Thank you my friend. That’s a common practice for attaching cut out combs and refitting them into new frames but linking them together like that was all me. Sometimes my brain comes up with unusual solutions to problems I didn’t know I had.
Thank you so much. I sure am. Life wouldn’t be so sweet if we didn’t have some bitter moments to swallow. I have to ask, as a former Wisconsinite, I’ve never heard of the Wisconsin Eagles. Is that a team or are you actually a fan of the actual bird? I used to have a number of eagle nests at my home in Mercer. I saw eagles almost every day and they are awe inspiring.
Are you also a beekeeper? The rain has been relentless! I’m glad it seems to be over now and that summer is beginning. I pray we both catch a break and have better times ahead. Stay positive my friend. God bless you always.
Hope there's something you can do to recover. When you were setting up the hives, I wondered if a shelter would be necessary to protect them during the rainy season, but I don't know anything about bees, except that honey taste great. 😉
Thank you for the kind words my friend. I appreciate the support and encouragement. Several people suggested a shelter, but bees don’t need it. They would need it more as protection from desert sun and heat than protection against the rain. When it rains they just stay inside and chill out. That’s why they died actually…I believe they starved. They couldn’t bring in the protein they needed and I failed to supplement it because I thought they had enough. It’s a hard lesson to learn but I won’t make that mistake again. I’m glad you’re a fan of honey. Hopefully I’ll be harvesting some by the end of summer if things improve. God bless you always. Bee well!
Last year all my Bees absconded because of a summer dearth with extra hot temperatures. I know the pain! I wish you a fast and speedy recovery!! I think getting the colonies strong, away from the predators is a good strategy.
Hey Corey! I'm glad to hear from you. Thank you so much for the kind words of support. I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry to hear about your bees. How many colonies did you lose that way? What are you doing to recover in your own apiary? I honestly believe now after thinking about it a good long while that poor nutrition is what did mine in. Without enough pollen to raise healthy brood, they just boogied looking for better opportunities elsewhere. I've learned that lesson the hard way and I won't make that mistake again. I think I'm on the right path now too. God bless you my friend. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again soon. Bee well.
How about feeding your bees during the dearth? I have a passing interest in beekeeping in the Philippines. I'll be watching your channel with enthusiasm
Great question. I did feed them syrup all the way through the rainy season and under certain circumstances they would draw a little wax (under my frames in a void space) but not much else. Every time I saw the bees flying they were bringing in pollen so I didn’t think they needed a supplement but after thinking more about it I should have been providing it all along. No guarantee that would have worked but I think it would have helped. We are in summer now and I’m still giving pollen patties to my new bees and they are eating it and bringing in fresh natural pollen. I think I’m on the right track now but keeping bees here is way harder than in the US. We also have murder hornets to deal with here. That’s a whole other story. God bless you and good luck to you. Happy beekeeping!
Well, that's beekeeping. These things happen, especially when you move to a new area and have a lot to learn. I'm taking notes and documenting everything here in the videos for reference going forward so I don't make the same mistakes again. I will not give up this easily. Bee well my friend.
Hi, I do beekeeping in Jamaica where I experience similar rainy weather in the hurricane season here in the Caribbean. From what I observe you should not give the bees excess space during this time if the population can't cover the space. I recommend you upgrade your top cover to have a 1.5 inches space so that you could potentially fill a plastic bag with syrup instead of putting an entire hive box to facilitate the frame feeder. I usually observe the population plus brood frame to gauge the growth rate of the colony and if bees are not covering the frames in a single box well and don't have 2-3 capped brood in a single 5 frame layer then they stay like that until they develop a little more if they satisfy those bits then a second layer can be added. It's just too much space in rain times make it hard on them to manage the space, temperature and humidity controls. Hope my insight can help out in future, Best of luck!
Good morning. Thank you for the great advice and support. I have a question for you: where were you 3 months ago when I could have used this to save my bees? Lol. I’m joking. You’re the first person with tropical beekeeping experience to make this suggestion and I will add it to my mental toolbox. Coming from a northern climate, my assumption is that bees build up when the temperature gets above 60F. I’ve learned that isn’t always the case and will plan in advance for bad weather in the future. One more question for you… we’re you on the Beekeeping Today podcast a few years back, or perhaps Two Bees in a Podcast from the University of Florida? I remember a Jamaican beekeeper on one of those and wondered if it was you. He gave a fascinating interview that was interesting to me because I was planning this move way back then. God bless you my friend. I hope to hear from you again soon.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 no haven't done a podcast with those mentioned, I did an interview with a TH-camr called Jamaica with irie last year though.
Another good thought but I won’t use queen excluders until I have plenty of fresh wax to store honey in and until I am sure the honey flow has started and the feeding of sugar syrup ends. You should never do both at the same time or your honey is at risk of being mixed with the syrup.
That’s the cost of living downtown. I’m totally surrounded by lots of noise all day and night. Right now I hear the water pump, basketball being played, grinders, various saws, heavy equipment from road construction right outside my house, dogs, roosters, door-to-door salesmen, babies crying, motorcycles being reved, cars, trucks…. But the view of the mountains and the ocean and the convenience make it all worth while. God bless you my friend. Hey at least there were plenty of peaceful shots from the farm in this video.
Tell me about it. My 15 guys work in the rain 6 days aweek and it made it slow. Building a house, fencing and road building. Been bog so many times. Yes I'm over it too
I can certainly sympathize. Luckily the rains seem to have moved on and summer is upon us. It won’t be long and we’ll be complaining about the heat and lack of rain. Lol. God bless you my friend. We will make it!
there are pilot ants as well, and engineer ants build bridges, unfortunately, there are few corrupt ants, so I think, they'll be able to make another way. Just a head up. :D
I have high hopes for your business. I wish you can join a seminar offered by the Bureau of Agriculture. They have seminars teaching people how to start a backyard business. Good luck and God bless you.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support and feedback. I’m hopeful that this will soon be a money maker and grow as well. Speaking of speaking, I was recently approached by someone at the university who may be interested in having me speak in the future. I’m very excited to do that and hope it will lead to more opportunities to speak and travel to other areas as well. God bless you always my friend. Bee well.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. I really love my life here and am passionate about bees and it just feels right to share all that with the friends I’ve made here on TH-cam. I’m glad you’re enjoying the journey with me. God willing I’ll be doing this for a very long time. God bless you always and in everything you do. Bee well and I hope to talk to you soon.
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement. I love it here too much and am too passionate about the bees to give up after getting knocked down this time. I got this! God bless you my friend.
It's a very sad experience Brent, I hope you will not give up, take it as a challenge to strive and be successful, so you will stay long in Baybay with Shellby. Good luck for the very interesting journey with the beefarm.
Thank you so much for the kind comment. I really appreciate it. I have some new bees and I'm not giving up yet. I know I can do this with God's help. I really hope Shelby and I never have to leave. We really love it here.
You are right about the uncondition bees. I saw how wet it was around your hives and I really don't know the answer but maybe a roof . I really think higher of the ground for more air flow under the box's. Away from wet ground
Great thoughts but I don’t think a roof would help. When it’s raining the bees just stay inside. My boxes all fit tight so they don’t leak and if they did you probably saw me with the level. I put them off level so any water can drain out the front door. As for the air flow, I use solid bottom boards not screens so I don’t think that’s the answer. Honestly I put all the blame on me not realizing sooner that they were hungry for pollen. I should have provided a supplement all through the winter and that may have given them more of a chance. Next time I’ll know. Wish me luck. God bless.
I actually had some come and Rob out a dead hive a few days ago and there is one stingless bee buzzing around my foot right now. I’m going to research them more and maybe try to catch a swarm or adopt a colony if I can find one but they don’t really interest me for my business since they make such a small quantity of honey per colony as compared to the European bees. I am fascinated by the native bees though and do plan to get some eventually.
Hi again Pia. Yes, I think everything is going to turn out ok. I hope you'll watch the video and see what happened. I think it's going to have a happy ending eventually. Thank you for the comment. God bless you always.
Sorry to hear about those bees. I guess if you consider it's not unusual in the U.S. to lose 30% over winter, high mortality is a possibility even if you're used to the environment. (My parents' were whittled down to 0 over the span of several years there). I think it sounds like you've thought things through well and have a good plan going forward based on what you've learned. I see western honeybees in Baguio fairly often, and there's a lot of rain here too, so somehow they can make it. When you said yours disappeared quickly and just left the hive, do you think CCD is a possibility?
I agree with you completely. Bees are fragile everywhere and it’s easy to lose your bees during winter or prolonged periods of bad weather. The more I think about what happened the more I’m convinced that this is more beekeeper error than environmental. Had I added pollen sub from the beginning of the rains along with the syrup I think things would be much different. The problem was that I tried to inspect on “nicer” days when the rain would let up a bit. On those days I would see natural pollen coming in so I didn’t realize how much more they needed to raise healthy brood. I’m giving it to them non stop now and I can’t believe how fast they are building up! So to answer your question about CCD I say no it’s not the issue. I believe that over time they went completely broodless and with no stored food they felt that they had no reason to stay and headed off looking for greener pastures. It’s not possible to know for sure but when they left there wasn’t a dead bee left behind. I like to think that they combined into one strong swarm and are living comfortably in a tree somewhere. Lol thank you so much for the kind and encouraging comment. I really appreciate it. God bless you my friend. Bee well. I look forward to filming happier follow ups soon.
It's possible, but it's not necessary. When it's raining they just stay inside. I really think that they just didn't have the right nutrition coming in when they needed it and the queens sensed it and shut down. Add that to the different things that were eating them or trying to eat them and it was a really bad situation. I have some ideas for going forward. Once I get these new bees strong and multiplied I'll get them back out to the farm and try again with my eyes wide open and a lot more pollen patties in hand. Thank you for the comments my friend. I really appreciate the support. God bless you always.
Hi Brent. I won't say sorry, only because I know you won't give up. It's your learning curve in beekeeping in the Philippines. If you never had gone thru this experience. You would have not learned a thing about the challenges here. I think your plan of growing the hives on the balcony and splitting them at the farm should work. One of the member (What your lifestyle) mention a roof at the farm. Probably a sound advice for the next rainy season. Brent never give up. You are here so make it work. Take care, prayers sent,,God bless my friend.
Thank you my good friend! I truly appreciate your support and kind words. You know me well already. I’m learning and using that knowledge to change tactics and come back stronger. I’m not giving up without a real fight. Honestly, the more I analyze what happened the more I’m convinced that it wasn’t the rain but poor nutrition that ultimately killed the bees. The rain just prevented them from getting it and I failed to supplement it for them in the hive. I won’t make that mistake again. God bless you always. Bee well.
A wise bee keeper once told me "you can do everything right and they still die." Keep your head up, stay strong, and show nature why humans are the apex predator.
That beekeeper sounds like an idiot. LOL, oh wait, was that me? Hahahaha. I'm starting over and I'll get it this time for sure! I don't give up easily. Thanks for the encouragement buddy. God bless!
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 We miss you guys and hope you'll come for a visit sometime! Jack and I go check on if the bees are alive any time it's over 50 degrees. He shaking with anticipation for the start of the bee season here!
That’s awesome! I’m really proud of him. I’m hoping we can get back for “vacation” too not a return hanging my head in defeat. Miss all you guys. Can’t wait to meet the little one. She’s beautiful.
Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. I am admitting a hard fact. In retrospect this is my fault as the beekeeper. Yes it rained for more than 4 months, that prevented the bees from foraging for what they needed. I was providing sugar syrup but I should have been providing a quality pollen (protein) supplement as well to allow the bees to nourish the brood at times when they couldn’t fly. My boxes are tight against the weather and tilted forward for drainage so I don’t think a roof would do anything. Good thought though. God bless you my friend. Bee well.
i figure any money i take to or spend in the Philippines is "into the wind" nothing wrong with having a little hobby business there but don't plan on making any real income.
I certainly respect that way of thinking. It’s a good way to not get your hopes up but I’m not retired yet and I’m working for something way more important than money. I want to make this work so my wife will quit her job at the steel mill and live with us here. So even if I get knocked down I get back up and keep fighting. I don’t need to be rich I just want my family all together. God bless you and please say a prayer for me and the bees. Bee well my friend.
It's been a long month since the last beekeeping video! Here in GA, my bees are starting to seriously spool up on the new blooms. I run ALL 8 frame mediums, as having all the same size makes manipulations SO much easier. The queen never lays in the "wrong" frame😛 But since no one makes medium nucs, took me a couple years to make the full transition. My first instinct on your hives (especially the queenless one) would be to crowd them into a smaller space. Not sure how you'd do that with your set-up, though. I've enjoyed your travel vlogs and suggest another one; visiting a local beekeeper. Even if it's the guy you bought the nucs from. As you said, all beekeeping is local, and seeing how they handle your challenges might be helpful and entertaining at least for me! I'm also wondering how a queen might get mated if there are no local drones. You always get a like from me on your videos!
Thank you so much Daza. I could go on for hours on all these topics you brought up. You and I share a lot of the same philosophy when it comes to bees. I try to keep them crowded, but at the same time I need them to draw wax so that’s why I’ve always had an extra box on. I’m all about the mediums but couldn’t get any medium nucs so that’s why I have 5 deep boxes. (I build all my own equipment including frames) My plan was to build wax, have the queens move up then remove the bottom boxes once all the brood emerged but since they never moved up I couldn’t do that…I’ll get there soon though. I think you’ll like the next beekeeping video I put out. The queens are really brooding up already in those empty frames I inserted. As for drones, yeah, that’s a struggle. I’m going to have to order a few queens once I can split in order to get some new genetics in here. As for my supplier, I’d love to go see his operation but honestly, where he lives, the environment is way different to where I live and they have long drought where we have long rains, so the info share only goes so far. Please keep me and these new bees in your prayers. We really need it. This is all in God’s hands and to Him goes the glory. Bee well my friend.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 Ha! I'm sure! In a couple years I plan on visiting and might have to have a look at your (hopefully) thriving operation! It looked to me like the bees are already telling you what they like; they seem to always build wax on foundation-less frames/areas. Looking forward to the next one!
Absolutely right. Watch the bees and they will tell you what they need and want. My guess in hindsight is that if I would have “broken the rules” of beekeeping again and put the empty box on the bottom they may have filled it faster. Just a guess. Maybe those bees liked to build down and not up. I think these new bees are really on the right path. They are already moving up and expanding. Hopefully we will be rocking here shortly. God bless.
sorry to hear the bees arent doing well..Yet .. my old man used to say " if it was easy everyone would be doing it" hang in there dude ,you have a lot of knowledge and will figure it out ..you have probably answered your own question in the observation that the bees are storing up the food (in survival mode waiting out the winter ) spring is ready to be sprung and i bet there will be loads of egg laying activity in the up coming weeks , 7 weeks left for me and ;looking forward to getting stung by one of the bees ( not really but will be a good test of my bravery lol) hang in there side note: i keep a reef tank with corals and the wife always says" leave it alone ,everytime you mess with it you kill everything"
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement and support. You’re old man was very wise. I think you’re right, I’m pretty sure I figured out what I did wrong. It all comes down to nutrition. I should have been supplementing protein and pollen all winter. Had I done that they could have survived inside the hive much more comfortably while it was too rainy to forage for food. These new bees are really going to town already. I’m excited to put out another update in a few days. 7 weeks! Very exciting. I’m anxious to get stung too. If I hadn’t pinched a bee a few months ago I could say I haven’t been stung here yet. These bees are so gentle I don’t use smoke and I’m out here in loose shorts and tshirts. I could never do that with my bees in Indiana. God bless. We’ll be having a drink on the terrace here with the bees before you know it. Bee well.
I’m going to be very honest with you. Lets assume your beekeeping and honey production are on back on track. You are still going to face three big obstacles. First is the Filipinos mind set of spending as little as possible for a product. Second, your competition, the grocery stores have plenty of commercial (adulterated with syrup) honey. As well as in the open market, all the honey is fake colored syrup. Third is your targeted market of people who would only settle for genuine 100% pure honey and nothing else is extremely small.
Richard, I totally agree. Those are all great points and ones that I’ve taken into consideration. I’m lucky in that I have some great connections here and I don’t think I’ll have any problem selling out once I start to get product to sell. Since I’m starting very small I’ll have a limited supply for a while. The issue of adulterated honey is first and foremost in many people’s minds here and it’s one reason why they don’t buy more honey. They don’t want to pay for inferior products. I have no intention of trying to sell at the local market. I’ll be selling privately at first then reinvesting to scale up. I’ve been doing informal focus groups and hosting round table discussions for the past 3-4 years and I have a pretty good idea of how to proceed. It’s not going to be easy and I’m not trying to fool myself but if I can get the bees to make the honey, I’m sure I can get it sold. Right now I’m more worried about keeping the bees alive and making my first honey crop. One step at a time. Lol. God bless you my friend.
I’m here in Baybay and I’m going to be one of your first customers. I have only seen you once, walking near Princes supermarket while I was driving along in my car. Hopefully everything works out as you planned.
I pray about it every day my friend. I hope the next time you see me that you’ll yell. I usually respond quickly to “hey bee-man!” I’m looking forward to hooking you up with some honey as soon as it’s available.
I hope you be a real filipino farmer by wearing a bolo on your belt. Anyway, I am making this comment while waiting for the video. I hope I can watch it on time but I got to work early. 5:35 am in R.P, and 5:35 pm here in Ontario.
If you can't make it I'll miss you on the live chat my friend. It's nice to have coffee time with you in the mornings about once a week. I'm going to try to start posting more often now as I'm trying to do some videos that aren't just about beekeeping these days. I'm not sure about the bolo on my belt though. Maybe one of these days, LOL. It's 100% illegal to cary a blade in the Philippines so if I got caught with it in my car I'd be in big trouble. Maybe I'll just keep it at the farm and put it on while I'm working. Thank you for the comment and I hope you can watch later when you get time. God bless you my friend. Take care and bee well.
I've watched a few Americans go to PH and start a business that's exactly what other Filipinos have been doing. Pigs, corn, fish, eggs. Almost all failed after the American realizes PH is a different climate, has different type sales channels and that most Filipino farmers aren't making a lot of money. If a farmer can make $1/hr USD he's doing well. That's a seriously thin margin. A really hard way to try and make money. All also tried to make videos as the actual main business. One I think did OK on YT for awhile. The trick is to realize YT content is entertainment. It's not info on a tiny niche. Many successful channel add drama and made up stuff.
I totally get it. I understand that farming is hard, and business is different here. That's why I'm focused on the bees and not with trying to plant vegetables or coconuts as my main source of income. Eventually I'd like to have them as a supplement, but they aren't my main focus. TH-cam is a hobby for me, not a career. I would be happy if the channel grows, but I'm all about documenting my journey and how I make pure honey. I appreciate your support and kind words my friend. God bless you always in everything you do. Bee well.
I respect your opinion. Bees are fragile all over the world but humans do a pretty good job of managing losses. I’m just learning to adjust and move forward. I don’t think I’m beaten by any stretch of the imagination. God bless.
I’ve heard that from a lot of people although I’m told last year was actually worse, culminating in devastating deadly landslides here in my town after Agaton in April 2022. My bees are not worth anything in comparison but I’ll agree with you that this was a crazy winter. I’m praying for sunny skies and millions of juicy blooms now that it looks like the worst of it is now behind us. God bless you my friend. Thanks for the support.
SAD to see, but i liked the creativeness with the elastic bands
Thank you my friend. That’s a common practice for attaching cut out combs and refitting them into new frames but linking them together like that was all me. Sometimes my brain comes up with unusual solutions to problems I didn’t know I had.
Good luck, and enjoy the journey! 👍
Thank you so much. I sure am. Life wouldn’t be so sweet if we didn’t have some bitter moments to swallow. I have to ask, as a former Wisconsinite, I’ve never heard of the Wisconsin Eagles. Is that a team or are you actually a fan of the actual bird? I used to have a number of eagle nests at my home in Mercer. I saw eagles almost every day and they are awe inspiring.
I can relate to what youre going thru. I have exactly the same dilemma. Pls update me on your progress. Im in negros. Been raining here for months too
Are you also a beekeeper? The rain has been relentless! I’m glad it seems to be over now and that summer is beginning. I pray we both catch a break and have better times ahead. Stay positive my friend. God bless you always.
Hope there's something you can do to recover.
When you were setting up the hives, I wondered if a shelter would be necessary to protect them during the rainy season, but I don't know anything about bees, except that honey taste great. 😉
Thank you for the kind words my friend. I appreciate the support and encouragement. Several people suggested a shelter, but bees don’t need it. They would need it more as protection from desert sun and heat than protection against the rain. When it rains they just stay inside and chill out. That’s why they died actually…I believe they starved. They couldn’t bring in the protein they needed and I failed to supplement it because I thought they had enough. It’s a hard lesson to learn but I won’t make that mistake again. I’m glad you’re a fan of honey. Hopefully I’ll be harvesting some by the end of summer if things improve. God bless you always. Bee well!
Last year all my Bees absconded because of a summer dearth with extra hot temperatures. I know the pain! I wish you a fast and speedy recovery!! I think getting the colonies strong, away from the predators is a good strategy.
Hey Corey! I'm glad to hear from you. Thank you so much for the kind words of support. I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry to hear about your bees. How many colonies did you lose that way? What are you doing to recover in your own apiary? I honestly believe now after thinking about it a good long while that poor nutrition is what did mine in. Without enough pollen to raise healthy brood, they just boogied looking for better opportunities elsewhere. I've learned that lesson the hard way and I won't make that mistake again. I think I'm on the right path now too. God bless you my friend. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again soon. Bee well.
How about feeding your bees during the dearth? I have a passing interest in beekeeping in the Philippines. I'll be watching your channel with enthusiasm
Great question. I did feed them syrup all the way through the rainy season and under certain circumstances they would draw a little wax (under my frames in a void space) but not much else. Every time I saw the bees flying they were bringing in pollen so I didn’t think they needed a supplement but after thinking more about it I should have been providing it all along. No guarantee that would have worked but I think it would have helped. We are in summer now and I’m still giving pollen patties to my new bees and they are eating it and bringing in fresh natural pollen. I think I’m on the right track now but keeping bees here is way harder than in the US. We also have murder hornets to deal with here. That’s a whole other story. God bless you and good luck to you. Happy beekeeping!
Sorry for the loss man.
Well, that's beekeeping. These things happen, especially when you move to a new area and have a lot to learn. I'm taking notes and documenting everything here in the videos for reference going forward so I don't make the same mistakes again. I will not give up this easily. Bee well my friend.
I have lived in the Philippines the last 14 years….. this is easily the rainiest winter I have ever seen ….. not even close .
Did you post this twice? Lol maybe it glitched on my end. I got it twice. Hey, no complaints. The more comments the more they push my videos. Lol
Hi, I do beekeeping in Jamaica where I experience similar rainy weather in the hurricane season here in the Caribbean. From what I observe you should not give the bees excess space during this time if the population can't cover the space. I recommend you upgrade your top cover to have a 1.5 inches space so that you could potentially fill a plastic bag with syrup instead of putting an entire hive box to facilitate the frame feeder. I usually observe the population plus brood frame to gauge the growth rate of the colony and if bees are not covering the frames in a single box well and don't have 2-3 capped brood in a single 5 frame layer then they stay like that until they develop a little more if they satisfy those bits then a second layer can be added. It's just too much space in rain times make it hard on them to manage the space, temperature and humidity controls. Hope my insight can help out in future, Best of luck!
Good morning. Thank you for the great advice and support. I have a question for you: where were you 3 months ago when I could have used this to save my bees? Lol. I’m joking. You’re the first person with tropical beekeeping experience to make this suggestion and I will add it to my mental toolbox. Coming from a northern climate, my assumption is that bees build up when the temperature gets above 60F. I’ve learned that isn’t always the case and will plan in advance for bad weather in the future. One more question for you… we’re you on the Beekeeping Today podcast a few years back, or perhaps Two Bees in a Podcast from the University of Florida? I remember a Jamaican beekeeper on one of those and wondered if it was you. He gave a fascinating interview that was interesting to me because I was planning this move way back then. God bless you my friend. I hope to hear from you again soon.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 no haven't done a podcast with those mentioned, I did an interview with a TH-camr called Jamaica with irie last year though.
Oh ok. I didn’t see that one but I’ll try to find it. Thank you. And please stay in touch. God bless.
I just noticed you don't have queen excluders between top and bottom box. Maybe they need it for the prom of space for food.
Another good thought but I won’t use queen excluders until I have plenty of fresh wax to store honey in and until I am sure the honey flow has started and the feeding of sugar syrup ends. You should never do both at the same time or your honey is at risk of being mixed with the syrup.
laban lang (fight on)!
Always! I love it here and I’m too passionate about the bees to quit already. Thank you for the support my friend. God bless.
THE TERRACE is The Bee Nursery
Lol… yeah nursery and I was thinking more like an ICU or even a hospice. Hahaha. I like your idea better.
There’s that motor again 😢.
That’s the cost of living downtown. I’m totally surrounded by lots of noise all day and night. Right now I hear the water pump, basketball being played, grinders, various saws, heavy equipment from road construction right outside my house, dogs, roosters, door-to-door salesmen, babies crying, motorcycles being reved, cars, trucks…. But the view of the mountains and the ocean and the convenience make it all worth while. God bless you my friend. Hey at least there were plenty of peaceful shots from the farm in this video.
Tell me about it. My 15 guys work in the rain 6 days aweek and it made it slow. Building a house, fencing and road building. Been bog so many times. Yes I'm over it too
I can certainly sympathize. Luckily the rains seem to have moved on and summer is upon us. It won’t be long and we’ll be complaining about the heat and lack of rain. Lol. God bless you my friend. We will make it!
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 yes we will. God bless all
Amen!
there are pilot ants as well, and engineer ants build bridges, unfortunately, there are few corrupt ants, so I think, they'll be able to make another way. Just a head up. :D
Lol! That’s way too many kinds of ants. I hope I’m smart enough to stay a step ahead of them. God bless you my friend.
I have high hopes for your business. I wish you can join a seminar offered by the Bureau of Agriculture. They have seminars teaching people how to start a backyard business. Good luck and God bless you.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support and feedback. I’m hopeful that this will soon be a money maker and grow as well. Speaking of speaking, I was recently approached by someone at the university who may be interested in having me speak in the future. I’m very excited to do that and hope it will lead to more opportunities to speak and travel to other areas as well. God bless you always my friend. Bee well.
Amazing experience you’re sharing with us… your upbeat spirit is a solid driving/supportive force. Thank you for sharing the journey. 👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you so much for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. I really love my life here and am passionate about bees and it just feels right to share all that with the friends I’ve made here on TH-cam. I’m glad you’re enjoying the journey with me. God willing I’ll be doing this for a very long time. God bless you always and in everything you do. Bee well and I hope to talk to you soon.
👍👍👍
Thank you my friend. I’m glad you’re watching. God bless you always.
Sad to know about what happened but good to know there's hope. Don't give up.
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement. I love it here too much and am too passionate about the bees to give up after getting knocked down this time. I got this! God bless you my friend.
It's a very sad experience Brent, I hope you will not give up, take it as a challenge to strive and be successful, so you will stay long in Baybay with Shellby. Good luck for the very interesting journey with the beefarm.
Thank you so much for the kind comment. I really appreciate it. I have some new bees and I'm not giving up yet. I know I can do this with God's help. I really hope Shelby and I never have to leave. We really love it here.
You are right about the uncondition bees. I saw how wet it was around your hives and I really don't know the answer but maybe a roof . I really think higher of the ground for more air flow under the box's. Away from wet ground
Great thoughts but I don’t think a roof would help. When it’s raining the bees just stay inside. My boxes all fit tight so they don’t leak and if they did you probably saw me with the level. I put them off level so any water can drain out the front door. As for the air flow, I use solid bottom boards not screens so I don’t think that’s the answer. Honestly I put all the blame on me not realizing sooner that they were hungry for pollen. I should have provided a supplement all through the winter and that may have given them more of a chance. Next time I’ll know. Wish me luck. God bless.
sir.. try to consider a colony of stingless bee (biroi) might interest you native specie.. here in the philippines
I actually had some come and Rob out a dead hive a few days ago and there is one stingless bee buzzing around my foot right now. I’m going to research them more and maybe try to catch a swarm or adopt a colony if I can find one but they don’t really interest me for my business since they make such a small quantity of honey per colony as compared to the European bees. I am fascinated by the native bees though and do plan to get some eventually.
Oh no 🙉 Hope all is Well ✌️🙏🙌💕🇺🇸
Hi again Pia. Yes, I think everything is going to turn out ok. I hope you'll watch the video and see what happened. I think it's going to have a happy ending eventually. Thank you for the comment. God bless you always.
Sorry to hear about those bees. I guess if you consider it's not unusual in the U.S. to lose 30% over winter, high mortality is a possibility even if you're used to the environment. (My parents' were whittled down to 0 over the span of several years there). I think it sounds like you've thought things through well and have a good plan going forward based on what you've learned. I see western honeybees in Baguio fairly often, and there's a lot of rain here too, so somehow they can make it. When you said yours disappeared quickly and just left the hive, do you think CCD is a possibility?
I agree with you completely. Bees are fragile everywhere and it’s easy to lose your bees during winter or prolonged periods of bad weather. The more I think about what happened the more I’m convinced that this is more beekeeper error than environmental. Had I added pollen sub from the beginning of the rains along with the syrup I think things would be much different. The problem was that I tried to inspect on “nicer” days when the rain would let up a bit. On those days I would see natural pollen coming in so I didn’t realize how much more they needed to raise healthy brood. I’m giving it to them non stop now and I can’t believe how fast they are building up! So to answer your question about CCD I say no it’s not the issue. I believe that over time they went completely broodless and with no stored food they felt that they had no reason to stay and headed off looking for greener pastures. It’s not possible to know for sure but when they left there wasn’t a dead bee left behind. I like to think that they combined into one strong swarm and are living comfortably in a tree somewhere. Lol thank you so much for the kind and encouraging comment. I really appreciate it. God bless you my friend. Bee well. I look forward to filming happier follow ups soon.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 It sounds like you're analysis is probably right. All the best as you move forward! Looking forward to your updates.
Thank you my friend. With God anything can happen.
Is it possible to build them a shelter aside from their box hive to keep them dry.
It's possible, but it's not necessary. When it's raining they just stay inside. I really think that they just didn't have the right nutrition coming in when they needed it and the queens sensed it and shut down. Add that to the different things that were eating them or trying to eat them and it was a really bad situation. I have some ideas for going forward. Once I get these new bees strong and multiplied I'll get them back out to the farm and try again with my eyes wide open and a lot more pollen patties in hand. Thank you for the comments my friend. I really appreciate the support. God bless you always.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 goodluck on your second try man.
Wish u d best.
I truly appreciate it. Thank you so much.
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Thanks buddy! I got this! I’m not giving up.
Hi Brent. I won't say sorry, only because I know you won't give up. It's your learning curve in beekeeping in the Philippines. If you never had gone thru this experience. You would have not learned a thing about the challenges here. I think your plan of growing the hives on the balcony and splitting them at the farm should work. One of the member (What your lifestyle) mention a roof at the farm. Probably a sound advice for the next rainy season. Brent never give up. You are here so make it work. Take care, prayers sent,,God bless my friend.
Thank you my good friend! I truly appreciate your support and kind words. You know me well already. I’m learning and using that knowledge to change tactics and come back stronger. I’m not giving up without a real fight. Honestly, the more I analyze what happened the more I’m convinced that it wasn’t the rain but poor nutrition that ultimately killed the bees. The rain just prevented them from getting it and I failed to supplement it for them in the hive. I won’t make that mistake again. God bless you always. Bee well.
A wise bee keeper once told me "you can do everything right and they still die." Keep your head up, stay strong, and show nature why humans are the apex predator.
That beekeeper sounds like an idiot. LOL, oh wait, was that me? Hahahaha. I'm starting over and I'll get it this time for sure! I don't give up easily. Thanks for the encouragement buddy. God bless!
@@beekeepinginparadise5935
We miss you guys and hope you'll come for a visit sometime! Jack and I go check on if the bees are alive any time it's over 50 degrees. He shaking with anticipation for the start of the bee season here!
That’s awesome! I’m really proud of him. I’m hoping we can get back for “vacation” too not a return hanging my head in defeat. Miss all you guys. Can’t wait to meet the little one. She’s beautiful.
Could the amount of rain cause this. May be place them under a roofed area. Good luck. Keep trying.
Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. I am admitting a hard fact. In retrospect this is my fault as the beekeeper. Yes it rained for more than 4 months, that prevented the bees from foraging for what they needed. I was providing sugar syrup but I should have been providing a quality pollen (protein) supplement as well to allow the bees to nourish the brood at times when they couldn’t fly. My boxes are tight against the weather and tilted forward for drainage so I don’t think a roof would do anything. Good thought though. God bless you my friend. Bee well.
i figure any money i take to or spend in the Philippines is "into the wind" nothing wrong with having a little hobby business there but don't plan on making any real income.
I certainly respect that way of thinking. It’s a good way to not get your hopes up but I’m not retired yet and I’m working for something way more important than money. I want to make this work so my wife will quit her job at the steel mill and live with us here. So even if I get knocked down I get back up and keep fighting. I don’t need to be rich I just want my family all together. God bless you and please say a prayer for me and the bees. Bee well my friend.
It's been a long month since the last beekeeping video! Here in GA, my bees are starting to seriously spool up on the new blooms. I run ALL 8 frame mediums, as having all the same size makes manipulations SO much easier. The queen never lays in the "wrong" frame😛 But since no one makes medium nucs, took me a couple years to make the full transition. My first instinct on your hives (especially the queenless one) would be to crowd them into a smaller space. Not sure how you'd do that with your set-up, though. I've enjoyed your travel vlogs and suggest another one; visiting a local beekeeper. Even if it's the guy you bought the nucs from. As you said, all beekeeping is local, and seeing how they handle your challenges might be helpful and entertaining at least for me! I'm also wondering how a queen might get mated if there are no local drones. You always get a like from me on your videos!
Thank you so much Daza. I could go on for hours on all these topics you brought up. You and I share a lot of the same philosophy when it comes to bees. I try to keep them crowded, but at the same time I need them to draw wax so that’s why I’ve always had an extra box on. I’m all about the mediums but couldn’t get any medium nucs so that’s why I have 5 deep boxes. (I build all my own equipment including frames) My plan was to build wax, have the queens move up then remove the bottom boxes once all the brood emerged but since they never moved up I couldn’t do that…I’ll get there soon though. I think you’ll like the next beekeeping video I put out. The queens are really brooding up already in those empty frames I inserted. As for drones, yeah, that’s a struggle. I’m going to have to order a few queens once I can split in order to get some new genetics in here. As for my supplier, I’d love to go see his operation but honestly, where he lives, the environment is way different to where I live and they have long drought where we have long rains, so the info share only goes so far. Please keep me and these new bees in your prayers. We really need it. This is all in God’s hands and to Him goes the glory. Bee well my friend.
@@beekeepinginparadise5935 Ha! I'm sure! In a couple years I plan on visiting and might have to have a look at your (hopefully) thriving operation! It looked to me like the bees are already telling you what they like; they seem to always build wax on foundation-less frames/areas. Looking forward to the next one!
Absolutely right. Watch the bees and they will tell you what they need and want. My guess in hindsight is that if I would have “broken the rules” of beekeeping again and put the empty box on the bottom they may have filled it faster. Just a guess. Maybe those bees liked to build down and not up. I think these new bees are really on the right path. They are already moving up and expanding. Hopefully we will be rocking here shortly. God bless.
venture on different buz appropriate for Fils 😊problem solved!
You may be onto something there my friend. Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. God bless you always. Bee well.
sorry to hear the bees arent doing well..Yet .. my old man used to say " if it was easy everyone would be doing it" hang in there dude ,you have a lot of knowledge and will figure it out ..you have probably answered your own question in the observation that the bees are storing up the food (in survival mode waiting out the winter ) spring is ready to be sprung and i bet there will be loads of egg laying activity in the up coming weeks , 7 weeks left for me and ;looking forward to getting stung by one of the bees ( not really but will be a good test of my bravery lol)
hang in there
side note: i keep a reef tank with corals and the wife always says" leave it alone ,everytime you mess with it you kill everything"
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement and support. You’re old man was very wise. I think you’re right, I’m pretty sure I figured out what I did wrong. It all comes down to nutrition. I should have been supplementing protein and pollen all winter. Had I done that they could have survived inside the hive much more comfortably while it was too rainy to forage for food. These new bees are really going to town already. I’m excited to put out another update in a few days. 7 weeks! Very exciting. I’m anxious to get stung too. If I hadn’t pinched a bee a few months ago I could say I haven’t been stung here yet. These bees are so gentle I don’t use smoke and I’m out here in loose shorts and tshirts. I could never do that with my bees in Indiana. God bless. We’ll be having a drink on the terrace here with the bees before you know it. Bee well.
I’m going to be very honest with you. Lets assume your beekeeping and honey production are on back on track. You are still going to face three big obstacles. First is the Filipinos mind set of spending as little as possible for a product. Second, your competition, the grocery stores have plenty of commercial (adulterated with syrup) honey. As well as in the open market, all the honey is fake colored syrup. Third is your targeted market of people who would only settle for genuine 100% pure honey and nothing else is extremely small.
Richard, I totally agree. Those are all great points and ones that I’ve taken into consideration. I’m lucky in that I have some great connections here and I don’t think I’ll have any problem selling out once I start to get product to sell. Since I’m starting very small I’ll have a limited supply for a while. The issue of adulterated honey is first and foremost in many people’s minds here and it’s one reason why they don’t buy more honey. They don’t want to pay for inferior products. I have no intention of trying to sell at the local market. I’ll be selling privately at first then reinvesting to scale up. I’ve been doing informal focus groups and hosting round table discussions for the past 3-4 years and I have a pretty good idea of how to proceed. It’s not going to be easy and I’m not trying to fool myself but if I can get the bees to make the honey, I’m sure I can get it sold. Right now I’m more worried about keeping the bees alive and making my first honey crop. One step at a time. Lol. God bless you my friend.
I’m here in Baybay and I’m going to be one of your first customers. I have only seen you once, walking near Princes supermarket while I was driving along in my car. Hopefully everything works out as you planned.
I pray about it every day my friend. I hope the next time you see me that you’ll yell. I usually respond quickly to “hey bee-man!” I’m looking forward to hooking you up with some honey as soon as it’s available.
use used oil buddy
I hope it doesn’t come to that but it’s in my mental toolbox if I need to go that far. Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. God bless.
I hope you be a real filipino farmer by wearing a bolo on your belt. Anyway, I am making this comment while waiting for the video. I hope I can watch it on time but I got to work early. 5:35 am in R.P, and 5:35 pm here in Ontario.
If you can't make it I'll miss you on the live chat my friend. It's nice to have coffee time with you in the mornings about once a week. I'm going to try to start posting more often now as I'm trying to do some videos that aren't just about beekeeping these days. I'm not sure about the bolo on my belt though. Maybe one of these days, LOL. It's 100% illegal to cary a blade in the Philippines so if I got caught with it in my car I'd be in big trouble. Maybe I'll just keep it at the farm and put it on while I'm working. Thank you for the comment and I hope you can watch later when you get time. God bless you my friend. Take care and bee well.
I've watched a few Americans go to PH and start a business that's exactly what other Filipinos have been doing. Pigs, corn, fish, eggs. Almost all failed after the American realizes PH is a different climate, has different type sales channels and that most Filipino farmers aren't making a lot of money. If a farmer can make $1/hr USD he's doing well. That's a seriously thin margin. A really hard way to try and make money.
All also tried to make videos as the actual main business. One I think did OK on YT for awhile. The trick is to realize YT content is entertainment. It's not info on a tiny niche. Many successful channel add drama and made up stuff.
I totally get it. I understand that farming is hard, and business is different here. That's why I'm focused on the bees and not with trying to plant vegetables or coconuts as my main source of income. Eventually I'd like to have them as a supplement, but they aren't my main focus. TH-cam is a hobby for me, not a career. I would be happy if the channel grows, but I'm all about documenting my journey and how I make pure honey. I appreciate your support and kind words my friend. God bless you always in everything you do. Bee well.
with all sincerity, it's a waste of time, effort, and sweat. Sometimes, nature is king take care
I respect your opinion. Bees are fragile all over the world but humans do a pretty good job of managing losses. I’m just learning to adjust and move forward. I don’t think I’m beaten by any stretch of the imagination. God bless.
I have lived in the Philippines the last 14 years….. this is easily the rainiest winter I have ever seen ….. not even close .
I’ve heard that from a lot of people although I’m told last year was actually worse, culminating in devastating deadly landslides here in my town after Agaton in April 2022. My bees are not worth anything in comparison but I’ll agree with you that this was a crazy winter. I’m praying for sunny skies and millions of juicy blooms now that it looks like the worst of it is now behind us. God bless you my friend. Thanks for the support.