Queen Rearing in a 3-way Nuc and a Double Screenboard

[@denodkgoro8124]

You have so much love for bees, you work so carefully, it's art

[@badassbees3680]

Great Video As Always!

[@donbearden1953]

K&L thanks for the video. We all wish that all Queens made it back and last for a lifetime but that’s just not the case so that’s why do what we have to do! Thanks again for the video!

[@micksbeesstephens5327]

Good job as usual....80% queenright mating nucs in this topsy turvy weather is great.

[@thenaturalbeeapiculturist1]

Kamon, thank you for all the advice and tutorials I am going to try my first split early next year I think and this all helps.

[@DonaldRogersBaldEagle]

great video, thanks for sharing.

[@yasminnilima2366]

Thank you for spreading the word! At all times I spread your KZbin with all newbies I meet! Lot's of love from Sweden!

[@kamonreynolds]

You're the best!

[@yasminnilima2366]

@@kamonreynolds 🥰❣And so are you and Laurel! That's why your videos are great! Trying to get a gang from Sweden to come for the conference!

[@paulawaldrep9882]

Great example of how Queenless bees act. Keep up the awesome work👍 hopefully will get a chance to meet you in person some day! You have taught me so much, and I thank the Lord HE has let it stick in this old noggen! 😂😂

[@JB-xu6uq]

Kamon, I enjoy your videos and all the knowledge you provide. My wife wont let me get bees (probably because I am allergic to them...haha), so I live vicariously through your videos.

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey JB thanks for the comment! The good news is that you aren't allergic to Honey! Even if you don't have bees thanks for bee-ing apart!

[@JB-xu6uq]

How can I order honey from you? Maybe I missed where you mentioned a link or a video that you might have put that info out...not sure

[@houstonsheltonbees814]

Thanks 👍

[@brusselsbarfoe]

Thanks!

[@kamonreynolds]

Wow thanks so much!

[@LarryLeesBees]

Thanks for another great video! Your queen production is amazing. Looking forward to raising my own queens soon.

[@thatguy3456]

Same

[@christophernolen5057]

Thanks for taking time to follow up on those cells. Would be interested to see more on your convertible 3/5 frame mating nuc. Entrances, spacing, bottom board, etc.

[@downunderfulla6001]

Awesome video thanks 🍺🍺

[@hotchips786]

Dude you are totally Awesome , Thank you for your awesome knowledge and information

[@kamonreynolds]

Thanks Zackery!

[@ronaldstilwell3464]

3 for 3... I'm jealous! Well done!

[@wayneparker9782]

3 and 0.. nice.... iv been keeping bees for 3 yr and mated first queens this yr. Things are looking good..iv also produce honey from the first yr....this yr the bees produce 150 bl of orange blossom honey from 3 hives...i believe the honey is better than last yr at 14.5% moisture..i credit you And Ian Steppler...i now have 15 hives; most are from supperceadure method and i hope 3 more from grafting... o buy the way, not to easy...hahah.. thank you and your wife for taking the time to give us this valuable information on the wonder of beekeeping.

[@steves.7872]

Thank you for taking the time to teach us so much you and Laura.

[@zetectic7968]

Good to see the results. I suppose 80% success is pretty good queen wise.

[@kamonreynolds]

Oh yes if I can average that I am happy.

[@fishmut]

Nice work Kamon , Great job, i seen many videos on raising your own Queens and i do just that, the satisfaction on making your own hives and Queens is awesome much better than my own tomatoes lol .

[@kamonreynolds]

Very true!

[@NaturesImageFarmGregBurns]

Way to go!

[@doug2316]

Good morning from MOCO bee club in texas( that you spoke to) we enjoyed your presentation. Thanks for this video....

[@wayneshoneybees5439]

Perfect timing. I grafted back on May 2nd. 17 cells out of 30. I have 3 queen castles and 2 3-way mating boxes. The other 7 will be in nucs. I'll leave one for the graft hive. Taking half day off today to make up the boxes.

[@mikeb062]

Thanks so much for these videos. I am wanting to learn as much as possible on raising queens. I have no one near me that raises queens, I can order online but would much rather try to raise my own. I have been trying to find a kinda A to Z series on raising queens and you are the closest that I have come to finding, again thanks.

[@jpthedelawarebeeman7887]

I'm glad someone is having lucks with queens. so far I grafted 4 times and after they cells are capped I move them to an incubator but they never hatch. I'm not sure if they are getting chilled or not getting fed enough royal jelly :( - I'm very discouraged at the moment and was hoping to get a few at least.

[@Tiocakes]

he's like the bob ross of bee keeping

[@doug2316]

Good morning from MOCO bee club ( you spoke at) Texas!!

[@beemanit9305]

As a hobby beekeeper all my Queens have been coming from swarm cells. Just been loading up the Nucs. I have lots of honey in the Nucs. Most with young queens and a few queenless I need to work out.

[@danschneider9219]

Nice to show what you do if one they don't come back so many are so afraid to try things.

[@magztvvlog5583]

Nice! Wish i have bees... Coz mine is only stingless bee.

[@scottfortune9016]

Mmmm homegrown tomatoes.

[@kamonreynolds]

Yessir!

[@scottfortune9016]

@@kamonreynolds I come here for the bees and your knowledge, but I stay for your humor and tomatoes.

[@wayneparker9782]

Comment of the day....homegrown tomato.

[@jonclemons1421]

Great guidance! I've just discovered one of my colonies is queenless in a double deep box setup. I have a swarm catch in a single deep that I'm going to have to add a box to. Would it work if I placed the swarm on top of the double deep queenless colony using the newspaper combine method? Or put a queen excluder between the colonies and let them work it out? Or a combination of the 2?

[@DougMcHone]

Don't the bees propolize the divider and the middle dado? Is it difficult to move those dividers after they've been used?

[@rugerdogg5316]

Great video! just getting started in bee keeping caught 3 swarms spring of 2023 and 1 was queenless is it to late to requeen in august or should i wait till spring of 2024? I combined the queenless hive with another and i have 2 deeps 1 on the other and both are full of bees. I want to try your queen making process if its not to late.

[@jamescraig8601]

Hi Kaymon,love your kids vids. I generally only get about a 40 per cent queen comeback. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

[@scottpierson7495]

Kamon- I know your busy one ? When using cell protectors, and the cell is so fat it doesn’t go in all the way, do you stuff it in? It can just be so tight. Just wondering what you are doing to get it in? Thank You. Bama definitely going to be missing Naji next year. Take care

[@cecildean3648]

Did a walkaway split today on 2 hives. First one no problem but the second one when I started to close the hive up they became very aggressive. It been 3 hours and they are still being aggressive. If I get with 50 ft. of the hive I will have 15-25 bees in my face screen. What do you think might be causing the aggression?

[@benjaminlangford7697]

Great video! Thanks for all the awesome content. Question: if you had a queen right hive with fewer bees than the laying worker hive would you combine with news paper or just put them right together? Thanks again.

[@matthewmason180]

Great video, thank so much for all the great info. Quick question where did you get you bee veil from or who makes it? Thanks again.

[@anthonyc9911]

Kamon in your live chat, I missed. You mentioned most package queens are inferior. Would you let her get started and then replace her? Or would you replace her before installing if possible? I'm in Nh so not sure when local queens will be ready. Great stuff on your videos. Ty

[@kamonreynolds]

I would let her get started and if she does good replace her at my convenience.

[@kiaya007]

Hey Kamon when you took the double screen bottom board off did you see a dead queen laying on it? 🤔

[@kennylecroy9706]

So these are not for making queens ,just for raising after you have the queen cell right ?

[@DougJohnson-om3uw]

What is the inner cover you are using?

[@sporkintheeye]

Does the combine at the end without newspaper work because you are in a flow or because of the double screen board?

[@kamonreynolds]

Combines during a flow significantly help. The double screen boards also helps because there are many pheromones that do make it thru the screens. Just not the queens mandibular pheromone.

[@josephvogel7234]

When I make my mating NUCs and load them with a ready to emerge queen cell, how far from the donor hive do the NUCs need to be? I'm thinking that the majority of bees in the NUC are nurse bees so it's likely they will stay with the brood. I only have a half acre to work with so, do I need to find a location far away for the NUCs?

[@carlosramosjr7266]

Hey Kaman I got a swarm trap with four frames in it and plexiglass see-through will that affect the way the bees respond to the swarm trap or does it need to be dark one wall is plexiglass should I cover it or leave as is

[@davidmiller6010]

So your nuc had 2 strong queens, and 1 so so. When you come back and split that double deep, would you be more inclined to queen it with one of the stronger queens, or the weaker one? You said she was weak because she didn't have enough bees. Just wondering if giving her more bees in 20 days would do the trick?

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey David. I think she will be a great queen. Her pattern though small looked good. Likely when I split the double hive I will use one of these queens and it should work nicely. In the video I linked to where we set up this 3 way nuc I likely didn't get as many bees shook into this side as the others.

[@davidmiller6010]

@@kamonreynolds Pretty sure I saw that set up video. Been binge watching for about a week now. Sometimes I think too much, but I was thinking she might do better if you shook a couple frames of nurse bees into the weaker queen now- then she should be doing much better in 20 days or so.

[@JaredLincks]

Hello Kamon, really enjoy your videos and benefit from them! I am curious, where do you buy the insulation from that is on top of your three-way nucs? Also, when do you recommend starting queen production? Thanks for the help!

[@kamonreynolds]

I buy the reflectix product from Lowes and raise queens here the first week of April

[@JaredLincks]

@@kamonreynolds Thank you so much, I appreciate the help!

[@gonzalezaaronm]

Have you ever raising queens using the Nicot method instead of grafting. Thanks

[@thilltony3362]

Kamon, Thank you for your videos! I have a QUESTION, if you have time. Is it possible for a hive to succeed without a queen? I was given a queenless 10-frame hive last fall. (my first) The guy told me, "Something is wrong with that hive. I queened it three times, but they would just vanish. Maybe I could try, or just use the box and buy some bees in the spring." It had 3-4 frames of bees but NO resources. I felt bad for them and fed them and they took syrup, but I figured they were doomed. Amazingly, there were a few bees still left in March. They were listless, not flying, wouldn't take syrup, just sitting there waiting to die, and most of them did. But then in April they suddenly "woke up" and got busy. I inspected and there was some capped syrup, and someone was laying eggs, but I did not see a queen. (It's not hard to search 1 frame of bees) Amazingly, their numbers started growing! Can a worker get mated and start laying viable eggs? Now their numbers are growing very fast, but still no queen that I can see, and I have searched- almost too much. Can a hive succeed with a laying worker? Not sure what to do, besides keep feeding them and hope for the best. Any thoughts? Thanks again. -Tony in VA

[@LarryLeesBees]

Is the capped brood drone or worker brood? If it’s worker brood, you Definitely have a queen…. If it’s drone brood, You have a laying worker and have to requeen ASAP.

[@thilltony3362]

@@LarryLeesBees Thank you for that reply, Larry. I didn't know that workers only laid drone eggs. Last fall, there were a ton of drones in that hive, so that makes sense. The cells were not capped back when I looked, but I saw lots of eggs and larvae. Now there seem to be many more bees, but I don't see any drones, so that's a good sign. Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

[@thilltony3362]

@@LarryLeesBees I did an inspection today, and I am thrilled. There is definitely a queen in there. That 10 frame box is PACKED with bees, with a huge section of brood on almost every frame. I let it go too long. There were about 6 queen cells in there, too. They are planning on bugging out soon. I put a box on top and moved a few frames up there to get them to start using the space, but I need to decide if I should just remove the queen cells or make a split? I need to decide quickly, because when all that brood emerges, I'm pretty sure they are going to swarm. I didn't even look at my stronger hive today. I gave them another box about a week ago, and peeking inside, it looks like they have almost filled it already. I need to search that one for queen cells tomorrow. What to do??? I'm going to go look at the "stopping a swarm" video again. Thanks again, Kamon for the great content to help newbies like me!!!

[@LarryLeesBees]

@@thilltony3362 - That’s great news! I would definitely look at splitting the hive. If you do split, move the queen into a new box with a few frames of bees and brood and give her somewhere to lay. And leave the swarm cells where they are. And you should be good to go. 😃

[@thilltony3362]

@@LarryLeesBees Larry, Thank you so much for the advice. My problem is I only have some mud-covered old frames the guy gave me that isn't drawn out. I need to quickly buy some waxed foundation, frames and some boxes. Do you have a preferred place to buy?

[@MickeyCarvalho]

what happened to the other queen on the bottom

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Do you clip the queens , like we do in Europe spain

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey Benjamin, I haven't clipped queens wings but some of my friends do.

[@DougJohnson-om3uw]

Why do you use the foil cover?

[@sugarhollowhoney]

Do you have a video on the top reflective foam pieces you use? We used those one year and had a lot of mosture issues. Not sure what we did wrong. We are in Eastern Tn north of Knoxville. Thanks!

[@vwbusguy]

Question kamon, wipe or scrunch?

[@henrysbees]

I gave qween rearing a try and got not a one to return now the main hive swarmed without any qween cells layed or eggs

[@samircejvanovic3600]

Kamon, thank you for videos you makin! What bees do you keep, Saskatraz or Carniolan?

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey Samir, You are Welcome. My queens are mostly carni BUT most of the beekeepers around me keep Italian so it is impossible to keep them dark looking. However, they still do very well for me.

[@tifreire1]

Didn't you try and overwinter 3 queens in that 3 way? How did that work out?

[@kamonreynolds]

It didn't. only 1 out of 3 survived. And it was such a small cluster it took months to get any ground speed. I don't like overwintering small hives. (high mortality) but I may try it again slightly different this year.

[@badassbees3680]

@@kamonreynolds maybe over your dsbb be good,I gotta do better at overwintering Queens too..

[@tifreire1]

@@kamonreynolds OK thanks. I like the potential of bringing more late season queens through the winter without having to build up heavy singles but if they don't make it then it's waisted potential. I didn't get as many five frame nucs through the winter as I thought I would. But I chalked some of it up to operator error. I think if Bob Binnie reads this he's just going to glance over at a stack of double screen boards and shake his head at me 😆🤣

[@CastleHives]

I had planned to try Queen rearing this year, but it will not work. Next year it’ll happen. The 3 way mating box, are they your preferred option over the mini mating NUCs?

[@kamonreynolds]

Definitely not even close

[@theak-1663]

hey could you link your Amazon list in your About section

[@toddosterbuhr9909]

Where can i get a veil like that. I know on one video you said walter t kelly but they got bought out by mann lake and not sure if they still make them. Can you post a link?

[@burleybeeyard]

www.mannlakeltd.com/Clear-Vue-Hat-&-Veil-wString

[@CELOCKSAFE]

Are you really liking the "foamies"? I am wanting to get away from inner covers telescoping lids.

[@kamonreynolds]

They work well but ants can build between them and the lid. For the 3 way mating nucs they are great

[@likmasaha6149]

the opening on the partition floor is a sign that there is no upper queen, because while she was mating, the pheromones from the bottom worked so that the bees did not accept her when she returned from mating.

[@alexayounginsong2641]

top cover metalic isn't in the list of amazon. What is the name and where can it be found and bought?

[@kamonreynolds]

Reflectix. It can be purchased at Lowes

[@alexayounginsong2641]

@@kamonreynolds many kinds of reflectix, which one precisely do you use as an inner cover!

[@seibelcrs]

your not afraid of the bees in the top box killing the queen in the bottom box?

[@sterlingknight83]

I know Hillco is a sponsor of the test yard but how does their smoker honestly compare to Dadant's?

[@kamonreynolds]

They are a good smoker. I still prefer Dadants though due to US manufacturing

[@sterlingknight83]

@@kamonreynolds thanks, none of them hold up to being ran over with a fork lift. Oops

[@wadebarnes6720]

Have a question never so honey before I have a man that wants to buy 5 gallons of honey I have never sold honey what would you ask for 5 gallons

[@kamonreynolds]

Less than you probably should sell it for. I won't let our honey go for under 5 dollars a pound these days

[@wadebarnes6720]

@@kamonreynolds I don't know how to weigh it but I sold it for $300 5 gallon bucket so is that good or did I give it away

[@michaelshelnutt3534]

Is too much inbreeding a concern for raising your own queens?

[@kamonreynolds]

It can be if you are raising ALOT of them and are bottle necking things. We bring in bees almost every year to evaluate and see if one or 2 might make a good addition down the road. Backyard beekeepers have no need to worry about this