Beekeeping, Big Queen cells, great!

[@badtom12345]

Just received my first ever Nuk.. now installed into their new home in our garden.. it’s content like this that gives me the confidence.. keep it up and thank you on behalf of all us new bee keepers 👍🏻👍🏻.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Tom, how lovely to have them in your garden, nothing better than sitting watching them going in and out on a sunny day, Have a wonderful season with your honey bees from John .

[@richardkuhn8115]

Hi John! Enjoying your videos from Scotland, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Blessings!

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Great thanks , nice to hear from you , 🤓john

[@rogerbarnes7093]

Thanks John for another great video. Your hives are looking great. We are off to a great start this year. All my hives made it through our unusual winter and I am picking up a new strain in 4days. Look forward to your next video. Hope you have 100% return on your mated queens.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Roger my Texas friend, you done well getting them all through the winter, it is interesting seeing different strains of bees how they act, I have a wild colony that is completely different in the way they build comb , 🐝🇬🇧

[@freebirdofreason1994]

Good to see you are doing well with the queen cells. The sound of summer, fantastic. See you soon .🙋‍♂️

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Not if I see you first, we need to meet up soon, john 🤓👌🥂

[@freebirdofreason1994]

@@johnbeemansaunders6567 🍺🐟👍🍟

[@donegal1983]

Great video John. Very interesting and looking forward to trying this method myself. Keep us updated on the 4 new queens 👍👍

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks Chris, I will, Happy Beekeeing from John.

[@rondunnett7204]

Dear Mr Saunders, Many thanks or your excellent and informative videos, I have been watching after my wife found your channel today. It looks like a great deal of knowledge is required to keep beautiful bees.. I hope you have had both jabs. Take care! Ron

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks Ron, it’s not difficult to keep bees , people have been keeping bees for years, if I can do it anyone can, , and yes we had are jabs thanks 👏

[@alvincannon73]

That's brilliant news John. Delighted you've so many beautiful large Queen cells. Fingers crossed for you for 80% and above success !

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hope so , see what happens, you never know do you Alvin , 🤓

[@MRB0101]

Very informative, great work John. Very enjoyable to watch.

[@MRB0101]

Just 1 question, do you think there will be enough drones around this early in the season ?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@MRB0101 them cells came from swarm cells , there were a lot of drones in the hive and I’ve seen a lot up the farm , but would be better next month, I guess them little bees 🐝 know what they are doing, 🤓👌john

[@kenscott2820]

Another great video John, I'm learning so much from you. I've just bought another full colony which I'm sure will be producing queen cells soon so this video was just what I needed. Thank you

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Ken, sounds like you’re having fun too with beekeeping, hope all goes well for you, the weather is on the change for the good I think at last, from John

[@veragiles981]

Thanks again John for a great video; it was really helpful. Queen Layalot has been so prolific. Look forward to seeing how her daughters behave!

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

I have two colonies of hers last years daughters, I show them soon , 🤓

[@keithsteele5580]

I can't wait to see them john, ie last year's daughters of Queen lay a lot👍🐝🐝🐝

[@markmurphy8303]

Hi John. My your colony has been busy making all those queen cells here’s hoping your nucs are all a success, I have 12 hives and as of now I haven’t found any cells they seem to be happy with the fabulous flow we are having and the two supers on each hive, I could do with maybe 6 or 8 cells so I can split my biggest colonies otherwise I will have to buy cells or mated queens. Thank you John for sharing your vlog with us my friend.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Mark, sounds to me like you are managing your hives well, I think it’s the mark of a good beekeeper, You must be keeping them happy with the room, weather has been so poor here it’s a mess mine up a bit, The weather is all changing for the good here now though apparently. Well enjoy your beekeeping it’s nice when the Sun is out and the birds are singing and we are happy with our little bees, regards john

[@rab5890]

John that was a great video and easy to follow what your doing 😁

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Glad you enjoyed it, lol

[@keithsteele5580]

John & Lyn love your videos nice to see how you Beekeep in the UK we are just entering our winter lock down in Sydney but I get to follow your honey season now cheers Keith

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Keith, thanks for commenting, the weather in the UK has been so cold, completely different to where you live, I bet you get a large honey crop, I find it interesting how different countries and different people do beekeeping different ways🤓🇬🇧

[@keithsteele5580]

@@johnbeemansaunders6567 john our season begins on October to March, our gum trees flower prolifically, in a good year, from 4 hives, I can harvest, 100 kgs per hive , some yrs even more depending on the Eucalyptus trees, but it is a land of drought ,fires & flooding rains,the bee's face it all out here cheers Keith 😎😷

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@keithsteele5580 well Keith that is a lot of honey , I average about 60 lb of honey a hive in England I have had in the past 120 lb from one hive but that’s rare, as beekeepers it seems we all take great interest in the weather rain et cetera. I guess it’s a time when you are painting hives now then and making frames et cetera , I enjoy messing about with the equipment getting it ready for the next seasons harvest, anyway hope you and your family are all well, keep smiling, regards from john 😊🇬🇧

[@keithsteele5580]

Hi John ,10th May no more harvest of Honey till next October, time to build new hive equipment paint boxes have ordered new queen's, change every 2 yrs. The swarm season starts September, must keep an eye on each box , make sure lots of room, but it's the hardest thing to predict, in the blink of an eye ,thay can swarm, the most important time in a beekeeper's season. I've been keeping bee's for 58 yrs john but come September each year I'm so alert to swarming it's my biggest challenge, November I can relax. Until next time john cheers Keith 😎😷😍🐝

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@keithsteele5580 thanks again for your comment, me to I try so hard not to allow a hive to swarm but mess up the other day i lost my honey bee force to a swarm in one hive, I to like winter were I can paint hives extra, happy beekeeping 🐝 from john .

[@martprice7726]

That's looking good now John As they say job's a good one. Should make some nice big fat Queens.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks for your comment , hope I do get some queens , john 🐝🤓

[@keithwallis3609]

Thank you John great video very helpful for a new starter

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks pleased it helps

[@ArcturanMegadonkey]

Been watching a few of your videos John and they are great, decided to subscribe as I'm getting my first hive in a month and your videos will help me Paul

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Great you are getting a hive , you will really enjoy beekeeping, thanks 😊 from John

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

Brilliant. Thanks so much. Peter

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Nice to hear from you Peter, hope you and your family are well happy beekeeping from john

[@geoffbainbridge7935]

great video much better then reading it from a book , just waiting for some good weather to have a look in my hive . I want to have three hives by the end of the season so your video is a geat help . I am in Cumbria so a bit behind you wit hteh waether . Geoff.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Geoff, there are a lot of hives swarming with this weather where we live down south, three hives is a good amount, Happy beekeeping, john

[@robertheyes3975]

thanks John. for your great work with bees very interesting watching, cheers for sharing this video. :-)

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks Robert, so pleased you liked it, thanks for commenting, John.

[@micla6221]

Great queen cells there I'm going to try your method next time Looks like the logical way without the fuss. Super video I've learned loads. All the best to you and Linda Mike

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Very nice to hear from you Mike, hope you and your family are well, problem is we do lose honey doing it that way I think it’s quite beneficial having a brood break sometimes, john

[@micla6221]

I guess honey production is going to be lower but the benefits out way that I think. Will you use the new queens to re queen your existing colonies or bring the nucs on into full one's?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@micla6221 I have the privilege of mentoring a family that live in a town close to me, So one Nuc will go to them, a friend in the next village only had one hive and lost it in the winter, and one will go to him, one of my lovely subscribers is having a third one coming a long way ,hopefully the hive will be successful with the queen cell and I will leave that to come good again, I do intend to re-queen five of my hives this year hopefully they will be the next batch, all being well in the next three weeks, 🤓👌

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

I had a hive I split 7 times and the crazy bugs swarmed anyway but I caught them. Thanks John!

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Rodney, hope you and your family are all well, yes sometimes there is no stopping them, john

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

@@johnbeemansaunders6567 Thanks for the reply!!

[@Lsmith-ly2cm]

Great video thank you John .

[@avril1228]

Hi John, great to see your videos again. Managed to get all 3 of my hives through winter. They are now booming. Weather not been good here in Scotland during May, been difficult to do inspections. I have a full super of honey on one hive which I think I need to process. As a new beekeeper what do I need to look for to process the honey. Thank you for all your video's, they are my go to's when I need to see what I need to do. Take care. Avril

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Avril, very nice you have three hives, well done, when the honey frame is fully capped it is ready for extraction, but some nectars do crystallise very quickly, like oilseed rape, so often I will extract it before it is fully capped, you can take a sample and test it in a refractometer , for water content , if you do not have a honey extractor you may be able to borrow one from a local Bee society, hope you have a wonderful season with your honeybees, nice to hear from you from john

[@johngriswold]

Is your neighbor quite well? He wasn’t mowing today... Thank you for your informative videos. I am keeping bees vicariously through you.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Yes john, if you are following my channel, really they are your hives as well, I appreciate your comments thanks john

[@roystheboy]

I was just thinking the same

[@HaselorHoney]

Great video and informative, thank you. I have found a bit of tin foil just as good for protecting the cells 👍

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks for the comment, I will try that on my next lot of nucs thanks 🤓👍

[@Algeriafigs]

Good job man 👍

[@citrumpet1]

Wow. Those are nice looking queen cells! I hope the splits are successful. I'm from the States and would like to either build or buy some British national hives. Do you know where I could get plans to build them myself? I like to try different equipment so already made layens hives, standard langstroth, and long langs so far.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Great to hear from you thanks for commenting, I too would like to build a long hive I’m sure I’ll get round to it soon, I buy my hives flatpacks, I think you can get plans online but I’m sorry I can’t really help too much with that as I have never purchased some myself, john 🤓🇬🇧

[@jeremybaker4979]

Nice one hope they are successfull. Following your system from feeding early to gave me 3 more hives from the originals proves that your way works thank you.Awaiting next episode because I am on the same timescale as you so I can compare success or failure. Are you going to try and raise more queens using grafting because I would like to help my mate who has 7 hives die out and I want to help him rebuild, he got me into beekeeping and it seems ufair to suffer such a loss.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks for commenting Jeremy, I find that the exciting part opening the nuc and seeing if the Queen has made it, I also find it sad about your friend losing all his hives it can be quite devastating, I am hoping to raise some queen cells in the next two or three weeks using grafting methods one that I find it easy anyone can do if I can do it that is ,anyone can. I should be putting a video up if it all works out and I have the time to do it.

[@bikashrai6748]

Nice job👍👍👍

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks Bikash, 🤓

[@madeiranmarvel2116]

Great video, Thank you so much... i can't wait to get started. Those queen cells looked massive... they looked like baby corns ?😆 With the sky blue nuke, how long do you think it would be before they could safely be moved considering they were not Queen Layalots offspring?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

The sky blue nuc although came from a different apiary , they had already orientated to their new site, Once the Queen is mated and laying well say two weeks of laying eggs, I then move them or sell them,

[@kennethparkin7652]

Outstanding once again

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks glad you enjoyed watching please me so much john

[@fergalmcdonald]

Hi John. Thanks for taking the time to make the videos. You are a wealth of knowledge, especially to an amateur such as myself. I just wanted to know why you brushed the bees off those frames and didn’t shake them off? Was it to protect the queen cells? Thanks. Fergal.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Very nice to hear from you, I guess we’re all amateurs really I think I’ll learn new things with the bees every time I go there, you’re right the reason I do not shake the frame with queen cells is you can damage the developing queen they are very delicate at 12 days old, 🤓👍

[@paulajones6366]

Thanks for the video ! So informative and you make it look easy to make new queens and nucs. Wasn’t really sure where you had your bees from in the nucs in the first place . Did you just split another hive and leave them to settle down in the nuc? How long did you leave them before you introduced the queen cells? Lots to learn best wishes.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Paula, I did some splits from different hives in a different location theses hives were overflowing with bees so prevented them from thinking about swarming, I then left them for 24 hours then added the queen cells , they do not always come back from mating, flights , so fingers crossed. Happy beekeeping from john

[@paulleighton5025]

great video

[@kevinperree7764]

Hi John, a quick question. If one of the queen’s doesnt make it, what would be the next step? I like your very informative videos and nice relaxed presentation style. Keep up the good work 👍👍

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Kevin, I would just unite one that didn’t make it with the one that did get mated okay with the newspaper method if you know what that is, il probably be doing that we will see , 🐝🤓

[@davidstephens1921]

Hi John love the vids I have a problem with wasps if I put wasp trap by hive with honey in will bees go in to or are they to smart

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi David , I wouldn’t use any honey 🍯 in your wasp traps , good lot of jam small amount of beer or Orange aid , no honey 👍

[@keithwallis3609]

Hi John. I lost my queen in a swarm. I now have 2 hives and a nuc all with a new queen but none appear to be laying. No eggs or capped brood. What advice can you give please

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Sorry for the delay in replying, interesting situation, The weather has been quite good lately, if it is recent that the virgin has left, it can take up to 2 weeks to start laying but normally one week after mating , or did your virgins go out when we had all the rain that could be the problem if it was a couple of weeks ago that is , if you have no eggs to put in any of the hives you need to buy some queens from a my local beekeeper , I am hoping that you just haven’t waited long enough, wish I was close by to help , john

[@luanasaycell6096]

Hi John I need your help! Just done full inspection on my only hive I have from a swarm last year. Couldn’t find the queen. But I’m not great at spotting her as not marked. No eggs seen only capped drone brood. Cannot find queens ready for sale online . What is your advice? 😳🥲

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Sorry to hear your predicament, it’s always very difficult with one hive , first of all, do you know any local beekeepers close to you that would give you a couple of frames of capped brood and eggs that would help, that will give you some time to find a mated queen in the next two weeks, It is easier if you have a drone laying queen , rather than laying worker, so have a second look , if there are eggs halfway down the cell stuck to the side wall sometimes even 3 it is probably a laying worker , if there is a nice round pattern of egg laying At the bottom of the cell , could have a drone laying queen , difficult for me to say without looking. Unfortunately one of the drawbacks of having a swarm come through the winter is the Queen could be old and fails, I wish I was there to help you, I would have qiven you a queen 👸 answer ask help from a local beekeeper , john

[@luanasaycell6096]

@@johnbeemansaunders6567Thank you so much for your advice. I will track down another beekeeper and hopefully save my girls! I so wish I had someone like you close by ! Thanks again for being there in my moment of panic ! Big hugs x🐝🤗 I love your videos I find them really helpful . You are my go to bee man ! Take care x

[@tanacious21]

Have you ever thought of using mating nucs to cultivate your unwanted queen cells? seems such a shame to crush the queen cells your not going to use,i wish we lived nearby otherwise i would come take them off your hands..... Also i didnt see you check the main nuc box for queens cells, do you know for certain there were none there or did you check and just not show the footage? Love watching your videos, im having some trouble with my own colony at the moment as they have made themselves pollen bound in the brood box, any tips you have this sort of thing? i don't want to miss the flow or the chance to split the colony as i would like to grow to 2-3 hives.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Thanks a lot for commenting, I like to keep my videos to about 20 minutes, so I do not show all I film I tried to cut bits out, I showed one where I was looking through to see any new queen cells in the nuc box but didn’t show the rest on film, regarding your Ppollen frames I have had a similar problem my solution was to take the pollen frames out leave them one or two and freeze the rest , later on in the year I use them for nucs 🤓

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Sorry I missed a bit out, I do have some mating nucs mini ones, but I failed to get them ready didn’t realise I had so many Queens cells one of them beekeeping mistakes well spotted and good advice to anyone reading the comment john

[@campdavidsonfunctionaltrai8583]

how did you start the queen cells? was this hive getting ready to swarm and you pulled the queen out?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

You are correct in your assumption, I removed the Queen and four frames I put a video up five days before this one on my channel showing this procedure, there are so many different ways of swarm prevention in my opinion, this is my preferred way although we do lose some honey production, I much prefer the queen cells finished this way , john

[@campdavidsonfunctionaltrai8583]

Yea queen cells on the bottom are the best choice if you can get em. I agree.

[@roystheboy]

That was alot of queen cells I could have done with some

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Come and get some lol 😂

[@frelon.asiatique]

👍🐝