Bee Colony Reinforcement With a Twist, Boosting Hives with Swarms, Queen Introduction Inspires Swarm

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Bee Colony Reinforcement With a Twist, Boosting Hives with Swarms, Queen Introduction Inspires Swarm

Рет қаралды 3,695

Күн бұрын

This Video has a Twist!
Once your backyard apiary is at maximum capacity, it's time to take a look at your existing colonies and discern which of those may need a boost in work force, or a new queen.
In this video, my good fortune continues as I manage to spot a queen in the swarm box.
I collected her with my One-Handed-Queen-Catcher, mark her with the appropriate color for 2024, and then use her to inspire remaining honey bees to occupy the Lyson Nucleus Hive.
Will it work?
Watch and see how it goes... Expect the unexpected when it comet to honey bee management.
Affiliate link to the One-handed-queen-catcher that I use to park queens while new paint dries on their thorax.
amzn.to/3xIFEFm
NOTE: Periodically soak your queen catcher in fresh water and dry it out so the soft pad remains pliable. This is a CHEAP version of the more expensive queen marking holders. It will need some maintenance.

Пікірлер: 61

@aaronparis4714 Ай бұрын

I love 6 frame poly nucs

@alyb731 Ай бұрын

Wonderful filming, they are amazing to watch especially slowed down.🇬🇧

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

Thank you :)

@kimberlypaulson4545 Ай бұрын

Bee soap opera! The best ever!

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

I'm so glad you liked it :)

@Merlin.Twiggles Ай бұрын

Love the slow mo

@rodneymiddleton9624 Ай бұрын

Earlier this spring I had a swarm that had 3 queens in it. It's hard to predict them bugs!!! Thanks Fred!

@iditarod4081 Ай бұрын

Wow stupid bees? Or maybe it's a redundancy thing. Or maybe just established Queens aren't as threatened by virgin's as we thought.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

It's a fun game to figure out where they are in a swarm cluster. There are some tells... Thanks, Rodney! :)

@josephdavis556 Ай бұрын

Another great video

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it :)

@sonofthunder. Ай бұрын

Wondering if they'd fight it out,nice video Mr dunn

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

At this point, I "think" the workers will reject one and keep the other. The Queens won't necessarily engage each other...

@SIBEEMAN Ай бұрын

Great video Fred! It should be called “As the hive turns” or “one hive to bee” what a soap opera.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

These are The Days Of Our Hives... (';') I own that domain already :)

@SIBEEMAN Ай бұрын

lol!!

@schammond8993 Ай бұрын

That was fun.

@hillkid4mountains Ай бұрын

Very interesting idea of a not known two queen swarm. Was the virgin maybe from supersedure? When hatched did she tolerate her larger production mother and not fight to the death of her that you mention and show at the end of your video clearly alive? If so, maybe she, the virgin, was just at the beginning of going on her first mating flights. If the hive was so congested, starved for extra space and ventilation, maybe she pulled those bees out thinking it was time for them to swarm. It will be fascinating to learn your outcome. As an old timer I remember the saying, a swarm in May is worth a load of hay. A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon. A swarm in July isn't worth a fly. Because that was a time before late summer early fall feeding of sugar syrup would help get a late in the year swarm to begin from a start to get through winter. It hinged on whether they would or would not build enough stores up in time for their own supply of honey needed to make it thru to early spring the next year. Just my thoughts. Thanks. Gary 🐝 P.S. Wonder if a double screened division board would have worked between the bottom and upper boxes, putting your caged queen in the top with a back door entrance and see if the green marked virgin would go out and mate. The larger not marked egg laying queen in the bottom to resume her duties?

@timan2039 Ай бұрын

Be sure to inform the supervisor

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

He's on his way over here right now to make sure we have enough supers on the hives... (';')( ';')... I hope I pass inspection!

@oneeyehives Ай бұрын

It has been a very weird year for queens for me also in Central PA. Given I’m in my 4th year I assumed it was just something with my hives so glad to hear I’m not alone in this and it’s isn’t necessarily my fault 😁 It started right from winter for me. 4 of my hives opened in spring were packed with bees but not a single sign of any brood, eggs, or larvae.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

So glad to provide some hope, and additional information :)

@craigo4dds Ай бұрын

What I love about bees is how every time I check on them it is like a puzzle or riddle that I need to figure out. A game of 3D chess where they know the rules and I have yet to figure out the game completely 😜

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

The real charge comes when they do what we expect them to :) and then they toss in a surprise or two to keep us guessing :)

@kennith. Ай бұрын

WOW Fred, how did you even spot the "real" queen while she was flying in ......

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

She flew from the box that was just 4 feet away, for me it was a miracle grab shot. You can't plan it, largely pure luck.

@saintjohncoleman8602 Ай бұрын

Is this a new camera?! These video segments are spectacular!

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

Thank you so much, and no.... nothing new :)

@cobberpete1 Ай бұрын

Ha, Ha, Ha. The Agatha Christie plot twist. Miss direction. The culprit is not identified until the last scene.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

@willobrien353 Ай бұрын

That was another great video. Thank you for that. Is there a reason that you are not going into the hive to find and removing the marked virgin? That would be my next move and I would create a nuc for her and see what happens. Your thought…

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

My goal is not to take the hive apart... you "could" definitely do that, but they are unsettled and you risk an abscond with too much manipulation at this point. I don't need another queen.

@willobrien353 Ай бұрын

@@FrederickDunn got it. Thanks for the response.

@Avierra Ай бұрын

What is the likelihood of the workers or the old queen hunting down the virgin queen and stinging her to death? Or is it more likely as you said that she'd just fly off?

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

As that colony settles, it's likely that they may just cook the virgin queen and we may find her on the landing board one morning.

@michaelhansen6481 Ай бұрын

👍

@francinekeane9900 Ай бұрын

Great video Fred thanks. Do you wash out your Queen marker after each Queen? My daughter and I both had the same experience of the bees balling the Queen after marking.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

I haven't cleaned my Queen Marking holder for quite a while, and watching this video convinced me that I need to do that. :) Yes, they bail to get away from the marking paint. This marker is alcohol based.

@aaronparis4714 Ай бұрын

It’s sucks when that happens

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

It's fun to see...

@brianhoffman500 Ай бұрын

Thanks for another great video, Fredrick! I boosted several colonies this spring with rescued swarms. The outcome was great. I dispatched the under-performing queens from the original hives before combining with newspaper sprayed with sugar water. If icannot find the original queen, but she is present, will it result in a deadly battle between the original colony and the swarm?

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

I haven't observed any deadly battles during these mergings. What I think happens is that the workers select their preferred queen and dispose of the least popular one. If they truly battled it out, I'd find lots of landing board skirmishes as well as many dead bees in front of the hive. I've also stopped using newsprint when combining as they seem to merge so easily without it that I don't think it makes a significant difference :)

@brianhoffman500 Ай бұрын

@FrederickDunn Thank you!

@royaljellyandhoneyinc4270 Ай бұрын

🐝🐝🐝🐝🍯

@Ittiz Ай бұрын

So wouldn't some time in the next week be the best time to treat that hive with oxalic acid?

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

Not in this case since it's already occupied, but we will count mites for sure.

@danpszeniczny9664 Ай бұрын

Hi Fredrick, do you queen exclude in your hives? I'm not really in it for the honey so I usually let the queen do her thing without exclusion. It does make it a little more difficult when inspecting hives though.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

I don't use queen excluders. I have the bees build out their brood box first, then at least one medium super... that honey super serves as a "honey-bridge" and above that I have supers for my own use. If you're keeping just a single entrance with no additional venting above, then it's easy to go without an excluder. It's a predictable pattern.

@danpszeniczny9664 Ай бұрын

@@FrederickDunn I went without an excluder on one of my hives and the queen went from top to bottom laying eggs. The new hive I used a brood box with a medium frame on top for about three weeks. I checked it and found the new hive full of honey and brood. I added two boxes above an excluder. I can hear the workers in the top two now building comb and storing. Lots of activity with this new setup for me. Not a lot of activity but bearding on the old swarmed off hive. It is nearly full as I can feel the weight of that hive being quite full. I am curious to see how the summer and fall nectar season influence each hive.

@lief_hands Ай бұрын

Hello. I noticed you have an Apimaye hive in your rotation of past videos. Does the Flowhive Super fit on those hives? Or is that not a great fit? Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

I responded in another video, watch today's Q&A for some ideas regarding how to make that work :)

@lief_hands Ай бұрын

@@FrederickDunn awesome! Thank you for the response.

@aaronparis4714 Ай бұрын

When you say it’s too late for a swarm to build up are you guys close to fall already in your area ?

@FrederickDunn Ай бұрын

No, but in the past you'd need to provide additional resources to a colony that starts mid-July and on. If all is perfect, they make it, but no surplus for the beekeeper.