Fall Hive Prep - ROBBING and MITES - (PART 1)

I had high hopes and grand plans for Fall Beekeeping Prep, but this day turned out to be awful. My normally gentle bees were more aggressive and hangry than I've ever seen them. I was removing supers and inadvertently triggered a robbing event that became pretty dire. The MAPLE HIVE came under attack in a thick cloud of raging bees and the only thing I could think to do was grab the hose and spray them away! I did not have the camera going at the time and you'll just have to imagine what that must have looked like. Wrapping the entrance with a piece of burlap blocked the attack and after an hour, things calmed down. I finished the day pretty defeated, but stay tuned for part TWO... things were a lot better the next day!
00:00 - Welcome, Friends
00:33 - FALL BEEKEEPING PREP Goals
01:12 - BroodMinder Sensors - Wild Swings on Cold Nights
02:31 - PINE HIVE Inspection - Robbing Begins
06:27 - MAPLE HIVE Inspection
10:18 - MAPLE HIVE Mite Test Results
10:59 - CHERRY HIVE Inspection
12:45 - CHERRY HIVE Mite Test Results
13:01 - Robbing That Ended My Day
15:32 - Horrible Re-Enactment
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[@zeideerskine3462]

Since they were heavily sharing/robbing they will also have heavily shared mites. Please keep that in mind.

[@vinofarm]

Of course. Everyone is being treated.

[@njorgan]

Favorite notification to receive. New Vino video 🙏🏻

[@sarahfischer9555]

Haha, loved the thumbnail clip at the end. Sorry about all the robbing that took place :/

[@LarryLeesBees]

Great to see you’re doing well Jim. Love the hive design. Looking forward to seeing how they do this winter.

[@vinofarm]

I'm looking forward to winter! Prep is going to be a breeze!

[@carlosestrada4138]

First, get a refractometer. Uncapped doesn't always mean wet. Second, don't open feed wet honey frames leave them in or dry/spin them. Third, always harvest honey when a dearth starts. Bees will always do better during a summer dearth eating thin sucrose and pollen patties over honey stores. And sugar is cheaper than honey. Fourth, that mite load is crazy and they are forsure giving your other bees major mite loads aswell. You need an aggressive game plan like, yesterday. Ox vapor isn't aggressive enough with that high of a mite load and capped brood being present.

[@abigailjacob4043]

I'm so surprised that in the same yard, you had such variance in mite issues. Maple had 23 mites in a sample and Cherry had 1, that's so interesting. It's also interesting that Cherry is your Balboa line, the super survivor line. It does make me wonder - do you happen to have highly hygenic bees in the Balboa line that gives them a bit of an edge over the ever problematic varroa?

[@curtferguson1421]

You're absolutely correct. In your climate I wouldn't harvest any honey until you're getting ready to compress and winterize the hives. With such fluctuations they could easily need the resources to stay there until then for occasional dearths.

[@chanceglantz2740]

The robbing cloud reminded me of shark and piranha feeding frenzy videos. It looked pretty intense.

[@PiperViper]

I love this guy. You are by far the most entertaining content creator for the backyard beekeeper. Please, dismiss all these comments from commercial beekeepers. They are just ignorant to the fact that experience alone does not make you a good content creator. The only way they can rationalize their failure on this platform is to attack your success.

[@sylvanfireswan]

I 1000% agree. I was having a conversation with a local beekeeper whose a mentor in the community about my plans to eventually migrate all of my 12 strong 10 frame colonies that come from one hive 12 years ago (just like Baboa) into Jim’s bee barns. “How are you going to get enough honey to pay for those?” I responded, not in it for the honey. I simply echoed Jim’s question “what do the bees want?” The commercially-trained mentor had a look of massive cognitive dissonance. He’ll eventually see that the work of reverse-engineering the video, creating plans, cut list and instructions (so carpenters can help build these for more bees and beekeepers) was all worth it with happily buzzing spring bees. That’s my return on investment.

[@beewize9982]

That’s crazy how that ha happens let’s hope next year it’s better season for fall honey good luck my friend and loving your new bee yard can’t wait for the spring to see how they did

[@BlanchardsBees]

Enjoyed how you showed the graph of the inside temps. Hope you will be showing updates of the future temps. Bees started taking back out of my supers as well and have been getting super grumpy with me when I feed any back. Another great video my friend!

[@vinofarm]

I will be making a full video just on the temp readings and sensors. I just wanted to get through a season and have all the data. Stay tuned.

[@BlanchardsBees]

@@vinofarm Awesome!

[@RePetesBees]

@@vinofarm Awesome! Can't wait! Also very curious to see how the temps hold up in you're new insulated hives this winter! Been thinkin of doing something similar but I will wait on your results! :)

[@jessmontgomery3454]

Anarchy in the bee yard 😬 seems bee keeping at times is a game of keeping the bees from murdering there neighbours. Good job with the quick thinking and can't wait for the better day video.

[@Swarmstead]

You spoke about the dearth in the past tense. With that kind of robbing, it isn't over.

[@vinofarm]

Yes, but there was one before is what I was saying. It’s like the Mitch Hedberg joke, “I used to do drugs…. I still do, but I used to too.”

[@sandydee8003]

I’m sad to see the unexpected happen. I Love your approach to beekeeping and always want you to have great success! Tomorrow will be better.👍

[@vinofarm]

Thank you!

[@jaynemar1]

That was CRAZY!

[@Ksweetpea]

Dearth over here in Oregon, too. My bee mentor says the supers are full of very dark honey, but we pulled the supers and started feeding them weeks earlier than average. Also treating for mites.

[@amylarson3958]

I get both light and dark honey - interesting - I have fans of both flavors

[@khills]

My bee-loving cat Lexi was SO EXCITED to hear your voice. 😂 (I'll throw a photo up on Instagram.)

[@donbearden1953]

Jim, from the robbing that you filmed it looks like the dearth jumped from August into September. Sorry for the robbing, I certainly hope that the Maple hive is ok and all of the others! I hope that you send all the mites to the graveyard!

[@vinofarm]

Maple is my largest population hive. They are fine, but the mite load is very high. Dealing with that now. Stores are pretty strong down in the brood boxes, but the supers are all light. The robbing is pretty normal September panic mode activity, but this event was bad!

[@FioreCiliegia]

Might want to consider planting some orange milkweed bushes nearby? They are no good for raising monarchs but are still flowering into fall and are just a nectar bonanza. We don’t have bee keepers near us as I’m too close to the city but every day its covered in honeybees and sweat bees

[@amylarson3958]

I'm in southern Illinois - I've had consistent robbing - this last week was a horror story - ended up having to cover, spray...the robbers went from hive to hive - it was beyond belief i hear you.

[@ronbaba6258]

Stop outside feeding

[@curtferguson1421]

I've now watched every video you have on KZbin. You've a decent mind and are doing good things. Thing to remember, beekeepers are like everyone else, every single one has an opinion. :)

[@vinofarm]

Thank you.

[@kennith.]

Oh man sorry you got mites... good thing u caught it.

[@tomasjosefvela1]

I really like the stone wall in the background at the beginning of the video, what kind of trees are those? EDIT: and now that I've watched the whole video WOW that was amazing, in all the years I've watched bee videos I've never seen someone take such great control of a robbing situation like that. Thanks for sharing, cant wait for part 2!

[@deanclarke392]

Glad your back is better. Treat ALL your hives Jim. With the amount of robbing your experiencing transfer is high risk. I'd also recommend removing all your supers and heavily feeding. It's quite late in your season to still have the majority of your supers on. The Hive that is superseding I'd personally combine it with a queen right hive this time of year and split early spring. I really hope you don't experience the same losses coming out of winter. Nice to see a video at last. It's been a difficult season in the UK so your not alone. All the best buddy.

[@vinofarm]

This was shot a week ago. Supers are off now. I'm not feeding because the brood boxes are already backfilled with nectar. The queens are still laying and I don't want them to get honeybound. I'm watching closely and will be offering syrup soon. All hives will be treated, of course.

[@keirallen81]

That looks like a fun day. Mite numbers will vary within the hive. They are waiting for somewhere to dive into. If you take bees from an area with new larvae you will get fever mites, from an area where they are about to seal them in you will get more mites. For the honey get a refractometer like others have suggested. Also if you feel like doing things the hard way you can spin frames before uncapping and collect that and then spin them a second time once you have uncapped. The first spinning is bakers honey and good for cooking or mead or freezing, the rest is proper honey. It is like whisky I think, often the honey with just that bit more water has more flavour. Never tried adding a dash of water to normal honey.

[@vinofarm]

I have a refractometer and most of the uncapped stuff was nowhere near honey… just dripping out. Some of it was close and I have that dehumidifying now.

[@fenkellmoney8034]

Awe one bee got crushed on the side when you put it back together 😂🥺🙏🏾

[@Aldrahill]

I’m also getting a ton of frames that aren’t capped! Actually tested a lot with refractometers and they are actually fine to harvest despite no cappings! Gonna use this harvest to just brew with regardless, but still weird stuff over here in the UK.

[@vinofarm]

A lot of mine were nowhere near ready. Some were close. Refractometers are handy.

[@hightde13]

Wow, those new bee homes you made weathered so fast. I thought it would be a year or two before they started to grey out. Crazy.

[@vinofarm]

Cedar. It happens.

[@Ksweetpea]

They fit right in to a bee yard of.... which season are we in? 6? Seasons

[@BrooklandsHoneyBees]

Hope all is well man awsome video as always, maybe worth getting a refractometer, if you have partially capped frames test the moisture content and if it's low enough take the frame to extract :) have a great day :D

[@vinofarm]

I have one. Did some tests. It was nowhere near ready on most of the frames. I have a few that are around 20% and I'll try dehumidifying them.

[@kingragnar423]

I had very similar results here in Michigan. Bunch of half capped. Lots of brewed. And I also had similar issues where hives became light during a minor drought. Nothing to really harvest. I think it’s one of those ebb and flow years where 2022 will be strong if you can bring your 2021 honey into that year. One thing for you is, you had to rebuild a lot of comb. That takes a lot of honey to make comb.

[@zuban222]

Hello Jim, I use similar temperature monitoring (LoRa radio, using AAA battery) in similar climate and what happens during last week is normal and I see that too. It just mean that the brood nest is no longer touching the temperature sensor, it just moved to different frame, or below. Nothing to be worried about. I look into my data, last winter, in February we had temperatures as low as -18°C at night for a week. During these super cold nights the hive temperature showed 3°C at night and 8°C at day. Two weeks later, there were two days with peak temperature +15°C and the internal temperature shoots to +30°C and +18°C during night = the queen starts laying, but the brood nest is not exactly touching the temperature sensor. We had some snow until mid April, but the Spring for the bees began during these two days. Enjoy your monitoring during winter! And also... get some scale. I belive that not all your hives are being robbed, it least one seems to be the robber. You can see that on the scale very easily. Last year, suddenly, I saw +5kg during one day at two of my hives, none was losing weight. So I called my neighbor.

[@bobcearns5220]

Have you tried setting the supers that you are hoping to empty to the side so that the whole yard has access? Still get a lot of activity but they won't overflow into the winter frames.

[@annkrupa2349]

I started using the damp pillow cases over any and all open boxes during inspections and that helped against the frenzy considerably. I also have been trapping wasp and yellow jackets as they have been really bad here. It's so hard when they are robbing.

[@vinofarm]

Yup... keep the supers covered with blankets or similar draped over the tops. The bees can sometimes sneak under lids!

[@pino_de_vogel]

Total free for all.

[@susanpatrick6270]

Wow!!

[@sherryortiz6791]

I started covering each box as I take it off the hive. I have 5 to 7 medium boxes for brood and food so each box getting covered helps alot dealing with a smaller amount of bees at a time and keeping robbing to a minimum. This year I've been using election signs to cover them. Yes I've had to use the water sprayer and cover all the hives but only once in July. I started putting sweet water 5:1 in a tote in my front yard an hour before I inspected hives in the back yard. That finally solved the robbing every day problem. I did 1 hive a day early morning during the extreme heat of the summer.

[@vinofarm]

I quickly stack any supers as I take them off and make sure they're totally covered during inspections. Especially this time of year. September is always kind of nuts.

[@damianohare6060]

Looking forward to this although i'm sure it wasn't fun

[@universaluniverse8780]

Hey Vino Farms!! I’ve been watching your videos for a very long time. You’re inspiring me to look into beekeeping myself!! I just wanted to post to say I enjoy your updates and also like to ask if you’ve considered growing salvia plants in your nectar garden you were working on (the wild flower yard you were deer proofing awhile back) I hear Salvia is hearty, blooms into late fall and is actually a prized honey type. Again, I’m an absolute noob or so you can disregard this if I’m just talking out my ass here. 🤣

[@aRedstepchild]

Robbing /YJackets is EASY fix. Staple window screen to hive entrance. Create a vertical gap tunnel about 2-3 bees big that goes several inches up. Mean bees get super calm because they aren't wasting time defending hive /no alarm pheromone. A 3 frames weak nuc couldn't be overwhelmed by a huge swarm. Why? The tunnel. Bees simply create a traffic jam. No dead bees from fighting. If you need more entrance due to a flow or orientation, you simply create more tunnel gaps. If you make the tunnel too wide, you lesson the defense strategy of tunnel/bee block. The drones figure it out. Robbers are in too much of a hurry. On cooler days, yellow jackets cant fly in and disrupt the cluster. Bees are safe inside. I put an excluder outside the tunnel, so i can remove it on warm days. I only use an excluder for draft protection. Eventually the bees propolis the window screen entrance as needed, so I'm not effecting that when i pop the excluder off for warm day ventilation.

[@kingragnar423]

That mustache is sweet bro

[@doctortcbkk2027]

Robbing happened to one of my weaker hives about 3 weeks ago here in Atlanta. I should’ve noticed the signs….crazy cloud of bees where they normally are not. Killed the colony.

[@cbbees1468]

Ever since I've become a beekeeper, sometimes I have a nightmare of being a bee with a Varroa Mite chasing me around the hive, a giant human eating Varroa Mite, or inspecting my colonies to find an alarming number of mites in a wash.

[@vinofarm]

Look up videos of mites literally leaping onto the backs of bees. They don't really chase. They are jumpers. Amazing little parasites!

[@cbbees1468]

@@vinofarm I've seen these, it's absolute nightmare fuel!

[@drrota]

@@vinofarm If the varroa mite was scaled up to human dimensions, it would be like having a yamaka-sized parasite on your back - yikes.

[@rstlr01]

Our dearth started in the beginning of July, I fed about 300 lbs of Sugar the for eleven hives over the last 3 months just to keep them brooding. I set up 5 gallon bucket feeders couple hundred yards away from My hive locations. Keeps the robbers including yellow jackets away from my yard.

[@billchriswell2925]

Yikes! We’ve had a decent season here in the Western Catskills… big fall harvest 3 days ago and mite treatments … a week of Aster and Goldenrod left and then feeding time.

[@vinofarm]

We had a huge bloom of goldenrod, bee yard smelled like goldenrod for weeks. Supers are half empty. Weird fall here.

[@cluelessbeekeeping1322]

Some time, just for kicks...get some punky wood and try it in your smoker. You might be hooked! I love the stuff. It never goes out, it smells good, it doesn't burn hot, it's free, it lasts a long time. ...Just make sure it's completely dry! (and in case you don't know, punky wood = rotted wood) You might bee one of my many converts!

[@ericfrobish1598]

I’ve had a good portion of my super frames uncapped this year, even though I knew they’d been full long enough to be dried down. I spot-tested with a refractometer and nearly all were dried down enough to harvest back in early July. Same now for the fall harvest. Never had a year with so many uncapped frames. I’ve also have had the bees eat up a lot of the honey in the supers during the August dearth, so glad I put off that second harvest. Weird year here in IL, for sure!

[@vinofarm]

If I had harvest what was in there in July, I would have had starving bees for the past 6 weeks. Glad I waited.

[@cluelessbeekeeping1322]

Me too! But I'm going to rip out all their honey and feed them syrup. They get the sugar and I git the 'good stuff!'

[@amylarson3958]

now I don't feel quite as awful -not because of your situation - but it helps me not feel so hopeless as mine have done the same

[@kashabash]

I'm not an expert but would putting out a pollen patty or something of the sort maybe distract them from robbing when working on the hives?

[@dougdorrer4622]

Any plans on your frames?

[@melliferousanomaly561]

Wow. Almost didn’t catch that title and thumbnail change. Slick.

[@vinofarm]

Just the thumbnail. I think people were getting turned off. KZbin is weird.

[@melliferousanomaly561]

@@vinofarm Understandable. It definitely had some serious shock value. I thought you looked like a Ghostbuster of bees. Seriously though, nice call on the garden hose to stop the robbing. It's nice when people don't gloss over the challenges of the hobby. Looking forward to the next episode. 🌧☂🐝

[@mayan9458]

Test your uncapped honey with the refractometer. We had a lot of uncapped honey at 17% water this year that we harvested.

[@sylvanfireswan]

I think I inadvertently prevented varroa caused by my strong hives robbing weaker (infested) hives. I am migrating my strong 10 frame hives to reversed engineered bee barns inspired by Jim’s video. (We have drawings and a cut list, carpenter instructions, ask Jim if interested). What I did while waiting for the bee barns to be built was place the mega frames in the center of a double deep (existing brood stacked on both sides with megas in the middle). I am encouraging the bees to migrate onto megas. What happened is that the bees became very introspective and are actively “remodeling”. They are robbing their own honey super (good thing, thats what I want) and they are making exclusively worker brood on the megas. No drone brood anywhere. My varroa count is extremely low (0 to 2) for this time of year. My plan is to transfer the frames they’re still using for brood into the bee barns when they’re finished along with creative ways to get the resources into the bee barns (screwing together stacked resource frames of different sizes if needed) because the bees haven’t had a whole season on megas. I think this might be the answer to varroa coming in from robbing... give them a “honey do” list instead of making them feel lacking and insecure with a stack of supers to fill and a packed brood box with lots of drone comb. Necessity the mother of robbing? Make the robber foragers rob themselves.

[@KellyNsGrotto]

Wait...I thought he has plans linked on his earlier videos. I can go scan through and see, but if you already did it. Congrats! Did you also get the thermostats to keep tabs on the girls?

[@davidryle1164]

Here in North Central Wisconsin it's been a really crazy season, golden rod is finished and last year at this time it was only a week into it. Robbing is a bitch, some years worse than others. Good luck getting ready for winter, next year will be better......fingers crossed.

[@Heir03]

For the partially capped super frames that you're going to let the bees rob: Do you uncap the capped parts first, or will robbers eat through that?

[@vinofarm]

They gobble it all up. Clean frames in about 4 hours.

[@whosaidyoucandance]

Good luck, once the robbing gets that bad it can be hard to stop. Often they'll try again the next day, and so on until the unhappy ending. I find the best method is reducing the entry to just one or two bees wide.

[@vinofarm]

After this event, things returned to normal the next day. Thanks!

[@nancynolton6079]

Spot on!

[@benjamincrossman5937]

Bummer about the robbing! I set off a similar frenzy last March (autumn in Australia) when trying to get ready for winter and feed some uncapped honey back to the bees. I vowed to simply extract it next time and if it is too moist I'll just make some mead or something. I don't think my suburban neighbours appreciate d the robbing action very much! I will consider some Ideal size supers too, just to increase the chances of some capped honey I can easily harvest. My girls often just struggle to get those last deep frames capped.

[@locoproductions343]

If your bees live through the winter with this hive will you consider selling hives like them. I would be very interested to buy one like it.

[@BondJamesBond79]

With the half-capped frames you could put them in the extractor twice. First leave the caps on the honey and just spin out the open nectar cells. Second uncap the honey cells and spin those out. The nectar can be fed back or made into mead per George de Layens. How do you like the varroa easy check? I’m wondering about buying one.

[@vinofarm]

The easy check is great. Mine is 6 years old and still perfectly fine. Easier than spinning frames twice is just leaving the frames out in the field. They are all spotless and dry in a matter of hours and the bees get some exercise.

[@KellyNsGrotto]

Would putting out a load of sugar water help when you are doing a hive check? Especially if you don't plan to pull any supers?

[@vinofarm]

It would increase the chaos. Best thing is to work early, work fast and never leave supers exposed. If I need to go into a brood box under supers, I take the supers off, stack the supers neatly, put a lid on top and cover the stack with a blanket.

[@CastleHives]

This Saturday I'll be doing similar work. Just took off Formic, so will examine the brood nests, remove extra Supers, Requeen if needed, and decide when I'll feed. Our flow has been a bust so far. For the frames you have that are half capped, do you have a hygrometer to check the moisture? Maybe spin one and check. FYI - - Extra hive I have is going to get converted to a Bee Barn over the winter. Once I introduce a Colony to it, next spring, I'll set a Temp sensor in the Bee Barn, a Poly Hive, and a regular wooden Langstroth. Curious how that will look. Thanks for sharing Jim.

[@vinofarm]

They 1/2 capped frames are mostly dripping. No way near close to extractable. It's all going out for the bees to rob back.

[@CastleHives]

@@vinofarm Oh dang. Bummer they didn't get them fully capped. But, giving back to them never hurts.

[@russellkoopman3004]

Jim, I've seen videos on taking partial capped frames and sticking a dehumidifier and fan on them. The uncapped honey will dry to a lower moisture level than the capped honey. I did this on almost all my honey I extracted and I got most of my honey down to 16% moisture. It takes 3-4 days, I just kept checking the uncapped honey and when it was dry I extracted. The lower moisture honey has an intensified flavor also. Sorry about the robbing. It is so scary and frantic.

[@russellkoopman3004]

Jerome Bee farm and Homestead did it also as did Duck River Honey, they both have videos on the process.

[@vinofarm]

@@russellkoopman3004 If it was a significant amount and the bees were otherwise filled up, I would have tried dehumidifying it. There just wasn't much there. I just decided the bees deserved to have it back.

[@GenFalcon]

I love these videos and look forward to them all the time. I'm no expert but I would say this robbing horde comes from desperation, so either too much competition or too close? but definitely put out those patties or jars cause that was insane how fast they turned on each others hives.

[@vinofarm]

The hives have plenty of stores. September always triggers a panic mode in the bees to go get more, more, more... They sense winter approaching. Even with food on all the hives, you still see robbing behavior. It's baked into them.

[@ColoradoGiants]

What are you going to use for your Fall mite treatment?

[@vinofarm]

OA for the next two weeks to knock down the mite load on the Maple Hive. Then Apivar. You'll see in the other hives, the loads are not as high. Apivar starting the last week of September.

[@robertbennett6697]

Where are your temperature sensors located inside the hive, between frames or on walls?

[@vinofarm]

Laying directly on top of the frames over the center of the brood.

[@3172bees]

I had the same issue with uncapped frames up here in northern Maine

[@MikeandNikisHoney]

You are looking at 100k I remember the time you hit 5k. You are why I joined instagram... what a great growth story. Its fun to think how we have both grown as beekeepers in that time!!! Enly the continued KZbin success!

[@sporkintheeye]

Just an aside... You can absolutely dry the partially capped honey. Stack your supers in a small space. Place a really good dehumidifier in there and put a box fan on top blowing down through it. Capped honey will dry a little bit. Uncapped honey will get SUPER dry in about 2 days.

[@vinofarm]

Yes, but most of these frames were just dripping. If the hives had been otherwise filled and there were a lot of excess, I would have tried more drying, but I'm going to just leave a lot of this for the bees to take back.

[@KK38941]

@@vinofarm You can always pull the supers and spin the uncapped and give that back to the bees. Then spin the capped honey for you.

[@GillysGold]

What I did with my uncapped frames is set up a tower a long distance away and let them grab it. Took them 3 hours to off load 100 pounds. Crazy how fast they can do that.

[@vinofarm]

Yes, I let them clear a bunch of frames the other day and it took about 4 hours and they became totally dry.

[@carlosbenito5187]

I’m just theorizing here, but why do you think multiple hives have 1/2 capped and 1/2 uncapped honey and then do you think that could be related to the temperature issues?

[@vinofarm]

Partly because they were constantly using the nectar as they brought it in. It's like leaving the cabinet door open when you're just going to go right back and grab more food. The season went on and they just never capped it. Now, they're sucking it back up.

[@LazyDogsRanch]

Wow, that was insane robbing. I'd guess at least a couple are way low (or think they are) on stores. The mite count on maple was interesting, to get to 10x what it was not long ago. Population is good, so I'm guessing no topping off by shaking bees into it(?), and you're not migratory, so you aren't picking up anything shared with strange hives. Weird.

[@LadyVagabond13]

Possibly a silly question, but when you take the frames that have larvae in them and turn them sideways to inspect one side of them, what keeps the larvae on the other side from falling out of their cells?

[@LittleDergon]

That would be the surface tension on the liquid they are suspended in. It's the same thing that keeps the liquid in the pockets in the first place

[@vinofarm]

Yes, that little pool of royal jelly is quite sticky. It doesn't really flow, it just kind of hangs in the bottom.

[@cbbees1468]

The cells in comb also have anywhere from an 11-14 degree downward angle as well. If you cut a piece of honeycomb, you can see the cross section will look like downward pointed chevrons, if they point up then you rotate it 180 degrees to see what it would look like in a beehive.

[@lagrangebees]

You could get a refractometer to check if the uncapped honey is at the right moisture content, they're pretty cheap on amazon. (although the one I got had the wrong calibration instructions, and after a little digging I discovered that setting it to 71.5 on the Brix scale using extra virgin olive oil calibrated it right).

[@vinofarm]

I have one. I also calibrated with EVOO! Did some tests. It was nowhere near ready on most of the frames. I have a few that are around 20% and I'll try dehumidifying them.

[@lagrangebees]

@@vinofarm Hope that dehumidifying works, you might not need the honey, but its always nice to have a taste of what your bees made, and you can always get a nice surprise from those little critters 😊 (For example, this year I learned Linden honey tastes like mint!)

[@amylarson3958]

Question: I've decided to back off on checking my hives when the robbing gets bad - I run over and treat them - that's all I do. Then I sit around and feel guilty - last time the robbers came over, I swear - they brought in uhauls to rob all of them - as I covered the first hive, they merely moved to the next one - it was horrible. Finally ended up closing all 5 (yes, that's a large number for me) - got out the hose, misted them down - took hours for the robbers to leave.......am I on the right track?

[@vinofarm]

Try starting first thing in the morning. I can usually get through 3 or 4 hives with no trouble if I start before 9am. If I open a hive after noon these days, it’s like an alarm sounds and there’s a cloud of bees everywhere. It’s a September thing. They are in panic mode right now.

[@justbee7278]

Are you using entrance reducers on your hives?

[@vinofarm]

Yes. All hives have entrances reduced.

[@yoooreds]

I'm thinking that it's all about the insulation. I think that your well insulated hives will come out of winter strong, and unlike this year you are not starting with packages and and empty foundation. I would suggest that your lack of honey is typical of a first year beekeeper. I would imagine no/minimal winter loses, and bumper crops next season, almost solely as a result of excellent insulation. Also re-robbing. I would suggest closing your entrance to just 2 bees sizes only, or just one hole that os about 3l4 inch diameter.

[@davidsachs4883]

Entrance reducers when robbing might be an issue Have two sizes (same wood price at 90 degrees from each other). Medium entrance as precaution and small entrance when attack is likely .

[@vinofarm]

All hives have reducers.

[@cluelessbeekeeping1322]

Every time I see a peanut, I make a split! (but only if they have eggs or extra peanuts)

[@CastleHives]

Oh no. . Saw this on IG.

[@oscarcaraan810]

I'm not an expert. You have thought me a lot about bees, but hosing the bees is questionable.🤔😄 The brood box looks full of brood which is great. Do you have any concerns that the bees wont bring enough honey into the brood box before winter and leaving a super on defeats the bee barn insulation? Do you think open feeding outside the beeyard could move the robbing away from the hives while you inspect? Love the videos.

[@vinofarm]

I just created an extremely localized rain storm. Bees get rained on all the time! The brood boxes are mostly packed with nectar and honey. They’re so full that I’m holding off on feeding for a week because I don’t want to offer syrup and have them get honeybound. The queens are still laying. I offer syrup right through October. They will have no trouble topping off their stores.

[@johnmiglautsch4587]

What brand are those white plastic frames you have in your supers?

[@vinofarm]

Acorn

[@johnmiglautsch4587]

@@vinofarm Thanks Jim. I have a layens hive now - just 12 frames - but mainly thanks to you :)

[@timbranda7086]

I had the same situation when I treated with vaporizer oxalic. One of my hives left and the other colonies robbed it. Lost a lot of bees fighting each other.

[@bokluge3855]

Ox vaping has been a great way for treating mites for me but I had no robbing

[@nyotauhura7412]

Maple Hive only had a couple of mites last time you checked & now they are infested, does that mean the same will happen to Cherry Hive in a couple of weeks?

[@vinofarm]

They are all getting treatment. Mite load will be dropping precipitously over the next month.

[@lauran4784]

Do you think that the robbing was from your other hives or other bees from somewhere nearby?

[@vinofarm]

Most likely my own bees. There are two very strong hives. The one that got attacked is one of them. The other one is the likely robber.

[@StephenBiggers]

You might consider Carniolian bees, they tend to rob less than Italian which is one reason the bees pick up mites after they have been treated. Just a thought.

[@vinofarm]

I liked Carniolans when I had them before. This year they were not easily available near me.

[@AmandaTroutman]

I'm really worried about another abnormal year... Are there any other flowers that are can be planted? Maybe a greenhouse that you can open up to the bees during hard times? I don't know just... 😟

[@vinofarm]

There was an ABUNDANCE of flowers and resources this year. And we had abundant rain. Everything pointed to a great fall flow. It just didn't happen. I planted a couple hundred pounds of seed on two-three acres. Not much more I can do.

[@jimbeachboard3228]

I have a friend who uses Bee Go to run bees out of supers. She was in a remote location removing supers with nothing to stop a robbing event and used it to break up the robbing.

[@FeralHomestead]

I have a hypothesis on the temps they might use brood temp swings to make fat winter bees.

[@vinofarm]

That's interesting! Are autumn brood temp swings a normal thing?

[@MOLOKAIKOA11]

Gosh in Hawaii we got it super easy. Perfect temp, alot of resources. Their not nice though.

[@dearbabyjesus2910]

Your girls are preparing their winter nest with a build up of brood. May I suggest you check Ian Steppler. He lives in Manitoba, Canada. Definitely has some very solid rationales for keeping bees in cold climates.

[@vinofarm]

Ian is at a completely different scale and he keeps his bees indoors over winter. His prep is a bit different than others.

[@Grimthings]

Honestly, I just treat for mites twice a year and no longer do all the mite load testing. It never fails that I test, have a single mite, and the next test is crazy infestation that could have been curbed if I had just treated.

[@gordondean1782]

I couldn't help noticing that your deep frames seemed to have very little capped honey on them. I would have thought they would be all set for winter

[@vinofarm]

We still have a fair amount of warm days ahead. That nectar is 100% foraged. I have not fed any of that. They’re bringing it in and storing it where and how they want to.

[@julieenslow5915]

Can you tell if the robbers are from your apiary or external?

[@vinofarm]

Probably my own bees! Maybe the Beech hive because they're the other big one.

[@julieenslow5915]

@@vinofarm I would think that makes it harder to stop. Can't wait for the second half of this episode. And even once you resolve the robbing, we still have the new data of the temperatures to understand. That part, I am wondering if it might take a few years to understand, though you might have some working theories this year. We will see!

[@rochrich1223]

I don't understand the theory of why supers above an excluder would be treated differently than supers above three holes. Why would they move stores down?

[@EA-cv3pi]

Can we conclude that there is no such thing as "to much" insulation for a beehive?

[@vinofarm]

YES! 100% This is my conclusion. You can not have too much.

[@yoooreds]

@Wylvien I don't agree, about the the negatives. I well insulated hive maintains a regulated temperature in hot and cold weather.

[@rstlr01]

5 gallon bucket feeders far away from the hives gives my robbing Foragers something to do this time of year.

[@sylvanfireswan]

I inadvertently gave each of my hives a reconsideration project by inserting mega frames in the center of double deeps (to prepare for bee barns when they’re ready). The remodeling project is giving the robber foraging bees a “honey do” list so they’re not trolling the neighbors. Very low varroa. Amazing.

[@markkarstad2899]

Test the honey moisture right at the hive. Those part capped frames might be as low as 16% and harvesable... Just sayn

[@vinofarm]

It was dripping out all over the place. I tested one that looked closer to being ready and it was like 22%. They were bringing it in and using all immediately. There probably was a small flow, but no excess.

[@mrnos16]

If robbing is going on, it might be that all that honey was capped, however the bees are opening up the cappings to get to the stores due to a lack of flow.

[@trancecake]

I hope you will still find this comment.. I think what happened with the varroa population is that you checked them right before the exponential population growth went off and then right at the top, which is about when you checked the second time. I wanted to share a technique I was taught in the Netherlands, I don't know if it' is used elsewhere, I suspect it is though: The thing with exponential growth is that you can greatly impact it if you act early on. So what I got taught is to play on the varoa mite tendency to go for drone brood, since they can get another brood cycle of because the drone brood is capped longer. What we do is hang in a medium frame in a deep box, so they have half a frame of space to build in. We do this as soon as they want to build out comb. What they do is they will fill it with drone cell comb. Once you see it is mostly capped you remove it from the frame and freeze it (they lose a bunch of drones but they have plenty). after it is frozen you can easily see mites when you open the cells because everything is frozen so the pupae won't be all mushy. This technique impacts the number of mites early on so they cannot multiply so fast in autumn. I hope this info is useful to you. In your case you can maybe fabricate such a frame by putting in a deep one and not the 1.5 frames that you have made. Just an idea. More about the varoa population dynamics: scientificbeekeeping.com/ipm-3-strategy-understanding-varroa-population-dynamics/

[@vinofarm]

Thanks, yes, I have used drone frames before. However, the summer I used them, I was ripping open the drone cells and finding zero mites. Then it just seemed like a HUGE waste of resources and eggs on the bee's part. They were putting all that energy into a whole frame of larvae and I was just throwing it out... but not actually killing any mites. I just monitor and treat now.

[@trancecake]

@@vinofarm ah yes I totally get that! hope it goes well with the yard!

[@sylvanfireswan]

@@trancecake I inadvertently prevented drone production this season. We built 4 bee barns over the summer (we have drawings and a cut list and carpenter instructions - ask Jim if interested). This late in the season, I stacked two deeps and put the mega frames in the center (10 frames so the existing brood stacked in a 3-xxxxx-2 configuration, looking from the top down. This is to give the bees a chance to migrate onto the mega frames before bee barns are ready. What inadvertently happened was they focused on workers, not drones. They became very introspective, moving resources around. Relocating super honey (good thing, I want them to). An August reconstruction project looks like the introspection that prevented this very strong hive from robbing the neighbors. Each hive is foraging for pollen and I see them on the pine and oaks (propulus), sure they are still also nectaring and getting water, but not robbing. We will transfer what they are still using when the bee barns are finished ( this or next week), and I’ll do another varroa count. It’s at an unbelievable 0-1 right now for all of these hives.

[@syrianlionidas]

When a rubbery happen we open all the hives so the bees deffend there hives and turn to there hives to deffend it

[@timmo7913]

Hey Jim, N. Idaho checking in. First off, this is in no way a bashing, but more of a concern IMO. And chances are I am gonna get downvotes for this but, here goes. Ok. I'm a little on the fence here with everyone's talk of the insulation and how well your bees will be overwintering. Hive set up is great. Insulation is great for northerners, we all know this. The concern I have in observing these inspections is, where is all the food (stores needed to overwinter)? The supers are mostly uncapped, and the deep frames in the main hive body are minimally filled with food. With a larger portion being filled with brood or visually empty. [Readers- yes I understand the dearth and what it means]. I guess my point is, think back to when you were running double deeps. You would leave a full deep super (80-100 pounds) of honey on a colony to over winter with. With the lower deep having the "rainbow" look of honey on the outsides with a small manageable brood nest in the center of it. Your brood nests look good, very full, but, if there is no forage currently, any available nectar coming in is either feeding babies or feeding bees. Once all that brood hatches there won't be enough forage to bulk up the lost stores. [Yes readers, I understand he can feed] but, 1) will you have enough time with the temps getting lower and days getting shorter for them to dehydrate the 2:1 food given? 2) with the size of your deep frames, it's gonna take a shitload of sugar to bulk up. Again, not a bash at all brother but rather just a bit of concern from one northern beekeeper to another. Our heat and dearth was so bad out west here, I had to start feeding a month ago just to help my hives build to overwinter. After 1000 pounds of sugar, I'm still not there. And I only took 38 gallons of honey from 22 hives. That's what I've got my friend. You know I don't sugar coat anything. Im just looking at the larger picture and the potential of another potential long cold winter and long cold wet spring. Looking forward to your thoughts and next step with your yard. Cheers, and continue to stay safe. T/O.

[@vinofarm]

I appreciate your concerns! As you'll see in the next video, the brood nests are pretty full overall. So filled that I'm holding off on feeding this week. THere's a ton of eggs, the queens are still laying and I don't want to douse them with syrup and get them honeybound. I am watching closely and will feed once the current brood patterns "solidify" and I can see where they're focusing the nest. I've fed right through October every year and had years with 100% survival. With the amount of food already in those hives, I don't think it will take that much to top them off once I introduce syrup. October is actually a pretty dry month with warmish days (usually) so I think we'll be OK. My main concern right now is how honeybound they look after taking those supers off. Thanks, man!

[@raymondknappJr]

I run a dehumidifier air over the frames and dry out the uncapped frames and then run it through the extractor. It takes 2 or 3 days. If you want more info let me know. I will send you pictures of my system.

[@TheGuerrCZ]

The honey DO NOT HAVE to be CAPPED. The honey has to be ripe (dry) enough. Bees will not cap the honey unless the cells are full. So you CAN harvest.

[@vinofarm]

But what if it’s not ripe? There were a few frames that I checked that were close to being ripe, but most of it was dripping wet. They were using it as fast as they were bringing it in and that is probably why it wasn’t capped.

[@drrota]

@@vinofarm use the *tip & drip* test - if the nectar drips out, don't harvest that frame. Most frames that have capped and uncapped honey usually don't drip. IMHO most people eat the honey so quickly, its gone in 2 weeks. (Some of my friends that do tail-gaiting use it for honey BBQ ribs... which uses a lot of honey quickly... and since its football season, a jar of honey is consumed in 2 wks... not nearly enough time to ferment.)

[@filipvernica258]

We’re is the second part?

[@vinofarm]

Uploading NOW. Should be up Saturday.

[@LittleDergon]

It's scary how much the bees are in step with our own welfare. Last year they tanked, this year they started out with high hopes only to be looking drained in September