🔵1 reason beekeepers hives are dying so easily. Package vs nuc challenge.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2019
- These abysmal packages have the fortitude of a dodo bird. Here we are showing the conditions of the queenless colony, and the other 2 packages which are just underwhelming. We have given them more feed than our nucs BUT they still won't brood right, draw combs right, or anything. Here you can see the sign of colonies that will never make a good honeycrop and more than likely won't make it thru a winter!
HERE you can see how close they were in size when the nucs were installed. Great queens make a huge difference! • Packages vs Nucs Chall...
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Very informative! You are one of the few people I know that don't smoke their hive like they are putting out a forest fire.
Many thanks for all the work you and your wife do in producing these videos. One thing I especially appreciate is that you're not just going thru the motions when you're working the hives, but you're constantly teaching us something. You're obviously very passionate about it, and that's contagious. I usually grab one or two of your videos in the morning, and then I can't wait to buzz out the door (pun intended) and check in on the girls!
The cat never fails to join you. Enjoying the videos, keep em coming!
Kamon, I look forward to your videos. One of the best TH-cam channels I watch.
I second that, I wish his wife could just follow him daily as he works his hives to just let us gain more knowledge from him.
Love your videos. Learning a lot from you. Love how you say “excuse me” to your bees all the time. I’ll never be a beekeeper but am fascinated by the bees and how their colonies live and work. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Seeing the problem with package bees makes me relieved I got my first nucs of bees from a local hobbyist. I haven't had any of these issues with nucs.
Love your videos, I'm an aspiring beekeeper and just trying to absorb as much info as I can before I take the plunge next year!!! Thank you and your family for putting out quality information in a way that is both useful and entertaining as well!!! Have a great day!!!
Hi Ed. I admire your way of getting into beekeeping. I did the exact same thing, this is year three for me. Right now I have eight hives, two more than I really want as I also work full-time in high tech Fiber To The Home/Business industry which keeps me very busy too. When you do get into active beekeeping buy nucs. It is a bit more expensive and you will end up starting a little behind in the beginning, but you wil be way ahead the rest of the year. Also when you buy get at least two colonies so you will have something to compare against ad if one colony goes queenless you can raise a queen with a frame of eggs/larvae swap and have the bees build a new queen. If you do buy packages I will tell you I have had really good results with packages I bought from Barnyard Bees in Georgia this year. I have bought three packages from them and the first which was installed at the end of March has given me one full super of honey and the second is about to come off next week. The other two packages were installed late May but they have built out a full 10-frame deep and have started on a second 10 frame deep. My real goal this year is keeping the bees alive through the winter and building good solid comb up for colony growth next year. Finally, by all means get a mentor and have fun with your bees!
Me too. A nu bee absorbing info.
Great information Kamon. Thank you very much.
Yes indeed, it is very frustrating to have a hive that is so abysmal. Great videos as always!
Kaymon, love the videos, and the channel.. Having similar results here in my homestead with the same problems, gearing toward making new queens here locally to offset this issue, hope that helps! Keep up the awesome videos and look forward to seeing how the hives progress.
I just found your video tonight. I really enjoyed it and learnt alot. I got 4 new packages this year and i noticed the queens werent great to start with. Once ended up dying. So i have put the last of the bees in another hive, since getting queens is not very easy for us here this time of year. Thanks again.
I totally agree with your presentation. The price difference between packages and good nucs is about 50.00 and for that you get frames, brood and foundation cells filled. That alone should mitigate the higher price. That said, mixing queens mass produced with unrelated worker bees simply does not cut it. Buying (preferably local) nucs that are VHS resistant is a much better option. I hate to see beginner beekeepers lose interest after their usual disappointment with packaged bees. Natural and multiple mating by 'open source' apiaries is the way to go rather than by artificial insemination.
Great , Great thanks for ALL the help you give us .
Great video! 1st year beekeeper. Going though this myself, packaged bees and they are queenless at this point. Great info to make the hive queen right
I've never had a problem with a package. I started with six from mountain sweet honey and I'm going into my third year. I've lost some this winter because of mites
great video, I am just north of Toronto Canada, just got back into bee keeping again after about 20 years!
Thanks John and welcome back!
Great job, great teacher.!!
I couldn't agree more. I figured this out in my second year when I took two frames of brood and put them in a nice and let them raise their own queens. The same time I installed packages. I got 3-5 gallons of honey from the nucs. Nothing from the packages. Nucs made it through the winter. Lost 3 of 7 packages through the winter. Out of 26 hives those were the only 3 I lost. I'm in Michigan, and all my hives were treated the same
One of the hardest mindsets a new beekeeper will fight is pinching off an inferior Queen and combining that weak hive into another to make a strong robust one..You're far better off to have 5 strong colonies then 10 weak ones.
Very true.
Great information Kamon, thank you! You commercial beekeepers definitely earn your money working in this heat and humidity everyday.
Well, I wouldn't classify as a commercial! I also have no desire to truck bees! Professional I guess is what category I would fall into. I think i said commercial in the video whoops
Lol, if you do it for a living, you're definitely a professional.
Thank you for all the great information! 👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
I bought a few queens a month or so ago and they were doing great for awhile and then nothing. I thought they were queen-less - didn't see any queen cells. I thought I'd try putting a pollen patty on them to see what would happen. They started taking the patties down and the queens started laying. My thought was that we were in a pollen dearth and they just shutdown brood rearing until they had a decent pollen supply.
You are probably right. Young colonies and splits often suffer from pollen deprivation here. Takes about a lb of pollen or so to make a pound of bees.
Good video Kamon, very informative. I really like your Gulf Shores shirt!
Kamon, Thank you! I would like to see the process you would use for bee consolidation. If you can:)
great video thanks for sharing i am learning so much
Nailed it bro.
Well done.
This where beginners get derailed without mentoring.
Ps you were right about pro sweet its Mexican sugar not HFCS
Wait, come again?! When does he talk about the Pro Sweet.
@@darkeblue It was in a different video we are just catching up. Kelleys and mann lake have it in bulk at 33 cents a lb. Even if you just get a 5 gallon bucket it is that cheap from what I understand. I should be visiting kelleys again within the week
Thanks !!
from an old bee keeper good job kamon.Keep up the good work.
Thanks Greg, you too!
Good one Kamon- *staple your socks to your ankle's* 👍
LOTS of people "Dump" their old Queens in Packages AND Nucs,most New Beekeepers sadly don't have enough experience to realize they've been screwed,they don't build up just stay stagnant..if Queens not laying full frames,but instead only in hatched brood cells she probably old and needs replaced.. personally I've never experienced any jamb up package, they've all sucked.When I catch wild bees they build like outta time, southern packages stagnate til death even on drawn comb around here , unless I give em alot of capped brood,then they Peter out in spring..no more for me,I just split everything
You have a good helper 🐈!!
Wow!looks like your running 10 frame deep supers,got 1 by accident,down here in south west tenn. We’re still in a good flow,I’ve got 4 food plots of clover in full bloom still and noticed milk weed blooming and of course all my gardens are covered with bees,but stocking up on sugar,all new queens this year from my stock,one not doing as well but I moved a frame of good brood and eggs from a strong colony over this week,and hive Beatles been at a minimum idk if it’s because I put tar paper under all my hives or not...but if you have xtra queens next year I want to drive up and get a few. Thanks dude.
Tar paper really doesn't do anything to inhibit SHB larva they just simply walk off to pupate in the ground. SHB have been shown to walk hundreds of yard to get to ground. But it is good to keep the vegetation down.
You got a good cameraman!
I like how you put that, last week they were okay.
“That’s not all folks”. Good one!!!
Thanks alot
I had a package turn out queenless a couple weeks. I took a frame of eggs, larva and capped brood from another hive and dropped it into the queenless hive and they were able to take one of the eggs and raise a new queen. Hopefully they can hold on long enough for the queen to start laying.
They say that a hobbiest should have two hives, but all three of those packages are dismal. If I had received two of those I would be disappointed... perhaps it’s best for a beginner to start with nucs.
I got 2 packages out of 2, where I had queen problems. The April package bees killed the queen at about the 6th frame of laying eggs and the bees made 6 queen cells.
I split those into 3 nucs and gave each 2 capped queen cells each. the bees killed those queens at about 2 frames of laying eggs also and made 2 more queen cells per each nuc at the same exact time. All those 3 made it and are hard workers now.
My May package is very very slow and I check once in while if they killed the queen yet. That queen has problems.
It is very hard to get a quality queen these days unless you know someone that raises queens themselves and is not a commercial bee breeder that sells hundreds or thousands of queens.
Does your camera woman suit up? Great videos and agree with your view on poor Queens that seem to be an issue with todays packages. I myself went with nucs this year we will see.
I would put the pollen patty on top of the second box. If there is a flow on they won’t eat much of the patty or syrup. Put another super on top of the nuc hives they need more room. If the flow is on the older bees will accept a new queen.
Poorly mated queens are a major problem with packages. The bee factories in GA rush the bees out and waste people’s money. It’s gotten worse in the last 10 years. Think of the frustration of a new beekeeper.
Hi Kamon, i’ve watched many hours of your videos and have learned lots! Thanks so much for your time to help educate us out in the Bee world. I always hit a thumbs up if I’m at the phone or remote, but sometimes the videos play through successively and I’m up on a scaffold or a ladder and can’t make it. So, here’s a bunch of thumbs up for some that I’ve missed. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👌🏽👍🏽👌🏽👍🏽👌🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
haha thanks so much Kenny those thumbs ups really do make a difference and so does your encouragement and comments!
I so happy watching your beekeeping courses.. I recommend my friend..
God bless you and your family.. we are using thyme tea with syrup nosema cerana and varroa virusses for bees early spring an fall.. I never seen again gut problem my bees. Same effect human guts protection for all kind of virus and bacteria. Also covit 19
Did that queen pass the hive tool test and has any queen ever passed the test? What material do they study from? Lol!!! Hehehe
I received 1 good and 1 bad packages my 1st year. Good news is that I bought a great queen and took bad package drawn frames and 3 frames of nurse bees from good package. Shook bad package on ground to go to the other two hives
There you go!
I know in Britain we have thrushes which really enjoy digging out leatherjackets (Larva stage of cranefly) I wonder if there are birds you can encourage in to eat pupating hive beetles.
Hi Kamon .. Great videos. I am always eager to see your posts, learn a lot. Plus I like your style. I have a question for you. I’m 68 and my vision is noot great. Do you have any tips for distinguishing cells with nectar from those with eggs? Eggs are really hard for me to spot on light comb.
Thanks and keep it up! Stu
The best thing is dark combs or a black foundation background. A magnifying glass is the only other thing I can think of. Eggs are hard for anyone to see on light combs! Thanks Stu!
I take pictures with my phone. I can make those pictures bigger right then. You could use the zoom on those cameras, but the pictures are more blurry ......at least for me.
Would love to see a new comparison of a package given just foundation vs a package given empty drawn comb vs a nuc.
I bought a local nuc last year in April(NE PA). They never really got off the ground, despite feeding syrup early on. By early August they had barely drawn out a medium super over the hive body. I fed them sugar patties all winter, but they died by late Feb. This year I bought a southern package with marked queen. By last week(mid July), the hive body was mostly drawn out and the medium super on top was so heavy with honey, I could barely lift it off the hive. Moved queen excluder to that super after exchanging some frames with a second medium super. If they keep going like they have, I might even be able to take a bit of honey off this year. For me, the local nuc was a big disappointment. I am going to insulate this hive over-winter in hopes of increasing their chances of surviving.
T o get good Queens you need drones and you need 5 to10% of drone frames for them. With the plastic foundation that are used there is very little provision for drone brood frames. How are you getting round this. the bees themselves are happier when there is a provision of drones in the hive ?. Love the Video and the chater and is one of the better videos i have seen in some time.
Can you do like Emmymade did and put in one of those push in cages and force the colony to accept the queen. Put the new queen in a push in cage with her own eggs and have them hatch and protect her in the cage and after a couple days the rest of the hive accepts the new queen. Worked well for her. She released it in her latest video. Seemed to go pretty well.
Yes, you certainly can. When a colony is this far along and has very few nurse bees I would recommend a frame of capped/emerging brood next to the push in cage. These nurse bees will accept her immediately and help her get to laying spreading her pheromone around the colony.
Package bees:
They're basically a bunch of bees tossed into a box with a caged queen. Many times there are disproportionate amounts of the different bee castes. Upon installation the bees sense the unbalance. Maybe there isn't enough nurse bees (example).
The colony has a meeting, votes, and decides the queen is the problem and supercede. It's very common for the colony to let the queen lay just enough eggs to build emergency/supercedure cells. Then they kill her.
It happens a lot.
It does happen alot. I still feel like the queens are improperly mated since the patterns are so bad. These queens were raised in early March in GA so who knows if they were able to fly enough to get fully mated.
It happens a lot where is issue with queens disproportion do not cousing supercidure so many superceded queens in bee yard means poor queens
I've had bees a long time..only bought a handful of packages in 40+ years. In general my home raised queens are solid but not stellar. My method is to just let em prepare to swarm then split as many off as possible. We get around a ton of honey a year from running around 40 colonies. More than I can eat.
Hi, Kamon. This might be a piddly, sort of dumb question, but do you prefer to put pollen patties at the top of the hive, or between the boxes?
Your right I also think mic’s are better. I got a few packages in the past and am working hard to do everything for one colony that is a package. I did luck out I got a strong laying queen. However, I still have to put in work. I pulled out all the stops. They were not drawing comb out as they should. When they did it was burr comb or cross comb. Every time you scrape that out strong laying queen or not your taking eggs out. With numbers already dangerously low… I believe I got them in the clear now. I waxed the foundation’s, fed and fed. I did make it harder than it had to be. But kinda wanted to see if I could save them really. Because I didn’t add already drawn out comb. All new frames and waxed by me. Just…. It’s a lot of work on package’s as compared to mic’s.
Mic’s ….Meant nuc’s.
I’ve had a package of healthy bees for a month. When can I start queen rearing? She’s produced about 3 frames of brood. Any advice would be helpful!
Don’t worry about the long videos. Really interesting to see the difference. How do you get to that point where you’re raising good queens. I am 12 months in and just thinking you must have got packages initially? Do you simply raise and propagate from your more prolific packages?
Thanks, Country Way. Yes, we started with a lot of packages and it was hell on earth trying to fix all the issues. Thankfully I was able to raise my own queens but now things are much easier since we have established hives with good queens.
I have a question. @17:55 you went to put the cover back on, but instead you shook off the bees onto the ground and gave them a ramp. What was the reason for that? I'm a new beekeeper trying to learn all I can. Thanks.
Hi Russell I did that so I wouldn't crush several bees with the lid. Sometimes you will also see me shake nurse bees from one colony at the entrance of another colony. When the bees are up on stands they need a ramp to get up there and get back with the old or new colony.
How would you suggest getting a good package or one with a good queen? Get some of the later packages such as May? Since I'm in AL would that be a problem since I might be in a dearth or near one?
I would love to be free labor for a week and just follow you around your beehives.
What is the life span of the pollen patty if the bees take a long time to eat like your 1st colony you checked?
I have heard some beekeepers re-queen all packages. Perhaps there is something to be said in that practice?
With packages theres about a 35% chance that the bees will release the caged queen, let her lay a small number of eggs, then they kill her and raise an emergency queen. Supercedure is that common in packages.
Hi ya Kamon, i believe the commercial queens are probably mated well, for us in Australia 🇦🇺 it seems more about the queen rearing and how well she is fed before she is capped that directly relates to productivity, a well fed queen cell will be as if not more prolific than a brought commercial queen.
Sometimes Queen suppliers have a good percentage of diploid males laid by Queens mated with 2nd gen brothers and sisters this causes the workers to cannibalise the brood that are too closely related( look up haploid/diploid ) giving a patchy brood pattern, this is prevelant in strains such as VHS due to breeding for traits like hygiene.
unfortunately queen breeders don’t bring in new stock often enough to counter the inbreeding, besides they don’t care 🤷♂️ they already got your money
One thing to also take into consideration with packages is they are in esscense a swarm and studies have shown roughly only 25% of swarms make it.
What studies are you referring to? I would be interested to read them because 25% sounds very low. Are you referring to swarms left in the wild or captured and managed by a beekeeper?
@@coincollector315 I think it was talking about wild swarms. Check out Honeybee Democracy Thomas D. Seeley and The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild Thomas D. Seeley great books.
Great video Kamon! Unrelated question - What do you use to uncap your frames. I need to replace our old gifted hot knife and I’d appreciate your recommendation. Thanks!
I make Laurel do all the uncapping. No, seriously she uncapped nearly 100% of our honey. She prefers a cold knife for uncapping. As long as the combs are fat this method works great. As we grow our business we will be upgrading.
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees
Thanks, yeah, my wive is pretty much in charge of that as well (her choice). She has pretty much had it with our current knife. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
What is ‘the hive tool test’ you mentioned at 21:40 concerning the genetically weak queen? Great video man! You mentioned it being too long but I learned so much no worries were here to support you and learn!
Unfortunately, it is where we crush the old queen with the hive tool (and see if she survives) If we let the poor queen continue the colony will perish for sure. Thanks for watching I hope they help!
M Mogg.....he is making a joke....no queen can survive the hive tool crush.....
Sorry, it is an old beekeeping joke! We do make sure she is dispatched in an instant. The bees when they dispatch a queen they rip her limb from limb.
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees keep it coming no apologizes necessary lol
Test the resistance between the thorax and the head. Also test the sharpness of the hive tool... the queen is dead, long love the queen!!!
hey, very good movies. Make a movie about how you make packages and how you treat them. Everything step by step, thanks :)
If you start selling lots of Queens you'll become one of those commercial Queen breeders :-)
If I'm wanting to raise a new queen for a hive that has been queenless for about 2-3 weeks do I need to put in a couple frames of brood from another colony at the same time I put in a queen rearing frame?
I would add brood.
1.) younger bees accept a queen easier.
2.) From start to finish raising a queen, it will take almost 60 days before the 1st brood of worker bees emerges.
Kamon, I heard you say colonies that don't supersede aren't very good genetics. So a colony that will do such is something that is a good trait to have, correct? I have a couple that do supersede, so I will definitely make note of which they are. Thanks for your videos.
Hi Rod, Most of our queens give us 2 seasons of laying before they are superseded. A healthy colony makes a prime queen when they supersede and while this colony won't be in the breeder program, if she is a good queen that is a much better trait than a colony dwindling down with a poor queen. We have been grafting from a queen from the summer of 2016. Hopefully, her daughters will share some of her longevity. I don't mind if the bees supersede as long as they do it right!
Perhaps a good old queen supersede is better than a new crap queen supersede? It’s all about genetics. A poorly mated queen that is superseded could also give rise to a super queen if raised right!
Princess Kitty Paws sneak attack !
What do you seal.your boxes with?. Like the natural look.
Food grade micro crystalline and food grade paraffin
@@kamonreynolds ok thanks. Do you dip them? I was going to use tung oil but I know this pine we get nowadays probably wont last long with it and I dont prefer paint. Btw I appreciate your info as you are in same general area we are. It further east close to hot springs North Carolina.
@@truthhurts2149 yes we do dip them at 250 for 15 minutes. Yes this queen grown wood has to be preserved well. I have some hives made from slow growth cedar and they are doing good but they are too expensive and hard to source
Thanks Kamon, very informative. Do You have any queens for sale? Lol
Haha
Show, Tmj 👏🤝
@8:02 what's up with the swarm cell @ the bottom of the frame as a newer hive?
Hi john that was some odd shape burr comb but for a second i though it as a cell also. However first year colonies will swarm for sure if they are packed with bees and have alot of incoming food.
Help, please. I have two single deep hives installed from 5 frame Nucs 70 days ago. A few weeks ago I lost both queens right after the MAQS (?). Both hives seem to have re-queened themselves. But during that process the bees have filled 8 of the 10 fames with nectar, pollen and honey. The appears to be little or no space left for her to lay. They have not touched the remain two frames (70 days). One has a started strip and the second has beeswax foundation. My first year so I have no drawn frames to give them. Both hives are loaded with bees, except for the ignored frames. Any ideas. Thanks, from Massachusetts.
Larry Blackwell add another super on top asap. Move the frames with the nectar to the outside of the supers and empty frames in the middle. Quick strips can cause queen problems if it’s hot. Put them on in September.
mathematically it makes a lot more sense to do walk away splits with 1 frame brood, 1 empty frame..., the time it takes to get the queen laying for one, the other frames will be in a queen right colony getting used, and growing, and of course less risk. and once she gets mated and laying, then add a lot of frames and make them strong. Just seems logical, still waiting on my virgin to get mated, I shook 1 additional frame of bees with the 1 full frame , and put a feeder on immediately with a tiny Pattie, and hasn't lost any noticeable amount of bees.
So, in other words, get your queens from a good reputable smaller scale bee yard, vs large commercial outfits. Did you ever mention where those packages were from?
Wilbanks Apiaries.
I tried packages once and I couldn't agree more. Also packages a way overpriced for what you get.
So why bother with a package, why are people ordering them in the US? Is it a price thing? I agree with re the mating of the queens has a huge impact, though observationally, I have hives that make lots of bees and not much spare honey, vs hives that have lots less bees but make heaps of honey and drawn out frames. Bees are amazing and confusing and so much fun to be involved with! Love your videos, thanks for your insights.
hey, but as a new keeper you have to start somewhere... where else to get package than from commercials...
Do you always leave 10 frames in?
Are those your NUCS or regular hives.
You forgot to mention which method to control SHB for us small operators :)
From Sydney
Thanks Kamon
Honestly here in the states I just keep strong hives and they deal with the beetle pretty well. Dine a max towel work great, beetle blaster with D.E. or the Aussie Beetle buster
you have a good waterproofing on your hives, is the that Tung Oil?
John Doe I am pretty sure it is boiled in paraffin wax.
@@villainousssb533 water seems to bead up really well
Yeah they are wax dipped, he has a video on it.
@@Digger927 Man I want that so bad, may have to invest in the set up. I'm sure it would pay for itself fairly quickly, especially it you charge people to dip their hives, which I would definitely pay for!
Packaged bees are supposed to be like a caught swarm with a queen. But really, it's 2 lbs of shook bees and a caged queen who's skinny and not come into lay. A swarm of bees has filled their bellies with honey from the old hive and they're so ready to draw comb, they start to anywhere; on the tree branches where they are waiting to move from or where ever they're collecting. Shook bees aren't stuffed with honey. They're shook bees. They've got no idea why they're not in their hive or what you want them to do with this skinny queen! I wouldn't feel like eating either!
What do you feed the bees
Ultrabee patties that we mix and we feed sugar syrup. Right now we have no flow
Is laurel wearing a bee suit ?
I can't believe your not getting sung!
I wish your bees were from the north. Iowa has some 50 below zero days. I think ours are vicious. I would dare get closer then 20 feet with out a full bee suit. And then they're bouncing off my head.
Hi Angie, ACTUALLY some of our stock is from the north. Michael Palmer of French Hill Apiaries raises prime Vermont queens basically on the Canadian border. If I was wanting Northern Stock or even any stock, he would be one of the best to buy from. We take his stock and mix them in with our southern queens. His queens are prime. So is his information on northern beekeeping. Oh, and Laurel does wear a veil and sometimes bee jacket.
She's a brave woman. I put on my veil, walked out to hand my hubby a queen catcher, and one drilled me on the back.
Curious does feeding bees make them lazy?
Hi Joyce, It does not make them lazy thankfully. By the way, thank you! Your question reminded me of a video idea regarding sugar feeding and its effect so we will be addressing the variables with feeding in a new video we should have up in a couple days.
Yes your back, its because of the deeps. You can deny it though.....
Why shake bees off the frames you're giving to the other hive? Because there's enough bees in there?
wheres your website?
Do you sell packages? Might be interesting to see this challenge again next year. Your package vs a commercial package.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Hi Don. We just sell nucleus colonies. Thanks for watching!
Where are you located? Do you sell queens or nucs?
Hi Theresa we are a little north of Cookeville Tn. We sell both but the nucs are done by early May and the queens we are booked up till the end of our season.
@@kamonreynolds we'are thinking we'd like to order for next spring... is there a contract email or number to get prices and possibly set up an order next spring?
@@theresawheeler4566 Our facebook account Tennessee's Bees or Reynoldsfarmstn@gmail.com will work just fine
@@kamonreynolds Thank you so much!
We have drought this year 😢😢😢😢
What are nukes
I like you
I like myself quite well also.
Who is “Kathleen’s princess queens”
Pull a leg off those poor queens colony will supercude her .. even thou she laying . Had a crippled queen one year kept me in great cells all summer . She did her job but seeing she walked funny they wanted her replaced
I was wondering if maybe you might be overfeeding them?
With so much of that syrup and that patty, maybe the bees don't feel a need to work as much as those you haven't fed as much.
I think there must be a certain level of "stress," on the bees, to get them to perform.
The bees might need to "feel the stress," of not having enough food. That would get them to working comb.
And the queen would sense the need to produce more nectar hunters, and pollenBut, they are so well fed, they just don't sense a need to work...
The only other thing I can think of, is that maybe your area has a shortage of flowering plant life...
With so many hives in one area, maybe there's a shortage of nectar and pollen?
Lots of gen mixing and poor mating.. package bees never live your geographical region long term.. short term maybe but you havr give maximum pay attention.. always find your local bees.. Nosema Cerana varroa easily kill foreign bees in winter.
Aaaq