Only One Hive Survived... The Balboa Dynasty Continues!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- After a devastating loss of almost all of my bee colonies, I went into the one survivor hive to look for a queen. This hive is the 4th generation of the original Balboa survivor colony from 2017. To no surprise at all, I found a living queen! I decided to get varroa mite treatment (Apivar strips) into the hive ASAP to sweep out any remaining mites. I hope to split this hive once the queen starts laying and the weather warms up in May, so I want them to be as strong and mite-free as possible.
Stay tuned for the follow up video where I will be going through all the dead hives and filling you in on all of my plans and strategies for the coming season. So far, 2021 is looking up!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT AND POSITIVE ENCOURAGEMENT!!!
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I can't believe how long I've been a subscriber. It was 2016. I was a freshman and my professor in Biotechnology attempted to conduct a bee project. That peaked my interest in bees and started devouring TH-cam videos here and there. The oldest video I remember from this channel was when he still had "Russian Right" and "Russian Left" Hive. Oh! Time flies so fast!
I remember you.
Yup I remember as well long time love his bee videos he gives good details about hive history that I love
The Balboa story continues! What a survivor lineage. That queen looks gorgeous
I watched your videos last year and did the same thing. Both my hives survived winter on the 6th floor roof in NYC. I took out insulation two weeks ago. One has no mites, 2nd one was full of mites. Still did not do inspection this year. I put back insulation yesterday cause its Cold now. This is my first winter. I got my hives in September 2020. When i am mad, i watch my bees and its all good.
man.. u need more videos lol. your editing, info, communications skills and general personality is what we need more of on TH-cam.
I’m trying to get back in the groove but there’s only so many hours in the day. Things will be more regular this year. Thank you!
@@vinofarm I totally understand, just keep up the great work because you are one of my top 3 channels that i love to watch.
@@GenYGaming Me too.
@@vinofarm
Me four! Or twenty four ... who's counting!
I’ve been watching since the beginning, do you really think more of this massive die off is what people need to see? How many losses over the years?
I'm so glad to see Balboa's lineage survived that hellish year of 2020 and it's winter! Mom saw me watching, asked what was up, so I explained to her about Balboa, and she wishes you the best of luck, and so do I!
I don’t think there are many things that are cuter than bees with pollen on their legs. This channel really made me love bees! 🐝💛🖤💛
That colony is looking GREAT! I'm so glad you have them to work with. No silent spring for you. Wishing you all the best in 2021, fabulous queen there!
Jim. YES!! She looks like a Balboa queen! Name that Queen!! She carries multiple bloodlines, she survived, she deserves her own name, though of course Balboa is the lineage we will all remember. And it would satisfy some part of me if someday a descendent of hers would be Balboa again. But that is a legacy now, so first order of business is securing it. And I love your plan of splitting off her, good thoughts! Apivar strips where an excellent second move. And the silver maple! What timing! Your new colonies will have a good home, looking forward to that event! How exciting is this news!
This warmed my heart as a fellow beekeeper. I am so excited that balboa lives on. I am so happy to see you get to smile as one of your voracious colonies are doing good. We have been praying for this outcome. Only up from here and we will call stay balboa strong for you.
That waggle dance was cool to see. Good luck bouncing back. Can’t wait to see the dynasty hive thrive!
She is looking great! I am glad you plan on promoting those genetics.
If you follow Ian, he was down to one swarm that he caught in their local church. Now look at where he is. 2k+ hives. Moral of his story...never give up. Never.
You should name her Elizabeth! Considering how long that queen has reigned irl, it might be an auspicious name
Especially, as Queen 👑 Elizabeth 2 , of the UK,
lost her Husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, today. Aged 99 years.
He died this morning at Winsor Castle, England, Friday 9th April 2021.
💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐
@@ME_MeAndMyBees Prince Phillip has passed? Oh no 😔
I love this idea. All of the queens should be named after long reigning Queens in real life for good energy!
Survivor hive yet again! #TeamQueenBalboa I am so dang happy! Fingers and toes crossed they can make it to real spring! lol :)
That bee in your face was the colony doing their victory dance for you.
What a beautiful queen!!!! 🐝🙌🐝 great Job!!! She is going to help build your colonies 💛
I had honeystead honey in my coffee this morning :)
Not gonna lie, I teared up. Been following your channel since almost the start, did not realize how invested I've become in these bees! Thanks for the update!!
Now that there is no capped broad OAV would be very effective. All the mites are on the bees, this is where OAV excels. Good luck.
I only had two hives last year. I lost them both. While I know its not the same, as a first year beekeeper, I was devastated. Watching your channel is a big part of what got me going again. The value of not feeling like I was the only one is invaluable. I have 3 Beeweaver packages heading my way on April 17th. Thank you for your inspiration! Quitting is not an option :)
When you're ready to do some splits let me know and I'll send you a few queens free of charge. Spicy Fly Honey Bees
That's nice of you way to go helping other bee guys love the bee love
Michael you should start recording your hives. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I enjoy watching people's bee stories.
Subscribe to my beekeeping channel guys... I would appreciate that a lot 😊
I'm in NE Ohio starting my first colony this season. Ordered an overwintered nuc and expect them in May. I feel like a new parent getting the baby's room ready right now! Everything is so new and clean!
I have followed you from the beginning 🐝 You do so good in the way you share and have invited us into your beeworld 🐝 I hope and 🙏🏻for a good 2021 with a lot of new healthy bees 🐝
I am sorry that you lost all your of your hives man I know that's a heartbreaking thing with you man that's all I'm saying I can say you know you have a blessed day and good luck with them
In 2021, the next beekeeping level! Queen Rearing! grafting video to be here! Encouraging words!
Hello beautiful Queen!! You have no idea how happy we are to see you! Welcome to 2021!!!🐝
I saw this pop up in my feed, and I've never clicked on a video any faster.
Same here!
At least that Queen is laying and I'm sure that hive will bounce back real quick and you will be able to get many splits from it this summer. I have about two more weeks before my Apivar strips are due to come out. I am waiting with anticipation on 29 packages of bees to come in sometime around the first week of May so I can start the rebuilding process as well. With any luck, both of us will have thriving colonies this summer and 2020 will be behind us for sure. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I’m not crying you are I’m so happy to see the balboa line survive
I have seen Balboa grow litteraly from the start and am so happy that this hive made it!
But at the same time, I still am speechless about the rest of the bee yard....
Last video I didn't even knew what to say, completely devastated.. and if I already felt like that, then I felt a few percent of what you must have felt..
Glad to see that you look forwards and you have learned so much, let's see what this new beginnings will bring this year!
Glad to see the Balboas live on! I have been following you for a while now and am saddened by your loses! I know it's frustrating, but I am glad for your enthusiasm to starting new again!
So happy for you that you have the one hive that survived! I only had one hive and lost it. It was devastating! I can't even imagine how you're dealing with the loss of so many hives.
Yeah! The Saga Continues! Hoping for the best with your new packages and you can split off some nice frames to build up again. Can't wait to see the barn build out too!
In reflection...I so enjoy your content, you give it on the real, you always have. The Flow hive marketing propelled me to, “this is the year” I’m gonna be a Beekeeper, your videos at that same time educated me to taking a smarter path. You and you alone have given inspiration to a new line of beginning beekeepers. Keep up the great work! This is my 4th season and because of you I am a far better beekeeper than I would have been without your videos. Happy Easter, I wish you a healthy and happy year.
Sylvester family and friends from Maryland wishing you and the bees success!
I'm so glad you have one hive that is ok. I have one colony that survived too. That late snowstorm wiped out three of my colonies. I feel your pain. I am also getting nucs in May. Exciting times. Hang in there!
Glad to see that your one queen made it!! I would clean out the dead outs, put them back together, and screen over the entrances until your packages arrive. It will really give the packages a jump start coming into a full loaded hive. You may even be able to do walk away splits one your packages this year with that kind of jump start....
I wonder if he could also attract swarms with that setup
GREAT news and excellent to see the Balboa lineage going strong!! I’m glad to hear you so happy and your plans to rebuild... I can hardly wait to see it all get underway!!
Yay! I’m so happy for you! Looking forward to watching you rebuild your apiary!
Add pollen patties and open feed 1-1 syrup a little later hive will ramp up as this will replicate nectar flow, can split lots if drone population is up and warm evenings, as packaged bees probably won’t have drones. Unless of course your splitting then adding fertilized queen.
I was waiting for this one! Good luck in season 2021 Jim, hope to see Balboa florish once again and cant wait on those new packages to arrive so that we get to see a beeyard at its best once again... Best regards! :)
Amazing news.... So glad to hear Balboa is kicking on
So glad they survived. All my best for your hive splits this year!
Congratulations! I felt so sad for your lose. What a great feeling to find those tough Balboa survivors.
Here's to a new beginning! 🥂🌄
Susan
NW Georgia
Good luck to you and so glad to see that Queen! I’ll be digging into our hive tomorrow in hopes of finding the Queen + brood. Debating about starting sugar feeders. We’re definitely warming up soon for now, so I’m inclined to start spring ratio sugar water, but my better half thinks we should hold off and keep the winter patties in :-/
Spring is here!! I missed your videos!
First, I want to thank you. You are one of the reasons I started keeping Bees. Also, this year has been hard. I had three hives with 0 queens. Let's build together this year.
Getting strong now!
Gutted to hear about the loss but really pleased this hive made it through. I remember when you started with just a few hives. Hopefully, you can quickly fill the yard again with splits and nucs
The relief in your voice is overwhelming. I’m so happy for you and your bees to have survived
I watched some of your videos here and there but I finally spent the last couple weeks binging so I’m all caught up. I love that your videos are honest. I’m new and think I’m learning a lot before my new nucs are ready in May. Thanks
You have a great attitude following a pretty disappointing winter. Best of luck for the season!
Wow that opening shot looks so sad.. I'm so sorry for your losses
So happy that at least one of your hives survived. It was so sad to watch when you found out you lost most of your aviary. Good luck in building back. I have really enjoyed watching your channel.
Man he's come a long way, I remember him buying a flowhive frame to start his bee keeping hobby. Amazing to see his progress.
Hello! Thank you for sharing. Great to see an update!
Here on the Canadian prairies, it is being recommended to do a full 56 days of Apivar followed by oxalic acid treatment, just fyi. It's a tough battle this past year and I think a lot of hives were hit bad.
So glad Balboa made it! Sorry you lost your other Hives. Stay the course, you’ve helped me tremendously as this is my only second year. Thank you Vino Farm!
I'm so happy for this video!! Cheers to Balboa!!
Sorry for your loss...
All Hail the Queen!
Ya, really happy for you that you had a survivor
Time to take a big cleansing breath and get back into it! Looking forward to a way better year of adventures!
Divested to hear of your winter losses, this is such happy news! Congratulations!
Looks like my lone survivor as well. What year in Massachusetts! Picking up three packages tomorrow at Autumn Morning Farm. I had ordered back at the beginning of January. Looking forward to your updates.
Woohoo! So excited for you. Balboa is amazing!
Great to see that Balboa legacy continues!
That is a beautiful gorgeous queen!
They're working so hard! I've been waiting for an update video like this. Keep it up, Balboa offspring!
I'm glad one survived.
I'm sure I'd be very sad if none survived.
I think the video I watched the furthest back was the adoption of the neighbor's bees. I watch out for updates if there is internet.
So I've been following these bees and your beekeeping for some time.
Though it is disheartening, I'm glad you're focusing on positive things. I remember, you said, it's all about the bees. Bees persevere.
I've liked all your bee videos so far.
Thank you.
Wishing your apiary a speedy and complete recovery.
I am so happy for you that you have not got to start completely from scratch. What a great story to start 2021! Let’s hope it’s the start of a great year for you!!! Thanks for the videos.
Got a really good feeling about this survivor colony - what the original Balboa hive was for your first chapter, I think this colony is going to match or even surpass in your second. They just seem so strong and resilient - ideal genes to build back with…
Great to see the survivor hive is doing well. Waiting for my nuc to be ready for collection but weather still a bit cold
The Balboa dynasty is just going to conquer the beeyard all over again ... it was SO SAD to lose all the others, but if anyone had to make it ... BALBOA, BABY!
Don't forget, you can always do a sugar roll instead of an alcohol wash.
Glad one of your hives made it through. Seems to have been a hard winter for everyone.
3 Cheers to you and your survivors' hive. My hive also made it too, from Northern Wisconsin
God bless you! Stick with it!
So good to see your girls surviving
Really glad to see she is still with you man, cant wait to see more. All the best from us at Brooklands Honey Bees :)
Great to hear about some good after the bad! I’ll be watching and learning from the progress👍
Glad yer back! Missed you man!
Hey look at it somewhat positive. Ya gonna have a ton of equipment and food for the new bees ya end up with. I am gonna keep watching.
Ahhhh i'm so happy that the balboa line continues on TTwTT hope she gives us many splits
You can put all the extensions with frames on top of each other to get the chimney effect, put the net necessarily up and down... so it can stand for a long time, the draft protects the food... less sugar stronger colony :)
It’s bee season baby! Miss seeing these videos and this farm.
You mentioned ( I think) that the hives had a good deal of unfinished honey in them. If that's the case you may want to smell them looking for a fermented smell. We lost a hive last year because they didn't have time of ripen the honey before they went into cluster. The unfinished honey fermented into alcohol and killed the hive. It's a problem in our area (the pacific northwest) in the winter. After our last honey flow, we feed them hard with 2:1 syrup and pull the additional feed a few weeks before it gets too cold or humid to give them time to ripen the sugar syrup. We then switch to dry feed. BTW: We run vivaldi boards as well, they solved our moisture problems!
Thanks for the tips.
With no capped brood you could have done 1 oxillic acid vapor treatment and you will kill all the mites. You could do a second vapor 4 or 7 days later for a good measure.
@Rex Roberton no capped brood in mid March is typical for this area. The queens don't usually lay until the pollen starts.
@Rex Roberton my preference would have been 2 rounds 1 or 2 weeks apart but with their temperatures it will be hard to get the right temps 2 times in 2 weeks.
Here's the deal... I've used Apivar with great success for several years. I think every hive I've ever treated with Apivar has survived the following winter. It's effortless, easy on the bees and with one hive, I can drop it in and leave them undisturbed knowing the treatment will be a success. I have had VERY mixed results with OA. Three treatments last fall in each of these colonies resulted in 13 of 14 dead. You can say I'm a little reluctant to try that again so soon. Not to mention the whole rigamarole of dragging my wagon and car battery up to the bee yard multiple times for a single hive. I picked Apivar this time. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!
@Rex Roberton We have freezing nights THROUGH the month of May. Our last frost date is basically June 1. We split in May if we're lucky. It's usually June. Pollen JUST started on Silver Maples last week, but the temps are back down to 20ºF tonight. Dandelions are a month away. This video was shot just over a week ago, so there's probably a small patch of capped brood in there by now, but there won't be a huge population bump until mid May.
@@vinofarm I understand your plight. It is quick and easy. I understand the mixed results of oa but I will say that the vapor really only shines with no capped brood in the hive left. Any capped brood and its time to use something else. Formic is my favourite but it has many stipulations and wouldn't work in this instance. With 1 hive I wouldn't buy a vap. I personally would only use the 110 models that you can adjust and see the temperatures. I've never been a fan of the battery ones. To slow and to inconsistent with heat. Jmo. From the studies I've read there is a perfect temp for oa vapor to be most effective. Something like 370-410 degrees if memory serves me correctly. Most 110 versions are set around 440 to help with cycling. Under your situations and what you've got available I'd say you made the right decision. In the future it will be interesting to see if the studies with oa liquid extended release become approved
Last year a disease killed all the hives in the area however this year has been a bumper year here in Victoria, Aust. and I didn't have to buy bees. There were more swarms wanting to be rid of than people wanting bees and I have 3 times as many hives I originally had. I hope this season is goes equally good for you.
Jim this year would be a great time to try grafting your queens. It will make your splits rebound so much faster than walk aways .
Happy for you. Keep strong
I saved a bee that I found on the pavement the other day. Pulled a sprig of flowers from a flowering cherry and gave it honey and water. Didn't see it fly off but it was gone later so I'm hopeful she regained her energy :)
That's very kind. Usually a drop of water will re-energize a tired bee!
@@vinofarm that's good to know, I wasn't sure what would help so i thought i would cover all the bases 😁
I don't know if it's the pressure of raising brood since I haven't been in the hive but my bees where foraging today and it is only 38F.
I like your videos. You seem a nice humble guy.
Shame about the bees, but you'll get them back up and running again.
Been there. Back in the 70's I had a bad year that almost wiped me out, and that was before varroa was a big problem. Just a lousy nectar year and a hard winter. One thing I would pass on is to get those unused supers stacked and with moth balls. Wax moths waste no time in destroying unused equipment.
It’s still freezing out. I’m going to have them all covered before the moths start up.
Happy you are back :)
I haven't received notifications from your channel in ages. Spring is around the corner here and I started to wonder how your bees were and if you're still making videos.
Now I get to binge vino farm.
I just ordered my first bees! Two nucs from a local supplier. Expected mid June(I'm in Canada so we don't get brood till a little later than you) but with this spring being so warm they said it might be earlier.
Good luck. Its definitely been a mild spring here in Central Canada.
FYI - Here in the PNW, the Oregon State Bee Lab is doing a study on Apivar resistant mites. Colony losses for backyard and commercial beekeepers were high, and this could point to the reason. Might be time to use a different treatment? Just a thought. So glad a Balboa granddaughter survived! Your journey is inspiring. Keep up the good work!
I have not used Apivar in two years. This is the first application those bees have ever experienced.
Nice to see that Balboa legacy continues! Still sad about the loss of the others though.. I was wondering, why don't you try the Layens hive design? at least one or two hive for now.. it has been verified that bees have greater probabilities to successfully survive winters in it due to more accessible stores, brood cluster less divided and not needing to jump from lower to higher boxes.. I'm not suggesting the original long hive version, but more of a custom build based on the one called "Pastoral" which is smaller and structured like the Langstroth/Dadant hives (brood box+super).. You can build both brood box and frames yourself and for supers you could adapt one or two boxes you already have to the new width and still use the Langstroth frames..
What a survivor......so happy for you...
That queen and that hive surviving is Like a diamond in the ruff.....I remember you started beekeeping right before I did and you have been my silent mentor the whole time along with 628DirtRooster and a few others. I watch you start small then grow, then explode and then this.... what a story. Loved every minute of it ...every step of the way....looking forward to the next chapter.
Thanks. I will come out of this a better beekeeper. That's for sure. Stay tuned!
Great to see things a looking up! I'm always excited to get your notification of a new vid! Question, any update on the barn? 👀👀👀
I have the barn exterior video shot that spans the entire summer and fall of 2020. It's going to take a while to edit. I'm spending 2021 building out the interior. That will probably be worth a couple videos. You'll start seeing little interior clips this year.
Time for you to graft queens. Check out kamon video of raising queens on a small scale. Also may want to try Saskatraz and Buckfast queens. Hope you have a good season