Beekeeping Without Buying Bees and how to open feed bees
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ย. 2013
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Curious about how much it cost to start beekeeping? Check this video • What is the cost of ge...
Some people have argued that you can't be a "beekeeper" without actually owning bees. That is a false statement but that's not what the video is about. Beekeeping without buying bees as I explain in this video is about finding a way to feed, interact with, learn about and watch bees at your own home without having to invest in all the equipment it takes to do traditional beekeeping. This can also then lead to the possibly catching a swarm in the spring time if you are so inclined and decide you want to keep a hive or two on your property.
This was an impromptu video I did off the cuff after an accidental sugar water spill in the bed of my truck. It wasn't planned or scripted so have some grace in the comments.
See the following link for a swarm capture testimonial from the Runnen Reb channel.
• Bee Swarm Trap success... - บันเทิง
DirtRooster, so you said you read all your comments, so I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your videos. I am New Yorker and probably will never get to keep bees so I watch your videos and enjoy the whole thing through you. and I really wanted to let you know that your videos are probably the most fun ones I watch and very very informative. You also make me want to come down and visit your area of the country, so thank you.
So nice of you to say Larry. Thanks for watching. :)
628DirtRooster will the bees build a honey comb with this as well? ty
I'm excited to get started but I have to tell you that this video helped me understand most of my anxieties.
Thanks again. I live next to a cow pasture, and before the end of august, i wanna try this. Please keep these videos coming.
Will do.
Salute Randy !
Success !
Patience paid off, I was able to attract bees.
This is magnificent.
Thanks a million for the info.
I'm all smiles right now Victor. That's great. Thanks for the report.
Good stuff bro, I'm gonna give this a try. I've considered keeping bees a long time cause it's so hard to find local people that keep bees to get rid of comb, glad I found your vids.
It's very enjoyable. Hope you give it a try.
Thanks for the great ideas. I love the idea of attracting more bees...my flower beds have been buzzing with activity this summer. Next step is providing them with a home. I suppose that's where I'll have to start spending money.
That's where it gets expensive
Excellent video. Very informative. Thanks.
Holy shit I just came across this video by accident. As I'm watching I realized you were standing in the Community Bank parking lot off 49 highway across from 5 Minute Oil Change/Pizza Hut/Winn Dixie parking lot. I live right down Dedeaux Road in Orange Grove from there. Always good to see locals on TH-cam........#Subscribed
"meals on wheels.." that cracked me up! :) thank you so much for the information.
+JourneytoYES Thanks for watching. :)
Me and my lil boy are gonna put feeders on our farm tomorrow in the UK thanks you
Nice video, sure learned something and put it to use.
Our janitor at work ask me if he could have some wasp killer spray, because there are a lot of wasp flying around the trash cans that he was suppose to empty.
I could not find any wasp killer spray, so I grabbed a can of brake cleaner and both of us went outside where the trashcan was.
First of, those where not wasp at all but bees, but there where hundreds of bees that where after the content of ''empty'' soda cans.
I slowly took the trash bag out of the metal can and the bees did not bother nor attacked me at all. It is like you said.....moving slow may not give the bees a signal to attack. This was my first encounter with hundreds of friendly bees around me.
Makes me want to have a bee hive. Maybe I can build one since I do not have the money for it.
Does sodas kill the bees, just wondering ?
Awesome. Soda doesn't kill them. The hives don't have to be fancy they just have to have a certain amount of space.
Thank you for your reply.
Well, I got a hive today with no bees that is very old and ready to fall apart. I see what I can do with it. I may even copy and build a new one like the one I got. Looks like that most of the frames are still ok. And as a bonus I am able to get a metal stand with it that can fit 2 hives.
If I build a new hive body, is white pine ok to use?
Bonnie Flory White pine works.
Great post sir! Thank you!
Great video. Although it is basic I have learned exactly what I was searching for.
Thank you.
Thanks for watching.
+Heaven Marshall We buy some from a commercial beekeeper and we raise some by grafting.
+Heaven Marshall Nah, couple of days a week.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE INFORMATION.
Addicted to this guy's vids
We really enjoy your vds. So much you make it look so easy, i wish i wasn't allergic to the stings. Quick question? Do you open feed your bees?
I do open feed. Usually in a 5 gal bucket full of pine straw and placed a good distance from any hives.
Honey bees and yellow jackets never seem to mind me while I'm working in my flower beds, but bumblebees and these big red wasps will chase me away. The honey bees are downright friendly--they politely move away from where I'm working and then move back when I'm done.
That's funny. They have manners.
Thats good info. I was thinking of having a glass bottle up ended in a pan of sand. those rocks make more sense. That solves some water level vs sand level problems. I want to trap a swarm since buying one $$$ is out of the question.
Cool deal. I'll be doing another swarm trap video before spring probably.
Will Honeybees swarm in nov and dec in the deep south? I was given ten brood boxes, about twenty five half supers and a few queen excluders from a relative whose father passed and kept bees. I have two hives set up with mason jar feeders on top. The local bees in Conecuh county just north of mobile,AL are all over my feeders but no wild queen has yet moved in and taken over. All the frames have new wax backing ready for comb production. I have no finished brood comb. I am busy refinishing the boxes and need bees. Do you ever sell any brood frames with a viable queen cell on it unhatched? How much do bees cost when just starting? My area is mostly wooded land in a twenty mile circumference so lots of native flowers basically the same as where you are. Would smaller swarm traps be better than trying to get them to move into a regular hive box?
It's amazing how fast they can find or "smell" that stuff
If you could put a leash on them you could use them to track escaped convicts.... if they were covered in sugar syrup. lol
They have trained them to detect explosives.
Wow! Very interesting stuff. I hadn't heard of that but it's a fact. I saved some material to read up on it. Thanks
go look at the swarm I found this year, actually a super swarm.. We tried to keep up. Hard when you run 3000+ colonies.
Man, I am so hooked on this channel. I really would love try bee keeping myself but over here in Japan we have those Suzumebatchi (Giant sparrow Hornets)and as soon as you get a hive going pretty good they come in and kill everything and steal the honey for themselves. One sting from these hornets and you are in the hospital getting a kidney dialysis. The Japanese honey bee has developed a defence against the giant hornet by covering it with a swarm of bees and getting the temperature over 40℃ to kill it. American honey bees are more popular because they produce way more honey than the Japanese bee but the American bee can't defend itself.
Seems like an entrance reducer on the hive would be a good remedy to the hornet problem.
You could try Russian bees. Maybe hard to find in Japan. Russian bees are a little more hardy than your typical European bee. Probably also better suited to the mountains there. Might also try a gated entrance. You could design a custom entrance with a curve in it to make sure the hornets can't fit around the curve, without disturbing the bees normal entry and exit. If you design that entrance in 3D (like in TinkerCad or Blender) someone with a 3D printer (or you!) can use wood fill plastic to make it and the bees will act just like its wood.
Wood fill plastic, btw, is often just plastic with sawdust thrown in it. Make sure you get it made with real wood fill (or better yet, actual wood, but the shape is easiest with an FDM machine). The reason I suggest plastic is that it is more brittle than wood and the Hornets likely couldn't chew through it like they might chew through wood.
So, as far as I understand the Japanese hornets are about 4cm-6cm long and could walk around a 20-25mm gap. Make a curved entrance reducer on your hive so that it fits right underneath the entrance. The wall of the hive should make two gaps in the entrance reducer: The gap in the front would be 25mm wide and the gap in the rear would be 15-18mm wide. That way the hornets might try to crawl through, but trap themselves in doing so.
A relatively hardy hive would eventually clean up a stuck Hornet. Since Russian hives are so frugal, they could survive a long time even if the hornets trap them.
Thank you for the information, I'll have to wait until I find a suitable place to do it because I run a small kindergarten out of my house and even if the hornets don't get into the hive, it would attract them and just one sting could kill one of my students. I really do want to try it, I think it would be good for my phobia of bees and I just love learning new things that can improve my life.
I would love to do this (feed not capture) but I have a terrible time with ants - right now I rely on my flowers and clover to help keep them happy
They make ant moats to keep them out
I still confuse about this.
Does this also attract the queen? As far I know, the workers feed the queen, not the queen and workers fly to look for nectar & pollen.
There will be other bee species than mellifera might come and you can't choose.
budi santoso This does not attract the queen. This video is mostly about attracting bees to your property to find out if you have any colonies near by in hopes of being able to capture a swarm in the spring. It is also about tending bees even though you don't own hives. This video was done as a result of a conversation I had with a fellow TH-camr and then a mess I made in my truck today that attracted bees to my truck when I was nowhere near any hives I knew of.
Would placing a feeder near a swarm trap boost your chances of nabbing a swarm? Thanks
Why cant you use beet sugar, and how do you keep yellow jackets out of it?
thank you!
Great job on your video. Very informative, and I laughed my ass off at some of the comments.
Thanks Mr. Kelley. You should have seen some of the ones I removed. I hear it only gets worse as your channel grows so stay tuned for more goofball comments.
At our 2014 bee convention where I live we talked about how bad open feeding is. And we were told to report all cases of open feeding. Please take this off of the internet. This type of feeding can be bad especially when unexperienced people try it and don't know what they are getting into. But I do support swarm traps which can be lots of fun.
Bad for who? I'm sure some guy who does not open feed told you all about how it promotes robbing if done wrong. I can show you draw backs to pro feeders and top feeders but I'm not out there telling people to take them off the internet. I've been open feeding for years now and it's the way I like to do things. If you ask ten beekeepers their opinions on open feeding you'll probably get nine different opinions. I have no agenda here other than to get people interested in beekeeping. If you don't like open feeding then that's fine with me but it works for me. I learned a long time ago not to take all instruction as gospel. I like to try things and find out for myself what does and doesn't work. Lighten up.
628DirtRooster *Flashing Lights* *Roaring Sirens* "This is the bee police, pull your hive and your feeder over to the side of the apiary."
Mr. Randy, excellent video !
Lots of helpful info.
I recall my ol' pops and granma utilizing a similar approach.
Back then we lived in a cold climate.
Neither were beekeepers, but enjoyed their company. That and the fact they kept nanas garden beautiful.
I must be doing something wrong.
I used the 50/50 ratio as suggested.
Im using regular white sugar, proccesed honey and even added squirts of lemon.
I live in Miami now, just entering summer season.
Any thoughts?
Where could I purchase lemon grass?
Keep up the good work, and sense of humor.
Pd: I believe we need bees much more that they need us.
You can get actual lemon grass plants at some plant nurseries and crush the grass blades yourself but lemon grass oil can typically be purchased cheaper at a lot of health food or health product stores.
In some areas it's just a little harder to attract bees than in others. There may not be many hives in your area. Don't give up though.
It sounds like you're doing everything right. Your sugar mix is right. Maybe make sure it's in an area where the breeze can carry the scent.
Very informational
so i just add sugar to water
why would you not feed with beet sugar? just curious. The only sugar we have is beet sugar. its beet country here!
You're good. I have since gotten an education on that subject. It seems that in the south this is a widely held belief. Even our state university Apiculturist and the rep at our local extension office thought beet sugar was bad. We don't have any beet crops down here to speak of so I guess most people including myself just took it as gospel when they heard not to feed their bees this terrible beet sugar. You can feed them "refined" beet sugar. Here is the link to a good article on what sugars they can and can't handle. www.beesource.com/resources/usda/considerations-in-selecting-sugars-for-feeding-to-honey-bees/
628DirtRooster Wow, thank you for that! I was mighty scared for a bit. I am racing to get m hives ready for fall, an I have been using your page as a huge source of information. Thanks!
***** Sorry for the scare. I really need to do an updated video and take this one down. Funny thing is I was told this by an older commercial beekeeper but he didn't have a good explanation for why not. A commercial beekeeper from Michigan who comes down here to raise his queens was the one who straightened me out. He said that all he uses is beet sugar.
628DirtRooster Great, Will do. I have been racing around like a bee! haha About 5 pounds per hive per week. I should be almost ready.
all kinds of cane around
It's a wonder they didn't haul your truck off.LOL! ok, got my hive set, waiting for April 15th,
Next project, bee feeder. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'm gonna set them close to the hives, maybe I'll get some squatters.
Try some Swarm Commander if all your equipment is new. Maybe you'll pick up some free ones.
What ya think, will this do it.
www.amazon.com/Mann-Lake-HD376-Swarm-Lure/dp/B00B8L5X9S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1486424830&sr=8-4&keywords=swarm+commander
I see a few different types, just not sure
denny porter Never tried theirs before but it may be the same thing.
I did something like that a few years ago was out of work and was selling honey and bread at flea markets and spilled honey into the back of my car just left the back door open and bee came and cleaned it out
so is the thought here to try to track wild hives through the feeders or to lure wild swarms.....or both?
The idea was that if you don't have resources to buy bees or beekeeping is not allowed in your area for any reason you would still be able to enjoy beekeeping on some level by feeding and sort of tending to what ever bees you can attract. Maybe get lucky and catch a swarm.
Hey Randy do the wasps chase away the honey bees from the feeder or are they sharing is caring sort of girls? In March I'm getting my first nuc. So I want to know if I need to open feed or internal feeding only. I don't want to risk my girls. Lol
cool video, I enjoyed it very much.
Thank you sir
Do you think the bees follow you home. And if some did with that be a good way to Draw in bees from a wide area.
Nah, it was too far for them to follow. The best way to get them there is with blooming plants but if nothing is blooming then sugar water with maybe a little honey in it is probably your best bet.
hi nice video thankd for posting , im not familiar with a swarm trap , can you actually get a hive to set up in your garden with one ? im a blacksmith i want beeswax but ide love to keep some bees also.ps UK so its winter right now almost zero c every night.
Cool. I don't know anyone who is a blacksmith.
You can get a colony with a swarm trap but your odds are dictated by whether there are any colonies close enough to you to throw a swarm you might catch. Also brand new equipment with no hive scent in it is not a great attractant. If you build a trap use a swarm lure.
Hi Tom, On the video there is an entrance of a tree with lot of bees sort of scraping away at the wood They seem to work in parallel at times and have found this going on in front of one of my hives. Only some hives do it and will do it consistntly when that queen resideds in that colony. Whats going on Tom The bees on the video seem to do it at the entrance of the wild colony in the tree. John Owen
I had a animal cage on my back deck, & forgot to clean it. When I finally got round to it, a bunch of bees were flying around the table it was on. I got the cage, they weren't interested in it, but a pool of water in the center of the table. Don't seem concerned with anyone. So I let them be. They still come back on sunny days.
You get to watch them work without the expense of beekeeping. haha
I had bumble bees under my porch once. I had to tell my neighbor about them. Mainly that I would like them left alone. I never seen a nest before and as a child I never saw bumble bees.
We have a lot of them in our area. You can buy them for pollination now. I'm not sure who raises them though.
Benjamin Armstrong Make sure they are not carpenter bees if back end is shiny and not hairy they are carpenter bees and get rid of them.
Gary Midkiff For sure!
I'm trying to attract bees to my garden. Will this work to attract bees? What's the water and sugar ratio mixture?
It can help. Bottom line is that bees will only be attracted to your garden if there is something in bloom that has nectar in the bloom. Blooms don't have nectar for the full life of the bloom. Bees rely heavily on smell so if you add a little honey or lemon grass oil to your mix that will help them zone in on your property if you aren't seeing any around your place. If there is plenty of food closer to them than your property is you may have to maintain your feeder for a while to wait out bloom cycles of crops or native plants. I mix 50/50 or thicker.
How do you overcome the vacuum?
Now I know how to do it. I'm going to make a feeder and feed
I have binge watched pretty much everyone of your videos. I think honey bees are just the most spectacular creature. Though I have no time, space or desire to be a beekeeper at this point. I really like the idea of being able to feed them. Can this be done on a regular basis? It's the middle of the summer, and everything is in bloom so I am sure there is quite a bit of nectar abound. I know there are bees in the area. I would just like to have a constant feeder for them. Is this a good idea, or overkill for the middle of summer?
If there is a honey flow on (things they like are in bloom) then they won't pay any attention to your feeder but if they are hungry they will take all you give them once they find it. Helps them and entertains you. Win/win. :)
Hi rooster! interesting footage, it takes ages for bees to take to random feed where I am in the UK(except for in my apiary!), and by the way I have used beet sugar for 30 years with excellent results!?
Thanks for watching and commenting. Here is my reply that was sent to another subscriber when I found out the truth: I have since gotten an education on that subject. It seems that in the south this is a widely held belief. Even our state university Apiculturist and the rep at our local extension office thought beet sugar was bad. We don't have any beet crops down here to speak of so I guess most people including myself just took it as gospel when they heard not to feed their bees this terrible beet sugar. You can feed them "refined" beet sugar. Here is the link to a good article on what sugars they can and can't handle. www.beesource.com/resources/usda/considerations-in-selecting-sugars-for-feeding-to-honey-bees/
Quite right, but that old informations is from the 1930's where it was less refined and brown, which gave the bees the Sh#ts!!!. especially in the spring following a long feeding with it.
great vid rooster
LOL, I didn't like this video and almost deleted it a dozen times but it got so many view I just left it up. Thanks man
Very new to the beekeeping community. Does feeding the bees sugar water syrup compromise their nutrition? I would imagine natural flowers and plants are better for them but I honestly don't know
Addison Hanna They thrive with it. Of course that is not their only food source but sometimes it is necessary to help them survive.
Thank you for the information:)
Thanks for watching Portia.
I tried apple juice, but they did not go for it:) I will continue to watch from which direction they come and go, but they do the 52 fake-out moves. They were foraging Zinnia Elegans this eve, and a rose plant this morning.
Portia Holliday They're running like Herschel Walker. lol
Video starts at 6:42
How do I start a beefarm where i get honey andmis this justa bee feeder
You'd have to get some bee boxes and a colony of bees.
wondering something...Do you have mice breaking into the hives problem??
I've seen it on other people's boxes but never on any of mine.
would molasses be ok ? , they seem to like it , they robbing my pig feeder every day , i mix dry molasses in the feed
Yep, as long as they'll take it.
cool ! thanks !
Omg, I just found were you said its Gulfport. Lol
I watched the video and get how to feed the bees but what about the hive and honey? Do you have the video on that yet?
John T. Aulick Jr. Got all kinds of videos. Depends on what you are looking for. th-cam.com/video/KH7rmkQNQgYh/w-d-xo.htmlttps://th-cam.com/video/KH7rmkQNQgY/w-d-xo.html
I don’t have a myuk jug. Will a milk jug work?
Not normally but you could try it.
I'm guessing you put this next to your box so that you can gather the Honey? So I'd still have to purchase the box and collecting equipment? Just not the main expense of the bees.
You can build your own if the cost of factory built is holding you up. Doesn't have to be fancy. If you're trying to catch some you can build swarm traps for the spring.
i know there has to be one colony near me. i saw two honey bees in our yard getting nectar and pollen from out front yard weeds. you don't see them often, more or less you see bumble bees and spiders and ants. and the June beetles come every summer.
No doubt there is one close by.
i'll see if i can get them to come by.
Artsy Scrub Check out beelining
sorry i'm a little slow..whats a beelining?
Artsy Scrub Tracking them back to the hive.
How much sugar do u use When u say 1 to 1 what is that?
I fill a pot to about 1/3 full with water and then pour in my sugar until the depth doubles. That gives an almost perfect one to one mix. If you use the same method but add your sugar first and then water you will get a more diluted mixture due to the "false reading" you'll get because of the air gaps between sugar crystals. The bees will still take it but it will be thinner. Coming into winter many people change to a thicker mixture of two to one sugar to water.
What proportion is that mix ?
One to one by weight
Several years ago we had a log of honey bees competing with the humming birds for their sugar water so I mixed up some sugar water just for the bees and put it in a plastic bowl that margarine had been in. The bowl held two cups and it took them about two minutes for the first couple of bees to find it and within 15 minutes they were shoulder to shoulder all the way around it. Another five minutes and they were two deep all around it standing on top of each other and then they went for three deep. At that point I had to start a rescue service as they were unstable and bees cannot swim at all and I wasn't going to let one of them drown. It was kinda comical watching them take off to go back to their hive Most of them would attempt a take off and manage to go from the top of the A/C unit the bowl was setting on to the ground next to it. They were such gluttons they would drink more than their flight rules allowed? After a few seconds of wobbling around on the ground they could manage to take off and head back to the hive which I discovered was about 40 feet up in an old oak tree out back. Until that day I had no idea we had a hive up in that tree. Then three years later a storm came through and blew that old oak down and I had the pleasure of extracting 4 quarts of honey while only getting stung 5 times. I had absolutely no clue as to what might be the best way to go about collecting that honey so I started a small fire under the tree where the hole was and used a lot of green leaves to smoke em some. Then the honey started dripping out and I had to grad a few jars to catch it. The honey was quite dark and very tasty. Now after finding y'alls videos.... Well hopefully this next spring I'll be joining y'all. I am really looking forward to becoming an apiariast? hahaha I can't even spell it and now I are one!!! I have sure enjoyed all these videos.
How to make sugar water? Any sugar?
Pretty much. This is cane sugar.
@@628DirtRooster ooo thanks sir..
Great video! 2 or 4 cups of sugar for the feeder in the video? Could I just build a wooden hive to encourage bee's for our flowers & garden. Any plans for a hive???
You want your sugar to be not quite as thick as pancake syrup. One to one water to sugar. Here are hive plans: www.beesource.com/files/10frlang.pdf
You can use anything with similar dimensions for a swarm trap. Check out swarm trap videos for placement and such.
628DirtRooster Thx for your reply! I just want to do something to encourage the little honey bee's to survive in our yard and not nest in the basement wall.
D.T. Grosz It's good to be proactive
Do you have to have permit to have that many hives
Some states require tagging or state inspections but I don't know of any permit requirements.
What is the recipe for the sugar syrup using corn syrup please? Great info, thank you!
Stay away from corn syrup for bees
did you get the recipe for sugar syrup? if so please share
Charlotte Braneff one to one by weight he said
Forge North, you're right.... It's full of GMO corn
Thank you for interesting Video! Best greeting from UKRAINE! Good luck beekeeping! :)
Thank you Mr. Fursov. Best wishes to you.
Best wishes in beekeeping! :)
I remember doing something very similar on accident when I was a little kid with a lemonade stand and an accidental spill let's just say we lost business rather quickly and 2 stings later we closed down shop haha
SwingLifeAway92 That's funny.
Lol
another way you can make the hole is to get a small screwdriver and heat it up with a lighter or blow torch.
Ahh Haa!!! Now I know how Jeff is catching so many bees!!! He must have watched this video?? If so, maybe you should get 1/2 credit for each hive he "catches"??? Do you agree? Y'all crack me up!! Good folks!! Have a good rest of week!!
PS . Thanks for the video!!!
last year I put a sugar water solution outside and all I had flying to that was wasps.
That happens some times. Put out some wasp traps along side your feeder.
628DirtRooster I will try again this year with the feeder you should and hopefully the wasp have moved on after gas smell in the shed last year. easiest way to get rid of wasps.
I had a reason to feed my bees a few weeks ago. I had the feeder 4 feet from the hive and they didn't find it after 4 days. I moved the feeder 70 feet and they found it in 10 minutes. lol
That is funny. Farsighted bees.
A made a bee hive out of tubes and a carton but I don’t want it to have wasps take it.
In the second grade I would hold honey bees (with out getting stung) and lets just say that the teacher was not really happy
can i feed my honeybees beet sugar syrup
You can feed them "refined" beet sugar. Here is the link to a good article on what sugars they can and can't handle. www.beesource.com/resources/usda/considerations-in-selecting-sugars-for-feeding-to-honey-bees/
Sound not working on this vid
I think there might be wild hives in my area.
I get loads of honey bees on my flowers and there was a wild hive that formed on a statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the collage down the block that had be removed a few years back. I'm within a mile of a river, wooded parks and patches, and old cemeteries so feral hives really could be anywhere right under our noses, the zoning laws just suck for beekeeping because the properties around here are mostly too small. If not I'd ask if they might belong to someone before setting out a bait hive.
Check into bee lining if you're interested in tracking them down. Here is a link to some info about it. www.beesource.com/point-of-view/adrian-wenner/efficient-hunting-of-feral-colonies/
628DirtRooster Fantastic, I've always been curious if they were wild or from a box. 8)
FullmetalAngyl Good luck locating them.
But how can you start beekeeping without buying queen and whole set up ? Only by catching lost hive in wild ?
There are lots of ways but the video was about seeing if there's activity in your area that you might be able to attract to your property.
Catching a swarm is the easiest way and you can keep them in anything as long as the space is suitable.
Interesting, i would like to try, but have no idea where or how to start. Is it eazy to make bait hive or something ? mayby any sugesstion ?
Not too hard. Plenty of videos on the subject.
Looks like a part of Mississippi.
Question out of the blue. We make Bumble bee hives, don't we?
You can. I've never kept bumble bees so I don't know what the dimensions should bee. dfishman76 put up a video today of some he built a box for.
i make holes with a nail all time and never split lids in my craft
nice
What about ants?
Will you "bee," willing to show us how to make wasp traps? Their bad here. TY.
Might make that video at some point over winter.
628DirtRooster my uncle joe stotler up here in PA had a shit load of hives,pretty kool shit bro,i miss him he passed away couple years ago and it was hidden from me for sometime cause i was close to him,stupid right but i guess everyone had there reasons,still pissed about it,but my question is u guys have or every ran into killer bees down there??? i heard tha honey is out of this world.
thanks for ur vidz makes me think of my uncle means alot
If you have actual syrup already I would just thin it with about half water.
628DirtRooster The bees don't attack because you stay calm?
SuperImmunologist Pretty much
***** No but that's a great idea. I like the way you think. I may have to do that.
Good evening, my brother, I'm from Algeria What did you do to attract bees Write me please?
+Mahdi Radi They are attracted to sugar syrup
+628DirtRooster Thank you
Boy that was a lot of bees in your truck!
Yeah, thankfully they were pretty active that day and that sugar syrup didn't totally go to waste.
I'm glad I watched this video. I feel the grave concern for the fact that pollinators are dying off in this world which we need to survive too. So, have you tried re-purposing Hummingbird feeders as bee feeders? If so, how did it work out for you?
What is the ratio for sugar to water?
You can go with a 50/50 mix in summer and maybe 60% to 70% sugar in the winter. I usually fill a stock pot about 1/3 with water then pour granulated cane sugar in until the depth is at 2/3. If you use the same method but put your sugar in first you will end up with a weaker sugar mix due to the water filling voids between sugar granules. Warm it all up until the sugar dissolves, let it cool and it's ready.
This helped immensely, I made a feeder which is probably a little too fancy, won't know if it works until tomorrow at least. You can my version here: ilivefortheswarm.tumblr.com/ I'd love the opinion of a pro.
628DirtRooster Also, I used a 1mm (3/64 I think) drillbit, is that too small?
Mushious That should work but I would lean the drill side to side just to open the hole a little more. Better too large than too small. That should be sufficient though. With your glass feeder you should be able to see through the feeder and be able to tell if they are able to get their proboscis (tongue) through the hole.
Thinking something might be wrong, not getting the slightest amount of interest other than ants (which can't get to it). Using a 50/50 cane sugar syrup and they don't even pay attention to it (not even a plate of spare syrup I put out). Any ideas?
thets what its called?its what we do after we harvest the wild honey,, we jist take bout half the the comb then repair the hive best we can then feed the bees the rest of the year an next the second year we do another harvest,, now i jist feed in the garden
Where are you located?
+Paul Ashe South MS
looks like by late video you had a whole yellow jacket nest in the truck. I had half a mind to do this because i like the honey bees, but have a crippling phobia of the yellow jackets and red wasps (got my ass toted as a very young kid and a time or two since then) I live in east central Alabama and I see way more jackets and wasps than honey bees, and want them off the face of this earth. If not for the thought of feeding those devil flies I might still go for it but I think I'll just have to plant some flowers lol.
Fun thing is you can crush the yellow jackets as they eat and they won't attack you. I did that in some other videos.
I saw your video with that yj nest under the single wide, and I must say, you got a dumptruck load more balls than I do lol. I won't mash one yellow jacket because I know it releases a pharamone to attack; but back to my original comment, any suggestiong on thypes of flowering plant that they prefer? i see them and the bumblebees like the dandilions, but they're everywhere and ther's not much in the way of variety lol.
Chauncey McGuillicutty It's probably easier to say what they aren't attracted to. They like anything that produces nectar. You don't see them much on azaleas, roses, black eyed susans...
Thank you sir! I got some green thumbs in the family, I'm gonna take that advice and run with it.
Ok, thanks. I'll get the bottle of swarm commander, if thats the best.
Mann Lake's product may be just as good I've just never tried it.
LOL why so many dislikes? I think they are afraid you are dumping sugar syrup where they are going for lunch! How much of sugar and honey messes do the bees take care of when you turn them loose like this?
I think a lot of people have been programmed that feeding sugar is bad. Or maybe the video was just that bad. I almost deleted it a long time ago but it was getting too many views to get rid of it.
Why not beet sugar?
Because it turns their lips purple. LOL.
OK, here comes a really long answer to your really short question. When I first got started in beekeeping I took a class that was put on by a couple of gentlemen in their mid seventies who had both been keeping bees for over forty years and had maintained around 600 colonies in their younger years. One thing they covered in their class was what kind of sugars to feed. They didn't give a reason but just said don't use beet sugar. Since we have massive sugar cane crops around here and I've never actually had any beet sugar it has never come up and since these guys were keeping bees before I was born I didn't question their wisdom. That being said, I made some calls today after reading your question. I called two local beekeepers I know and both of them had heard not to use beet sugar but didn't know why. I then called our Mississippi State University extension office and spoke with one of the state inspectors. He had also heard this and heard that it would set the bees back but didn't know exactly why and had never experimented with it. He surmised that it may have something to do with a component of that type sugar. He used brown sugar as an example and said that brown sugar has sulfur in it and that probably wouldn't be good for the bees. I then called a commercial beekeeper whom we buy queens from some times. He blew the beet sugar theory out of the water by telling me that he only feeds his bees beet sugar in the winter. Just to put a little credibility with what he said I'll tell you that the bulk of his operation is in Michigan and he only comes to Mississippi (which is where I live) in the spring to graft queens and do splits. Last year he sent around 14,000 colonies out on pollination contracts. So it appears that beet sugar is just fine if that's what you have access to.
Thanks for the great and challenging question that I've never been asked before. I learn something new every day.
628DirtRooster Most beet sugar you buy today will be made from gmo beets. Just one more little gift from the fine folks at monsanto. Do yourself and your bees a favor and stick with good ole pure cane sugar.Most any sugar you buy that doesn't say pure cane sugar will have some gmo beet sugar in it.
Lucien Macrose Good point. I didn't think of that.
628DirtRooster Being a thorn in monsanto's side is my passion. Spreading the truth is my calling. I take both very seriously
Lucien Macrose Ha, I love it. Keep on being a thorn my friend.
George has 3428 hives hidden all over the area and the helicopters prove it... George needs no bee keepers club. He is his own club.
+Jason Kriewaldt LOL George got out of beekeeping this year and moved to Tennessee. Guess he got tired of all the helicopters.
+628DirtRooster ....That's only what Georges bee army wants you to think. It's better if nobody knows about Georges presence. ;) I'm glad everyone thought he left. It's better this way. BTW George loves helicopters.
Jason Kriewaldt You know him too well. ;)
+628DirtRooster Just take this as a warning that the bee coalition is watching you. Georges bee army never rests. If you've ever seen the movie or read the comics based on Ant Man, then you know Georges capabilities. Its almost exactly the same, just with a different insect.
+628DirtRooster hu
there is another bee keeper channel that is growing sugar beets for bees. why is that bad?
+smellycat249 I have since gotten an education on that subject. It seems that in the south this is a widely held belief. Even our state university Apiculturist and the rep at our local extension office thought beet sugar was bad. We don't have any beet crops down here to speak of so I guess most people including myself just took it as gospel when they heard not to feed their bees this terrible beet sugar. You can feed them "refined" beet sugar. Here is the link to a good article on what sugars they can and can't handle. www.beesource.com/resources/usda/considerations-in-selecting-sugars-for-feeding-to-honey-bees/
Wow, a Radio Shack!
It finally closed this year.
Hey bro you gotta start checking the back of that, seems you forgetting bout the stuff in your truck.
Lol, I know. It has become a catchall since we began our home renovation project. I'm going to have to clean it up this weekend but the fishing stuff stays. Lol
My sugar feeder just seem to attract ants. Does anyone else have this problem?
I hope some bees show up for you soon.
Kevin DeVane yep
Kevin DeVane where do you place your beehive, bro? You can try applying used grease on the legs of your platform so ants cant climb up. :)