The trick I use to get bees to draw comb or foundation out is to move 2 frames of brood up to the top box ( they will always cover and care for brood) and feed thin syurp, put the brood separated by a blank frame with a starter strip or foundation and they'll draw it out quickly and the 2 frames outside the brood, works like magic even in a dearth as long as you keep they fed.
You R The MAN!! Really enjoy soaking up some of your knowledge!!! You’re definitely every new bee keepers site to go to, they get so much or I definitely did from your laid back straight talk videos! Keep on Rocking!!! ✌️😎✌️👍🐝
regardless of the outside temperature bees need and haul water, when it's hot enough to melt wax outside, your whole flying force maybe hauling water and other rest are fanning hard to cool the hive with evaporation process, also the nurse bees will be placing tiny droplets of water on the top side of milk brood to keep them hydrated Dr. Paul Siefert a German professor has actually filmed the process, you can Google his work if you like to see it, nurse bee visit each open larva cell more a 1000 times in 12 hours. his actual work is to study the effects of neonictinoids on honeybees life span.
Hello Joe. Heat index is for humans because we control body temperature by perspiration, that is we sweat. Dogs don't sweat they pant. Pigs they lay on the mud. When the air temperature is high and also the humidity it feels warmer because the sweat does not evaporate as fast to keep us cool. Where I live it was 95 F today but the humidity was 37% so the heat index was 95 F. I wonder if bees sweat ?
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay yes. And the queen will be laying in it as they build. They pull the acorn out fast. The plastic from mann lake is junk. But acorn works very good.
I agree with that but they will draw starter strips faster than all the others. The bees do a process called fess tuning.. the bees chain together and draw both sides of the comb at once. When you put a full sheet of plastic or wax the bees have to draw one side at a time. It's not natural to them.
This kinda goes back to hive insulation and less ventilation. Even Reverand Langstroth was adamant about the importance of hive insulation, if you read his original 1853 edition if The Hive and The Honey Bee. In nature, they would be in the shade of a forest during summer and have part shade/sun during winter, they'd have walls that are at least 1.5" thick, if not closer to 3, they'd have probably 8 or 10" at least of wood above their heads, their only means of entry, exit and ventilation would be the entrance, the internal temperature would be about almost a constant 95F/35C, a 1.1-1.5% CO² concentration (look it up. 11,000-15,000ppm CO², and the more ventilation they have, the more energy/honey they burn to increase the CO² to maintain it), and a relative humidity of 50-75% inside the hive. Below 50%, the eggs and Larva dessicate and they can't survive. And yet people wonder why they get aggressive during summer after propping/shimming the cover, opening the entrance wide open and leaving them out in the broiling sun with no insulation. Yet nobody dares to buck the status quo and "that's how e've always done it" to try something different. Rev. Langstroth had much to say about "the common man/beekeeper" and in 200 years, nothing has changed.
I like your style. Like listening to grandpa giving a fireside chat! I'm just a new hobbeek, and was advised to feed the hive all season, which I've been doing, and the bees are just comb building machines, regardless of the hot weather, dearths, etc. Sure appreciate your videos. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Didnt you say in another video feeding inside the hive is better than open feeding for getting bees to draw comb? Assuming everything else is favorable conditions.
I think he also had a video on lazy Bees? But whoever made the video they said open feed away from your hives so they still have to fly and get exercise 😂, anyway something like that? 🐝😊✌️
You're soooooo right! They love the starter strip. I had to start using up some plastic foundation that was taking up space recently. It's sat around because the bees didn't want to draw but little patches. I used a mini paint roller and melted bees wax and what a difference! 2-3 days and almost completely drawn. Queens start laying immediately. Gotta keep the feed to them like you say. It just makes it rough when they start ruining that beautiful brood comb with honey.
My bees have been drawing out on plastic foundation, a full frame in 2 days and it has not been above 16 Celcius (60F) here. Feed, feed, feed and they will draw comb.
Hey Joe, I just purchased the Ceracel feeders, they hold about 2 gal. I'm using shallow supers for the container, do U have any experience with them? Thanks U have helped a lot of bee keepers with tour videos and knowledge.
I've been using the ceracell hive tops for 2 years, I use nothing else. Less maintenance and they only require refills every 5-6 days(once a week) depending on the flow. I use a few drops of vinegar in a 5 gallong 50/50 mix to keep fermentation down and 10 drops of tea tree oil to prevent nosema.
hi joe im a first yr bee keeper things was going great till 2 wks ago wife was down in hosp my bees swarmed out on me im wandering what I need to do to insure I have a queen to carry on ill be getting in the hive in the morning what all do I need to look for and if i have no queen what do I need to do save the hive there seems to be plenty of bees that stayed behind just worried if I need to get a queen if I cant find one in morning and if I do need a queen do you have 1 I may buy im in louisa ky tnxs
If they’ve swarmed on you, then you’ve likely got a queen, unless she was killed on the mating flight. Best bet is to look for eggs. If she’s not queen right, then I’d let the bees do their business. They’re not going to go long without a queen. Just hope they have a queen cup or cell in there. Keep an eye on them and keep looking for eggs. If you don’t have any in 3 days, you’ll definitely need to buy a queen. That’s my two cents anyway.
tnxs kyle ill know 1 way or the other in the morning wether theres a queen in there hopefully there is and shes mated if not ill bee in panic mode looking to find one !
TheLarrel, I had that happen three years ago when I first started. I ended up with no queen and found out that the hive was being attacked by yellow jackets. They had a colony somewhere close. I tried to raise 2 more honeybee colonies the next year and had the same problem with the yellow jackets. They were the culprits in why my bees were swarming. I've learned a lot since then as well. I had to move my bees to another property and make sure they have enough room in the boxes and have not had anymore swarms. I hope you have a queen to carry on. If you need to buy a queen, maybe you'll luck out and have a breeder not far from you. I lucked out because I'm within 45 minutes driving distance from a guy that sells nuks, packages and always has queens, here in Ohio. Good Luck to you!
Thanks buddy. Always enjoy your videos. Was 107 here today. No wind. This evening we got some wind. Feels good. Got a 3 lb package of bees in the spring. Was very nice. But now very pissy. Any idea why?
I have run a lot of hive on different foundation while I will agree acorn is the best they will still draw starter strips out faster. Next spring I will make a video with a strong hive put start strips, wax foundation and waxed plastic foundation in it. There is a whole lot of science behind it. But acorn in the plastic world is really good.
I don't know what they draw out fastest, but from my observations they seem to take longer to start on plastic. Something else I have noticed, I have white, yellow and black plastic in supers, I only wax the black they seem to do a perfect job on the white and yellow without it.
In N.O. when we were supposed to get our tallow flow no rain for 3 weeks. All my hives stopped laying. Almost every hive had dead drones out front. They’re catching up now💪. You help people a lot.
I ain't got a clue of what you said ! Feed Bees ? What do you feed them ? Draw ? Draw what ? I'm new at honey Bees, I DO NOT have a box ! The Bees invaded my house and are in between the wall of two studs and been there now 4 years , From the inside of my house , I cut a square in the drywall and then installed a sheet of plexiglass with screws , I removed the plexiglass , take a knife and remove the honey that I want and then put the plexiglass back . They rebuild it and then I do the same thing again , The Bees built on the east side of the house and is shaded by a tree so heat is kept in control . So keep in mind when you explain that I have no box , or Sheets ? or ANYTHING you mentioned , It's 100% percent WILD honey bee hive ! Except for the plexiglass door !
Morning Joe quick question I have a single box that's really building good now I need to throw a second deep on but out of frames with drawn comb I'm in northern Illinois you think the bees will draw out new frame still in time for winter if I feed them good
Be patient and they'll build some with the fall flow however you can not depend on it. It's awful dry in Illinois today. It's mite treating time. I'm in Champaign
@@mikeries8549 I agree I'm going to treat for mites in September but I have a small dilemma these bees need more room I'm thinking of putting a empty honey super on I have lots of those frames with comb and go through the winter like that with the super on the deep what do you think?
@Fernvalley Farms. Heat rises. Dead space (empty combs) above the brood nest is not a good idea over the winter. I’d put that super under the brood box. Likely the brood nest will move downward to some extent, while bees backfill brood cells up above. Over the winter, they will migrate upward into those stores, and the super will likely be empty by the time colony expansion begins. If by the time it starts getting cool you haven’t seen much brood in the lower super, just remove it (though I did recently read that in Siberia it is standard practice to leave an empty box below the hive over the winter. Would guess that has to do with thermoregulation).
Greetings from Colorado! Thank you so much Joe for all your wisdom. I really enjoy your videos. As a first year bee keeper I have learned so much from you. Thank you !!! How is your queen rearing doing?
Thanks for the information regarding the heat and why queens don’t lay. It was very helpful to me to understand what was going on with my queen. Everything you said is exactly what’s going on in one of my hives. I thought she just produced so much that maybe she was dying. She is a double brood box package from this spring but has filled 5 full honey suppers with honey two of which I have already pulled to harvest. Uncertain if I should leave the other three on for winter. Her brood boxes are filled with pollen. She is only filling 5 frames out of 20 with brood but even most of the frames with brood are surround by mostly pollen. I haven’t fed her since May and because she has so much in resources I have held back because I can’t make a decision regarding the honey suppers. I live in Wisconsin so I don’t have much summer left. It could end by September or hold off till November. So the seasons are a little wonky here. What do you think I should do about my honey suppers? Keep them on or take them off? I don’t need the honey I have more than enough already.
If I understand it she is in two deep 10 frame and three honey supers on top. It's sounds like she is setting up her winter nest. Picture a basket ball centered in the middle of the two deeps. That basket ball should be brood and honey and pollen all the way around it. If it were me I would pull two supers off give them an empty honey super for the fall flow. If they fill it up great if not take it off in oct and put one of the full ones back on.
Hard to put any stock in what is said here when you start out saying it takes 6 lbs feed to draw a frame. We have seen this saying range from 3 lbs to upwards of 20 lbs and it simply isn't true. That old wives tale came from one guy, is unreproducible and was flawed, and was done using a few colonies in one yard, way back in the 40's. That's 80 years ago. Barely even anecdotal.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay The actual number is virtually irrelevant but here are a couple of sources. "The opinion of experts once was that the production of beeswax in a colony required great quantities of nectar which, since it was turned into wax, would never be turned into honey. Until quite recently it was thought that bees could store seven pounds of honey for every pound of beeswax that they needed to manufacture for the construction of their combs--a figure which seems never to have been given any scientific basis, and which is in any case quite certainly wrong."--Richard Taylor, The Comb Honey Book And, as Michael Bush, the Dumbledore of bees, although not the end all, says, "The other reason it is not as relevant as people seem to think is the miniscule amount of wax it takes to hold a large amount of honey. From Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products, Coggshall and Morse pg 41" "A pound (0.4536 kg.) of beeswax, when made into comb, will hold 22 pounds (10 kg.) of honey. In an unsupported comb the stress on the topmost cells is the greatest; a comb one foot (30 cm.) deep supports 1320 times its own weight in honey." Were it that relevant we wouldn't see swarms without foundation out waxing, or at least dead even with swarms hived on foundation. The area that is taken up by foundation would put the swarms hived on foundation ahead every time, and by the end of a full 10 frame deep the foundation swarm should be ahead by a full frame or more. But, while that first sentence is factual, that last sentence is my own opinion as I have not conducted such a study, nor have I heard of such a study being conducted. One of the problems with the old anecdotal theory is that bees of different ages, in different colonies, make different amounts of wax, at different times, differently under different circumstances. Or that's the gist of how I remember it being put. Please don't take me wrong. I don't mean any harm. I thought that by now this was common knowledge.
@@goodcitizen3780 I understand I don't want to put out bad info but the six pounds of nectar not honey is what I have always be told. If there is no silence been done on it I don't know what is right.
LOL Joe, you should do a sun downer series, "Talking with Joe at the end of a hot day" I'm picturing you with a cocktail and straw, white hat and suit, spinning the learning out. Thanks for the help and info :)
You. My friend. Are the most helpful, educational man I've listened to on bee info. Thanks a million:)
The trick I use to get bees to draw comb or foundation out is to move 2 frames of brood up to the top box ( they will always cover and care for brood) and feed thin syurp, put the brood separated by a blank frame with a starter strip or foundation and they'll draw it out quickly and the 2 frames outside the brood, works like magic even in a dearth as long as you keep they fed.
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to talk to us and share your experiences with us. Thank you
Now that's a good comment!
You R The MAN!! Really enjoy soaking up some of your knowledge!!! You’re definitely every new bee keepers site to go to, they get so much or I definitely did from your laid back straight talk videos! Keep on Rocking!!! ✌️😎✌️👍🐝
regardless of the outside temperature bees need and haul water, when it's hot enough to melt wax outside, your whole flying force maybe hauling water and other rest are fanning hard to cool the hive with evaporation process, also the nurse bees will be placing tiny droplets of water on the top side of milk brood to keep them hydrated Dr. Paul Siefert a German professor has actually filmed the process, you can Google his work if you like to see it, nurse bee visit each open larva cell more a 1000 times in 12 hours. his actual work is to study the effects of neonictinoids on honeybees life span.
Thanks for the chatt! Great info, much appreciated
Excellent info and insight! Thanks! The heat makes a LOT of sense.. we dont start things we know we can't finish too. :)
Exactly what i was looking for!
I love your videos keep em coming.
You remind me of my favorite author Hunter S Thompson, I love the way you explain stuff. You definitely earned my subscription :)
Thank you, I really appreciate the information!
Hello Joe. Heat index is for humans because we control body temperature by perspiration, that is we sweat. Dogs don't sweat they pant. Pigs they lay on the mud.
When the air temperature is high and also the humidity it feels warmer because the sweat does not evaporate as fast to keep us cool.
Where I live it was 95 F today but the humidity was 37% so the heat index was 95 F.
I wonder if bees sweat ?
I really don't know if they sweat, what I know is heat effects the bees.
They don't sweat but they do use evaporative cooling and so humidity and heat index do play a role. I'm going with Mr Joe may on this one.
Interested in your nuc boxes. Do you make them yourself ? Do you have plans ?
Great video. Keep it up. Thanks
If you put a blank frame between 2 brood frames they will pull them out about anytime. As long as they have food coming in
I agree
Have you every had the bees draw a deep plastic frame out in less than 24 hrs I have had it many times with starter strips.
BLACK OR BLANK.
I think he meant blank
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay yes. And the queen will be laying in it as they build. They pull the acorn out fast. The plastic from mann lake is junk. But acorn works very good.
coated plastic frames will be drawed as good as wax foundation
I agree with that but they will draw starter strips faster than all the others. The bees do a process called fess tuning.. the bees chain together and draw both sides of the comb at once. When you put a full sheet of plastic or wax the bees have to draw one side at a time. It's not natural to them.
corect
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay what is the minimum size of starter strips Joe?
3/4 of an inch
This kinda goes back to hive insulation and less ventilation. Even Reverand Langstroth was adamant about the importance of hive insulation, if you read his original 1853 edition if The Hive and The Honey Bee. In nature, they would be in the shade of a forest during summer and have part shade/sun during winter, they'd have walls that are at least 1.5" thick, if not closer to 3, they'd have probably 8 or 10" at least of wood above their heads, their only means of entry, exit and ventilation would be the entrance, the internal temperature would be about almost a constant 95F/35C, a 1.1-1.5% CO² concentration (look it up. 11,000-15,000ppm CO², and the more ventilation they have, the more energy/honey they burn to increase the CO² to maintain it), and a relative humidity of 50-75% inside the hive. Below 50%, the eggs and Larva dessicate and they can't survive. And yet people wonder why they get aggressive during summer after propping/shimming the cover, opening the entrance wide open and leaving them out in the broiling sun with no insulation.
Yet nobody dares to buck the status quo and "that's how e've always done it" to try something different. Rev. Langstroth had much to say about "the common man/beekeeper" and in 200 years, nothing has changed.
Good video 👍 when you feed during the dearth should you open feed away from the hives???
That's how I do it no feed on top in summer. Except for my cell starter.
I like your style. Like listening to grandpa giving a fireside chat! I'm just a new hobbeek, and was advised to feed the hive all season, which I've been doing, and the bees are just comb building machines, regardless of the hot weather, dearths, etc. Sure appreciate your videos. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Good job Joe. Great information
liked this video. Thank you sir.
Didnt you say in another video feeding inside the hive is better than open feeding for getting bees to draw comb? Assuming everything else is favorable conditions.
It is better in the spring but in summer I don't feed any on top because of robbing.
I think he also had a video on lazy Bees? But whoever made the video they said open feed away from your hives so they still have to fly and get exercise 😂, anyway something like that? 🐝😊✌️
great info
You're soooooo right! They love the starter strip. I had to start using up some plastic foundation that was taking up space recently. It's sat around because the bees didn't want to draw but little patches. I used a mini paint roller and melted bees wax and what a difference! 2-3 days and almost completely drawn. Queens start laying immediately. Gotta keep the feed to them like you say. It just makes it rough when they start ruining that beautiful brood comb with honey.
I do the same and tend to over-do it. I use all my cappings wax for painting new foundations.
It really makes a difference.
Thank you ! 💯
Good talk!
A starter strip would 🐝 a cut of comb placed on a empty frame?
Thank you very much for your teaching of bees! Really enjoy your wisdom! Very informational as always
Much appreciated Joe
My bees have been drawing out on plastic foundation, a full frame in 2 days and it has not been above 16 Celcius (60F) here. Feed, feed, feed and they will draw comb.
Hey Joe, I just purchased the Ceracel feeders, they hold about 2 gal. I'm using shallow supers for the container, do U have any experience with them? Thanks U have helped a lot of bee keepers with tour videos and knowledge.
I know nothing about them sorry.
Look up Frederick dunn's channel. He has a video about the ceracells
I've been using the ceracell hive tops for 2 years, I use nothing else. Less maintenance and they only require refills every 5-6 days(once a week) depending on the flow. I use a few drops of vinegar in a 5 gallong 50/50 mix to keep fermentation down and 10 drops of tea tree oil to prevent nosema.
Great information. 1st year and getting combed frames is very important.
Interesting, and so much to know. Thanks for this video.
What would you recommend I feed here in Pa. It's August 9th. Thank you
Here I am feeding 1/4 to one will go back to 1:1 first of Sept.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Thank you very much for getting back to me Joe. I guess that means 1/4 water to 1 sugar. Thank you again............Tom
no 1/4 sugar to 1 water
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay OK Joe. Thank you so very much.......Tom
hi joe im a first yr bee keeper things was going great till 2 wks ago wife was down in hosp my bees swarmed out on me im wandering what I need to do to insure I have a queen to carry on ill be getting in the hive in the morning what all do I need to look for and if i have no queen what do I need to do save the hive there seems to be plenty of bees that stayed behind just worried if I need to get a queen if I cant find one in morning and if I do need a queen do you have 1 I may buy im in louisa ky tnxs
If they’ve swarmed on you, then you’ve likely got a queen, unless she was killed on the mating flight. Best bet is to look for eggs. If she’s not queen right, then I’d let the bees do their business. They’re not going to go long without a queen. Just hope they have a queen cup or cell in there. Keep an eye on them and keep looking for eggs. If you don’t have any in 3 days, you’ll definitely need to buy a queen. That’s my two cents anyway.
tnxs kyle ill know 1 way or the other in the morning wether theres a queen in there hopefully there is and shes mated if not ill bee in panic mode looking to find one !
TheLarrel, I had that happen three years ago when I first started. I ended up with no queen and found out that the hive was being attacked by yellow jackets. They had a colony somewhere close. I tried to raise 2 more honeybee colonies the next year and had the same problem with the yellow jackets. They were the culprits in why my bees were swarming. I've learned a lot since then as well. I had to move my bees to another property and make sure they have enough room in the boxes and have not had anymore swarms. I hope you have a queen to carry on. If you need to buy a queen, maybe you'll luck out and have a breeder not far from you. I lucked out because I'm within 45 minutes driving distance from a guy that sells nuks, packages and always has queens, here in Ohio. Good Luck to you!
Clip the queen 'wings.Or put trups around with the lemon gras esential oil drops on those frames.The swarm will go right inside.
Thank you 👋💕
Liked
thanks Joe for the info always great
Thanks for the talk . No reason you shouldn't take a break once in a while. I always get a new tidbit from your videos. Keep them coming !
Thanks buddy. Always enjoy your videos. Was 107 here today. No wind. This evening we got some wind. Feels good. Got a 3 lb package of bees in the spring. Was very nice. But now very pissy.
Any idea why?
The may be hungry. Try feeding them sugar syrup. 1:1 sugar to water
If you get water with minerals they will keep that tempr.inside under 95
The comment on plastic is false. Bees will draw out heavy waxed acorn foundation way faster the starter strips and full wax sheets.
I have run a lot of hive on different foundation while I will agree acorn is the best they will still draw starter strips out faster. Next spring I will make a video with a strong hive put start strips, wax foundation and waxed plastic foundation in it. There is a whole lot of science behind it. But acorn in the plastic world is really good.
I am going to run a series on it next year and show everyone.
I don't know what they draw out fastest, but from my observations they seem to take longer to start on plastic. Something else I have noticed, I have white, yellow and black plastic in supers, I only wax the black they seem to do a perfect job on the white and yellow without it.
My bees tend to draw out foundationless the quickest. Not sure why.
Lucky you, but the rest of us mortals get starter straps drawn out quicker. Wish I had your luck.
Skinny Bee Man, was that name inspired by the Fat Bee Man?
he gave it to me
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Hahaha, nice!
What do you feed your bees sir??
light sugar syrup
Thank You ❤️🕊️❤️Can you tell me what is light sugar syrup radio? is it thinner than 1:1 radio
early spring I feed 1:1 I decrease it to .25:1 in summer then in aug go back to 1:1
In N.O. when we were supposed to get our tallow flow no rain for 3 weeks. All my hives stopped laying. Almost every hive had dead drones out front. They’re catching up now💪. You help people a lot.
Thanks for all your tips.
hanks for the talk.
I hope you sat back down Joe and had an iced tea and a relaxing afternoon
Well done. Enjoyed every minute. Felt like I was listening to my Grandpa (that’s a good thing).
I ain't got a clue of what you said !
Feed Bees ?
What do you feed them ?
Draw ?
Draw what ?
I'm new at honey Bees,
I DO NOT have a box !
The Bees invaded my house and are in between the wall of two studs and been there now 4 years ,
From the inside of my house , I cut a square in the drywall and then installed a sheet of plexiglass with screws , I removed the plexiglass , take a knife and remove the honey that I want and then put the plexiglass back .
They rebuild it and then I do the same thing again ,
The Bees built on the east side of the house and is shaded by a tree so heat is kept in control .
So keep in mind when you explain that I have no box , or Sheets ? or ANYTHING you mentioned ,
It's 100% percent WILD honey bee hive !
Except for the plexiglass door !
feed them sugar water 1:1 They will draw out wax to put baby bees in and honey
Hello ! how much hive do you have?
at the peak this summer around 400
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay nice mister !
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay do you work alone? What time does the year take?
right now a little over 200
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay what method do you breed queens?
Just happened upon your channel. Your wisdom is priceless! I'm over here in California but I'm Georgia-born. You're just a little bit of down home.
Thanks joe may you are the best we are glad to have you.
I like your videos and thanks!!
120 degFeh?? like 48 degCel?? hell on earth!!
Thank you for sharing this info. Get yourself some fresh squeezed lemonade and sit back and enjoy the shade.
Morning Joe quick question I have a single box that's really building good now I need to throw a second deep on but out of frames with drawn comb I'm in northern Illinois you think the bees will draw out new frame still in time for winter if I feed them good
Be patient and they'll build some with the fall flow however you can not depend on it. It's awful dry in Illinois today. It's mite treating time. I'm in Champaign
@@mikeries8549 I agree I'm going to treat for mites in September but I have a small dilemma these bees need more room I'm thinking of putting a empty honey super on I have lots of those frames with comb and go through the winter like that with the super on the deep what do you think?
@Fernvalley Farms. Heat rises. Dead space (empty combs) above the brood nest is not a good idea over the winter. I’d put that super under the brood box. Likely the brood nest will move downward to some extent, while bees backfill brood cells up above. Over the winter, they will migrate upward into those stores, and the super will likely be empty by the time colony expansion begins. If by the time it starts getting cool you haven’t seen much brood in the lower super, just remove it (though I did recently read that in Siberia it is standard practice to leave an empty box below the hive over the winter. Would guess that has to do with thermoregulation).
Great video Joe
Never can learn too much!!
Thank you sooooo much !!!
Thanks Joe!
Greetings from Colorado! Thank you so much Joe for all your wisdom. I really enjoy your videos. As a first year bee keeper I have learned so much from you. Thank you !!! How is your queen rearing doing?
Thanks for the information regarding the heat and why queens don’t lay. It was very helpful to me to understand what was going on with my queen. Everything you said is exactly what’s going on in one of my hives. I thought she just produced so much that maybe she was dying. She is a double brood box package from this spring but has filled 5 full honey suppers with honey two of which I have already pulled to harvest. Uncertain if I should leave the other three on for winter. Her brood boxes are filled with pollen. She is only filling 5 frames out of 20 with brood but even most of the frames with brood are surround by mostly pollen. I haven’t fed her since May and because she has so much in resources I have held back because I can’t make a decision regarding the honey suppers. I live in Wisconsin so I don’t have much summer left. It could end by September or hold off till November. So the seasons are a little wonky here. What do you think I should do about my honey suppers? Keep them on or take them off? I don’t need the honey I have more than enough already.
If I understand it she is in two deep 10 frame and three honey supers on top. It's sounds like she is setting up her winter nest. Picture a basket ball centered in the middle of the two deeps. That basket ball should be brood and honey and pollen all the way around it. If it were me I would pull two supers off give them an empty honey super for the fall flow. If they fill it up great if not take it off in oct and put one of the full ones back on.
Little Bits Honey Bees joe may Thank you 😊
Guess if you love bees you never tire of watching them fly
yep, good info.
Hard to put any stock in what is said here when you start out saying it takes 6 lbs feed to draw a frame. We have seen this saying range from 3 lbs to upwards of 20 lbs and it simply isn't true. That old wives tale came from one guy, is unreproducible and was flawed, and was done using a few colonies in one yard, way back in the 40's. That's 80 years ago. Barely even anecdotal.
If it's wrong send me a link saying how much.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay
The actual number is virtually irrelevant but here are a couple of sources.
"The opinion of experts once was that the production of beeswax in a colony required great quantities of nectar which, since it was turned into wax, would never be turned into honey. Until quite recently it was thought that bees could store seven pounds of honey for every pound of beeswax that they needed to manufacture for the construction of their combs--a figure which seems never to have been given any scientific basis, and which is in any case quite certainly wrong."--Richard Taylor, The Comb Honey Book
And, as Michael Bush, the Dumbledore of bees, although not the end all, says,
"The other reason it is not as relevant as people seem to think is the miniscule amount of wax it takes to hold a large amount of honey. From Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products, Coggshall and Morse pg 41"
"A pound (0.4536 kg.) of beeswax, when made into comb, will hold 22 pounds (10 kg.) of honey. In an unsupported comb the stress on the topmost cells is the greatest; a comb one foot (30 cm.) deep supports 1320 times its own weight in honey."
Were it that relevant we wouldn't see swarms without foundation out waxing, or at least dead even with swarms hived on foundation. The area that is taken up by foundation would put the swarms hived on foundation ahead every time, and by the end of a full 10 frame deep the foundation swarm should be ahead by a full frame or more. But, while that first sentence is factual, that last sentence is my own opinion as I have not conducted such a study, nor have I heard of such a study being conducted.
One of the problems with the old anecdotal theory is that bees of different ages, in different colonies, make different amounts of wax, at different times, differently under different circumstances. Or that's the gist of how I remember it being put.
Please don't take me wrong. I don't mean any harm. I thought that by now this was common knowledge.
@@goodcitizen3780 I understand I don't want to put out bad info but the six pounds of nectar not honey is what I have always be told. If there is no silence been done on it I don't know what is right.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay yeah nectar/honey/feed are typically synonymous in the common vernacular. As the kids used to say, it's cool.
LOL Joe, you should do a sun downer series, "Talking with Joe at the end of a hot day" I'm picturing you with a cocktail and straw, white hat and suit, spinning the learning out. Thanks for the help and info :)
That's good stuff. Thanks for the short talk. You can pack much information into a short period of time.
TX Joe always enjoy your info appreciate your time enjoy the shadey tree and the time
Hello Joe, working all of those hives is a lot of work, especially in this heat! As a hobbyist, I can just stay inside. My hat's off to you sir.
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