Hi Trevor, in regards to cutting the fondant a serrated knife in a sawing action cuts through the fondant much better than a normal knife. 🔪 also I give each hive 1/3 of a block of that fondant and just cut it down straight through twice and don’t bother removing all the blue plastic as comes pre wrapped so not much point taking it off. Might be something to try
Thanks for that. I think I did once try a serrated knife but I’ll give it another go. The issue I have with large chunks of fondant is the amount of it exposed to the air and subsequent drying. I’ll have a look at your channel.👍
Hi Trevor One of those yuk jobs playing with fondant 😅, Then check the weight of each colony and hoping they are still alive and kicking, then to top the day your first nailing before the season gets going 😅 Great vid keep up the good work
Good evening Trevor! You are a strong man, because if I weighed that many hives, my back would tell me bye. I know for myself, if it has already been 50 years, then as they say in our country:"habit is worse than slavery. Nosema is present in the intestine of every bee. And waiting for the weakening of immunity(for various reasons) to develop into a blooming disease. This is one part of natural selection. Therefore, strong and well-being bees are the basis of our success. I hibernate only on honey, although sometimes they turn their fingers behind my temple near my back. I'm not angry - everyone has their own way. Take care of yourself and your family! Sincerely, Ivan Ukhnal! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🤝🤝🤝🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝✌✌✌
Hello Ivan . I love the phrase “habit is worse than slavery”. I think there is so much truth in that. I completely agree on your thoughts about nosema being present in every bee. Possibly the same can be said for most bee diseases and we only ever see the symptoms when other stress reduces the bees resistance. We know so little really! Thank you again . 🤝🐝🇺🇦🇬🇧👏
I leave the blue wrapping on and cut through it with a cheese wire cutter. I overwinter with supers and find a thermal camera lets me know the bees location without bothering them (not as good with poly hives). Right at the top and I investigate. Being in the North of Scotland my inspection days are limited so - although I know it's more equipment! - I use candy boards on my biggest hives and don't need to touch them until April. A lot cheaper than fondant too.
Thanks for your comment.Cheese wire cutter did cross my mind. I think the thermal camera idea is brilliant.👍 One of the reasons for starting this channel was for me to learn.
Not all thermal imaging camera's are the same. I have a Vevor SC240N which I had to buy in Europe and import by a relative. Good value for the price I think.
Trevor, im a baker by trade, little tip handling fondant, in stead of flouring your hands, try keeping a dmall bucket of water and dip your hands in it before handling the fondant, contrary to expectation it will stop the fondant from sticking to your hands. Out of curiosity, given the price of manufactured fondant these days, why dont you use sugar bricks, the bees take them down no problem and so much less than fondant.
Thanks for the advice David, I’ll give that a go. Tricks of the trade and all that. Are the sugar bricks homemade from a sugar slurry or are there manufactured ones available?
@swaleshoney So this is my recipe, and given that we're about the same age, I'll give it in lbs. 25lb granulated sugar 1pt, 2oz of cold water, and 2oz of Honey b healthy. Mix all together, divide into 2 between 2 baking sheets with a 1" rim. Score with a knife into 3rds or 6ths leave to dry in a warm place for 2 to 3 days then store in a plastic bag till needed.
I had wondered about baking fondant for bees, thanks for the video. Would chilling the fondant help with the cutting and packaging of it? Blessed Days...
Hello again. Yes I think it would help. The consistency of fondant can vary quite a bit between batches and certainly the softer lots are much easier to deal with in colder weather. It doesn’t flow at you like molten lava.
Hi Robert. I tend to cut 6-8 boxes at once and so not enough room in the fridge. However your point is correct and fondant is better to handle in colder weather.
Thanks for the video, been keeping bees since before varroa in the USA and the first time I've used fondant. I have to make my own because the baker fondant has vanilla and I don't know if it is harmful. Im quite happy with the results so far
I wonder what % of that bakers fondant is bought by beekeepers in the UK. And I often wonder why the UK bags of sugar and boxes of fondant have the British flag on them. I'm not aware of any British sugar plantations. Do you usually reduce colonies down to a single BB for winter? Last week I was attacked by a usually very relaxed colony as I tried to add fondant, they were also very light on stores. I wonder if the 2 are connected.
Thanks Paul. I run bees in single boxes all year. Interesting observation between light stocks and aggression. I don’t know if the two are related. MrLoCoBee is correct. Sugar cane in warmer climes, sugar beet in the UK. Andrew Ward ( wardy’s waffle ) grows sugar beet and covers it on his TH-cam channel. He farms in Lincolnshire in the UK.
I wouldn’t recommend keeping bees in that situation. I don’t know but I suspect that a site such as that can stress the bees and lead to disease issues. In truth you never know until you try but I wouldn’t go there.
Interesting question. I have often read that bees don’t winter well on heather honey. It certainly has a higher moisture content than other honeys and that could well lead to dysentery as the bees system will fill sooner with waste material. In practice I think it’s more a case of good and bad seasons for dysentery and all bee problems. I don’t know but I think there are so many interweaved complex issues affecting bees that we often don’t know the reasons. We are just left to deal with the consequences. I have had winter losses as low as 5% with all stocks wintering on heather honey.
Great video, I have a couple of colonys with dysentery also overwintered on Heather honey How do you recommend cleaning the hives? At the moment their still alive but not sure their going to make it
Sorry for the delay in answering this, I thought I already had. If you suspect nosema then some cleaning is probably a good idea. If the bees don’t make it I would dispose of all the comb and scrape clean and scorch the hive components if it’s a timber hive. If you have poly hives I would scrape as much wax and propolis off as possible and then wash with a warm washing soda soloution with about 10% bleach added as disinfectant. Acetic acid fumigation will also deal with nosema spores. If the bees survive I would change as much comb as possible and hope for the best. As another commenter has said and I agree with, nosema is probably present in most colonies and only becomes a problem when certain thresholds are crossed.
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Good to see some good down-to-earth beekeeping I can relate to. great to be on the edge off a new season
Very kind comment! Thank you.
My new favourite Beekeeping channel. 👍
Yup mine too his voice is soothing
Thank you so much. It is appreciated.
“Soothing voice”…. My wife begs to differ. 🤣
@@swaleshoney 😂
Agreed. Brilliant content that no one has shown before.
Hi Trevor, in regards to cutting the fondant a serrated knife in a sawing action cuts through the fondant much better than a normal knife. 🔪 also I give each hive 1/3 of a block of that fondant and just cut it down straight through twice and don’t bother removing all the blue plastic as comes pre wrapped so not much point taking it off. Might be something to try
Thanks for that. I think I did once try a serrated knife but I’ll give it another go.
The issue I have with large chunks of fondant is the amount of it exposed to the air and subsequent drying.
I’ll have a look at your channel.👍
Hi Trevor
One of those yuk jobs playing with fondant 😅,
Then check the weight of each colony and hoping they are still alive and kicking, then to top the day your first nailing before the season gets going 😅
Great vid keep up the good work
Some days I do wonder “what on earth am I doing?” Perhaps that’s a sentiment you understand only too well.😂
Thanks for your input.
Bravo gospodine, pozdrav i medno iz Hercegovine 👍😀🍯
Hello to you in Hercegovine. Thank you and welcome. 🤝👍😁
Another great video, thanks
Thank you for your kind comment.
Good evening Trevor! You are a strong man, because if I weighed that many hives, my back would tell me bye.
I know for myself, if it has already been 50 years, then as they say in our country:"habit is worse than slavery.
Nosema is present in the intestine of every bee. And waiting for the weakening of immunity(for various reasons) to develop into a blooming disease. This is one part of natural selection. Therefore, strong and well-being bees are the basis of our success.
I hibernate only on honey, although sometimes they turn their fingers behind my temple near my back. I'm not angry - everyone has their own way.
Take care of yourself and your family! Sincerely, Ivan Ukhnal! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🤝🤝🤝🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝✌✌✌
Hello Ivan .
I love the phrase “habit is worse than slavery”. I think there is so much truth in that.
I completely agree on your thoughts about nosema being present in every bee.
Possibly the same can be said for most bee diseases and we only ever see the symptoms when other stress reduces the bees resistance.
We know so little really!
Thank you again .
🤝🐝🇺🇦🇬🇧👏
I leave the blue wrapping on and cut through it with a cheese wire cutter.
I overwinter with supers and find a thermal camera lets me know the bees location without bothering them (not as good with poly hives). Right at the top and I investigate. Being in the North of Scotland my inspection days are limited so - although I know it's more equipment! - I use candy boards on my biggest hives and don't need to touch them until April. A lot cheaper than fondant too.
Thanks for your comment.Cheese wire cutter did cross my mind.
I think the thermal camera idea is brilliant.👍
One of the reasons for starting this channel was for me to learn.
Not all thermal imaging camera's are the same. I have a Vevor SC240N which I had to buy in Europe and import by a relative. Good value for the price I think.
Thank you for the information.👍
Trevor, im a baker by trade, little tip handling fondant, in stead of flouring your hands, try keeping a dmall bucket of water and dip your hands in it before handling the fondant, contrary to expectation it will stop the fondant from sticking to your hands. Out of curiosity, given the price of manufactured fondant these days, why dont you use sugar bricks, the bees take them down no problem and so much less than fondant.
Thanks for the advice David, I’ll give that a go. Tricks of the trade and all that.
Are the sugar bricks homemade from a sugar slurry or are there manufactured ones available?
@swaleshoney So this is my recipe, and given that we're about the same age, I'll give it in lbs. 25lb granulated sugar 1pt, 2oz of cold water, and 2oz of Honey b healthy. Mix all together, divide into 2 between 2 baking sheets with a 1" rim. Score with a knife into 3rds or 6ths leave to dry in a warm place for 2 to 3 days then store in a plastic bag till needed.
Thank you David, and not a bit of metrication anywhere.
I’ll try that next year, if I remember.😂
I had wondered about baking fondant for bees, thanks for the video. Would chilling the fondant help with the cutting and packaging of it? Blessed Days...
Hello again.
Yes I think it would help.
The consistency of fondant can vary quite a bit between batches and certainly the softer lots are much easier to deal with in colder weather.
It doesn’t flow at you like molten lava.
@@swaleshoney Maybe a short freeze stay for the fondant and then use a warm uncapping knife, I bet that would work good. Thanks for your time.👍
have you tried putting the fondant in the fridge before cutting. to make it firmer ?
Hi Robert. I tend to cut 6-8 boxes at once and so not enough room in the fridge. However your point is correct and fondant is better to handle in colder weather.
Thanks for the video, been keeping bees since before varroa in the USA and the first time I've used fondant. I have to make my own because the baker fondant has vanilla and I don't know if it is harmful. Im quite happy with the results so far
Thanks Doug. Yes I like fondant and once tried making my own many years ago. “Once” being the operative word.😂
'When your partner comes home, covered in stings and smelling of honey, you know they're a keeper...'
😂👏Hello Ben! We like that and we hope all is well with you, Meg and the boys.
Another very informative video.
Thanks Trevor
Thanks Steve. Your continued support is appreciated.
I wonder what % of that bakers fondant is bought by beekeepers in the UK.
And I often wonder why the UK bags of sugar and boxes of fondant have the British flag on them. I'm not aware of any British sugar plantations.
Do you usually reduce colonies down to a single BB for winter?
Last week I was attacked by a usually very relaxed colony as I tried to add fondant, they were also very light on stores. I wonder if the 2 are connected.
Sugar beet is grown in the UK, sugar cane is grown in warmer climate. I buy apipasta it is a little expensive but I don't have nearly as many hives.
Thanks Paul. I run bees in single boxes all year.
Interesting observation between light stocks and aggression. I don’t know if the two are related.
MrLoCoBee is correct. Sugar cane in warmer climes, sugar beet in the UK.
Andrew Ward ( wardy’s waffle ) grows sugar beet and covers it on his TH-cam channel. He farms in Lincolnshire in the UK.
I have chance of a apiary close to me but its very open and a windy spot. How do you find bees cope with it?
I wouldn’t recommend keeping bees in that situation.
I don’t know but I suspect that a site such as that can stress the bees and lead to disease issues.
In truth you never know until you try but I wouldn’t go there.
thanks Trevor do you find that bees which go to the Heather are more prone to dysentry ???
Interesting question. I have often read that bees don’t winter well on heather honey. It certainly has a higher moisture content than other honeys and that could well lead to dysentery as the bees system will fill sooner with waste material.
In practice I think it’s more a case of good and bad seasons for dysentery and all bee problems.
I don’t know but I think there are so many interweaved complex issues affecting bees that we often don’t know the reasons. We are just left to deal with the consequences.
I have had winter losses as low as 5% with all stocks wintering on heather honey.
Great video, I have a couple of colonys with dysentery also overwintered on Heather honey
How do you recommend cleaning the hives? At the moment their still alive but not sure their going to make it
Sorry for the delay in answering this, I thought I already had. If you suspect nosema then some cleaning is probably a good idea.
If the bees don’t make it I would dispose of all the comb and scrape clean and scorch the hive components if it’s a timber hive.
If you have poly hives I would scrape as much wax and propolis off as possible and then wash with a warm washing soda soloution with about 10% bleach added as disinfectant.
Acetic acid fumigation will also deal with nosema spores.
If the bees survive I would change as much comb as possible and hope for the best.
As another commenter has said and I agree with, nosema is probably present in most colonies and only becomes a problem when certain thresholds are crossed.
@@swaleshoney thanks