Building a Bee Business Vlog #52

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Building bees is easier than building the facility to manage them. If the facility is there, build away!! Love the vids! I enjoy them as I put my feet up on break

[@researcherAmateur]

Me too. He's not afraid of some hard work. I really like this channel.. and the videos are long enough. It's nice to see him grow into a real beekeeping business

[@noahG82]

My Sunday mornings are spent watching Bob, Nathan, and sometimes Ian if there is a video out!

[@jbnnm657]

I was very lucky to buy a house with two pre built and power installed 20x40 two story foundation garages. Helped reduce cost immensely.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Ian the problem here with June/July splits is hive beetles and dearth. They just don’t want to grow.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Ag I see. I think I know the answer to your question

[@glennsnaturalhoney4571]

If the nectar was available they'd be making honey.....our story in NE Indiana also. No rain for a month, clover dried up and the basswood didn't produce. Quick storm today hopefully a little rain.

[@michaela6532]

My youngest loves to help with the bees. Frequently that means he has the smoker, smokes me, and runs around saying “I’m a train, I’m a train.” He also frequently tries to pick up a bee with gloves on, leading to predictable results. Good times.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Great stuff, thanks!

[@marywickenheiser2628]

Great work, Reed and Parker! Hope they enjoy beekeeping and continue to learn by doing.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

👍

[@brianbennett4374]

Thanks for sharing with us I look forward to seeing them ever week. 😊

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks Brian!

[@nancynolton6079]

Go for good, strong and healthy nucs! I'll be taking what I've been blessed with and grateful for every drop of honey received and still have enough for the bees. Slim pickings this year for sure. Weather still not cooperating hot, hot, hot and no rain in sight and more of the same in the extended forecast. Suspect the dearth will arrive early and stay long which doesn't bode well for the fall flow to supplement winter food stores. Sugar will be filling the shopping cart at this rate! Praying for rains - very thankful to have gotten a mite treatment in before all this heat arrived. Only lost one queen in 18 hives and she left behind 6 frames with beautiful capped queen cells so used those to repopulate 3-frame mating nucs that queens were just sold out of. Is what it is. Glad you have some helpers there in Reed and Parker!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks Nancy, always great to hear from you. I’ll have to jump on mites and honey pull asap.

[@russellkoopman3004]

You are sure getting a lot of drawn comb this year. I don't want to see your sugar bill but it will be worth it in the future. I suppose you are on the honey pull now. Hope it is going well. We lost the last two weeks of flow with rain. Hives went backwards. Got 4 days without rain so maybe they will get busy.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Russell I’m waiting till after the 4th to pull honey. Shining sumac still needs to bloom, and we have a family beach trip scheduled.

[@seanrichardson881]

I had to move a 40 ft shipping container with an old 65 horse tractor two wheel drive. Had to get a scoop of gravel to keep the front down and still move the container in a wheelie using the brakes to stear. It worked

[@DuckRiverHoney]

We used to move hay like that with an old JD 1020.

[@deannaclayton6934]

Your son seems to love bees so it appears you may have a helper in your honey business as the years move on! 💕 June 4th is my son’s bday. He turned 49 this year. I gave him a mug that says Turning 50 is exercise enough!!😂 Thank you for sharing another interesting and informative video. I do love honey 🍯 and enjoy watching the process.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@dcsblessedbees]

It's going to be a nice set up when you get it all set. 👍 🤨What are you going to do with all your extra time when you get it all built.😂Blessed Days Nathan...👋 I have wondered that myself, after the main projects are done what's next. I need a Honey house😏I guess maybe that's next for me.😮‍💨

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Hopefully by the time I get this setup finished it’ll be time for a real building at a commercial location.

[@haroldmarsh5156]

Good VID lots of info

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@robertstwalley3662]

At 14:30 or so, the doner frame has many of the open cells appearing to be back filled with nectar, I am seeing this very intensely here today. Worried they are going to plug out the brood box. I am out of drawn comb already, 30 colonies going, considering putting a box of foundation at the bottom of the brood boxes, giving them room to grow the brood area, hopefully preventing the swarming urges, and I will just let them cap the top brood box and harvest the honey. I run 8 frame medium everything so I could start moving frames around but I am out of drawn comb, so that gets tricky. Have you ever put foundation under the brood boxes to prevent swarming when they are plugging out?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

No, they probably won’t draw it if you place it underneath. It’s after the solstice now, so the swarming impulse will drop way off for me.

[@robertstwalley3662]

@@DuckRiverHoney thanks for the info, will your bees still draw comb in a July super?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Somewhat but after June it gets a lot harder.

[@researcherAmateur]

It never ends with beekeeping. I don't know about one that would say he doesn't need more space... and throwing stuff away is difficult too. It always ends with l may need that

[@DuckRiverHoney]

😃

[@philipmontgomery5626]

What does bandwidth mean? I have eight hives this year. First year. I love the business aspect of your videos.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

In that case, the amount of my available time, labor, and energy.

[@TheFamilyFarmHomestead]

My best results for getting the foundation drawn out is bucket feeders and 1 part sugar to 1.5 parts water.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

You have better luck with buckets vs frame feeders?

[@TheFamilyFarmHomestead]

@@DuckRiverHoney YES. i have used both frame feeders and top feeders and when it comes to getting them to draw foundation I have the best result with bucket feeders. For putting on weight for winter I find the top feeders to be better, although I am using bucket feeders for that to now days.

[@TheFamilyFarmHomestead]

@@DuckRiverHoney I thought about it aftter I posted my reply and figured I should add I do not use the five gallon open feeder type of bucket feeders. I use 1 and 2 gallon buckets with tint plugs with 1/16 inch holes in them I use 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 holes in the tint plugs the stronger the hive the larger number of holes I use.

[@carpenterandhisbees]

Ok, show me your spare stash of blocks. I can imagine a pallet or two of them. Explane why that is the most efficient hive stand.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

They don’t rot, termites and carpenter bees don’t eat them. $4 per hive stand. Not for migratory operations.

[@carpenterandhisbees]

It does seem to be the logical solution for your operation. But that is a lot of blocks to have to haul around.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Haul them once, then a trouble free yard for 30+ years.

[@3Beehivesto300]

Are you a fan of the boxes with the cleats on them or you prefer the handholds?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Handholds by far

[@dcsblessedbees]

🤨Watch out for them Black helicopters at night Nathan.😂

[@douglasbarber6547]

Would they want to backfill the brood box using a in hive feeder

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Depends on the season, queen age, etc. I don’t think they’d be any more inclined to do that with an in hive feeder vs a bucket.

[@illumi-Nate]

How many colonies do u have now?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Good question. Probably 230-240.

[@MieleLocale]

Hello. I have a particular question that was born out of my curiosity. As I am also trying to build a bee business, I would like to know how you finance building your bee business? - Personal savings, bank loan, government subsidy, just from selling produce or otherwise? Respect for what you are doing, I hope I can make it someday.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

First several years I used excess cash from my day job, then savings and cash flow from the business. Now I have an operating line and use cash flow from the business.

[@MieleLocale]

@@DuckRiverHoney thanks for the reply. I assumed it was. I started out this way too, only now on a smaller scale than you. Good luck!

[@KajunHomestead]

👍👍👍

[@mocarp1]

What are your migratory covers made of?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

PVC

[@mocarp1]

@@DuckRiverHoney Did you talk about these in a video? If you did, I missed it (or dont remember) but I am a few videos behind. If you havent, how you like them & where did you source them?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Midway Bee Supply, an Amish maker. I like them.

[@costacheliviumarian2516]

When i find leyng workeri just put them over a nuc or hive and put the queen in a cagefor 3 to 4 days , bees have to have acces to her but the qeen have tu stai inside in this small space the bees can not kiil her but they can rub themselves and spred the pferomones all over the hive combined with egss and open brood the worker hum lay wil stop in this 3 to 4 days ,all the best from romania

[@DuckRiverHoney]

That’s a good method!

[@robertlewis3336]

Ya know, I love my beekeeping hobby. I'm glad you and others are doing the commercial thing, but for me that would ruin a good hobby. It would turn it into hard work. More power to ya.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks 😆

[@timothyrawson920]

What state are you in??

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Tennessee.

[@glennsnaturalhoney4571]

​. Great baseball game last night. I thought they were going to blow it in the 9th.