Beekeeping Disaster - Losing Swarms and Honey

[@parkfarmcottagebeeproducts596]

Thanks for the mention Alex. Really good to chat to you and great that you love our products 🐝❤️ Our wraps are totally reusable and antibacterial giving you the perfect replacement for cling film!

[@dolphins19671]

This is so flipping gripping. I had no idea how hard it is to keep bees . Keep up the good work we’re all really interested in your journey. Regards Simon.

[@john3Lee]

I really appreciate this channel, a return to a more simple life vibe is to be encouraged, for everybody to embrace.... Always a thumbs up from me.... Thanks Alex

[@clairbrett4211]

Absolutely gutting when you've put in so much care, but just think how many bees you've raised and helped to increase their numbers 😀 I know it may not feel like much consolation, but it's a definite win for the litte stripey dudes 🥳 Good luck going forward with them x

[@Piloulegrand]

You can see the bright side, swarming might be annoying for you but it means more bees that will hopefully thrive on their own in the wild ! :)

[@patchthesinclair5896]

Aw! Heck but on the bright side so many people are learning about bee keeping with you. Thank you for sharing your learning curve!

[@paulthompson3304]

All part of the learning process and just another step on the road to success. You'll get there, wherever that may be.

[@croftonhoneyco.6177]

Consider clipping your queens to reduce the risk of losing bees through swarming. They will still swarm, but will usually cluster outside/under the hive as the queen can't fly away. My preference is to put the clipped queen into a nuc box when this happens and let the original hive raise a new queen. It also means your bees won't swarm into next doors chimney and fill their house with bees. Check out Black Mountain Honey on KZbin, he has some good info on this.

[@just_alex]

Thanks for the info. :)

[@jameswelch8275]

That seems a great idea to me

[@freemanbynature]

This is why we stick with the greatest channels on youtube, for the good sense and good information given freely by people in the know! Thank You PR1M8 Love Peace and Respect FreeMan

[@freemanbynature]

@@just_alex This is why we stick with the greatest channels on youtube, for the good sense and good information given freely by people in the know! Love Peace and Respect FreeMan

[@Dannny1067]

I never thought I'd ever sit and be watching bee keeping videos, but I've been really getting into these. keep the good work Alex. Shame about the swarms :(

[@just_alex]

Thanks for watching!

[@Dannny1067]

@@just_alex Alex have you ever thought about growing your own mushrooms and make a series on it?

[@Abeyptfc]

Cracking video Alex, you must have been gutted when you got home and saw the bees had fucked off! You can’t beat turning a hobby into a job, I started homebrewing in 2010 and loved it, eventually 5 years later I managed to get a brewing job in Skye and have loved every minute of it. Hope it works out for you big man and hope to see you in Skye one day!

[@freemanbynature]

Just got a bit further along the video... Write things down at the time, some of the best advice I have been given AND give! Love Peace and Respect FreeMan

[@276tracey]

blimey what a nightmare.... but glad things are looking better now....although things were bad when you saw the hives ,you explained everything that was going on and made a very interesting video... you've probably learned a lot from the experience too... wishing you the best of luck in the recovery of your amazing hives.... looking forward to next vid

[@rickyjessome4359]

Sorry to hear about your bees swarming. Super happy your bees are are starting to do well and produce honey again. It's all a learning experience. Great video just the same! Cheers

[@AMG63]

Hi Alex, I've never looked at bees the same way since you started this channel. Thank you

[@catheyboocat-design7175]

Can’t wait to hear where you went in the USA. I live in Texas❣️❤️🇺🇸 Cheers from Texas❣️

[@CaliforniaRussianRiverBees]

Hello Great show Look at your Bees next time and add another box before it swarms

[@maxinesmyth3183]

Good on you for not giving up on them, I know it is frustrating but it will all come good.

[@lumixkong2305]

I think we can all agree... Bees are cool. Inspirational vids Alex, really enjoy seeing your adventures. LK

[@just_alex]

Glad you like them!

[@spshaw171]

Entertaining video as always. Look forward to seeing the honey 🍯 extraction process when it's time. Thanks 👍

[@steveb7496]

What a shame you lost all that honey! It was going so well. But keep working away! I'm sure your tenacity and resilience will pay off for you. Another great video as always. 🙂

[@manekdubash5022]

So sorry to see the lack of bees and honey :(

[@gonota72]

Imagine how proud you will be when you have your first jar of honey. But sorry for the loss but im sure it will make you more determined to get things going again and to eventually produce some honey!

[@richlandfarms8452]

First video Ive seen of yours. Well done. You have a lot of subscribers for a new beekeeper. A couple of things to consider. Leave two queen cells instead of one. If one swarms it'll be a small cast swarm with a virgin and doubling your chances of having a viable cell is worth it. Get some nucs or two frame equipment and make some splits with the extra cells - two cells per split is what I do. You pretty much guarantee you will have some successfully returning mated queens. If you are not wanting extra hives, pick the best and dispatch the others - combine everything back together again. Cheers from Texas

[@just_alex]

Thanks for all the info. Appreciate your help. :)

[@MelissaM83]

Oh nooooo!!!! I'm sorry Bud!! You'll get the hang of it ,I just know it!! I recently gave a local homesteader my 3 section bee boxes (she's always wanted to try bees!!!) They needed new frames but, she's so excited for this new adventure! I hope you get everything under control with yours Hun!! Keeping you and your 🐝 Bees in my prayers!!

[@swhdesigns2010]

gutting they have gone and you have lost most the honey. hopefully they can still recover this year, everything is a learning journey and hopefully next year will be better,

[@user-nl7vz4wt3t]

I've seen other bee keepers check all hives over, and if a queen isn't present then any spare queen cells are donated to the hive that needs one. I've also seen struggling hives receive a brood comb full of eggs from another stronger hive to help bolster the numbers and brood into one that's not doing well. And in that June dead period of nectar collecting, guys have given their hives the extra helping hand with sugar syrup, just to top things up. Mites are checked periodically too, as they can decimate hives, a clean hive is very important...

[@chrisfifield-smith]

Good luck Alex, I hope it all works out! Whatever happens it's good experience for the future. Roads are never completely smooth.

[@just_alex]

Fingers crossed!

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

Thanks for that, there are quite a few up and downs in beekeeping, but its rather addictive. Enjoyed the video. Peter

[@just_alex]

Thanks Peter! :)

[@BobsBitsOutdoors]

Really sorry about you losing the swarm. I’ve absolutely no clue about bees but it’s really interesting watching your progress and glad to see things are recovering. I planted borage in our garden as green manure last year and we have quite a few self set plants this summer. The bees go absolutely mad for them and I’ve just been playing with my new mic listening to the sound through monitor/headphones.

[@garybuchan759]

Love your video's and new channel, i was slightly amused that you were envious of other bee keepers who had turned their hobbies into a business. Didn't you already have that in a different time as an angler. I'm not having a go, but if you could do it once, very successfully, i'm sure you can do it again

[@MsValmark]

I am not even close to being a beekeeper. From what you said, they may be missing the sugar water during the June gap. I've seen vids where some put sugar water in top for them, especially in the winter. I hope that helps.

[@trevorcornes1056]

Another Good watch Alex ,still very interesting Too . Great shame what’s happened but things will sort themselves out .keep it going 👍

[@LifeinLancashire]

Oh dear Alex so sorry to hear about your bee disaster and losing all your honey 😪. You're not alone in your disaster.........I live in Lancashire and I read that a Lancashire woman was appealing (this was about 10 days ago) to all her neighbours and people in the area to keep a look out for her bees that had swarmed. She couldn't find them and reckons that she'd lost around 20,000 bees......no idea if she did find them. Fingers crossed that you do manage to get some honey this year.

[@tomgucwa7319]

Rent a drone , search with lidar

[@OliverKuiz]

Is the queen from the hive taking charge of the other hive too, hence the eggs?

[@jack00scarecrow]

at least you still have live bees in the boxes, fingers crossed for a late summer flow :)

[@Project_Weaver]

I guess that’s the risk with running a bee enclosure, especially when you are away. Maybe next time you can employ someone to look after them for you? Sounds like something you need to keep an eye on all the time

[@oneeyehives]

Destroying the other queen cells is not a smart thing to do. While they could have cast off swarms that isn’t generally what will happen. The bees pick multiple cells because there could be an issue. The first queen to emerge is generally the best egg that the hive selected so by destroying all them you may be killing off the best potential queen. When she emerges she will go around and kill the other queens in their cells.

[@gordonmculloch4904]

One consultation is that you are contributing to the reproduction of bees which is much needed considering all the pesticides used today. 👍

[@jacksg1809]

At least u still have bees and didn't die that would have been more upsetting ...sure it will work out well in the end Alex . Thanks for talking and showing us the whole process warts and all ...very interesting

[@ASMRkiddo]

I'm working my way through your bee keeping vids thanks Alex. If there is no queen in the hive, who is laying the egg in the Queen cells?

[@violetgrantsoapery]

love watching your videos mate - I have also just completed a bee keeping booklet to record hive checks etc.

[@bellasam5888]

so if you want to keep your nectar supplies up during June bro plant a few rose bushes they stay in flower and look lush :)

[@El-Tel63-Terry.]

Onwards and upwards Alex, all the best.

[@BJHolloway1]

You need a fellow bee-keeper to look in while you are away

[@lonewulf0328]

I'm surprised you destroyed the queen cells. There's good money in raising and selling queens in their capped cells. I know you aren't doing this large scale, but generally we would take the extra queen cells, graft them onto a frame, put that frame into a nuc with a frame of brood (and lots of bees) and a frame of honey and bam, new hive. But keeping up with splits is time consuming and requires enough supplies to handle all the splits. We were lucky that we had a local group that was always looking for more hives, so selling a nuc with a new queen was pretty easy. Actually made more money selling bees than we did selling honey some seasons.

[@johnnycruiser2846]

Super in latin means "over" or "upon". So the honey boxes being placed upon the brood deserve this name. There are many similar cases, like a tank with a superstructure housing the cannon placed on top of its chassis.

[@simplysim0n]

Hi Alex your colonies are now weakened have you thought of combining them to make one strong colony. All the best 👍

[@just_alex]

Yes I could do. Although I wanted 2 colony’s going into winter so I have 2 queens incase anything goes wrong.

[@andreasrademacher5715]

It's very rare, that I don't understand something as a non-native speaker. But this time I needed to look up and the video really help, when you said "Blackberries". Because I wondered "What the heck kind of plant is "Blood Bruise?"

[@cheryl.539]

Could you have swapped a bee honey board with a queen cocoon on and placed it in the hive without a queen or doesn't it work like that?

[@clivehewitt9254]

Sorry to ear of the Bee disaster Alex, I’m pretty sure you will learn and gain experience from it. It’s so fascinating your hobby, hold tight you will be in the business before you know it. Good luck! How’s the van build coming on ? another fascinating subject of yours Alex, keep them coming fella Best wishes to you 😉👍

[@just_alex]

Cheers Clive. Vans coming on nicely. Got a new video about that coming next Friday! :)

[@dale918]

All a big learning curve

[@robertgoddard565]

Check them every week, or at least two weeks if you have a clipped queen.

[@philipwray8722]

Hopefully everything works out fine mate 👍🐝🍯

[@jonathanphillips3257]

Ha ha the trials and tribulations of bee keeping, they are both fascinating and at the same time sone what frustrating. What I do know from personal experience is though really you should be keeping a weekly if not twice weekly check on them as a lot can happen. Keep an eye out for wasps too in the coming months and give the bees some where to be able to get water close by the hives 😉

[@MacTX]

clover honey is pretty common in the US too.

[@SpanielshuntingtrialingNZ]

Hmmm, the mysterious life of bees. The good news is you have one fully functioning hive and you can put in a frame of eggs from it into the queen less hive if the it doesn't manage to produce its own queen. I am not sure of the wisdom of destroying all the queen cells except the one, it is very easy for that virgin queen that hatches not making it back to the hive when going out to mate. I would of set up a Nuc with three or four frames with at least one of those spare queen cells. Good luck, I enjoy all of your video's.

[@just_alex]

Thanks for the tips. :)

[@RyanThomas94]

Brilliant video! Is there proper bee gloves you can get, the latex gloves would give me anxiety with that many bees around 🤣

[@dt1607]

Got my fingers crossed for you 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@mobydyson9580]

Don’t be disappointed. They actually have something to get by on during the gap. Had you harvested honey earlier they would have starved.

[@ragnorremix8426]

People that moan about you not being a fishing channel are missing the point, I'm not into bee keeping but I watch because I like you, doesn't matter what the content is, people are investing in you cos youve got that KZbin Midas touch

[@1dowsey]

How much does it actually cost to start off for a newbie with new stuff. I’m so so tempted

[@Louisjp1875]

I have not seen any bees in my garden this year. Could it be to do with the weather? Its alot of colder than normal for june/july and cloudy everyday im thinking this might be why we arent seeing any. Also my tomatos are not ripening

[@ghostsy]

Great bee keeping vid as always very interesting ty Alex :)

[@cjtight-linesn.t2604]

Easy Alex. Just a idea. One of my friends keeps birds and on his breeding pair he has clipped their wings so they cant fly away . Can you not do something like this to the queen to stop her going on a adventure so to speak. Just a idea. I cant wait to buy some of that honey that's four sure. Big ups bro one love Cee-Jay 👊🐝🐝🐝

[@RabM1990]

how can the Queen escape, does the excluder not prevent her from leaving?

[@just_alex]

The excluder stops her from getting into the honey supers but not from getting out of the hive.

[@RabM1990]

@@just_alex does she ever leave? Can you put an excluder ok the exit?

[@PojkenMedKepsen]

Hi Alex! Can I give you some advice? I would look into giving them another brood box per hive next year when the time is right. Here in Sweden it's very common to at least have two when the bees are strong and in full swing, and we have an even shorter season than you guys. More space: less risk of swarming and more bees: more honey in the end. (The same goes for the super boxes. If they were caped and full when you left, they probably needed more empty frames to work on.) Good luck!

[@just_alex]

Thanks for the info Niklas, I'll maybe try that next season. :)

[@moderndaybumliving]

Why would they swarm if there’s more than 1 queen?

[@nigelwadey4364]

Really sorry regarding yr bee's swarming But you only have yr self to blame Have a plan in place if Yr going to travel far away Pls stay safe I love yr channel Cheers Nigel

[@deustezza323]

chin up bud brilliant vid as always hope the vans coming along too 👍

[@just_alex]

Thanks, new van conversion video coming next week. :)

[@TonyUK_PC]

What if the single queen cell you have DOESNT hatch?

[@brettsfishingdiaries]

I know nothing about bee keeping but I know you bought a queen.. ins6ead of destroying the excess queens cells to keep one, can you not hatch them separately and sell them Alex?

[@davehyooz4764]

Hey Alex, Hopefully not a stupid question, if there is no Queen so no eggs are being laid how exactly do the male bee’s make the new Queen? Where does she come from :-/

[@denisbilkey4033]

I always clip the queen if you want honey, you either make bees or honey but not both. secondly are you on national hives if so their brood box is way to small, need another brood chamber or half atleast. I went to commercials and dadents in the end. 3rdly consider buying in good queen's from good suppliers, they don't swarm as much under normal conditions, problem is with caught swarms is they could have a tendency to swarm all the time no matter what you do, or be aggressive and so on. hope this helps, have fun

[@just_alex]

Thanks for all your info Denis. Appreciate it.

[@richm9444]

Not looked at all the comments but if you wanted another hive you could of split the hive with one of the sealed cells. Looks good, other than the loses obvs.

[@rainesonne1320]

Do not clip the Queen, it’s cruel! If your going to be gone for days or weeks at a time, you can leave bee food out for them! They won’t swarm again because they are hungry! You can also put another box out for them to move into!

[@jamesatkinsfishing]

DOH!!!!!!!!!, Hope it all turns out ok Alex 👍

[@just_alex]

I hope so too.

[@DamienBaka]

Wait, you went to the US? Any upcoming video about that trip? For the bees, I’m sure they’ll recover soon as long as you’re around to take care of them. :)

[@4etznabify]

Perhaps the new Queen from box one met her demise on her mating flight. Just keep it going brother, it's nature's way!

[@just_alex]

Yeah possibly. Thanks for watching. :)

[@johnaskins499]

That's bad but I suppose it's part of the learning experience. At least you know to watch out for so you can salvage the bees next time

[@patrickdaniels6829]

Isn't there a silver lining here, all those queens that hatched and left.... wont they start new wild colonies? Not great for honey production but still good news.... its not like there's too many of them. If that is the case then we should applaude your efforts for increasing the wild bee population.

[@davidcsaidoff]

Isn’t it that the first queen to emerge will go to the other still developing Queens in other Queen cells and kill them with her stinger - the assumption that we need to intervene by removing Queen cells to avoid swarming has a natural solution. We are the first emerging Queens dispatches all her competitors. -?

[@southernkiwi8720]

all will be well, so bee it

[@charlesyeo8252]

You are doing well but I wouldn’t leave them with just one queen cell two or three is better in case the queen is lost when mating. Bee swarms have been very tricky this year with requeening almost straight away after they have swarmed. Low hives numbers are the most difficult to manage because you can’t multiply up to cover losses ie you could have taken the hive with all those queen cells and put them into two or three nuc boxes and doubled your chances of a making a new mated queen.

[@fireblaster9961]

“ honey house “ like the sound of that

[@freemanbynature]

This is a bit tongue in cheek and meant to be funny, but that is what you get for driving to Italy to make a pizza with your new pizza oven... Which is ENTIRELY something I would DO MAN! :) Love Peace and Respect FreeMan

[@just_alex]

😂 true!

[@freemanbynature]

@@just_alex We live and learn.. Good Luck Alex

[@muhammadharuniqbal1669]

what kind of bee is that?

[@Mikey-cz1pt]

Keep on moving forward love this s**t from Birmingham all the way to you

[@craigchapman4774]

Loving these Alex really interesting

[@ybt8128]

I’m quite confused to as how your old queen managed to leave? Don’t you have a guard in place that only allows the worker bees to leave due to the holes being big enough to leave but small enough for the queen not able to leave🤔 if that makes sense😂

[@just_alex]

This ‘queen excluder’ only stops the queen from going in to honey supers and doesn’t restrict the queen from leaving through the entrance.

[@ybt8128]

@@just_alex Oh I see. Now it all makes sense. Is there not something you can invest in to stop the queen from leaving? Or do they need to leave for specific reasons? Suppose it would be pretty cruel to restrict the queen from flying free🥲

[@esoxisaac4870]

Planting some wild flowers in your garden could help

[@TomWalshHud]

What does smoking them do?

[@just_alex]

From my observations it makes them move down into the hive away from the top so you can avoid squashing bees when you put frames together or boxes on top. People also say it chills them out. :)

[@scotttyldesley4541]

YOU NEED TO ORDER A NEW QUEEN ASAP

[@stephenlonsdale1103]

Just viewed my first of your videos and found it interesting, I like you bee suit veil can you tell me who is the supplier?

[@just_alex]

I got it from Payne’s bee farm in south England. :)

[@MrLeesv650]

Hope all the bees do well 4 u mate

[@marialorenavillanueva5342]

oh thats so sad to know.....

[@paulheneke695]

My brother is getting 2 hives shortly. He has no clue how much work he is about to let himself in for!!

[@geoffdaley9807]

Awww maaaaate! Gutted for ya!

[@zeez9053]

The bees won this time !

[@clivenewton7609]

Alex, Sorry about your initial disaster ☹️ but couldn’t you just buy a new queen (£30-50) ? And maybe your local group could set up a sort of rescue team to help out if a keeper isn’t able to, just a thought. ATB from deepest Dorset 👍

[@just_alex]

Yeah I need to get to know the beekeepers in my area. :)

[@turtlejones9279]

Super content, very interesting