Congrats on 4 for 4. I though those bees were calm as they could be. Wishing you the best for your season
Those were beautiful hives, and those brood patterns? Very near perfect :D
Looking good! I have done 4 splits in the last week.
Something I have done is compare the growth of splits put in 5-frame nucs versus putting them in an 8 or 10 frame box.
During this year and last. the ones put into a nuc box for the first few weeks have consistently outgrown the ones put directly into a full size box. After a week or so, the emerging brood starts crowding things, so I put on a 5-frame medium super. Then, after another couple of weeks, if the population it good and the queen is mated and laying, I put them into a full-size box with a super. By then, they are rolling, and quickly fill it up, passing up the splits that were put directly into a bigger hive.
That being said, building up a little slower during swarm season isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Great video. Thanks for the follow up!
Yep. May have been better to put these splits into nucs. Not sure exactly why I didn’t do that. Probably didn’t have the right equipment that day but honestly don’t remember.
@@brucesbees Whatever the case, you now have 3 more colonies, and no swarms. That's great! You can still put the weaker ones in a smaller box if you really want. Last year was my first year trying nucs, and after I saw the difference, I ended up making a bunch of them over the winter. Thanks again.
Outstanding Bruce! I am so impressed I'm gonna try it!!! Thanks
Well done Bruce, always a good feeling to see your increase. Have one hive today I need to split, be interesting to see how it goes.
Great video Bruce. Great way to make splits and showed how I can increase my bee colonies. 🐝
Nice. Don't you just love it when things work out as you plan?! Doesn't always go that way though in Beekeeping, does it?
Splits look good - even the first one isn't too bad! I'm still waiting to get into my hives up here in Pa. I've lifted the upper covers but no real inspection, hopefully this weekend. Next week for sure the forecast is calling for 70 degrees.
Great job! I love making splits. Ive made probably 14 so far this year in NC. Thanks for sharing longsnapper.
Thanks for sharing. Congrats on being 4 for 4. I am a big fan of Hivbe Alive Fondant. My colonies have come out of winter very strong.
4 for 4 That's is great Bruce. Were these the splits you tried Cory Steven's method of introducing the queen on?
Thats just amazing! 4 way split on Valentines Day and they all took. Gonna have to figure out the fondant, haven't used it. Do you prefer it over 2:1 that early?
Yeah. I really like the Hive Alive fondant. Works well in conditions where setup might create problems. I just bought some in hive frame feeders to try though. Have never really used them before.
@brucesbees just used the Bruce10 discount and got some on the way! Also, they have pollen patties for 25% off in a flash sale, pretty good deal!!
I know I split my one hive a few days to a week after you I think. That’s awesome to see both us having some luck. However while I had a queen laying it up really well, the hive i originally split from threw a swarm anyways last week and I caught it but now they are replacing her in the nuc I put them in. Fun times. Congratulations
If she has them established and they are superseding her that is actually a good thing. Her time just be up. Hopefully you will have another nice young queen out of the deal.
@@brucesbees thank you! I hope so because she was an amazing brood producer lol
Looking good. You got to watch those young queens, they will jump off the frame. 😆
Yeah they are hyper. Just gonna try to leave them alone for awhile. Shouldn’t be hard. I have plenty to do!
That’s how you do it. Good job Bruce!
Worked out good. Now we just need a nice flow to hit and we will be off to the races!
That was a good split all four looking good, you got to love it when a plan comes together
Looks awesome I’m excited just checked all 13 of my splits at 1 week post split for cells and all are prepared for a new queen. Now just waiting the 4 weeks or so to see who succeeded in requeening 😊
Terrific!!! It seems from thebrood patterns all four are going to blow up nicely.
I certainly hope so. As long as the flow kicks in which it should do pretty soon.
4 for 4… Nice… beautiful results.. it lifts the spirit to start the season.. hope you have a good one!
Awesome! So glad the splits are growing!
I watched your video on grafting. Looks like you got a few nice cells. It can be tricky though. That is a skill I have never really developed. At least not yet.
Splits in February, how awesome is that! I'm only a 3rd year keep, those smaller colonies would you rather keep them where they're at or put them in a 5 framer box if they wasn't on a pallet? Just picking your brain thanks
Would probably be better in a nuc but this time of year they should grow into those ten frame boxes without any trouble. I am not 100% sure why I used 10 frame boxes to be honest. I might not have had enough nucs with me. But it should work out fine.
Good stuff Bruce. Those are some speedy queens.
Yes they are hyper. I imagine they will calm down as their colonies get more established.
I have Bees here in Fl. and I noticed that you didn’t have any Beetles to speak of. I have started experimenting with the soft mints. It really seems to work to repel them.
I have tried the peppermint thing a bit and I think it helps. It’s crazy because juts a few weeks back I was seeing a lot of beetles. Haven’t really treated them per se. But am always keeping an eye out for them.
Show off! 😂 We are still weeks away from even being able to think about splits. I’ve got 13 packages coming next Saturday for the expansion and then 8 nucs after that. Last year I’ll have to think about buying bees. Also starting to graft so I’m not relying on Greg for queens all the time 😂
It will be here fast! So times we push it too fast I believe. I am just glad to know these splits worked out.
Great job, I never buy queens.
That first queen runs over the top of the frames at 1:04 as Bruce is popping off the shim.
That was pretty awesome. Good job!
Thanks. It’s fun when a plan comes together. Doesn’t always work out like that.
Good deal Bruce !!!..can’t wait to see what’s next ….
@@brucesbees hopefully soon I’ll get the chance to visit one of your apiaries and get some more pointers ..I talked to Phillip Carter today for a few minutes and he said you do a wonderful job with your bees …
@@brucesbees our store is closed on sundays and mondays ,but according to my weather app there’s an 80% chance of rain then ..maybe the next Monday or later in the day on a weekday would be fine if we don’t have any special orders ..
BTW my wife and I own The farmers daughter just north of ozark ..
Oh hey that’s cool. Yeah I am off on Fridays and Saturdays so it will need to be one of those days more than likely.
Oh man I have been waiting for this video! I’m so glad it worked out for you! I am gonna try this on my colonies. That’s so cool!
Ok. Good luck. It doesn’t always work out like this but even if only 2 of them had requeened I would be ahead.
@@brucesbees yeah I’m gonna try the whole OTS thing. I know it doesn’t always work out that’s beekeeping
Good job. You just need to leave them alone for at least 30 days on the walk away even with cells. Great video
I was checking a swarm I caught a couple days ago and I think I located a young queen, she was small in my opinion, I thought she might've been a virgin but I wasn't sure if there would be a virgin in a swarm. She was very hyper, moving like the queens you showed, then she suddenly flew away. Any idea why this happened? It's been 2 days and the bees are still in there.
Oils have been a virgin. They do that sometimes. There is a chance she came back and you didn’t see her or it’s possible there were multiple queens in the swarm. If they stayed in the box my guess is there is a queen of some kind in there.
@@brucesbees thanks for the response, I just got done doing a split and decided to take a look at them while I was in the yard, I located the queen and if that's the same bee I saw the other day then she's twice the size now. I'm pretty sure what I saw the first time was a mini queen but I could be wrong. I'm just happy one is in there.
Could be that she has gotten mated and is now beginning to lay. They are much larger once mated and their bodies often continue to grow even more for awhile as they mature.
Love the conent, but your video's are pretty low quality though, and im talking qualtiy of the footage, not your work ofc. With setting on 1080p there is just a lot of pixels going on. Otherwise, keep it upm, thanks for sharing.
Yeah I hear ya. I just realized that I can export at a higher quality in my editing software. The last couple of videos I think might be a little better. Let me know if you agree.
Not to bad for only wanting to do 1 split off it originally, finding all those cells.
They were in a good mood for you that day.
Yes they were. Overall my bees have had a better attitude this year though a few of them are still more spicy than I like.
Jim the bee man hey Bruce love your channel I’ve watched a lot of them your splits 3for3 and 4 for 4 so on hope to catch some and split. I do most of my bee keeping like you a veil maybe a jacket like you I get a sting now and then no big deal, I feel good after that.
Hey thanks so much for checking in! Yeah I always have gear in the truck so if I have to suit up I can at whatever level I need.