanks! I am working slowly but for sure! I love my Home in the woods and hope to be able to find a way of "never" leaving home! Bees are a bit part of that. So far this year I am so following what is blooming in the woods. This year I discovered a lot of wild appletrees. Dandelion aspen Maple hazel make spring somewhat easy for me. I am making a lot of cuttings of sallow of different kind. I have been sowing a lot of flowers för the apiary. Alfa alfa, cikoria, buckweat among the favourit.
That Apimaye sure seems to be a tight squeeze for three frames? I don't think I would like that. Keep the videos coming Kamon and Laurel!
Coffee chocolate cake! Can’t wait for that recipe.
Yes I want more videos of this. I plan on buying one of these to raise some queens.
Maybe show how you do like you said. Take the queen out and put her in a different hive and put some cells right into where you took her out and show how it all works out.
When you take a queen out of a mating nuc you (usually) put her in a cage and introduce her into a queenless hive exactly like you would a purchased queen. The subsequent ripe cells go into the (now queenless) mating nucs exactly like the first one.
great video man thanks i learned a lot
Awesome info. Thank you. What about placing a hatched virgin in nuc. Do u use a slow release cage or direct release? I have 4 virgins I was able to catch and bank. I have 2 queen less nucs what’s your suggestion? Thank you again for all the help.
I raised queens for the first time this spring. I hatched 14 of 18. I direct released 6 and slow released two. I had one of the 6 get mated, but that nuc is in the process of superceeding her already. One of the slow released ones took and is doing great. I will be grafting my second round of queens tomorrow and plan on slow releasing any that I get that far this time.
Nice I did not have any lock with my small splits this year 0 for 2
Really enjoy your videos, I’ve learnt so much! Can you tell me when a virgin queen takes her mating flight, is it just drones from her colony that mate with her or will drones from other colonies follow her also? Thank you. Sally.
Hi Sally, queens fly further than drones from the same Hive do to discourage inbreeding.
Again a very helpful “real” post! Thanks. Wondering and hoping it’s No, did you decide to start driving again?
Thanks Ray. Hope you and your bees are well. I am not back to fulltime but I am filling in now more regularly. Hoping we can sell some queens to keep me out of the truck fulltime till September but we will see.
@@kamonreynolds I would really love that for you. You deserve to be Home caring för your family and teaching the way you wish!
I’ll take a or some of your queens anytime.
You have too many other broadleaf weeds in your grass but hardly any white or red clover. Over seeding with clover will drive out most of the other weeds and improve the grass while giving your bees more nectar sources
Does the number of eggs the queen lays depend on the nurse bee numbers or does she just keep laying and if there are not enough nurse bees the eggs just die? You mentioned low numbers and the sensitivity to any set back. We just had four straight days of temps in the 80's F with 63% humidity and Mondays forecast is for a high around 64 F and a low around 44 F. If my new queen has started laying eggs I don't think they will be able to keep the brood warm enough with their low numbers. I might even put some insulation on the hive to help out and that will be the morning of June 1st. I'm holding out hope for catching a swarm and then maybe I could boost the nuc with some nurse bees.
I'm not sure about number of eggs actually being laid, it's multifaceted. Lack of food coming in, cannibalizing eggs and larva for protein, lack of space to lay eggs and lack of bee mass to heat the hive all effect the rate of colonies' spring startup. The end result is the same, a staggered population instead of a nice ramping curve. You could start a bigger nuc later in the year and it would do better than a smaller nuc started earlier because of this. Scientific Beekeeping blog has great articles on population dynamics and even links to some simulations
Good info! Thanks for the help. I live in jackson co and new to bee keeping. Would love some help if you ever get a little extra time.
Kamon, I have been following you for a little while now and as a beginner, I don’t understand the reason for cycling queens through the mating box instead of taking the now-established small colonies, feeding them and building them up to be strong colonies for next year. My thought is, you already have a colony that is happy with their queen, isn’t that already a win?. Would you then be able to take frames from a colony that is crowded and put them in the empty mating nuc and repeat the queen rearing / mating process? I’m trying to follow, but it’s a bit over my head and I feel like there are some fundamental principles here regarding colony health that I don’t know that are informing how and why you do the rearing/ mating like this.
If your goal is to increase your own hive numbers you might do exactly that - grow out a mating nuc into a full size hive.
If you are trying to produce replacement queens for yourself or for sale you can produce several good queens from each mating nuc over a season - then leave the last one to manage overwinter if you like.
There is also an economy of scale. Usually you start a new mating nuc with "a frame of food, and a frame of brood" valuable resources (plus time) you could easily sell for $25-50.00. You can use that investment to produce 1 queen or as many as 4 - 5.
Once you start small scale queen rearing you find that there is no such thing as having too many *good* queens. Word gets around and people seek you out.
David LaFerney That makes really good sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain that.
@@AWoodworkersLife I'm glad I could help.
Hi Kamon At the end of the summer what do you do with your mating nucs and starting nucs? I would also like to know how you move a queen from the nuc to a new hive? thank you!
Regarding wearing protective gear: I almost never work bees without a hat and veil. Getting popped in the eye is no fun. Jackets and bee suits are a pain, mostly because even a good vented one is hot. Today was in the 90s with humidity around 50%, which is very humid for this area (Easterners relax ... I grew up back there and would never have considered 50% to be humid, but Ive been in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years and have become acclimated). I had to wear a bee jacket for the swarm removal I was doing and was soaked by the end of it. Do you need more than a hat and veil? What time of day is it? Bees are grumpier in the evening when everyone is home. Similarly if it is cloudy, cool, or damp and the bees are all at home. Windy conditions get them stirred up as well.
What are you going to be doing? Today’s removal was overhead and out or reach, so I was taking bees down with a bucket on a telescoping pole. I was certainly going to get bees raining down on me, so protection was in order. Are you going deep into the hive or are you just popping the top for a quick look?
Sometimes the bees will tell you. A hive is sometimes loud, which means they are likely pissy and more protection is in order. And sometimes they start bumping you as soon as you open the hive.
I almost never wear gloves because they are clumsy. I can handle the hive components better without them and am less likely to make a clumsy move and get the bees stirred up.
Don’t be macho (or in a hurry) Getting stung, and especially stung a lot, is no fun and can put you at risk. I did a swarm removal a couple of weeks ago in shorts and no protection because I was in a hurry. I took at least 50 stings (no exaggeration) and was in rough shape for a few hours.
Also, smoke, and sometimes a spray bottle of sugar syrup, can go a long way to making for a safe and pleasant experience.
Finally, if you are inexperienced err on the side of caution. Experience will teach you how careful you need to be.
Thanks as always for the videos, Kamon
Love this quality! What video set up are you using? Is this a GoPro 4?
Good morning, where did you get the box?
What time of year do you harvest honey?
So im guessing your also raising drones? But are you raising them in the nucs or drones from different hives take care of it?
How do you have your landing board entrance and vent disc set? Do you have an intro video to that particular hive? If so, a link to it. Thankyou🐝
Hello sir, kindly explain what mating box is ... complete information.
👍
So this is not for making queens ?
Thankyou for your videos! Hard to find people who share expertise in TN. Have you got an opinion on top feeders? The one that fits in like a tray holds a gallon of syrup?
Is that the queen castle? I’m looking into producing my own queens this year.
Where did you get your hive tool?
Kelley bees has them. It's called a Kent Williams hive tool. It's my favorite. You can also sometimes find them on ebay and Amazon.
Valla ben kilosu 3 bine satsam ancak üç senenin zararını çıkarırım hiç satış yapmadım üç senedir masraf
vsh home made no treatment
Your videos are getting alot of anti -2A advertisements. FYI
Here is where we got the Apimaye mating nuc and pollen trap. tinyurl.com/y9rkw4s8 Our favorite hivetool and books from Amazon can be found here: www.amazon.com/shop/tennessees-bees
What do you think of using a follower board in both a 5 frame or in a 10 frame box?
Saw your Apimaye split hive on your other video so I followed the link to the bottom boards and got one. It arrived yesterday. Excited to get it up and going.
Regarding wearing protective gear: I almost never work bees without a hat and veil. Getting popped in the eye is no fun. Jackets and bee suits are a pain, mostly because even a good vented one is hot. Today was in the 90s with humidity around 50%, which is very humid for this area (Easterners relax ... I grew up back there and would never have considered 50% to be humid, but Ive been in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years and have become acclimated). I had to wear a bee jacket for the swarm removal I was doing and was soaked by the end of it. Do you need more than a hat and veil? What time of day is it? Bees are grumpier in the evening when everyone is home. Similarly if it is cloudy, cool, or damp and the bees are all at home. Windy conditions get them stirred up as well.
What are you going to be doing? Today’s removal was overhead and out or reach, so I was taking bees down with a bucket on a telescoping pole. I was certainly going to get bees raining down on me, so protection was in order. Are you going deep into the hive or are you just popping the top for a quick look?
Sometimes the bees will tell you. A hive is sometimes loud, which means they are likely pissy and more protection is in order. And sometimes they start bumping you as soon as you open the hive.
I almost never wear gloves because they are clumsy. I can handle the hive components better without them and am less likely to make a clumsy move and get the bees stirred up.
Don’t be macho (or in a hurry) Getting stung, and especially stung a lot, is no fun and can put you at risk. I did a swarm removal a couple of weeks ago in shorts and no protection because I was in a hurry. I took at least 50 stings (no exaggeration) and was in rough shape for a few hours.
Also, smoke, and sometimes a spray bottle of sugar syrup, can go a long way to making for a safe and pleasant experience.
Finally, if you are inexperienced err on the side of caution. Experience will teach you how careful you need to be.
Thanks as always for the videos, Kamon