The Weightless Beehive | I cannot seem to get the weight on this hive before winter.

[@vinofarm]

"I don't want these girls to get chilled... It's in the low 60s." That was funny.

[@noahG82]

Miss your videos sir hope all is well!

[@BugFarmerBees]

It was colder earlier :-). As I write this it is 29F. Put out an ASMR video of your snowy world. I know it is cold and miserable but it sure looks pretty and is fun to see.

[@vinofarm]

@@BugFarmerBees Ha ha! We don't start the wood stove until nighttime temps get into the 20sF. We got a dusting last night. Today was the first morning waking up to a (thin) blanket of white snow on the field. That hive looked like it had plenty of food. But I had a similar experience this year. One of my hives would NOT take syrup. They were very light, but after 4 attempts of leaving buckets of syrup, they took nothing and most of their frames were empty. I had to drop in some capped frames from other colonies. I could not figure out what was going on with them.

[@richardhyatt-beekeeping]

@@vinofarm I put a spacer on one weak hive. Put newspaper with tears over the frames. And, 10 pounds of sugar on top. They survived last winter.

[@ericgandy1291]

@@vinofarm You were one of my online mentors when I started beekeeping. I am successful in part thanks to your channel roughly tripling ever year. I hope at some point you come back with your open thought processes, successes and failures. You made me think about what was going on in the hive. I hope you come back to KZbin once the dust settles from the bee barns or whatever has your attention. Your poor abandoned mentee you never knew you had.

[@MissCanadian]

I always enjoyed watching and learning about bee keeping

[@BugFarmerBees]

I always enjoy your snowy videos :-)

[@GrandpaKevyn]

I love the sugar water spray. Give the guard bees a drink to calm them down. Great job.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Just don't add anything that will give it a scent or it will cause a robbing situation.

[@pbest5040]

Your enthusiasm is inspiring. Thanks

[@BugFarmerBees]

Thanks. I am enthusiastic with my bees. They are addictive little buggers.

[@richardhyatt-beekeeping]

I'm starting my 6th season, 2025, myself. This year I've had a lot of hive beetles, used stiffer sheets to not much avail and beetle traps. Got a lot of small hive beetles in the beetle traps. If I get a warm day I hope to clean the traps again and refill them. I'm putting 3 or 4 traps in each one. 47 today in Western North Carolina and expect the same for a while. All that brood is going to emerge soon. Whew, hope they do have enough stores for the winter. Happy Holidays to you and your bees. I thought the shady yard was conducive to beetles but, they were in my sunny apiary this year also.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Give the Beetle Sucker 5000 a shot. Can quickly eliminate all hive beetles. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2mkl3V9Ys2JbpIfeature=shared

[@heavymechanic2]

The fondant is expensive but the bees do well during early buildup because of the sea kelp. I had some late summer beetles and made up some syrup with peppermint oil to drive them out of the hive and later placed traps. Dunno if it worked but did not see the beetles the last time I was in there.

[@richardhyatt-beekeeping]

@ Hope you got them all. Happy New Year, 2025.

[@southeasthomestead6093]

Hive alive fondant is a great winter feed to help get the colony Through

[@BugFarmerBees]

Now that you mention it I think they sent me some. I think it's in the freezer. Thanks

[@emilandrusko8597]

Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving.

[@BugFarmerBees]

I absolutely had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Thank you for thinking of me.

[@ericgandy1291]

I have had at least one every year. Usually I just get one hive up to full storage for the winter and start swapping frames until they are all ready. Usually the hive that juat wont store honey is the same hive that has struggled all season they are usually sick in some way. Ironically they sometimes are the strongest hive in the spring and just excell all season the following year.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Maybe it has something to do with the lineage of the bees. I know Italians go through winter with more bees than other types. Maybe that has to do with how much food they store as well. The good news is after inspection everything looks okay.

[@ericgandy1291]

@BugFarmerBees I'm glad that your bees straightened out. I agree I think genetics play a big part of most problems. It's all the other variables that are difficult to track and remember as the hive counts keep climbing. I'm gonna have to keep better records next year on some things, I have exceeded the number of hives that I can mentally keep up with.

[@GrandpaKevyn]

I found that olive oil moats around the leg stabilizers helps keep those ants away.

[@BugFarmerBees]

I have motes on some of the hives but I use used motor oil. I found when I use the vegetable oil or olive oil the ants eat it then cross the mote.

[@Swarmstead]

Looks like a well-stocked single to me. All the sugar syrup spraying gave me goosebumps. Sure way to start a robbing frenzy. Description says you are a quasi PEPPER.

[@BugFarmerBees]

I used to be a quasi SALT. :-). Thanks, I'll get that typo fixed.

[@Frankiewuebbling]

I could not tell by the video but if the hives are slide forward on the stand rails they can seem lighter than they are because of leverage point is farther back on the bottom board.

[@BugFarmerBees]

That must have been what was happening. I thought I was getting stronger in my old age :-)

[@geraltofrivia8529]

A bit of pollen sub earlier in the year might have helped them increase the quantity of bees. They cant process syrup too late in the year when its too cold for their enzymes to work and it can give them dysentery. Also working syrup can cause diutinus bees to start to eat through their fat reserves.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Damn.... I was just starting to feel good about everything. Now I am worried again. Thanks :-)

[@geraltofrivia8529]

@@BugFarmerBees Plenty of sealed brood on the way. I wouldn't worry too much, bees look after themselves fairly well! ;) Might be worth putting tiny blobs of patty in the gap on the coverboard to see if they want it? Mine are still taking it at below 50 (Slowly). I had heard winter bees fatten up on pollen when they get a chance (Verification needed!) Decent pollen sub will have the amino acids they need to make brood food and royal jelly, whereas whatever pollen they are foraging might be low quality. I know there are two schools of thought regarding insulation/ventilation, were you planning on putting something between the coverboard and roof to stop heat loss and top condensation?

[@heavymechanic2]

A small struggling cluster won't take much syrup and only backfill around their cluster, had the same issue myself on some nuc boxes with 3 empty frames and one with syrup. Feeding sugar brick in a shim to any that don't have the weight, lost a few tiny nucs already. I think the short days is a signal to not expand or store like you see in warm weather. In the past I had small colonies come out of winter with a full box of honey.. Would like to know where you order your boxes from for your new projects. I'm getting a few from premier-1 as quality has been a concern lately with higher prices on materials.

[@BugFarmerBees]

I think I got my last set of boxes from Mann Lake. They are pretty heavy duty and have held up well.

[@heavymechanic2]

@@BugFarmerBees Last year your supers look like Mann Lake handles. Last spring I had a 5-case with all the handles off center like reject grade. When I stack up the supers, bees crawl between the boxes as fitment is not good, use cardboard strips to fill the gap. I had a lot of issues with their boxes. I can say the hive bodies are cheap compared to other suppliers. Nothing from Dadant seems to last or the build quality is poor (the base on a queen castle was firewood but the box was OK). Hillco seems better overall.

[@Hotzrod]

Happy thanksgiving!! Research has actually shown that fat bodied winter bees are not any different looking.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Hmmm.... I would have to see the study because my winter bees always look bigger. There is an opportunity for fun. I'll get out the calipers and measure about 10 winter bees and in the summer we will do it again and compare. I would be interested if when I see bigger bees it's just the Mandela Effect.

[@reneallen6405]

I would love to have a sweat shirt with that logo on it.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Soon, very soon. I have something in the works. I cannot wait to share.

[@kevinogden4363]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[@BugFarmerBees]

Back at ya!

[@zulikkowalski3547]

Slap some Hive Alive fondant on them

[@BugFarmerBees]

I may do that.

[@apveening]

I would have left the buckets on those first two hives as sugar works as anti-freeze, just put some isolation around and on top of the bucket. The heat of the hive below will keep it liquid. As for that last hive/bucket, it probably leaked because it wasn't horizontal, all sugar water collected in one corner and was overflowing there.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Fortunately, I think all of these hives have plenty now. The girls at the farm are doing good too. OH CRAP! I still have some feeder buckets on hives at the farm. It's 29F outside. I may actually have giant ice cubes on top of the hives this morning.

[@apveening]

@BugFarmerBees Unlikely with sugar as antifreeze and above the hives.

[@StefanJerzySiudalski]

jest 15 stopni Celsjusz a one muszą zapewnić przy czerwiu 34,5 C. Przy takim przeglądzie będą potrzebowały dwa dni aby doprowadzić ul do stanu przed przeglądem. Pszczele ZERO to nie st nasze 0 st C tylko około 10 st C. Pełną ocenę sytuacji w ulu uzyskuje się przeglądając tylko trzy ramki, dwie ramki skrajne i jedną środkową. Czas oglądania kontrolnie jednej ramki nie powien przekraczać 30 sekund. Powodzenia...

[@BugFarmerBees]

Dziękuję za informację. Muszę powiedzieć, że nigdy nie słyszałem, aby pszczoła zero była inna niż ludzkie zero. Będę musiał się temu przyjrzeć. Jeśli chodzi o moje czasy inspekcji, cóż.... Gdybym tak szybko sprawdził ule, nie miałbym wystarczająco dużo treści, aby nakręcić film. To powiedziawszy, po otwarciu nowej pasieki na wiosnę nie będę miał wyboru, aby przeprowadzić szybką inspekcję, jeśli mam nadążyć za moim sezonem. Dziękuję za informacje i za poświęcenie czasu na zatrzymanie się i obejrzenie mojego filmu. Naprawdę cię doceniam. Trzymaj się.

[@Everest_Fishing]

That hive is slide forward that's the issue you have with weight feel the folkrom point closer to middle causing feel to be different. If you like weight tests I would suggest making a mark on the hive at same distance on all hives at the folkrom point so heft test is more accurate.

[@BugFarmerBees]

Crap, I was hoping I was getting stronger :-). You are correct.

[@Tanks-In-Space]

👍🏼👍🏼

[@BugFarmerBees]

Hi Taaaaankssss innnnn spaaaaccceeeee. :-)

[@charlesmaurer6214]

So you should call it the Lazybee hive?

[@BugFarmerBees]

Ha!

[@CrzyDogmom]

I love ask me anythings

[@BugFarmerBees]

Send the question to gabugfarmer@gmail

[@davidlaing7684]

Maybe they have lite honey.

[@BugFarmerBees]

They have been getting their nectar from the helium flowers :-)

[@ronaldburleson1099]

They are getting robbed by the stronger hives. I had some singles in the same yard with doubles. I was feeding them all the same amount and they would never gain. I moved them to another yard with hives the same size and they started to gain. Just saying

[@BugFarmerBees]

Thanks Ronald. I think we figured it out. After the inspection I realized the hive was full after all. The issue was the fulcrum point of the hive on the stand. The hive seemed lighter than it was.

[@davezman2295]

Sick. Virus

[@BugFarmerBees]

Say it ain't so Dave.