Yeah, in the past I have taken partally capped frames after testing with my spectrometer. I am not in a great rush this year to collect honey so I am leaving it on and the bees can cap it if they so desire. Come the end of the season in about three weeks I will be pulling it all capped or not. I will have to move the girls back home and the lighter the box the better.

@@berrrygr * It's safer to over winter at home?

@@gallowaylights It is a lot safer at home. That's bear country up there. If you watched the very end of the video you will see one of them running down the road ahead of the car. Besides, it's a long trip to run up there to give them sugar water and treat them for mites and such. Much easier in the back yard.

Hi and thanks for subbing and watching my vid. I do sometimes use a smoker but we are in a forest area where it is bone dry. I do not want any risk of a forest fire so I go smokeless unless it is absolutely nessessary. The bees I have are really gentle so unless they suddenly turn really aggresive I won’t light a smoker at all. For myself, I find that I don’t need to smoke them at all even when I have the bees at home. I guess you would have to be the judge of how your bees are when you inspect and then decide to smoke or not. I did have excuders in at first but the bees were not moving up into the supers so I decided to take them out. I am using the full honey frames in the bottom super as a barrier to keep the queens from laying in the supers. I used excuders last year without any issues for the whole season. This year seems to be a different story. I think our up and down weather we are experiencing this summer is a major factor in the bees behaviour. It’s still gropping to 12 - 13 C at night which is most likely causing the bees to cluster more in the brood boxes keeping the brood warm. At least that’s what I have come up with.

Yeah, they sure do. However the weather we are experiencing is just so not like our regular weather we may not get much in the way of a honey harvest. The wind alone has been blowing here since Sunday and doesn't seem to want to let up.

I believe there is an addon module that you can use to create curved text.

That's a good question I don't have the answer to. I am only treating because I have seen mites riding on the backs of some of the bees. The more I can get rid of the less there are to reproduce.

I have tried the rubber caps and have on occasion had them blow out. I know my treatment rig is a little risky but I have used it for two years now without any issues. I don't have enough colonies to justify spending a small fortune on a real treatment device. If I had more colonies then I would get one of the newer battery operated devices.

Treating for mites now when the colony doesn't have any capped brood due to being queenless for a bit will get the best coverage as well.

@@berrrygr I also get blowouts on my diy, usually when tip clogs... steam has a lot of stored energy!

@@berrrygr * You're doing great... I guess it is my turn to kill mites!

Yeah, that’s california lilac. It’s full of bees of all kinds collecting pollen. Most of them are bumble bees of various sizes.

Sometimes you can’t but this queen was really loud. I could hear her 6 feet away. I found homes for the extra queens as well so they did not go to waste.

Hi, thanks for the response. Yeah, It seems to be one of those areas of beekeeping that’s still not quite understood yet. I am going to leave them for about 10 days and see if this new queen lays eggs and if they turn into workers and not drones.🙂

I will keep that in mind. I am trying to strike a balance between being to close and to far away. Thank you for watching.

@berrrygr * I hold mine up to the camera, and editing takes out my looking at them. Tedious but so enjoyable for later replay.🫠

Yeah, they are really calm. Hopefully the split will go ok. This is the first year I have seen signs of swarming this early.

They are making the best of it. The weather was cold and wet yesterday and today doesn’t look any better. Supposed to be nice tomorrow though.

Thanks for taking the time to watch my video. This device is hopefully going to save some back pain.

You are correct. I did this a number of times and didn’t get anything from it. Just another one of those hidden puzzles.

@@berrrygr appreciate the response :) even though the game is old now, hopefully DE makes it worthwhile doing eventually.

Hi DC, how's it going?

@@berrrygr 😁Still got bees, so well enough. A few more months to go. How's your day going?

All in all going good so far. My lower back injury is just on the verge of being painful. It’s taking a long time to heal. So I am taking it easy today. I hope your day is going good as well.

@@berrrygr I understand injury stuff, that is what retired me. Bunch of trusses up side the head. But God is Great. Blessed Days...

Wow, sorry to hear that. You OK? Amen

Hi Tammissa, that is a very good question. It does depend on the weather. Out here on Vancouver Island it has been higher than normal temps so the bees have been really active. When they are active they use a lot more food. If it were colder, the bees would be in a cluster around the queen keeping her warm and they use a lot less food that way. This is the earliest I have ever opened a colony to check on their food stores. Usually I don't open a colony until at least March. This year is going to be different. Keeping them supplied with honey and pollen is going to be a challenge. If they run out of stored food then of course they are going to starve and the colony will die out. As for other beekeepers I guess they would be doing something similar.

@@berrrygr thank you for your explanation. I’ve always been fascinated by these little honey makers. Thanks again for answering my question.

I have some full frames of honey and bee bread that I am going to put in when I get another decent day to do so. I thought about sugar water but irs turned cold again and I don’t want to introduce any more moisture into the colony than nesessary. Thank for watching and commenting.

Well you are not that far away then. You must be getting similar weather to ours then. Are your bees out and about? Thank you for watching and commenting.

@@berrrygr My bees have been flying the last couple of days. Visiting the dry pollen feeding stations, bringing back some ultra bee to their hives.

I have seen my girls coming back loaded with pollen. Not sure where they are finding it but the Snowdrops are in bloom right now and I know that the bees visit those flowers.

@@berrrygr My home apiary is at 1200' elevation and the Snowdroolps haven't popped as of yet. I can see some of their leaves but no buds as of yet.

I hope I can do enough to keep them happy☺️

Yeah, they don’t seem to mind it to much. I have seen a number of them come in and land and they just get stuck in place they are so cold. I have cupped a few of them in my hand for a minute and they warm up and race back into the hive.

I was thinking about those traps. Where do you get them?

I got mi me at home hardware ,they come in mice and rat sizes

As a rule of thumb the honey supers should be removed from the colonies. If I find that there is a bit of unfinished honey in them I put them through my extractor to get it out and then I store them for winter. I feed the unfinished honey back to the bees so it gets used up.

I just did this 3 times. had to solo cuz people don't know how the mechanic works. got a new necramech mod out of it!

I am glad this helped you out.

Yeah, something I have never seen before. I must have got them just as a bunch of the queens emerged. And they were hunting each other. Two of the queens were on the same frame in nearly the same place. Thats what the piping was all about.

One can only hope. The weather this year has been really off. Hopefully this is the last of it until fall returns. The wind has picked up again and its been trying to rain.

Sorry to hear you lost a queen. Sounds like you are on track to get them requeened. May I suggest you add another frame of open brood next week. May prevent a laying worker situation. The frames I moved to the new box were mostly capped brood and I left all the frames of uncapped brood, eggs in the original colony. By the looks of the queen cells they had started they will hopefully have a new queen in about 10 days.

​@@berrrygrI'll definitely be adding another frame of brood, maybe more. I've a few hives with queens that are laying machines...this hive just got overlooked. Working on taking better notes, lol.

The California lilac. Its usually full of bumble bees. Its to close to the colony for the honey bees to bother with. We have some at the other location which is further from the colonies and its usually full of all kinds of bees.

@@berrrygr We have some great big ones out side our deck door, you can hear them just BUZZING.😁

We are doing well here. You have a great weekend as well. Yeah the girls tore through that banana. Its hard to tell at this point if it did anything to the chalkbrood. The older brood frame should start hatching in the next few days so that will be the tell. Happy beekeeping.

@@berrrygr I look forward to seeing how things progress.😁

Great tohear from you. Its been awhile. Yeah things are finally starting to get underway. This hot weather has kicked them into high gear. I hope you and your family are all well.

Thank you