Big Hives, Deathloss, Swarm Rate, & Money -
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ม.ค. 2022
- Part 2 of my talk with Ian Steppler, here we get into specifics of hive management and profitability.
I find his operation fascinating because it is so management intensive. He keeps bees in a place they normally don't live, and he goes from a trickle of nectar and pollen to an enormous flood of nectar in a tiny window.
Ian moves bees out of the winter shed, to the hills, to the fields, back to the hills, then back to the shed for winter....he moves bees as much as some migratory keepers, but he's a stationary honey producer. Absolutely fascinating operation.
Link to the Playlist of our talk:
• Profitable Beekeeping ...
Link to my Amazon Store, with products I recommend:
www.amazon.com/shop/duckriverhoney
Note: if you purchase from my Amazon store, a tiny amount of money will come out of Amazon's pocket and go into mine. The price to you is the same. They have deep pockets and I don't, so your support is appreciated. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Another very informative presentation. Could you name again the URL where you find info on pollen sources and flows? What I thought you said is not coming up for me. Thanks
honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/Forage.htm
Thanks
No worries Susan
@@DuckRiverHoney Thank You
You are a good interviewer Nathan. I’ve been watching Ian regularly for a couple of years but these interviews have been a nice overview/refresher on some of Ian’s core management principles.
Thanks, I think different styles and voices can bring out the best sometimes. Sort of like in school when you hear something in a different way and it suddenly clicks.
Nathan I also think you are a great Interviewer. You actually want to know and you put some fun in it.
I appreciate that. I’ll try to line up more of these as opportunity allows
Phenomenal conversation!!
So much to glean.
Thank you both.
Thanks Jon!
Excellent talk thank you 👍🐝
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Great discussion on losses. as it's not just a one time of year event.
Agreed. Lots of hives will try to supersede and not return a laying queen, then go laying worker. It’s got to be expected and planned for.
A "Nuc Battery" I love it!
👍
Information overload in a good way. Thanks for the info. Really enjoyed it.
Thanks Garry!
Great series Nathan!
Thanks Hope!
Nathan , another brilliant interview , I Hope you have a few more in the pipe line , Happy new year
Thanks, I like this format.
thank you both awesome job
Thanks Steve!
This was good. I really enjoyed it I hope u do more Thank you both for doing it
Thanks Frances
So much information. Great job on thoughtful well researched questions specific to the person! Your doing great work with this channel. I would suggest keeping your questions concise so the person interviewed has a chance to provide a full answer. A three part question with half the answer included doesn't leave much for the interviewed person to say. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Myron
Ian is great resource .. I normally run everything by him first. Why I went into winter with 120 nucs won't have to stress about filling nuc orders . trying to build them in April may .. . I'll even beat the package industry to market. Market wants over wintered nucs anyway. I make nucs up in July they take less and is prime mating .. solid flows in July so them cells are fed well . None of that matters unless you have a solid mite management plan
What kind of price premium do you see for overwintered nucs sold early in the year vs current year nucs made later in the year? That is the system I’m pondering as well.
@@DuckRiverHoney I'm not going up my prices people have enough of that but I could get 250.00 I'm sure .. I normally charge 185.00 .. sold 87 last year I could have sold alot more . Market doesn't seem as strong thou this year not seeing as many eager new bee keepers ... It's early yet and it's cold probably pickup feb March. If not I'll just send them into honey production price of wholesale honey is up .. I can make good money at 3.00 a pound. .. nice having spring nucs do and ready ether way ..
You think the nuc demand was higher because of pandemic projects and the lockdowns?
@@DuckRiverHoney probably just like everyone bought chickens seemed like . I'd rather just keep them but hate using money from my regular business I'd rather the bees buy they're own equipment .. I've got enough deeps for this year but completely out of frames .. I need like 2.000 I figured .. probably enough suppers . Need 100 more 4 frame nucs ..All set on bottom boards and lids .. I bought bunch of used equipment I've been fixing up .. takes alot time but it's nice once it's done. Think I might build some molds start making poly boxes using eps expanding beads. Love them lyson poly mating boxes but there 50.00 each plus shipping .. I can over winter queens in those up here in Michigan
You can’t do what he does in Louisiana…
Each climate has its own management.
I've been considering canola for a few years now, but all the seed seems to be GMO. Did Ian ever talk about this anywhere.
24:39 Yes, a carpenter isn‘t selling his tools to make extra money either.
When you split a large hive and split, doesn’t that reduce their ability to produce honey?
It depends. You want a hive to peak in population a week or two after the start of the main honey flow. Two big hives in boxes will make more honey than one hive in a box and one in a tree. Many commercial beekeepers count frames of brood, i.e. 4 frames of brood will peak in population in 8 weeks, therefore the equalization and splits.
If you don't split a very strong colony in spring they may swarm so you lose a lot more
Ian has only one nectar flow and thats pretty late in the season.
Manage expenses.. What does that mean 😆 my wife says 🤔 bees are so expensive...seriously you definitely can offset cost of attrition and expansion through some of the mentioned practices. That's where I am anyway
Very true!
He talks about a big hive and I'm not sure how many boxes that means-the equivalent of two fairly full deeps?
He runs a single deep brood that expands to two deeps before the split on a lot of hives. Those single deeps will be solid brood.
Sir I am Ranjeet From India I am beekeeper in India I want sattel in Canada plz help me
Didn't your first couple of videos say that you were documenting your journey as a beekeeper and how to make money on a smaller scale operation? All I see is you interviewing beekeepers that have nothing in common to hobby/sidliner beekeeping.
Hi Ralph, I’ll interview more beekeepers as I have the opportunity. It’s a format I like. As far as sources…if you can’t learn anything from Bob or Ian you probably won’t be able to learn from me or anyone else either. Scale changes things, but profitable is profitable and marketing is marketing.
@@DuckRiverHoney not sure about that. I learn a lot from Frederick Dunn. And to be clear, I learned a lot from your early videos. Just saying that most people watching your videos don't aspire to become Bob or Ian. It seems your shrinking your own number of viewers.
Maybe so Ralph. My college degrees are in Ag Econ, so I find those discussions very interesting, even if the scale or type operation doesn’t directly apply to the scale operation I’m trying to build. Take my interview with Bob for instance…over 1800 lbs of honey per year and I’m required by law to have a state inspected honey house. 1800 lbs is squarely in big hobby to small sideliner territory. I went to Bob to learn about honey houses because he’s built 4 of them and made a lot of mistakes that I want to avoid, even though I’ll build a much smaller building.
I keep hearing this kind of comment and don’t understand it. Be behaviour and how we manage those pure basics is the same regardless the hive count. I don’t talk the 1,2,3’s of beginner beekeeping but I talk more so on the important aspects related to understanding those 1,2,3’s.
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog no disrespect intended, just to be clear. I watch your videos. Hell, I enjoy your videos. I just don't relate being a second year beekeeper. That's all.
Double numbers, a meaningless statement ,unless you no the first number
I'm not sure what you're referring to. Clarify the question and I'll do my best to answer.
Feed them fake honey and fake pollen by the ton makes fake honey =$ to the fake Canadian beekeeper.
To be fair, that is an ignorant comment by you. Supplementing nutrition to ensure colonies don’t starve is a very different thing from producing fake honey from rice syrup as is done in China and some other places. Colonies going into the honey flow are not fed or supplemented, so the honey they make is pure honey, unadulterated.
If we don't suppliment feed our bees in Canada they starve or really struggle. No one harvests the syrup that is fed to them its solely for the bee. People need to investigate facts before pointing fingers and making accusations
@Bobi Yachimec Yea I bet.