Never Been Inspected | Opening Up Three Abandoned Beehives and Finding the Worst Conditions.

Join me on an adventure as I explore three abandoned bee hives in desperate need of attention. In this video, I uncover the eerie yet fascinating world of forgotten bee colonies and assess their conditions. From neglected frames to overgrown boxes, each hive presents its own set of challenges. But with determination and care, I embark on a mission to revive these once-thriving communities. Watch as I inspect the hives, discuss their plight, and devise a plan to restore them to their former glory. Whether you're a beekeeping enthusiast or simply curious about nature's delicate balance, this video offers a glimpse into the world of bee rescue and conservation. Don't miss out on this journey of discovery and hope for our buzzing friends!
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[@orangevw36]

Lots of comments here about saving the bees. Bees do just fine without us. They built those hives the way they wanted them. If those boxes weren’t adequate, they’d find a new home on their own. The things we do with boxes and frames is for our convenience as beekeepers. We aren’t saving the bees, we’re making their honey easier to harvest. I’m not being negative about what he’s doing. I’m a beekeeper and I’d do the same. I just don’t look at it like I’m saving them unless their lives are threatened in their current location

[@shezyam460]

totally agree, bees have been around and doing well for themselves many times longer than we've been here lol. beekeepers just optimize honey extraction, when it comes down to it.

[@utvc3687]

Exactly

[@NoBody-xx6ii]

💯

[@spooh75]

I think you are exactly right but I do look at all beekeepers as saviors without the bees gardeners like me would not have the Bounty that we have I feel if they'er going to put them in a box, might as well take care of them. Leaving them as an unwanted house guest to a new home owner could have resulted in a far worse outcome. Thank you all for your hard work.

[@stevenbell1888]

True, however you could say that a beekeeper that breeds strong queens IS helping to save the bees. any swarms that release back into the wild from well kept and bred queens will have better genetics in the wild.

[@witchy90210]

The bees were so well tempered, you could say they were.... as sweet as honey.

[@wesness9116]

Those poor ladies, stoked you're going to give them a good home and the proper beekeeping they need.

[@orangevw36]

Gotta remember… bees are wild insects even though we try to do our best. They know what to do without us intervening. Those 3 hives were doing quite well without human intervention. I’m sure they populated the area by swarming. The only bad side of not tending to them is box rot. If it rots too much they’ll move to a better home. We beekeep for ourselves…. Not the bees. They thrive in the wild…. Would do much better if we’d stop spraying chemicals and mowing or killing important weeds and trees in the US. Big farming is the cause of 50% loss in the US every year.

[@utvc3687]

There is nothing wrong with these bees, they are just living and building how they want and survive

[@jessicafairfax_Bens_Bees]

Now that's what I call a beautiful mess 🐝💜 glad to see the colonies look good and are all queen right. What a save 👍😁 Cheers!

[@sentimentalbloke7586]

Make this the bottom box of two brood boxes, come late winter / early spring time to reverse boxes but the bees will all be up in the upper box, and you can safely remove the bottom box, it will be unlikely that there is any brood in it, because they move upward to conserve heat in the hive over winter.

[@JustBees]

On box #3, if you put an empty medium box with frames and no comb, and an excluder, most of the bees will go to whichever box has queen. Wait a day or two and come back. Hopefully they are closest to brood & you can take the box without a bunch of bees and put it about 10 yards away at night. The foragers will leave by mid day. They will return to the spot they orientated to. Then all you have in the box is a fraction of the bees. Get your rubber bands and a window screen. Any comb you salvage can be placed on the piece of screen, lay frame over it, slide rubber bands. I’m sure you know this. Posting for someone reading this that doesn’t. I enjoyed this video way too much. Like treasure hunting. That defensive hive is going to be the best of all 3 in terms of production. Better make queens out of their eggs.

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Nice to see Australians displaying things love it

[@alisonshanahan1237]

Looks like you're going to have a lot of fun renovating these boxes.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

I am

[@robyngrubb8413]

New to all this, fascinating, thank you :)

[@kathyhathaway8823]

Those frames look like there was at one time a bad wax moth invasion by the holes in the wood. I have saw hives this bad before but thank goodness I did not have to clean them up. Good luck. Thanks

[@alanthomson5331]

I haven't sighted ant SHB. That's gotta be a bonus.

[@spooh75]

I just stumbled across your channel I love watching beekeepers to me these videos that I've just seen the last three of yours posted are like an ASMR beekeeping savior I love the way you take us on the journey I love the way you love your bees thank you so much for sharing this I can't wait to delve back and watch more of your videos God bless keep doing what you do

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Hey thanks!

[@pmichelerowes3700]

Thank you!

[@alexjenkins433]

With that first super with wonky comb. What I do is scrape the top off turn it upside down on a table and cut around the frames inside the box and then lift the box off the frames. You can then separate them out a lot easier.

[@cobberpete1]

I think I would bite the bullet, and start swapping out some of the frames for wired foundation. Taking out all the honey you can, and moving the brood into the top super. Over a few inspections, you would remove all the chaos and restore order ( for the human that is). I wish my bees were as calm as those 'Neglected' hives. Thank you.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

That’s the plan in the brood boxes. In the upper boxes I’ll just take them off in one hit.

[@davidhorsley4657]

I won't offer my 2 pence worth because Aussie Beekeeper seems to know what he's doing.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

@davidhorsley4657 that’s debatable

[@lynnehrhart5789]

Sweet bees indeed.

[@edmartin875]

They are likely calm because no one has been opening their hive every week for several years.

[@TrickyTrev01]

Great video lots to do but, that’s what we do. Awesome job 👍🐝🍯

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Yes we do

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Lovely your get eggs and a lot of every thing

[@1425race]

I would clean off tops and bottoms of frames load them into new boxes in the same order with new bottom boards and covers and fill the boxes with foundation frames leaving only bee space so they can't cross link.

[@khatpaufridaytalks2670]

Thank you so much Aussie Apiary Culture Association. God bless Australia Continent

[@aussiebeekeeping]

No worries!

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Your doing great mate and so cram mine was higeldy pigaldy as well no stability and every thing fell out but all ok now

[@tasmedic]

I guess you've not seen a slatted rack before. There are several reasons for these, the main one being to prevent comb being built right to the base of the hive. Personally, I think the bees know what to do and I don't use them. As regards cross combing. When I started beekeeping, I was encouraged to use foundationless frames with just a thin strip of wood at the top of each frame for the bees to start from. However, this turned out to be a complete nightmare, as the bees filled the entire hive with cross comb worse than seen here. I made several attempst to ge the hives into some sort of order, but they kept cross combing every time. Hence, where I live, in Tasmania, I'd recommend using foundation unless you want to trash your hives every time you need to inspect.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

I thought a slatted rack was to reduce congestion and help with keeping brood cool in the summer.

[@rachelstone4967]

@@aussiebeekeeping & I thought they were supposed to be in line with the frames not perpendicular.... but I've never used them either.

[@Huntnlady7]

@@aussiebeekeeping that's not a typical slatted rack. Sooner or later, you'll have to rip that off and put it on a standard bottom. They're too low to the ground anyway.

[@StarfleetSpecialCommand]

Good or bad I would have started with fresh hives and transplanted them. Awesome job taking care of them once getting them.

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Thanks for sharing I learnt somthing I didn’t no

[@elvenking62]

Clean that bottom super. Place a new second super with extra new frames to fill in. Transfer best frames. Rejuvenated hive

[@aussiebeekeeping]

2 month out from winter?

[@jasonjohnson1984]

I would bring new boxes and put the queen in the new with new foundation and put a queen excluder on and put the old hive on top until the brood is born and then remove the old boxes

[@aussiebeekeeping]

A month out from winter?

[@jasonjohnson1984]

@@aussiebeekeeping o ok didn't know that

[@brendawydeven2934]

Omg. That last box.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Yep

[@brendawydeven2934]

@aussiebeekeeping you did great job going through them.

[@donaldross8597]

While this hive hasn't been abandoned and not inspected and doesn't fit the norm of left, right, left, straight and perfect. I think we forget that bees in the wild. As when they live in homes or trees or anywhere else don't build straight framed. C** headline hives. Probably don't look the best. However, what I find amazing is without all the inspections. The virumite treatment the win reservation, the feeding. The constant observation that these bees have made it and continue to survive, not to mention the fact that they probably had swarms where they contributed to the local environment. Thank you.

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Surprised how easy it came part

[@Teverell]

What a mess! I hope you can bring these hives back to some semblance of order. Would you consider just transferring the frames to new boxes, I think you said in the previous video that it looked like at least one box had rot or something? That last hive was a real state - were there really only two frames in it?! You might be able to salvage the comb that's not in frames; Texas Beeworks uses elastic bands to secure comb into frames when saving hives - check out the Texas Beeworks youtube channel. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the journey as you go through with sorting the mess out - at least you've got a load of honey to start off with!

[@apveening]

I've seen those elastic bands used by a lot of other beekeepers when saving/removing hives.

[@JustBees]

Far left hive is PROTECTIVE and will be the best of the bunch. They probably are raising some drones, because bees are very protective of drone brood during build up before mating season. Protective bees are a perfect source of capped brood that can be added to a weak hive and build the defense.

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Mine didn’t have any thing they were left to own devices but now fixed

[@DavidWilliams-wr4wb]

I saw the boring in the top bars from wax moth larvae , destructive lil buggers !

[@aussiebeekeeping]

I didn’t realize they did that until later

[@kh7794]

Looks to me that someone intended to come back to put more frames in and straighten everything but something disastrous happened in their lives where the bees weren't the priority. I think they got interrupted by life, it has all the hallmarks. They just didn't ever make it back to put frames in. I'm thinking the people you got them from inherited them, probably with the property. You just never know so I try not to criticize anyone, esp in a situation like this.

[@richardstutler3058]

Nothing ever really free,but looks like you got some good stock to work with. And won't take long to get them up to par!

[@NolaSpiersMitchell-gu5iu]

Omg what a mess

[@JustBees]

All that stuff is SWARM trap stuff worth gold.

[@WillieSams]

I thought they were your 🐝

[@brrjebshedly575]

Wath is the mess!!!!

[@raymondbrown867]

If me,cut box away then deal with frame

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Not you

[@WillieSams]

Why didn't you put supper on them before they built all that comb

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Eye roll

[@threadie]

@@aussiebeekeeping You're too polite .. lol 👍🏻

[@edmartin875]

The hives were abandoned by the previous owner. He got them, this was an inspection. He plans to work with them and get them back into good shape.

[@theresar6421]

poor guy thinks people make bees better... those bees are fine

[@aussiebeekeeping]

Theresa is very judgy.

[@topmarranchadventuresgiggl3360]

You where asked to retrieve theses hives, there is no need to keep reminding your viewers how bad the other keepers where. Truly distasteful.

[@aussiebeekeeping]

What’s distasteful is you judging without having any information. The beekeeper that advertised these hives to the general public said that were in good condition. They also struggled to adhere to the legal requirements to transfer the ownership of the hives to me and to perform regular inspections as well as ensure all frames of honey and brood remain on single frames so they are removable. As per Australian agricultural regulations. They remain terrible beekeepers.