Should I Use Queen Excluders in Honey Bee Hives? Queen Excluder Challenge Part One

[@garydungelman6530]

You go any higher going to need a ladder God bless you and yours

[@Bruce23d]

I live 20 miles from you in E-town. I have a few hives that are pretty strong right now! I would be interested in checking out your process sometime, learn a bit maybe. Great videos!

[@brucesbees]

Ok! We can set it up!

[@brucesbees]

I think I just sent you a friend request on fb. Message me and we will get something set up.

[@privatebubba8876]

Queen excluders are more effective with a top entrance above the excluder. Honey production with a top entrance is equal to honey production with out a QE.

[@brucesbees]

Good information. Thanks.

[@kathrynpavic4510]

Have you tried changing your queen in the hive that the bee's are aggressive,you dont want the queen to keep laying these type of bee's,even if they are productive,here in Australia we breed for a placid bee,have used with excluder and without,l think for myself the excluder dose a good job.

[@brucesbees]

I have thought about it but these bees are not located close to people and the ya re good honey producers so I just let them do their thing. They are not always this aggressive.

[@zoranvidakovic7875]

Hello Jenne..! Nice video whit clear sound.. Can I ask why you did not pull up the caped honey frames and new box whit foundation bellow it..!? The right way of QE is to put above the brood.. Thanx for video..I enjoy it..

[@brucesbees]

I am leaving that for the bees. Anything above the excluder will be for us to harvest. I also treated for mites with those frames on. Technically you are not supposed to use honey that was in the hive when treating with Oxalic Acid.

[@brucesbees]

There should be plenty of bees to go through the excluder and full the frames above. Just want to make sure they have plenty of room below. Hopefully that will also help prevent swarming.

[@zoranvidakovic7875]

That’s another thing.. If it’s treated whit oxalic acid better to live to bees.. But still you can reverse top 2 boxes when the lower start to be half full.. Good luck and wait to see the update :)

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for your comments and thanks for watching!

[@zoranvidakovic7875]

Hello Jenne..! Whan we can expect the Update of Hove whit QE..?

[@9realitycheck9]

Ever try lightly spraying sugar water or shaking powdered sugar on the top hive after a little smoke ? Sometimes my bees really calm down with some sweets... But really stong and healthy. ...im jealous

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for the suggestion. May have to give it a try!

[@gazinta]

@@brucesbees use a cheese shaker to save resources. It can get expensive.

[@brucesbees]

Cheese shaker? Please explain🤔

[@gazinta]

@@brucesbees like you find at pizza hut. Any Mason jar with a screw-on lid with small holes punched in it. Like a giant salt shaker.

[@brucesbees]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks

[@CluelessHomesteaders]

Thanks, looking forward to seeing your results. I have a couple of excluders, but have yet to use them.

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for watching. Will see how it goes. I rarely use them but it definitely can make harvesting honey a little more challenging.

[@zoeh9683]

Absolutely love this video. I took off my queen excluders just a few hours ago because it for some reason restricted the movement of my bees

[@brucesbees]

Not a bad plan. This year I did things differently. I let the bees move up into the boxes and start making honey. Then a little while before the first honey harvest I shook the bees down to make sure the queen was below the excluder and put the excluders on below the honey boxes. The bees were accustomed to goin through the excluder and continued to work on the honey. Any brood that was above the excluders emerged and the bees backfilled that space as needed. Worked well. Thanks for checking in!

[@brucesbees]

Here is a video that talks about my strategy this year. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnLbdqR4qN6noK8

[@rockallred658]

another great video, I really enjoy your channel.

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for the kind words. Hope to get my next one posted soon.

[@patrickspires4104]

Hello I would like to know more on your hive stands, how you made them or where you got them. Thanks

[@brucesbees]

These hives are some hives I manage for a local businessman. He owns a steel company and had these made at his plant. They are custom made for his hives and very nice. I wish I had a bunch of them for myself but am guessing they would not be affordable. Wish I could be of more help to you. I think they were designed to have the hives 18” off the ground and the legs drive into the ground to anchor them. Just used a sledge hammer to level them out. The stands are basically made out of angle iron and the corners extend part way up the bottom box to help hole the hives in place. Pretty neat design.

[@patrickspires4104]

They are awesome and thank you so much for getting back to me. I appreciate and hope you have a great 2019 season

[@brucesbees]

Likewise to you. Things are really picking up!!!

[@JDinger03]

Great Video Bruce!! 🤠🤠🤠

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for watching!

[@kenthompson6539]

Lift the crown board an inch up then use smoker before lifting it off and it will help a little!

[@brucesbees]

Not a bad idea. Thanks!

[@adrianforrester325]

interesting video did you check the bottom boxes the bees might of moved out of them up to the stored honey in the top boxes it happens to mine over winter they follow the food up, looking forward to see more videos

[@brucesbees]

Yes I had checked them a few days earlier. I think the boxes were full of bees. Lots of bees. There is a chance that they had moved up some but I think there were plenty of bees throughout the hives. I know what you are saying though. Sometimes I have to reverse boxes or move them around. Thanks for checking out my videos!

[@adrianforrester325]

@@brucesbees thanks for replying, if i was into making videos checking the strength of the colonies would of been my first video but im really looking forward to your experiment

[@pcdubya]

Looks like you are in SC or NC? Do you not have trouble with pests,, mainly small hive beetle with all those boxes? Since you are in full sun maybe it is minimized?

[@brucesbees]

I am in Alabama and we have issues here with SHB for sure. Some locations are worse than others. I try to keep the bees supplied with Beetle Blasters. Has worked pretty well for the most part but very once in awhile I will lose a colony to the nasty little things.

[@PaulHigginbothamSr]

I'm not hot on queen excluders mainly because it may damage their wings. I can walk through town on the main street and my bees are all up and down main street and I am more than a mile from there. They seem to really like sage which seems odd, but I am pretty sure they are my bees.

[@brucesbees]

Could be.

[@jorgeschulz645]

Thanks for your response, I am a chilean dentist and a hobbist beekeeper, we dont have the africanization issue here in our bees, as the brazilean bees were not able to cross the atacama desert nor the andes mountains which protects our species from argentina and brazil genétic influence. I have seen several vídeos from beekeepers from Texas, alabama etc and for what I have noticed the bees there are very defensive , I think you have that issue. By the way my brother which iis a orthopedic surgeon made his postgraduate degree in sports medicine in birmingham, Alabama Cheers and youre welcome to our beautiful country, and práctice your spanish

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for the invitation. Most of my bees are not very aggressive but some are defensive. At times I can go through them with minimal or no gear but usually I at least wear a veil and/or jacket. Thanks for checking out the videos. I hope they are informative and entertaining. Need more subscribers. Hopefully will continue to grow.

[@PaulHigginbothamSr]

My bees are good honey producers but I have not been stung this year. I have not done anything different this year but usually by this time I have been stung 8 to 10 times by now. My hives do not seem runny on the frames and are not excited even when working in their brood box. I just dont go out of my way to avoid stings and early in the morning they might fly up around me but don't bump unless I am right in the flight path. I have even painted the boxes which usually upsets these guys. My bees seem small and fuzzy and blond this year. Of course the queens are large and red. It has been really hot lately and need water constantly.

[@brucesbees]

Sounds like you have nice bees.

[@lindagray5857]

Mine are like that too. Even a swarm I caught earlier.

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for checking in!

[@jorgeschulz645]

Hello bruce, any results yet from the excluder challenge? Greetings from chile

[@brucesbees]

Planning to do a follow up but things haven’t gone as planned. Plan to harvest pretty soon and will do the follow up around that time. Had some swarming issues etc. I have learned a few things through the process but maybe not necessarily what I was hoping to learn. Thanks for asking.

[@brucesbees]

I spent a couple of years in Ecuador many years ago on a mission for my church. Never made it to Chile though. 🙂

[@9realitycheck9]

Btw... at 9:20 ...looked like you have some Queen Cells...on the frame on the right. Or looking at i again just some weird comb... nice

[@brucesbees]

Yeah sometimes the bees don’t build comb the way we think they should haha! Thanks for watching brucesbees!

[@stevejackson5062]

I started using excluders, stopped when I heard Fat Bee Man say they reduce worker life by rubbing on their wings but have changed my mind when I saw Devan Rawn, Canadian commercial beekeeper using single brood boxes for honey production. I've meant to see what Randy Oliver has to say but I've not seen anyone do this experiment. Looking forward to see how it turns out. Thanks. New to your channel and like it so far. I'm particularly interested in southern beekeeping videos as I'm in western SC...Go Tigers.

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for watching and I hope I can provide some useful and entertaining videos for you. I have a lot of respect for Dabo and the Tigers but just have to say...ROLL TIDE!🏈🐘🙂

[@brucesbees]

Will have to try to check them out. Crazy busy right now but ALWAYS trying to learn.

[@brucesbees]

I have found already that there are a significant number of haters out there for sure. I always try to keep it positive. I realize I could do things better but my objective with my videos is to pro aids informational and entertaining videos that we can all learn from, both through my success and my mistakes. Gonna keep plugging and trying to get better. That’s all I know how to do. 🙂

[@brucesbees]

Just subscribed to Devin Rawn. Look forward to checking out his videos when able.

[@kylew1385]

Devin Rawn is a MUCH better keeper to watch and take advice from. I tell people to avoid Fat Bee Man like the plague. He continuously spews misinformation that has no founding. I don't understand how someone that has been a beekeeper for so long can be that irresponsible with information.

[@shehzadali3739]

Good

[@brucesbees]

Thanks!

[@kimberlysavino5712]

Out of curiousity, why so many bottom boxes rather than splitting?

[@brucesbees]

These particular hives are being managed for a friend. His main interest is honey production. Does not want more hives. So I just try to make sure they have plenty of space in order to hopefully prevent swarms and maximize honey production. Has worked well for the past few years but it is a little tricky. Quick update...I checked on these bees this weekend and they have not done much. I think one of the trial hives might have swarmed. The short flow that we started when I put those supers on stopped. Hopefully the flow will crank up soon and we can get some bees filling up those boxes🐝🙂 Thanks for watching and I appreciate your comment.

[@jorgeschulz645]

There is an interesting film made by natgeo on the africanization issue, you can find it in youtube. This happened un brazil in the 50's, the accidental liberation of African queens un the jungle, after 50 years the swarms made it slowly step by step into central and north América. And thed had genétic crossing with the local bees. But not in my country which is very south west from Brasil. If one of your hives is very agressive the only solutión is to requeen with a pure caucasian or italian queen which are very calm. Chile exports queens to the US and Canadá, which are 100% not africanized, you may search for them in the web and try to buy some of them. Be sure they come directly from here.

[@jwca35]

You should never pull a frame from the middle first.you will roll your queen.always start at the end frame first.

[@mohawksniper79]

I think he is doing somthing right by the size of his hives😎

[@gazinta]

Ever consider a go pro camera or a stand for your phone? Under 100 bucks.

[@brucesbees]

I now have a tripod and it really helps. Thanks!

[@gazinta]

@@brucesbees awesome sauce, brother. Less squished bees means less stings and more honey! I've seen small tricks like blowing through the veil instead of using a wisk and an old timer that uses a crow feather to scoot them out of the way and off harvested frames. Those are some huge hives you have, but you seem to manage them well. I'm a novice, so I'm taking any and all information in. Check out "Bush Bee man" here on KZbin in the slow flow season. Very entertaining and informative. He lives in Australia, so he's wrapping up and harvesting right now. He gets into some crazy situations sometimes. His wife.... She wont let him in the house unless he brings wax and honey in with him. Lol. Hes in the proverbial doghouse most of the year!

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for checking the videos out and thanks for the comment! I am still definitely learning myself for sure. Hope you will stay with me as I continue on the journey🐝🙂

[@gazinta]

@@brucesbees I'm just starting out myself. I need the capital to get hives, a suit and extracting equipment. Seriously looking into a press. Pressed honey is supposed to be better quality as spinning it adds extra oxygen when it slaps against the wall. Pressed honey however maintains its sweetness because it isnt being oxidized. Theres some science behind it. Has to do with relative humidity and it's on a molecular level. Spinning it is just a faster process... crush and strain is similar, but wastes alot unless you cook it. Who wants cooked honey, though? Yuck. Then theres the occasional colony loss. Some folks harvest brood and all, then make beer out of that. Cooked brood and wax is removed after it cools leaving a dark amber sweet "honey". I wouldnt put it on my toast, though...

[@gazinta]

@@brucesbees emoticons = bee happy. I just caught that. Nice. 🐝😊

[@geomundi8333]

I watch all these videos where bee whispers working w/o veils and I"m like DF... but I'm say way, tired of getting stung in face and looking like warf from star trek

[@brucesbees]

Wear protective equipment if you need to. I usually at least wear a veil, and most of the time wear a jacket. Will go without gloves sometimes but if they get feisty I put them on. I think people should do what they are most comfortable with. You are not a better beekeeper if you don’t wear equipment. Some bees are just more aggressive than others and the attitude can vary from day to day.

[@muwuny]

Part two when?

[@brucesbees]

I filmed it this past weekend and will post as soon as I can get it edited.

[@muwuny]

@@brucesbees Nice

[@michaelsgreene9703]

You lost me as a viewer. You are to rough with them and the boxes and i saw you kill several of them

[@mohawksniper79]

With the size of his hives i think he is doing somthing right and thay dont seem to mind bees will let you know when thay get upset..☺

[@brucesbees]

Thanks for the back up Mohawksniper71. I don’t think this guy actually has bees. He commented on several of my videos with similar thoughts. I have actually tried to be better and less rough but as a beekeeper with thousands and thousands of bees per hive there will invariably be a few bees that get killed unintentionally. Not sure when he saw me kill “several of them” but oh well...🙂