Backyard Beekeeping Q&A 263 June 21st

[@Adam.Holmes.]

1) I am out of space for nucleus hives, what's the best way to combine with 10 frame hive bodies? 18:34 2) My horizontal hive is full, and there is a lot of bearding going on. Any ideas on what I may need to do? 23:29 3) We discovered a bee with deformed wings (Suspect DWV), we treated for mites. What should we do about it? 31:32 4) I would like to have a resource hive, why can't I just use a single 10 frame deep Langstroth for that? 38:33 5) I'm wondering what I may have done wrong that my bees are not using the BetterComb from Betterbee? Any suggestions? 48:57

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

Adam, I don't thank you enough, thank you, thank you.

[@marie-louisewcislo6519]

Thank you so much from southern Ontario! Two weeks ago I asked you for your advice, after I found a new queen & no brood at all in my developing hive. You suggested I simply wait 12 days and then check the hive again. I did so yesterday and saw not only my new Queen but also young larvae and capped brood, which tells me she has begun laying. I wanted to thank you for your very good advice, which is so appreciated by me as a relatively new beekeeper. Thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience with those you help and guide. Marie-Louise from southern Ontario 🇨🇦

[@FrederickDunn]

Hi Marie-Louise, that's fantastic news! I'm so glad it all worked out for you and your bees :)

[@Buck-N-Bee]

Fantastic! I’ll be there

[@guiart4728]

Great show as usual and what a great review of horizontal hives! Solves lots of problems with engineering!

[@saf729]

What a great choice of music to accompany this opening sequence!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you :)

[@wstepnout7215]

Thanks Fred, In my yard my bees are on Black berries. The white clover on my 2 acre field is not being touched yet. Expecting rain over the next 2 days I hope the clover will produce nectar after the rain. It's been the driest spring that I can remember in my 67 years. I have 5 Basswood trees that are getting ready to bust open. I also see 10 other basswood trees ready to flower with in 1/4 mile.

[@FrederickDunn]

Those basswood trees are going to be humming :) I wish I had a grove of them. :) Thanks for sharing.

[@kennith.]

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your experience with the keeper's hive.

[@Bee_Cathy]

Always watching in Kalamazoo Mi appreciate all your information and wisdom with beekeeping.

[@FrederickDunn]

I appreciate that :) Thank you sooo much :)

[@willweiser5441]

really enjoy fridays with you thanks

[@FrederickDunn]

Glad you enjoyed it :) Thank you!

[@TheKeepersHive]

Healthy colonies should be the #1 goal of every beekeeper even with the honey producers.

[@FrederickDunn]

Agree :)

[@LarryMaster-xr8wz]

Great show, second year bee keeper. Live in Titusville pa so all your info is very helpful to me. Thanks.

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

Good Saturday morning Fred. What you do with you time is great! You provide such good information and as a bonus, really great photography, thanks, keep it up! It's been hot here in central NH with the heat index approaching 100 degrees for this past week, pretty hot for my neck of the woods. Some really impressive breading and foraging bees as Ian the Canadian beekeeper says 'dripping' from the hives. Well, temps have dropped 15-20 degrees it is finally raining enough to get the garden and my shiitake logs under the trees wet. The swamp level around my place has been low. This rainy stretch will freshen things up. We are looking at a rainy stretch and I anticipate some swarm possibility when this rainy stretch ends. Thanks for another information filled Q@A, have a great week

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm glad it's at least raining... when bees have access to water, they can endure amazing heat challanges.

[@kristalburgess96]

Saw my first leaf cutter bee this year, holding part of a cosmos petal. My first year of growing cosmos. Very excited!

[@FrederickDunn]

They are very interesting! :)

[@TheKeepersHive]

Thanks Fred! You will have much fun using a flow super on the two queen keeper. It works well! I know someone who does this every year. I will let you think about where to put the flow super in relation to the exchange box (above or below it). We appreciate you supporting innovation. George

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks for the fantastic innovation, George! I'm looking forward to having The Keeper's Hives here :)

[@TheKeepersHive]

​@@FrederickDunn It has been an interesting journey for sure. The trolls are brutal. Been called a scammer and a con artist. Skills that I never knew I was capable of doing. Dave, one of the partners, tells me just to let it go and I am always looking to punch back.

[@GrandpaBees]

Morning Fred. Here in NW Minnesota the White Clover is just coming on and the Milkweed is close. Temp here is 64° with 70% humidity. Rain thus far (1 April - 31 Oct) 11.35" with a total of 4.64" for the month of Jun so far. So, not everywhere is under a high heat temp dry area. Have a great day.

[@dixsigns1717]

Beautiful solitary bee motel! Thank you.🌹♥🌹

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you too

[@danpszeniczny9664]

That colony that swarmed a month has already filled their boxes. I added two more empties atop the full hive.

[@FrederickDunn]

Excellent news :)

[@redfish440]

Thanks Fred, have a great weekend!!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks, you too!

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

Fred, Swarm Rustler works really well too. I've had good luck with it as well.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

Hi there Fred. Another great Episode. . . 👍 With a Horizontal Hive and Running out of Space : Either. . . 1) Do a Split of it, and make a Nuc. OR. . . 2) If you have a big Canvas / Waterproof Sheeting : You can add a Brood Box with fully Drawn out Comb 'over' the H.H Brood Nest 'Frames.' IF YOUR HIVE has Inner Cover Boards : where some are removed under the 'Box' Itself... Bees will crawl up. Then add the Box Hive 'Lid' and then "Cover up the Box and the Horizontal Hive too. Within a few weeks you will see signs of Bees, Eggs, Larva (Bees in all Stages : BIAS) Then you can take either that. Split off and relocate that in the Apiary. Keep it, Sell it. Or take that x10 Deep Box, add a Super and again place on a Hive Stand, or Sell ! Most Beeks or Beek Books 'state' taking these "Bees" to another Apiary, at least x3 Miles away... Then bring back ! I don't. I add a Frame of Feed usually some Fondant, and a Frame Feeder of 1:1 Sugar Syrup. "CLOSE the Hive up the Entrance (the Bees Front Door !) BUT still give them the 'AIR VENT' in a "OPEN" Mode. Especially if it's Hot or Humid !!! 👀 After about x3 or x4 Days, you can 'open the entrance' to say x1 Bee Space (Wide) Once they 'start' to Orientate to their newer location : you can open it up a bit more. After a week, they will be 'there' and stay Colony wise with no problems. Hope this helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@Peter-od7op]

Ty for all you do Fred. Loved this vdo.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks, Peter!

[@hatedcritic8066]

It's 8:56 PM and has finally cooled down to 95 degrees F. from 101 here in Sacramento CA. Boy do the bees seem to love hot weather here. It can be a bit alarming when you find thousands of bees bearding at ten in the morning because it is already hot, but at least it is a dry heat. Anyway, I wanted to extoll the benefits of having a frame of honey saved. I had a five-frame nuke that was really struggling. It was accidently formed when I transferred a swarm from it into a ten-frame hive and stragglers decided to stay so I added a frame with a queen cell to see what would happen. Well, two weeks later it was obvious that the queen cell had hatched a queen, but the bees just could not get the numbers they needed to make it. I noticed that they had two half-filled frames with a small number of cells, the size of a baseball, dedicated to larva. Since I had three empty frames in the nuke, I pulled one and substituted a full frame of honey I had thawed from the freezer. Two weeks later and they have filled the whole nuke. I suspect that the premade cells and abundant food, really allowed more bees to baby sit and grow their numbers and gave the queen more cells to lay in.

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

Bettercomb does sag in the heat if the bees haven't had a chance to work or 'stitch' it in first. Maybe providing some shade for the hive with bettercomb newly installed would help.

[@FrederickDunn]

Definitely need bees present to cool and maintain all new comb, bettercomb, or new comb made by bees are very soft and prone to sagging.

[@michaelhansen6481]

👍

[@PapaZsBees]

Outstanding video, as usual. I am using your visor design and the bees are up under it when they beard. Question, though, what do you use for a visor on your Apimaye hives? I don't think your basic design will work for them, will it?

[@FrederickDunn]

That's a great question. I have several Apimaye hives out in the yard this year (maybe 7?) and none have visors on them. I also notice very little bearding with those hives. I'll have to give this some consideration. Thanks! :)

[@PapaZsBees]

@@FrederickDunn I don't have much, if any bearding on my Apimaye hive either. I have a 5 over 5 resource nuc, the Apimaye and my horizontal long lang hive all in a row in the same place in my backyard and the Apimaye shows the least bearding. I would think the visor would be a great help when it rains (which seems to be more infrequent this year in NE Okla). BTW, I have Broodminder thermometers in the Apimaye as well as the Horizontal and a flow hive. The Apimaye temp keeps within a small deviation, while the other two temps change wildly throughout the day.

[@sonofthunder.]

Cant wait to see how your flow super works on the double queen keeper

[@FrederickDunn]

Looking forward to that myself :)

[@williambates6811]

My cows love eating milkweeds. Milkweeds very dense in nutrients.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks for sharing! Around here, the farmers say it's toxic to cattle. I'm glad to know it can be ok.

[@sonofthunder.]

We have Clover for a lawn ,bees still trying,but we could use some rain,starting to get hot n dry up😢

[@JeffButtler-kl5kw]

Hey Fred, this Jeff Buttler from McGregor Minnesota. Your comment about the bees getting water from cow pie, I was going to start a out yard where there is a septic company is dumping treated waist on fields. Is there any concerns of the nectar or water from the forage for the bees? The farmer wants me to set up there, but I am not sure I want my bees to be exposed to that. The only reason I was considering it was because there is a lot of basswood and clover. I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

[@FrederickDunn]

Hi Jeff, that's a great question and I can say that I know of no issues regarding where the bees forage for water and risks that then transmit to the honey or hive products. I'm glad that's not an issue... they do go places we don't want them to. I just keep fresh water available to them and hope for the best :)

[@Steele_Wings]

My bees are on the Borage. Strange thing is my sour wood trees bloomed a month early. Charlotte NC

[@FrederickDunn]

Lots of early blooming going around this year...

[@markk5889]

I am just north of Louisville and have already captured one swarm weeks ago and it is a very healthy hive. Is it too late to capture another one in my interceptor?

[@FrederickDunn]

Never too late for a swarm :)

[@Buck-N-Bee]

Question for you, Fred, perhaps you could address in an upcoming Friday, Q&A. I’m studying factors that determine temporal division of labor in a colony. I came across the idea of a reserve pool or “resting workers” that can react to deleterious conditions such as pest damage, predators, or discovery of an abundant nectar source. (from The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark L. Winston, pg 104.) My question is, do you know this to be the case? It’s the first I’ve heard of a resting reserve pool, and my resource is from 1987. Any more recent findings? Thanks and I appreciate all the great help and information you give. Debbie, Charles City, Va

[@FrederickDunn]

I'll add this to my list for the live Q&A this Friday :)

[@alecjaquez9194]

Hi.. form NYC 🇩🇴🗽🇺🇸🐝

[@kristalburgess96]

Disappointed the keepers hive didn’t deliver to Australia:(

[@FrederickDunn]

:( You'll have to come to the Honey Bee Expo in January and pick one up :)

[@michaelshelnutt3534]

I am #5

[@keithfaithful3989]

I have a question: It’s 96 degrees here and you have on a jacket 🥵 Do you have the A/C working hard?

[@FrederickDunn]

Solar powered A/C :) best decision ever...

[@markk5889]

At least I don't have beats.

[@enricotoesca3941]

Heilà Mister Frederick Dunn 🤩

[@markk5889]

Bears.

[@timothymitchell8310]

As I was watching the ending credits. What animals we’re fighting with that raccoon?

[@FrederickDunn]

Those are two younger raccoons being run off by a single larger raccoon. A common dispute with the three of them.

[@rodkirt9273]

I am having problems with fire ants getting into my hives . I live in South Georgia and there are many FA colonies around . I placed aluminum flashing between my bases and hive 4X6 beams and applied grease on the flashing . Yet , the ants get into my round feeders by the thousands and form a nasty mess in the sugar water . How can I rid my hives from the fire ants ? I have tried using ant killing jelly on the outside of the round feeders , using a medium super box ( the ants ignore the bait ) for a spacer with the telescope cover on top .

[@FrederickDunn]

You may have to consult a fire-ant specialist in your area since they are persistent and are going around all obsticles. Hive stands with sticky or water barriers around the legs should work, but sounds like you have super ants there...

[@timothymitchell8310]

That was really short

[@FrederickDunn]

Ok ok.... so maybe not so short (';')( ';')...