Long Langstroth Horizontal Bee Hive, Dead Out, Evaluation of Missing Queen and varroa load.

[@nikigores8774]

Thanks Fred, for giving us new insights amidst your loss of the colony...all the best to the new swarm and to you for a great and successful bee season!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you Niki! :)

[@Makermook]

I'm a one-hive, first-spring beekeeper, so seeing a dead hive is heartbreaking to me. Thankfully, my hive made it through winter hale and healthy.

[@FrederickDunn]

It's a time to focus on learning why they didn't make it, and of course work with the survivor stock that did :)

[@swarmwishes4943]

I lost 2 of 3 hives my first winter it was very very painful experience but I have one left to focus on. You should start with 2 hives ur first year.

[@rimsa80]

Here in Sweden winter isn't over. I'll wait before shouting hurray

[@VeryBloodyBaroness]

That is a super good call with regards to the hive tools and biosecurity. Such a bummer this colony failed, but that mite count was nuts. Thank you for taking the time to go through and talk about everything. Hoping for bigger and better things for this hive in the future.

[@shirleyreed9514]

Fred, Thank you for this video. I am first year bee keeper with Langstroth 2 deep box set up, up in Portsmouth NH.. This is exactly what happened to my hive, but I still have 2 or 3 frames of workers. Queen is gone and one of the workers is laying now. My hive had a section of Mold in the bottom deep, top box was still looking good with the remaining workers. I have been so stressed about it until I saw your video..you have given me confidence to carry on.. I put up few swarm traps.. My goal to keep on top of varroa better this year. I will clean up, keep my chin up, and carry on with new hive this year!! - Best, Shirley

[@namentatic4978]

We need to make some better ventilations this year. That mold came from condensations mostly. I lost one of my best hives that way. Never give up. Go ahead.

[@TheRainHarvester]

​@@namentatic4978was it mold forming in summer or winter? How avoid it?

[@masterbeekeeper30years18]

Greetings Mr. Dunn! I was hoping that spring would bring us all very good news about your Long Langstroth test. You have the best of attitudes and I found your postmortem assessment to be very interesting and enlightening. I look forward to your continued work with horizontal hives. I often send beekeepers to your channel as your first-rate explanations are a gold mine. Thank you and sorry for your loss.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you so much, as always!

[@attesmatte]

While I'm of course sad to see that your bees died, I'm also really glad to see that the hive construction worked well! 😊👍 I really believe in long hives, and I think it's an awesome design for people who want to build their own hives and have a more "relaxed" relationship with the bees. 😊 And it's also very gentle to the beekeeper's back! 😀

[@chrishumphreys9363]

Great hive examination and explanation, Good information. I'm a 3rd year beekeeper in the UK with 6 hives which have all come through winter OK. Keep the video's coming. Thanks Chris.

[@FrederickDunn]

I am so happy that your colonies made it through! Such a great feeling, warming weather and live bees to tend! I wish you all the best Chris!

[@chrishumphreys9363]

Thanks. Keep the video's coming, great learning from you. Good look for the new season.

[@p3norjfl]

Watching this makes me so thankful that we don't have Varroa in Australia...yet. Sorry for your loss Fred.

[@Grimthings]

Great informative video. I lost my first hive winter 2019-2020 to varroa and relentless attacks by yellow jackets. Same thing though, tons of honey, no bees, and dead varroa. This year the new colony was amazingly robust going into winter and bees are flying everywhere on warmer days. Looking forward to your next video.

[@FrederickDunn]

At least we can focus on the survivors :)

[@saintjohncoleman8602]

Sorry about your long Lang, and thanks for the insight. Mine went queenless after September, but made it through the winter. I requeened with a super productive queen 2 weeks ago and she laid eggs, but no larvae were cared for, and none developed. You touched on the reason.. NO NURSE BEES! The workers in the colony are all leftovers from September! Tomorrow I’m gonna add a frame with nurse bees and brood and see if that kickstarts things.. thanks for the idea..

[@Eliqueme]

Awesome!

[@JamesBakerOhio]

Invaluable education to a neophyte like myself, hope I never have to autopsy a crashed hive, but knowing what to look at and understanding what I am seeing will help if the day comes. Thanks for your efforts 🙂👍

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you, James, yes even dead-outs can serve an educational purpose so it's not a total loss :)

[@schammond8993]

Late posting this. Your videos are always educational. I've read a lot of negatives about horizontal hives. I believe utilizing different hive designs allows the capability to keep bees for folks that might not be physically able any other way. Great video.

[@FrederickDunn]

Absolutely! Horizontal hives do provide the opportunity for those with low upper body strength to still engage in beekeeping. They are also so heavy that heavy weather doesn't move them.

[@flyingham2640]

Very informative Fred! I'm a returning beekeeper this after after a 20 year hiatus. Lots to relearn. So sad to see a dead out but there is a lot to learn from a silent hive. My first colony went in a week ago and are strong so far. Can't wait to see the layens hive, built 3 for myself this year for swarm catches. Thanks for the great videos. I can tell you spend alot of time on them.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you so much, I'm going to have fun putting a Layens hive out this year. It will be a nice conversation piece and I can share about many various hive designs and their features :) Welcome back to beekeeping! I hope your swarms measure up! :)

[@carlland9024]

Folks told me horizontal hives would be good for reproduction but not for honey production. Like yours in the video, I have found that my horizontal hives are doing great with honey production and reproduction. Enough so that I’ve built 3 more to add to the apiary this year. My survival rate in the horizontal hives was 100% this year. I credit much of that to the thickness of the 2x12 construction as we have long bitterly cold winters here. Good luck with the hive this coming season.

[@slh35661]

We had exactly the same thing with our hive this winter. We had treated prior to winter as well. We ended up dumping the boxes and decided we won’t reuse those just to be careful. Thanks for sharing

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you for sharing, I hope you have better success this year. By dumping the boxes, are you talking about the Long Lang, and going with a traditional Lang?

[@slh35661]

@@FrederickDunn ours were Langstroth hives, but we had the same issues as far as what happened. We literally took the boxes that were contaminated and put them in the dump. We can’t burn around here so it was next best option

[@roseroberson5010]

Thank you Fred for sharing this. Sad, but very informative. You obtained a good deal of honey, and we all obtained invaluable information. Very glad to hear you will give it another try.

[@FrederickDunn]

And that honey tastes great! I was happy to find it didn't crystalize :)

[@roseroberson5010]

@@FrederickDunn Well that is a true bonus. At least you can enjoy the fruits of their labor.

[@W3BKY_73]

I really love your analysis .... I find it much easier to think through possible solutions with your experiences and subsequent examinations. Thank you!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you so much!

[@tdbarton7712]

Thank you Fred, I learned so much from your inspection and evaluation.

[@steveschauer5799]

Thanks for sharing Fred. Although Its heartbreaking to loose a colony, your sharing of the root cause I believe is right on, will assist many bee keepers to not throw in the towel! Best of luck on the new swarm. Keep posting, you’re a wealth of knowledge and experience, and am glad you share the good as well as the bad.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you so much Steve! It's depressing as I had such high hopes with that specific colony. We'll see how it all goes this year. I appreciate your comment!

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

Hi Fred, Sorry your Bees didn't make it in your Horizontal Hive. I noticed you don't have a Screened Bottom area in your Hive Floor. Is that because PA gets to cold for the bees to survive those super lows you get ? Here in Scotland I have a Screened Bottom to my Horizontal Hive. It does get cold here, and snow, but never super sub zero... But by being ventilated, and having tons of Sheep's Wool (Fleece) in the Hive Walls and Roof Space keeps them cosy. Yes their were quite a few dead bees at the bottom of the hive, but I guess some just die of old age (!) My Colony survived well, although I think I have a new Queen ! 👑 : The Autumn inspection was marked Red (2018 Queen / Clipped Wing) and this one had no Mark. However, she was so Quick to hide herself on my first Spring Inspection, I couldn't see if she was 'clipped or not'. Aka if she is new, or did the paint rub off ??? Question: if she's new, I guess I mark her as 2020 (Blue) Right??? Even though I saw the "Red Clipped" one in late September !?! Guess Supersedure happened. What's your thought ? Hope new Bees do well in that Fabulous built Hive ! 👍 Happy Beekeeping 2021 🥳 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝,🐝🐝

[@FrederickDunn]

This year, 2021, white is the queen marking color. I wish I had all of that sheep's wool, I'd make good use of it! If that's your old queen, and you want to refresh her thorax dot, then yes, last year was blue. They do clean that paint dot off as time passes, all of my spring queens have lost their paint. I don't repaint them myself, but I keep records about her appearance and take photos of my queens :) wing clipping (on one side) will be very valuable for me this year as I will be keeping with my own stock through 2021 and 2022. I have a separate yard now for wild caught swarms and others of unknown origin.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

Fred, thank you for your kind Reply ! ... 👍 I have more Sheep* here than Neighbours !?! * Sheep are not mine, alas, but their Wool is cheap £'s to come by after shearing season in July (!) Wool is poor quality, (off Meat Bred Sheep, as Lamb Cuts.) So 'fleece' is a really great hive insulation material. Or try Thrift Stores with old Woolen Blankets, or Yard Sales. [Just need to fold and layer them up several times,] to get similar effect, if not in Scotland re Sheep ! 😏 Horizontal Hives are great when insulated.... 🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@Jerfish1]

Educational, heartbreaking, and another example of the eternal perseverance to continue experimenting. Great video!

[@35jays]

I am also getting ready to construct a horizontal hive per your plans. Thanks for making them available!

[@FrederickDunn]

I think you're going to like it! :)

[@chuckcampbell3927]

🛫📖🛬 Mr. Dunn, The ending of your video accompanied by the cold wind blowing around the hive leaves me somewhat melancholy. When I see how hard these precious creatures work so tirelessly for the common good of their community I can't help but think there's got to be an answer to the mite problem Perhaps that study that's being done in British Columbia on the treatment called 3c36 could be the answer but yet several years away.❓ Glad to hear you're not giving up pressing forward, onward and upward. BTW: I received my baptism today by doing a hive inspection without proper protective gear; And the grand total is= 27 STINGS. They found the way into everything I was wearing. Oh, and you're so right, Anthropomorphism does not influence the girls love for The beekeeper at all. Lol 📖🛐🐆🐝

[@garydungelman6530]

Excellent job mr.Dunn. best wishes. NYC

[@LaNuvrisaDelMonteSoapShop]

😢 awww man, this is just so sad. I've been following long enough to really appreciate the design of your long hive. I'm in process of building one. This situation would have dropped any hive. My condolences. Keep it going. You gave them the very best environment and supplies.

[@FrederickDunn]

Oh, don't worry at all, that's an older video, they are doing extremely well now. We use that hive as a teaching system more than any other. Thank you for being concerned, but all is well :)

[@omarualpacafarm]

Wow Fred. How very sad. And yet you rise to the occasion and continue to educate us. Thank you.

[@FrederickDunn]

The good news is that we have lots of bees to work with and this hive will be back in service very soon :)

[@noahriding5780]

Sorry to those who had dead outs. That hurts.

[@longarmsupplies]

Thanks for the great lessons, Fred. The more we know, the better we do.

[@FrederickDunn]

You are very welcome, thanks for watching and commenting :)

[@307MsKrys]

Very sorry for the loss but thank you for sharing this it was extremely educational and helpful.

[@35jays]

Thanks for the reply and especially the information.

[@FrederickDunn]

You're welcome.

[@danielwagner6290]

Your long hive is one of the best constructed long hives on KZbin in my opinion. A true 1 1/2" thick wood design on all sides. Good job ! I love it ! I guess your coffin jesters think there proven right.

[@FrederickDunn]

I am determined to make this work, I think it's a decent design and have learned a few things this past year. Let's see how it goes with this year's colony.

[@azartrus]

I love this long langstroth hive. I'm thinking of making one myself come early winter. Thanks for the videos

[@FrederickDunn]

My current plans are FREE to use, and include my current design choices. fredsfinefowl.com/plansprints.html

[@NKYHoneyBees]

Sorry to hear you lost the hive. Learned a lot from this. Glad you will try the Horizontal Hive again. Keep us updated.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks, will do!

[@matthewmccormick2417]

My insolated horizontal i tested here in upper mid west did great. Came out with 8 frames of BEEs from winter. I think was great anyway for the brutal cold and all the snow we had here. All the rest of my hives where wintered in single deeps in a shed. I dont know why people buy BEES? All i have from day 1 are from swarm traps i set out away from any towns and all have did great for years. From what i have been told they look like a carnie cauc mix. The Queens are all Black like a tire. Best of luck this year FRED

[@FrederickDunn]

Wow, you really have some great stock there Matthew! I agree, get those local bees!

[@k.j.m.9357]

Thanks for sharing Fred, i lost all four of my hives this winter. Started with four nucs last spring , bees had lots of stores. My nucs were Georgia bred Italians bees. The best bees i've had in my 14 yrs. of beekeeping, were Italians from New Hampshire.( Mr.LaGrant, spelling may be a bit off ) I lost them to Varroa mites, as well. I used the powered sugar method , as the bees groomed themselves the varroa fall of of them. Taking this yr off from beeking , wanting to try some northern breed bees again, next time around, maybe Russians, Carnies or something else. I have a big veggie garden, fruit trees and loved seeing my bees, doing their thing. I will certainly try again, the world needs honeybees..! K.J.M

[@suzanneguiho4882]

This was a very good video. So it was a case of a hive not being queen right. Something like this happened to Kamon Reynolds in Dec19. But He re-queened by using one of his queens in one of his nuc boxes, I think...and I think they survived the winter...have to check this out...because I don’t remembre how Kamon noticed there was a problem to begin with in the middle of Dec. So main causes of winter lost are 1) Varroa mites, 2) starvation 3) temp/humidity 4) queen right/not Hope you can figure out if a late swarm did occur. One could hear your sigh of relief that it was not due to the Horizontal hive! I am glad you will continue with it.

[@FrederickDunn]

Kamon has a wonderful weather advantage in that he can open hives well into winter, while we have to remain buttoned up for many months. Having a nucleus colony to freshen a queenless hive would definitely be an advantage, but here I couldn't expose them to the cold or I may lose the nucleus and the queen-less colony.

[@suzanneguiho4882]

@@FrederickDunn Gave you the wrong impression I think. Was in no way suggesting that you should have made a winter inspection. But I would have a ton of questions for you. I think this would be a good case study. A lot to be learned from this. On it’s face value I don’t think it had to do with the type of bees nor the hive you had. Hope there will be a follow up to this.

[@robertmathurin739]

Sorry for the lost,Mr Dunn,, Jus Another Day in Nature,,the Life Cycle,,And Experience..🇱🇨👍🏿♥️♥️

[@MerlinspopTBH]

I suggest moving the entrance to the end with a landing board. That way, honey will only be on the far end away from the entrance, which the cluster will move to over the winter. If honey was on both ends, they won’t be able to access the far away honey. I also used wine cork sized holes for the entrance, so I could close them up as needed. Lastly (mentioned this on an earlier video), if you try foundationless frames again, mount some cove molding under the bar (make sure the fit is tight so you don’t create a beetle hiding space in the cove).

[@grantgalloway833]

Sorry for your loss. I had high hopes that the horizontal hive plus saskatraz would be a winning concept. As you said loss of the queen doomed it for them. You're a great steward for beekeeping.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you Grant!

[@johndough29]

Both my hives died last winter (in my horizontal hives). I did not get to do an inspection. I am very thankful that I got to see and learn from this video. Question: At ~6:50, you talk about 'mite feces?'. Do we only see this in extreme cases of infestation?

[@FrederickDunn]

Not necessarily just "extreme" cases, but just evident that the varroa mites are reproducing in the capped pupae cells. Just evidence of presence, not necessarily in overwhelming numbers.

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

That's almost is what my Saskatraz deadout looked like except there was a queen and a tiny cluster that just couldn't hold on. One Saskatraz colony did survive and I will make a split from it to see how they handle the mites with mating with the local genetics. Thanks Fred!

[@FrederickDunn]

Oh, that's great that you have a Saskatraz survivor colony! I hope they continue to work out. So much bad news with that line, but there are definitely some that made it ok. Thanks for sharing Rodney!

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

@@FrederickDunn The one that didn't make it was my mite bomb colony! Maybe it was for the best. Thanks Fred!

[@mcockerham2003]

Very instructional. Thank you.

[@elizabethrogers1152]

Very interesting, thanks for the walk through 🐝🐝🐝

[@FrederickDunn]

You're very welcome!

[@NewEnglandgardening]

I bought a Saskatraz queen last year when I found I had no queen and laying workers in May. I heard the buzz about them no pun intended. I think they were down to maybe two frames of bees so I did not do a mite wash. I built a Layens hive and transferred them from a nuc into the Layens in June. They made it thru the winter but I have not done an inspection yet. I'm afraid of chilling any brood they might have. I'm starting to think that characterizing bees to have certain traits is BS. Maybe the hygenic trait I believe since I've seen examples of that. I thought the Saskatraz was suppose to be more resilient against mites. It seems that if you just keep the mite count down and have good nutrition and have a good insulated hive that is the best chance for survival. I'm going to try to make my own queen this year if I have enough bees since I only have one hive. Was that the only colony you lost this winter? How would you rate your winter? Although MA had some pretty cold days and some snow storms I would say it was a pretty average winter although it seems we have more wind storms combined with cold lately.

[@FrederickDunn]

So far, I've lost four of fifteen colonies, we're not out of the woods yet. I'm glad your bees are doing well and thanks for sharing!

[@mikedonovan4434]

Sir: At 17:21, what crop occupied the field behind the hive? Are you aware if crop was GMO or non-GMO? How about use of pesticides, herbicides or fungicides on the field? Always curious to know if major food source for bees was tainted with chemicals potentially detrimental to their immune system.

[@FrederickDunn]

last year it was soybeans. I am in a low pesticide load area based on BeeScape.

[@kennith.]

Thank you for the update. If you can and have time can you show us the process of how to clean the hive and frames/equipment so that you can reuse it.

[@FrederickDunn]

There are many videos, by many beekeepers showing how to clean up a dead out. I think I'd rather spend the time on something else since it's so well covered already. Thanks for watching and commenting :)

[@mikekeefe8840]

I used my horizontal hive to house two colonies for the winter. The stronger one died, weaker made it. My wintering change next year, add an area similar to an inner cover on a standard hive to not only allow me to feed them, but also to top vent humidity. Feel one disadvantage to this hive is feeding. I did make sugar candy boards into frames but the cluster backtracked right before the vortex and started with food a few frames away. Top feeding sugar would have helped.

[@FrederickDunn]

I hope that works out for you! :)

[@timashton1353]

Hi Fred, really informative video, thanks 👍. I have a home made horizontal hive too, I'm in Birmingham UK . And had a similar dead out this year. As a newbie it's a heartbreak but I'm determined to try again. I wasn't sure I can extract the honey, so I'm glad I see you are. Do you remove the wax from these frames too? And, I will also destroy the frames with the dead bees on. I will try a 3 split brood frame this year to see if I can control the varroa numbers. What do you think of this technique?

[@KayiFarmJaHoneyBees]

Great and insightful video! Thanks for your assessment!

[@samiyarossini]

Dang. Sorry you lost them, Fred. Sounding like winter was hard for so many bee keepers.

[@FrederickDunn]

I think the Queen quit on them going into winter, this issue wasn't across my apiary, as others are doing very well. We'll see what this year brings :)

[@cqammaz53]

I was talking to a fellow beekeeper here in Pa. about getting a horizontal beehive and he told me that they don't work in our weather. Do you receive below-freezing weather where you are?

[@FrederickDunn]

I think we're going to find out, yes, I live in the snowbelt and we've been snowfall record setters in the past. I actually think it's going to work with a good queen going into winter. This year will tell the tail, and I'm also using the Layens horizontal hive this year, so we'll have a nice comparison between the two. I know several keepers who have had top bar hive failures here in NWPA, but I feel they may have thrown in the towell too early. One hive, one test just isn't enough for me to make that determination.

[@Willbkool]

They use them in Russia, so I suspect they would work for PA.

[@davidshafer1872]

Sorry for your loss. If you get a working hive would it be possible to modify the long lang to add a flow hive system?

[@FrederickDunn]

Since I have Flow-Hives, I see no need to add Flow-Frames to a Long Langstroth format. I don't see that as an advantage. Flow-Frames need to be tilted for proper extraction, and I can't think of a way to make that practical and useful in the horizontal format. You can certainly harvest honey from a Long Lang, but Flow-Frames, in my opinion, make something simple, into something unnecessarily complex.

[@davidshafer1872]

@@FrederickDunn I only ask because I can't build both types of hive. But I think I like the long lang better because I won't have to lift heavy supers of honey and bees. Thanks for your advice.

[@rickwarner9142]

Sorry for your loss 🙁🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@bestlimotx4039]

Hello Frederick I watched your video and it is heartbreaking to see. I think you are right in your plan to instal a local swarm instead of a package bees. Your local bees are used to local temperatures and flowering seasons, and most likely will not swarm late in the season. I noticed the cluster dyed on top of the frame on an empty cumb. Starvation may also be part of the reason bees die out. Plantiful Honey reserves on the side frames usually stored for Colony Spring Build Up, and it's better to collect it during late Fall after the cluster had formed leaving only a couple of Honey frames on each side of the cluster, Minimizing Hive Space and giving bees less room to heat. During winter months the bee cluster is able to move only upward with an average speed of 1millimeter per day. The Long Langstroth hive is too shallow for long winters, Deep Layens Hive is more suitable. Langstroth 2 deeps stackable may not be sufficient for bees to survive long and cold winters since it is interrupted by cumb frames, bees may starve at the top of the first frame, because 1 inch frame space is to grate of the distance for hibernating bees to overcome, since they move up only 1 Millimeter in 24 hours. I wanted to attach some pictures to illustrate but youtube dont give this option. I wish you all the best and I love to watch your videos. Thank you Roman.

[@ursamajor339]

Fred, this really stinks to see, but a small silver lining is that I'm just coming through my first winter and I also lost a whole hive in exactly the same way. Tons of honey, no Queen, etc. I say silver lining, because I felt like a total failure because they were coming active in that hive weeks ago, and then suddenly died. I couldn't imagine what I had done wrong. It does give me some comfort in knowing that even such amazing experienced beekeeper such yourself can have the same types of things happen. Believe it or not it makes me feel a little better. Thanks so much for sharing and hopefully we will both have better luck this year.

[@roden70]

Very informative video. This design can really house a bustling and healthy hive. I hope it will get to be one this year.

[@FrederickDunn]

Still looks good to me, we'll see how it goes :)

[@mbgal7758]

I agree that you should try again with this hive. I think it was designed well, I think Saskatraz bees just didn’t do well last year. I haven’t heard many people who got them last spring that are still living this spring.

[@FrederickDunn]

I think you're right and the situation will be improved with my survivior stock. We'll see how this year goes :)

[@attilaelekes5534]

What a good video to learn from! Thxs

[@FrederickDunn]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you for taking a moment to comment :)

[@backdraft916]

Can you preserve the wax from the “bad” frames?

[@FrederickDunn]

I could, but I just don't need amy more bees wax, all of my bins are full. Just the brood frames are being removed, keeping the honey frames for sure.

[@cliffordallan1393]

When you say you are going to destroy the frames… Do you mean the whole frame or are you just going to gut the insides out? And with the bees not clean up any of the frames with the dead bees in it. The reason I ask is because my hive survived the winter… But there was a lot of dead bees some of them were stuck in frames and I was just going to let the remaining bees clean everything up.

[@FrederickDunn]

@@cliffordallan1393 You can definitely keep the frames! :)

[@michaeldenhoed758]

when you looking at the brood frames you said you were going to burn them why are you not keeping the wood frame? why would you not take out the wax and reuse the wood? is there a chance that the varroa have eggs that are in the wood? i do like to see that there was lots of honey in the hive and cant wait to see you get the long layens hive going and this one going again. I know you here this lots love how educational your videos are and seeing your successes and the problems from your testing :)

[@FrederickDunn]

I just remove brood comb as a precaution against potential pathogens. I have a stockpile of frames, so I'd rather the next colony start fresh. Wood is porous and can harbor pathogens, it "could" be re-used, but I'd rather they have a clean slate. The honey frames will be uncapped, harvested, and reintroduced.

[@michaeldenhoed758]

@@FrederickDunn thanks was just interested why you said that makes lost of scene

[@noahriding5780]

Wanted to ask if the bees can control whether or not they can produce queens versus drones without the other? For example, do they have the smarts/guts/genes/ whatever to be able to think... we'll make drones only this time, or queens only, but not both? (This would affect decisions involving inserting queens from others, or outside your own apiary, potentially.)

[@FrederickDunn]

The Queen decides if she will fertilize an egg (worker) or not fertilize an egg (drone), then the nurse bees decide if they will feed and nuture those larvae when they hatch from the eggs. The workers have also been known to destroy eggs when they disapprove, or when resources aren't available to feed them. It's a joint decision. Laying workers don't have a choice, they can only produce infertile (drone) eggs.

[@noahriding5780]

@@FrederickDunn Do you have a video also on testing ingredients for making your own pollen sub? The way the prices are going through the roof...yeah.

[@AlleyCat-1]

Looks more like they froze (the one's that are still on the frames. Did you do the insulation version or just insulated the lid?

[@FrederickDunn]

Without sufficient bee numbers, yes, the remaining bees could not maintain that valuable heat mantle. No chance without the renewal that comes with a healthy queen no matter what the configuration is.

[@gary5172]

1. With Mite Bombs-can you give those honey combs to another hive? 2. Will those Mite Bomb honey Combs have Mites in them?

[@FrederickDunn]

I don't like to transfer honey comb between colonies. The other colonies are all providing well for themselves, if I had to boost them, I'd do that with sugar syrup over sharing honeycomb. Plus, we can use the honey and just uncap and process it as we don't have to worry about bee pathogens. There are no mites living in the hive once the bees die, so that's not a concern, but the pathogens they vector are a concern and I'd rather not share that.

[@justducky0]

Do winter drones help generate heat in the cluster?

[@FrederickDunn]

When I've scanned brood frames with the thermal imaging camera, the drones are not performing as the heater bees. That doesn't mean that they couldn't, but I've not observed any drones working in that way. I think drones conserve as much of their energy as possible. I'll keep watching for that. But not that I know of.

[@martenapperloo1055]

Wow that's to bad Fred ,I was hoping for good results, I guess I will see how my first year in a horizontal hive works for me

[@FrederickDunn]

Remember, I don't think it's the hive after examining the interior conditions, I think it's more the stock and queen loss.

[@matthewmccormick2417]

My horizontal i tested this winter did great. Even up here in the brutal cold and all the snow it came out of winter with 8 frames of BEES. Best of luck

[@dalecain1158]

Good luck this year!

[@joelcaldwell4852]

I get fall swarms if I’m not careful to add more space with the tremendous goldenrod flow in my little corner of Potter County. I think you may have had open cells, but they were too far away laterally in the hive. I think in warmer weather that wouldn’t have been a problem. Bees like vertical growth in cooler conditions as it is easier for the cluster to utilize their heat. I have three deeps of Saskatraz bees in one colony just a week ago, and another in two deeps. It’s almost as if they had no winter loss in strength. So far I have had very good luck with the Saskatraz. Each hive produced 100 pounds of honey for me last year. And they still have about a hundred pounds each left. I’ll need to get some empty comb to them soon.

[@FrederickDunn]

That is a great Saskatraz success story! Thanks for sharing.

[@benbrown9979]

Sorry for your losses but really good information and analysis on what happened. Enjoy watching your video's by the way. I'm getting ready to put a Beeweaver queen in a Long Lang but was wondering if you thought having to much insulation could come back to bite me. I have 1/2" plywood sheathing sandwiching a 1" R5 foam board (so 2 " thick walls). I live in central North Carolina and was thinking the bee's may need more honey because they want go in to a true doormat state if the internal temp doesn't drop like a normal hive over winter.

[@FrederickDunn]

I don't really think there is such a thing as too much insulation :) They will just use fewer resources as they go through winter, and may also use fewer resources in summer as they remain cooler. I think you're going to be just fine.

[@ZelmaBees]

Thanks for sharing the good, along with the bad and the ugly. Sad as it is, it's still good information to digest.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks!

[@keithfaithful3989]

Thanks for the great info. I would guess by the small amount of bees that the hive swarmed. Maybe do to the stress of the mite load. A brood break would lower the mites but without a queen doomed.

[@FrederickDunn]

all true.

[@bfvader]

I'm looking into putting together a Long Lang for myself, with extra insulation for our Canadian winters here; Just curious how you handle Oxalic Acid treatments in this configuration?

[@FrederickDunn]

I use the provap 110 through a 1/4" diameter hole in the back wall of the hive.

[@fcarballo]

Thanks for the video. Very informative. Can you tell me if those plastic boxes are good to keep frames with honey over the winter? Do they seal well? And where do you get them? Thanks

[@FrederickDunn]

Yes, I use them for winter storage of honey frames and also keeps my drawn comb at the ready for hive expansion and swap outs. They are from Hive Butler - hivebutler.com/ tell them Frederick Dunn sent y ou! :)

[@Hannekevanaalst]

Thanks for all the energy and time you put into educating your public, very interesting! You said that you would burn and replace the affected frames. Why not put them into the freezer or something? It seems such a waste of very nice equipment!

[@FrederickDunn]

You "could" boil them off and salvage the frames. The freezer only stops pest eggs like SHB or Waxworms.

[@robertflindall4692]

I lost both of my hives this year as well. It's still too cold to get into them yet. So it's advisable to just destroy the brood frames in both my hives and start fresh? I'm guessing I can scrape the wax off and process that and burn the remainder of the frames? I'm also guessing there's no issue in harvesting the honey and reusing those frames?

[@FrederickDunn]

All true, I just remove brood comb as an additional precautionary layer. Yes, no issue with harvesting the honey, or reusing the frames.

[@tomelzear]

Bummer you lost them. I was hoping they would make it through and boost the morale of the Long lang folks. Will you be doing a follow up on your Bee Weaver bees? The number of mites in this hive was a bit disconcerting and I am hoping to see your Bee Weavers doing well.

[@FrederickDunn]

The BeeWeaver colonies are fabulous! I am glad I did try out the Saskatraz bees, but will not be bringing those around again. We'll keep going :)

[@paule2245]

Fred why burn the frames? we lost our hive over the winter (2nd winter) we put a second box on top - we are thinking it got to cold for them.

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm burning just the brood frames, no reason to keep those, will recycle the honey frames back after extraction and clean up. I don't mind replacing the brood comb when it's from a dead-out, it's just another of protection.

[@dannhauber6816]

Why only one entrance? As the hive progressses would it be easier for them if there was another farther down the length?

[@FrederickDunn]

I stick with a single entrance so that there is nothing but honey at the far end as the season draws to a close. With one entrance, I don't have to use a queen excluder as they will keep the brood neared the entrance while storing honey beyond that. It imitates how they use natural cavities that are verticle or horizontal.

[@saintjohncoleman8602]

Looks like if you follow your plan and repopulate the hive with one of your own B Weaver hygienic swarms, you’ll have better luck since mites were a big part of this death. I tend to think your queen flew the coop in a late season swarm by the apparent lack of huge numbers of corpses in addition to her being absent.

[@BlanchardsBees]

CONGRATS on the 100k subs!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you! I've been handing out Nestle 100,000 bars to everyone I run into :)

[@russellkoopman3004]

Fred, will you requeen the swarm that moves in and put in a Beeweaver queen to help with the mite issues?

[@FrederickDunn]

I will keep them as the swarm will likely be from my own apiary. Observation will tell the tale and if they perform badly, I'll consider re-queening, but will wait and see.

[@Shangori]

Just a question, and this is a complete amateur asking: why isn't there a raster at the bottom, with another bottom below, so the mites that do fall don't end up in the same spot where bees go between the combs? Would also be easier for a checkup, just make the actual bottom part of a drawer to pull out and see if there are mites about. Thanks in advance.

[@FrederickDunn]

Some people do build them with bottom trays that can be pulled out and inspected. I left this colony with solid bottom boards, with screened vents that are adjustable in order to assess if there would be moisture issues. That did not play out, as the colony dwindled too quickly. A large full winter cluster would have generated a lot more moisture. Mites falling through a screen and into a tray would definitely make management and inspections much easier.

[@Shangori]

@@FrederickDunn Thanks for answering! And I understand. Shame things went the way they did

[@cnevett6854]

So sorry to see this but I learned so much. Fred, I also lost 2 hives and have lots of deep honey frames. Did you say you could spin and extract it? I used apiguard and oa on some of my bees. Is that ok for my consumption? How long can you keep capped honey frames in garage... will be using some for resources/splits but not all. Thank you.

[@FrederickDunn]

I am adding this to my discussion for Friday's Q&A as I think many others may have similar concerns :)

[@LairdKenneth]

Would it be necessary to use a dissenfrectant to clease that hive, or mabe just a good sun bath to reduce the chance of disease carrying over to the future inhabitants?

[@FrederickDunn]

In this case, pulling the brood frames was enough, it's doing extremely well now.

[@graceleland3921]

I am sorry if I missed it, but did you say what you do to use the hive again? Does it get a scrubbed bottom board or does vacuuming suffice?

[@FrederickDunn]

With this particular situation, I'm just removing the brood frames and will be returning the honey comb once it's empty. I see no reason not to re-occupy this hive as I noted no other issues.

[@nancywhite2014]

Was all that webby stuff on the clustered bees fungus or mold? Is that what happens after they have died? So sorry for the hive crash. 🐝😢

[@FrederickDunn]

Hi Nancy, it's just hairy mold that forms on dead animals (or any other organic material) as nature reclaims those resources. The dead bees have moisture in their bodies and resources that molds thrive on. Part of normal decay and molds help recycle organic materials that are no longer living... cool eh? :) genetically similar yeasts attach themselves and start munching, well, the way that enzymes do. They, yeasts, are just floating around looking for something to attach themselves to and feed upon.

[@nancywhite2014]

@@FrederickDunn thank you for the explanation. I enjoy your channel and have considered bee keeping having read up on the practice. I am interested in the long horizontal setup. I hope you have a better result with yours in the future.

[@_J.F_]

Very informative and useful work through of a dead out. I suppose, if they swarmed quite late, that a new virgin queen would not have a chance to mate, thereby leaving the colony effectively ‘queenless’. The original queen could of course have died, as you mentioned, but the late swarming does seem a more likely explanation, as the hive was thriving when going into winter, and your queen was probably healthy and not nearing the end of her natural life. It seems to me that very late swarms are getting more common, and makes me wonder if that might be down to climate changes, human interference (i.e. excessive feeding etc.) or maybe a combination of both.

[@FrederickDunn]

All great points!

[@gwlwwill]

Why would you NOT use the brood frames and honey frames from this dead out for new package of bees?

[@FrederickDunn]

I will be installing a swarm, not a package. The honey frames will be uncapped, extracted and replaced for the new occupants as they expand their space.

[@larryschoenberger7957]

Hi Fred, I have really evaluated this strongly and watch this video a couple times. I have a friend who lost three hives, one in the fall was very weak. Over the winter the other two hives were dead o u t s. Nearly an identical situation. I personally observed his hives. At first he thought his hives died out, when it warmed up they were loaded with bees and even bearding on the front. So now did his bees die? After a few short weeks of observation and your video as well. The scenario is near-identical. All of your last frames had no Bees at all on them. The bees you did have in a teeny tiny clusters and all the dead because you have would doubtfully fill a quart jar. His hives were the same way. Plenty of honey and loaded with feces from varroa mites.( you found no Queen) he did not either. My bootleg evaluation is that they absconded due to the Wellness of the colony as they were overtaken by mites. Now listen to this. He has extreme numbers coming to feeders. He has no Bees. But he has numerous bees in the area. I have been setting feeders out and be lining there. I even hung a hive 20 feet high in a tree with drawn comb and an empty box underneath in hopes of catching a swarm. I live about a mile and a half from him and have nowhere near the numbers of wild bees as is seen at his house. I think the Swarms I am trying to catch are his bees. The few bees you have in your hive we're probably just bees that got left behind or robbers that froze out. That is my evaluation by comparing your horizontal hive to his regular langstroth hives. The high numbers of bees coming to the feeders is evident that there are numerous bees nearby his house, when there are no other beekeepers for a distance. Bottom line I think they absconded one warm winter day for their only chance for survival. I watched the video when you actually introduced saskatraz bees into your new horizontal box. I have not read but a few of the comments, and there's one guy said he thought they swarmed, swarming is for reproduction. Absconding is leaving because the house is on fire LOL

[@FrederickDunn]

All good stuff, thanks for sharing Larry!

[@larryschoenberger7957]

@@FrederickDunn Thank you Fred, I have been interested in bees for several years, my first year has been studying and watching and learning. I watch numerous videos educating myself as to the numerous beekeepers all have their own little tricks, I take what I need and learn from it. At this point all I have is a colony about 300 yards from my house with a PVC pipe in it, with about a ten frame tub that I made connected to it LOL I put that in there in the winter time and hoping they start building in there. I do have two complete bee hive boxes and just ordered my 3rd. I am going to catch my bees that are acclimated to my conditions and that did make it through the winter. I would definitely put some bees back in there and get her rolling like an old car, my friend gave me some black comb and it had those Mite eggs on it. I just took them out to the garden hose and sprayed those eggs out of there, shook out the water, and now have them with a fan blowing on them. I am going to use them in swarm traps. I was also wondering if an air hose would maybe work and surely be simpler. We had 0 degree temperatures so I do not fear any complications with using it. Good luck with that horizontal hive and thanks for sharing your experiences. You have bees I would just go to one of your Healthy hives and split a few off and throw them in there with some honey and a jar of sugar syrup unless you catch a swarm for it

[@MarekArawn]

Hey Fred. It's very sad that the 1st year with your horizontal hive didn't go as planned. Just a thought/question: I've been reading Keeping Bees with a Smile (as per your recommendation - LOVE IT!) and the recommendation for northern areas (such as you are and I am) seems to be double-deep horizontal hives. In fact, here's what he advised to a fellow Canadian on the Permies site: " I do NOT recommend a "horizontal Langstroth" hive (using standard American frames just 9" deep), no matter how well you insulate it." What do you think? I even started to tinker with the idea of modifying my frames to make double-deeps out of them, and came across, yup!, Lazutin Hives. Going to make that a side project. Keep up the great teaching. I know I get a lot of insight from watching your channel.

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm going to give this another go. The deeper frames of the Layens will be interesting to compare. I have that hive set out in the same yard as this Long Lang. Dr. Leo is a great guy, and I enjoy his seminars. He recently said that people outside of his forested area should not expect to follow his annual inspection and non-treatment cycle. A double deep long lang, not sure how that would even work? I think it the queen had not departed or died in this colony, they should have made it. We'll give it another year and see what happens. The reason I say this is that there are top bar hive beekeepers in Vermont and they say it works. So... another puzzle to solve. I'm stil hopeful. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!

[@MarekArawn]

@@FrederickDunn My understanding of the double-deep lang is that it would be like a Lazutin hive. The frames are similar to the Layens, except Adapted to Langstroth, so roughly 18 x 18" (square). Here's a link to someone who makes them (I suspect you would be able to make them yourself as you seem pretty handy with a saw): lazutinhives.com/ A company called Petit Hives (.com) also sells tham - but, once again, I think you'd be better off making it yourself There is also a woman in Paris (Ontario) who built one based on Lazutin and Dr. Leo, she shares her findings: bwestie.wixsite.com/barbara-westfall/deep-horizontal-revised

[@MarekArawn]

@@FrederickDunn I'm also curious about the Vermont experience. Given the various views regarding single or double chambers for wintering, I'd love to know what they do for winterizing.

[@beesrfunny]

Wow! This is a great set up! Shame those bees didn’t survive. I hope the next bees living there will do better! Always love watching your videos! All the best! 😊

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks!

[@TrickyTrev01]

Fredrick although heart breaking, it’s good to see what happens when they lose a queen and they have a mite problem. So glad we don’t have mites here in oz. Again sorry for the loss of the hive but very educational and informative video. Thanks TrickyTrev 🇦🇺👍👍🐝🐝🐝🍯🍯🍯🍯

[@namentatic4978]

We did not have varroa mites in Europe either, but they came from somewhere long time ago. What is so good in AU that mites are not reached there yet?

[@TrickyTrev01]

@@namentatic4978 yep that's right we don't have them here and hopefully we never get them either.

[@35jays]

Sorry for the late post, just discovered this video. BTW, great video and commentary. You mentioned that you will burn the frames. Can I ask why? Thanks in advance! Dave

[@FrederickDunn]

Just because it's easy to just give them fresh foundation rather than take the chance that the brood disease may carry on to the next occupants. Not mandatory. The brood comb in parcitular is just a mess, the bees "could" clean them up. You could wash them out, flush the cells and put them back into service. Since I have plenty of extra frames, I just replaced them. But to be clear, it's not necessary in order to control this kind of brood disease.

[@clintgrimes628]

So sad. That is a lot of honey. I just came here from the setup video and was thinking a split top would make it more accessible if you haven’t figured out an escape path for that lid. More complicated to seal too. I like the insulation you added. I was assuming the veroa climbed up from the ground, but hitching a ride on drones makes them very difficult to exclude.

[@green-zone36]

You did mention that you did treat this hive. With the mites on the floor of the hive far from the brood nest may indicate the mites fell from the bees during the treatment. All the dead mites may be saying the treatment did work. Any thoughts. Thanks for the tour of the hive.

[@FrederickDunn]

That is an absolute possibility. I think the absent queen is the primary cause of their demise.

[@edwinhsingmaster9135]

Hours after viewing your long Langstroth video. I am a first spring beek with my diy Doug fir long lang, and bee are doing great, so here are some question, and hopefully help. My hive has burr comb everywhere. Not yours? Non on box, or frames? Is there something bad about using oak, possibly VOC's. ?? Knowing your diligence, very interested in your research. The Best, H

[@FrederickDunn]

Nothing to do with the oak, they sealed that up well with propolis. I think it was just the use of bee space. There is 3/8" between the frames and interior of cover boards, I think that did the trick. :)

[@shadowhand911]

Had the queen survived but STILL that many mites, do you think they would have made it. Mite count is up because of laying worker, but in your opinion, how do you think the mite count would have played out with original queen. Saskatras bees don't seem very mite resistant as you stated.

[@FrederickDunn]

I think we can't tell the true load based on dead bees and mites, but I'll know more when we put survivor stock in this hive this year. I think, had the queen survived, we'd still have a thriving colony even with the mites present. But again, can't say for certain.

[@shadowhand911]

@@FrederickDunn as a long time viewer I can't wait to see what is in store. Honestly seems just like luck of the draw and either the queen died without you finding her or a REALLY crazy swarm. So let me get this straight, 3 weeks for a laying worker to occur and ANOTHER 21 days for drones to be emerging in huge numbers. So a month and a half BEFORE January. Middle of winter, can't be a swarm.

[@kaj375]

Fred thanks for the information but I still doubt the reason. Actually how can a whole colony wipe out by mites? I know you don't play with your hive inspections. My question still stand's "How can all the bees die like that?" What was your findings after experimenting on them? Please,I'm waiting for your elaborative answer. Thank you.

[@FrederickDunn]

The Queen is missing. That's the cause. Mite loads were secondary. No queen, now new bees, natural decline of the hive population. Drone brood only, it's pretty clear in my opinion. Sorry that you doubt my findings, but I can't explain it any better than that.

[@kaj375]

Thanks.

[@larrylosciale9656]

Ouch, but like you said a learning experience. Thanks for sharing.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks for watching! Yes, we learn and hopefully do better going forward :)

[@charlid9569]

Where can I find building plans for the long Lang you built? I would love to use these! Thank you in advance!

[@walterhiegel3020]

Interesting so you see lots of varroa but no deformed wings. Sorry that the bees didn't make it. Are you planning on getting the new updated flow hive?

[@FrederickDunn]

I was very happy to see the absence of deformed winged virus! Yes, I have the New Flow-Hive 2 + unit and just haven't put it together yet. I may make a video about that also. I'm making another bee yard and rotating gear OUT. So it's time for the new stuff here in my "varroa controlled" apiary.