@dcsblessedbees I have been wanting to do it just never got around to it. Hopefully they pull through it was started late but I really want to know if they are good come spring

@@rodneymiddleton9624 will do

@@jaymackley3099 I'm looking forward to seeing how they do

@IkramUllah-wq7fw allmybees.com is his website. Search Everything Bee Vac and you can find the other stores they sell in

@Ambees_Honey 3 framers work really well here as long as we have normal winters and not crazy cold like negative temps. We make many 3 frame nucs up in mid September to take through the winter. Double nucs have no problem. The majority of our colonies are only 7 frames as it is. We carry a lot of nucs also just as a single 5 frame through winter

@@sweetstingers i wouldnt mind 7 frame colonies, the only issue i would have is with standardization and finding equipment.

@Ambees_Honey yes we have to make them ourselves. It's not hard though we buy 10 frame equipment and just cut the middle out. We had a person that would make them for us but they no longer make boxes. I personally love the size we made the switch a few years ago. We have some standards around mainly for pollen collection since I have no idea how to build a pollen trap but if I did or could find someone to build them I would switch to nothing but 7 frames. The bees do amazing in them and it's big enough to not rush like a 5 frame keeping up room

@rtxhoneybees thanks. They should be good to go. Especially this year as we are around 20° above normal temps and they keep saying all of October is going to be a warm one. As long as we don't get some crazy cold winter I expect them to see spring

@rodneymiddleton9624 thanks. Hopefully get back to video part sooner than later. Just need to get through with a wreck case

@@sweetstingers Take care partner.

@@kulsommotala8296 they start at $400 US and go up

@taramacdonald5789 6 hours many reports 8 hours. I believe they have upgrades for longer batteries as well. Allmybees.com is their site Everything Bee Vactis what theya re called.

@@martingeraldine5370 we don't have much of any moisture issues. Moisture has never been a concern of mine. We also don't feed late in the year as we want to make sure they can evaporate the moisture out and not go through winter with a lot of water weight on them

@@jaseshamer7164 ok

@albinmossberg9714 nothing like fresh honey from a hive. My grandfather was a beekeeper it's how I got into it and I remember getting fresh honey from him all the time.

Black Locust, clover, hairy vetch, alfalfa, soap berry, sumac, privet are some of the main ones

Thanks. Wisteria is good but I don't have many colonies around any I think only one property. It pretty much done blooming around here started fading out last week or so. Blooms late April first of May for us

Excellent. They are an enjoyable hobby for some a lot of work to it to be successful though. Study up on it watch videos we will keep them coming. We also keep different hive types than the typical langs so you can see other hive types as we will post about those too. Thanks for stopping by

Not disturbing the entire colony is one of the things i am really enjoying about my new (to me) top bar hive. I enjoy watching and learning about the girls' capabilities for drawing their own comb!

Thank you 😊 So I am one that is not behind the mindset of most beekeepers. There is nonreason to be in colonies as often as beekeepers are in them and what is pushed. I believe the push on checking weekly every 10 days is a supplier push as it creates more need for queens, bees, and treatments. Once a colony is established and the swarm impluse is taken care of checks once a month to 6 weeks. During a flow depends on how heavy the flow is but I will add 2 supers and usually just check them once or twice a month. Every other week if they are drawing combs a little less if they have it drawn out already. The main thing during flow I just want to make sure they are putting the nectar up or drawing comb and not storing it. I tell people all the time if they have a couple of hives set 2 aside after the swarm impluse is taken care of and they have a new queen established. Set 2 colonies aside and check them once a month make sure they have the room they need. Then check the other colonies like they normally do every week I can almost guarantee you the colony with less amount of disturbance will be healthier and further ahead. Another thing I always say is how many times has a beekeeper checked their colony and literally done nothing to it because it needed nothing done. They are perfectly content week in and week out. I think much of the failure in beekeeping is linked to just to much disturbance in the brood nest. As long as bees have room to store during a flow, pests are low and the swarm impluse is knocked backrest manage themselves way better than we manage them

@Ambees_Honey_Farm yes that's one big benefit of the top bar and layens hives. One just needs to look at a couple frames and they don't disturb the entire colony. There are pros and cons to them all. We run several variations of hives and trying to get more especially from over seas. I'm not one that believes one hive fits all. I think if more beekeepers would try various hives out they would find they enjoy it more, it's easier on them, and there would be less failure. Bees die in all hive styles so a hive style won't keep bees. A hive style though could make it more enjoyable and easier on the beekeeper though which changes the mindset of the beekeeper and that leads to a better outcome overall. Which I where we get the ones who say this certain hive style is best for the bees. It's best for the keeper. One can keep bees in a boot if they understand bees.

@@sweetstingers WOW, this right here! I will do just that and see what happens, Thanks!

sorry for the paragraph XD

We had a few 25 frames. Switched over to the 12 and 14 and prefer them myself for our area. The bees do better in them. I am wanting to get more of these swarm trap/6 framers going and super them possibly. I am building some 10 framers and will super those. I think that will be a really good size for my area. Glad you got a productive colony going again and that's awesome it never gets old watching a swarm move into some empty equipment.

@@sweetstingers yeah I wasn't sure how well they were gonna do. But I had checkerboard them and fed them syrup. And they doubled in size. And yeah it was cool watching it happen. Was a 20 ft wall of bees coming down when they chose the hive. And just imagine a 20 frame with a super on it. XD

It's the best.

Yes I believe I remember seeing he had a plug adapter for the conversion.

Yes technically but not really. The feeder shim is the new roof. It seals the hive off from the outside world. Basically just using a migratory top that we run on our langstroths. It's just temporary but IMO it's the easiest way to feed them

Yes they are swarm traps. We are starting packages in them. They will be split down to start some more. They will go to bigger layens later on. We have a few larger layens. We are going to start selling layens nucs so we are growing colonies in the swarm traps

@@sweetstingers oh that'd be cool. I know layens products of all kinds are lacking in the market.

@@sweetstingers are the bees you have local ones from your area?

@Shotgunwizard91 no the bees are not local. I am using the packages to get them going. They will be requeened in June with our queens though. By the time the bees start setting up for the fat winter bees they will be our stock.

@Shotgunwizard91 that they are. I'm in talks with a few companies in Spain I would like to bring other products to the market that Leo doesn't have. These hives are from there. We have other layens they are not new to us. In Spain they super layens we will be showing that also we are just trying to get more of the nucs going. We will be adding on to the layens side over the next few years and hopefully bring some more to the market

They are. Well-built solid construction. We have some layens already. I like them and decided to start up more

They usually find the accommodations to their liking. They have set up shop and doing their thing now. So they were happy with it

Super windy for the non Okies just a bit breezy for us Okies typical day in spring lol 😆

Yes it comes in handy and it really works. We especially like it for our rooftop hives. This way we can easily carry it through a building and not worry about the smoke. Also we get into a lot of droughts around here and it's nice to have during those long hot summer days

We don't treat any of our colonies. We use small hive management practices, brood breaks, and hygienic queens that we have breed over the years to work in our area.

@@sweetstingers Do you sell queens? I would love to see how they are compared to my other mutt hives :)

@Ambees_Honey_Farm sometimes if we have extras on hand. We make so many splits weekly we use almost everything we produce. I prefer to manage bees for people and businesses than do a lot of the traditional sales most beekeepers do.

Thank you. I appreciate it. We try to be educational while keeping it simple and to the point. Yes we manage boarder to boarder in Oklahoma. We split the state by I 35. The further west you go from 35 the production can decrease substantial. There are pockets that will be great but over all west of 35 will be lower than east of 35. Way out west and especially NW can be brutal and hard to even get enough to sustain a colony. NE is the heaviest producers easily doubles and triples central a lot of the time. It's called Green Country for a reason it gets the rains. It's also more pollinator friendly so there is more forage. It's also home to much of the commercial side and has the most beekeepers. SE is probably second best locations and central and SW is pretty comparable especially if one gets into nice forage pockets. West and NW by far are the hardest and lowest in the state outside of crop fields. NE vs Central NE will be about 3 or 4 weeks ahead. Our Tulsa yards are producing honey currently. Our Pryor yard is not yet but when the flow comes it is heavy. NE usually starts earlier and lasts a few weeks longer. The entries state goes through a dearth though in summer. The only exception would be pockets in NE parts. The area I personally like the best is SE though I like the scenery down there and bees do great and I enjoy the honey a little more

Yeah, I've wanted to do beekeeping since we lived in Clinton, but there was such a drought at that time we were using grey water just to water our garden, not much except canola and soy down there at the time. I was glad when we moved to central just for the fact we get more rain here. I saw a little about what you were saying about commercial beekeeping near Idabel yesterday, we passed a few very large lots of hives, It was beautiful, so much blooming down there :). Thanks again and safe travels today!

@southeasthomestead6093 It's the same way for me. I use just a veil much of the time. Most of the time I don't wear gloves as I dont like them. When I do have gloves on its usually because the yard I am in is heavy with propolis and it's mainly to keep my hands from being all sticky not to protect from stings. I will almost always wear a jacket or suit in my videos though. The main reason is because we have spicy bees here and some colonies are no joke. I don't want some person or kid to watch me work colonies with no protection and then try it and find themselves in trouble with a spicy colony. I tell people all the time there are 2 sides of social media the pretty side and the side very few show. Beekeepers know what hives they can work without protection on and they know what colonies can lean to more of a defensive side. We work hundreds of colonies and if we are going to be all day I put the suit on for the day. Never know what colony will be grumpy that day. This one surprised me this yard I hardly ever come across a spicy situation. Your right sometimes they are just going to give you some attitude

No signs of them wanting to swarm but it wouldnt have been long. They definitely needed room. We keep them tight also in the verge of swarming

Absolutely thanks for stopping by