Splitting Bees into Resource Hives a.k.a. Double Nucs! (Split Maintenance)

[@JakeChief]

You're doing a great job! Just to double down on what a few people have said, The weaker hive (Split) gets the original hive spot and the main hive gets moved. That way the split gets emerging brood and foragers to rebuild but the main hive that is queenless has the population and resources to build queens and allow for the current nurse bees to age into foragers. What you have done will still work but I was always told to throw a heap of grass or leaves in front of the hive entrance for 3 days if you make a walkaway split with a queen cell. The bees are almost trapped and when they manage to escape they have to realign their internal GPS.

[@rustyshackleford5762]

Messing with the population dynamics can be troublesome. You've got hives with imbalances of young and older bees--foragers and nurse bees. In the end, they might be better off splitting themselves by swarming. One strong hive is better than 2 weak ones.

[@BuzzyBeezTV]

Can I make a suggestion? If you want to collect the July flow in the flow hive, you need to get it on now so the bees can prepare the frames ready for the flow. It can take a little while to get ready for storage. Having flow hives myself thats what i would do, just a suggestion. Keep up the great work!!

[@seanmackey1469]

As a general rule, always shake way more bees into your nucs than you need. All the feild bees will go back to their original hive

[@vinofarm]

Good tip.

[@seanmackey1469]

@@vinofarm Hi, I should have watched the whole video before I commented

[@wadebarnes6720]

That's what I was going to say and I seen the video was a year old so I figured it'd be kind of late. LOL but you know next time whole frame of brood hatching and some more bees

[@BLachance75]

When I do my splits to stop swarming I generally move the queen like you did. I put a frame of emerging brood and 2 frames of resources. I then shake in 3 or 4 full frames of bees. I try to shake in about double the amount of bees that I want in there to acount for drifting back to the original hive.

[@vinofarm]

Yeah, I didn't add enough bees at the start. I need to remember to do that.

[@BLachance75]

It took me a botched split or 2 kind of like the ones you showed here to figure it out. In a 5 frame box if I put in 3 frames that already had bees I'll shake in 3 more. If I split directly into a 10 frame box I usually do 4 frames, 2 brood and 2 resources, then shake in 4 more frames of bees.

[@mikeries8549]

What I think makes a good walkway split is to get the queen in the right box...the one full of capped brood. Here's a helpful hint for finding the right frame (s). The capped ones. Duh. Take tool and scrape a cap off a worker cell. If it has purple eyes THAT'S THE ONE. The idea is to give her highness nurse bees and room to lay eggs. The rest works itself out.

[@Digger927]

Unfortunate to lose the one split and brood. When you make a split from brood and bees without a queen (leaving the old queen in the hive) you can place the split in place of the original hive and move the original hive to a new location. Change it's orientation to the sun, the workers will mostly reorient but the few that drift back to the original place will go to the split. This is the way I generally avoid losing too many bees back to the original hive from a split. I find that in general if I want to boost population, rather than shake bees...I'll just swap frames. Usually the bees on the brood frames are nurse bees and there to take care of the brood, they get confused easily so I leave them on the frame and swap out the frame. You can also use brood frames and nurse bees from other colonies as resources. Mike Palmer claims workers will not kill a queen that is swollen and actively laying and I've found that to be true as well...so verified.

[@vinofarm]

I'm pretty sure that brood frame I originally put in there was covered in nurse bees. I assumed they would stay with the brood. Maybe there was more workers on that frame than I thought. I'm probably not going to be moving hives around, but I do need to be more conscious of population. Last year I had 5 successful walk aways out of 5 attempts. Maybe I just got cocky. If I don't fail, I don't learn. Thanks, Brent!

[@segami2808]

I still.wonder? How many frames had queen cells, in the original swarm hive?

[@mikeries8549]

@@vinofarm without failure how can we learn? Vino the philosopher. To be successful at anything requires learning how to not fail which requires failing at least once or twice. So many ppl think that successful people are perfect and never fail. WRONG

[@CharlesGinzel]

Jim, while i agree with the logic of pulling the queen from a swarming hive, leave "a lot" of queen cells means that they may still swarm a couple times. so for me, i'd pull frames with cells to reduce the number of cells available for swarming, or pinch the smaller queen cells and only leave 2-3 cells. alternatively, i know you have a few empty resource hives and that one swarm box over in the threes, but you may want to stage more on the other edges of your property.

[@vinofarm]

How do you decide which cells to keep?

[@vinofarm]

@@donbeissel2965 Funny... I just had an experience with my Russian hive and I destroyed about 15 swarm cells... but left the two with the newest wax for some reason. Gut instinct. Good to know.

[@OneOfDisease]

i always thought bees would become super aggressive if you opened them before a storm. not sure where I saw/heard that.

[@mikeries8549]

You can be working nice bees that get pissy when the front goes thru. They tell you (roar) "go home" if you're listening.

[@djficken9270]

Thanks for the resource hive tip! Got into beekeeping last year. Learned a lot watching your videos. Thanks! Bought a couple Flow Hives. Lost one of 2 hives over winter. I feel I learned from my mistake. 4 resource hives this year. Bought a couple packages and additional queens. Poured into resource hives and added the queens. Turned 2 packages into 4 hives. Checked today and they are on their way! Watched the video you linked about resource hives as they discussed putting a super on top of the resource hive as long as the queen excluder is on, bees sharing the super. Planned to go same direction as you are mentioning; hoping to add my Flow Hives after hives build up.

[@thenotsurechannel7630]

Hey there. When last I commented, I shared about the hive I lost down here in central NC in February. I was able to get a bee package on March 31st. However there was a problem right away with the queen that came with it. They tried to supersede her, so I tried to requeen after cutting out that queen cell. That queen was rejected as well. Long story short, SOMETHING happened where there ended up being a laying worker situation. So... I did the only thing I could do with some help... dump the hive a distance away and bring it back so only the foragers would come home to find a new queen. FINALLY... that queen was accepted and now I'm on a slow build up with _about_ a few weeks left to the flow down here. The *better* news is that I got hired to take care of somebody's bees for the price of the honey, not far from where I live, as he admittedly didn't know too much about taking care of them. It was a swarm given to him a month ago, that we put into a 10 frame deep box, with 4 fully drawn frames in the center. That queen is a baby laying monster for having been a swarm capture. I even put my flow hive hybrid super on that hive. It's getting filled up fast despite the flow slowing down here. Here's a little snip-it vid of the super and the bees working on it --> --kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKDVZJeojtRqpJph-

[@vinofarm]

Glad things finally worked out!

[@ernstrudolfhayward4078]

it is true what Brent says, you could also close the hive entrance and give them syrup for feed for 2 days to keep the shook bees in the hive and help them to adjust. The Brent way is much easier but could potentially be back breaking. Both ways works for me.

[@alexwv1863]

I just wanted to tell you that I love your channel. I found you about a week ago, watched a couple videos and was curious so I started all the way back at the beginning. I finally got caught up last night, and I'm looking forward to more videos. I,myself, am not a bee keeper yet, but I plan on starting hopefully in the near future. I like the way you present your videos and your editing is superb. Your son is quite the cameraman as well. I found myself getting hooked on the suspense of the Balboa hive and held my breath every time you checked her hive. I'm really invested in those girls. Thank you for deciding to share your journey with all of us. I have learned quite a bit by watching your videos. Keep up the great work!

[@vinofarm]

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for going back to the beginning!

[@GDHoneyAcresandCraftWork]

I went all the back to the beginning as well and have learned so much. I love this channel!

[@ibarbadillo123]

Thank you for your videos ... cant wait to see new Queens come through . Keep it coming .

[@jeffmazrimas1107]

Vino. I wondered why you are propagating the hives/queens that are quick to swarm? I was hoping this year you might graft a crop of queens from your very best colony and create new hives using those queens. You definitely have enough bees and resources for queen rearing. Anyway, thanks for your videos. I've been following them for a while and using them for my own reference.

[@jeffmaz1976]

I forgot to mention. It's a perfect time to perform an Oxalic dribble on those little nucs when all that brood hatches out.

[@benjaminprimrose]

It's been a rough spring. I lost two early split attempts this spring too. Finally stuck with two full frames of brood (with eggs) and a frame of nectar & pollen. Your videos are wonderful, I'm very jealous of your yard. Keep it up!:)

[@WriterDreamOfSweden]

It's so interesting to see how you do your splits and get your generations of good queens

[@vinofarm]

You say that like this is all planned! I'm just following my gut.

[@WriterDreamOfSweden]

@@vinofarm You have a good gut instinct then! We do splits differently overseas but yours seem to work as well if not better

[@kwell88]

I hope you have swarm traps for any swarms or secondary swarms from hive that has lots of queen cells.

[@bc2578]

That's what I was thinking....I find that once they make swarm cells, you can't leave them in the old location with multiple cells, most of their population and returning foragers....You have to do more than just take the queen unless you only leave one queen cell.....At least that's how it goes with my bees.

[@mohawksniper79]

Looks good glad see all the bee's

[@stephrak9324]

I just wanted to say you are amazing. You have good and bad days but aren't afraid to keep going. I am trying hard to get a bee yard like yours set up on my 17 acres. You inspire me. I hope to grow my one hive of bees that were on the property when I bought it to be as great as yours. Best wishes from Texas.

[@vinofarm]

I had only one colony exactly 2 years ago. They grow really fast. Good luck!

[@stephrak9324]

@@vinofarm Thank you so much! ❤

[@nnonyanonya2250]

Ditto!!! Love seeing the mistakes, love seeing the growth, love learning, keep up the fun videos!!! Hope you’re making some $$ off of you tube!

[@whatstrue8936]

Excited for the flowhive frames!

[@fishmut]

So many videos on doing splits , I recommend watching a lot of them and taking notes , other option is getting a commercial beekeeper to come give you a hand or go to them and spend a few days with them, experience is priceless , the tricks of the trade will save you a lot of headaches and guessing and making the wrong decisions and finding out the hard way, your call just some friendly advice to get you over the hump of mishaps and get you on track. 👍

[@lc7014]

Just a suggestion I have read that you should try to keep queen cells vertical if you turn the frame sideways they can be damaged. Haven’t tried to raise queens yet but am reading up😊. Good luck. Fun watching you!

[@massachusettsprepper]

A lot of good stuff going on for sure. thanks for sharing.

[@JasonMayDraw]

OMG. The hail! LOL. This has been a slow season in RI for my first year bees. Loving the channel.

[@vinofarm]

Jason May Draw It was just big rain drops, but yes... crap weather all spring.

[@killr0395]

Lovin these new same shot/diff hive edits

[@vinofarm]

Can't tell if this is sarcasm.

[@killr0395]

Vino Farm hell no! Always glad to see the growth on this channel. Your video series on the bees is the easiest to follow on KZbin, I love it! Thanks!

[@vinofarm]

@@killr0395 I think I misunderstood your original comment.

[@jeffbragg1735]

Look at double screen bottom boards (put a peace of insulation under the hive for the winter). You could put a weaker nuc on top of a strong nuc and better your chances of getting them through... Also you could have ventilation for your nucs while you lock them in for two-three days after you make them in the spring when it is warm.

[@dazamistwalker]

Improving population: Several schools of thought on this, a couple of which you do regularly; shake in a bunch of nurse bees and/or introduce frames of capped brood. Another option is to change hive positions, so that a strong hive's returning foragers supplement the existing population of the weak hive(s). They will stay and cover the brood, enabling nurse bees to emerge. Splitting: look into a Taranov split that makes *both* hives strong and is a true artificial swarm. It does knock back honey production, though.

[@orianalexander1671]

ohhhh sweet! I am very interested to see your results with the flowhive, as well as your continued success with your bees. thank you for the great work on your channel.

[@johnwatkins6651]

Do you prefer to cull all but 1-2 swarm cells? I find that if I leave multiple swarm cells in a strong hive if two virgins emerge within a small amount of time the hive will cast a swarm with one of them.

[@astamasnow]

John Watkins I’m no expert, but won’t the virgin queens fight? I read that the first queen that emerges goes to hunt the other unhatched queens

[@bullydad1]

Nice Job with the reverse split! I was yelling at my phone "take the queen, leave the cells" in your last video. Glad you were somehow able to hear me... I'm not a huge fan of the single brood chamber with an excluder, but I am interested to see how it goes in your apiary.

[@vinofarm]

I decided to try it for a season. I am not convinced yet.

[@thatguy3456]

I am going to pyramid next week on the nucs I installed two weeks ago

[@FireAngelVampire]

Venofarm, i cant tell you how amazing your videos are! You make sure everything is viewable, youre well heard, and youre all about youre viewers and bees! Thank you for your hard work so we can enjoy this with you! 🙃

[@vinofarm]

I will pass your comments on to my incredible team of six legged story writers. If it weren't for them, these videos would be really boring.

[@drrota]

@@vinofarm They'd almost look like little stripped Minions.

[@stephenF250]

Looking great brother!!!

[@kwell88]

I am anxious to see your 150 lbs of seed grow! I have a 1/3 acre field that I planted with sunflowers. I just used a 25lb bag of black oil sunflower bird seed. Its growing crazy.... I ll have to thin. I planted some clover and buckwheat also with it. Love your videos keep em coming.

[@vinofarm]

I just planted a 50lb bag of black oil sunflower seeds! And about 70lbs of buckwheat and 20lbs of phacelia. I have another 150lbs of buckwheat, more phacelia, clover and a pollinator mix on deck that will go in over the next month or so. I'm really determined to have July/August flowers to cover the dearth.

[@kwell88]

@@vinofarm Awesome! I look forward to the sunnies. If they grow nice it will be nice to see.Where did you get the buckwheat seed?

[@kwell88]

@@vinofarm It's funny 5 years ago when I had a few cows I would call a field grown over with goldenrod "weeds" I would say ughhhh. Now it's the opposite.. a field of all timothy hay is barren. I also planted some hubam clover mixed with sweet clover. the hubam is supposed to flower the first year. Wait and see I guess.

[@vinofarm]

@@kwell88 Where are you located? I've had a hard time getting clover established, but I've had commenters tell me I need to seed it in the fall... after I've tried for three springs and got nothing. I'm experimenting with phacelia this year since it was the most suggested flower on several videos. It just went down last weekend, so I can't wait to see what happens.

[@kwell88]

@@vinofarm Central Maine. I planted it about 2 weeks ago. I just broadcasted it on freshly turned soil and let the rain work it in. Stuff is coming up but not sure if its clover. I'll see soon.

[@skyraisinranch9913]

I love your colorful resource nucs!

[@hyfy-tr2jy]

Also, I just recently did a major split this past week on one of my hives and my bee mentor had me put an opening reducer to get it down to a winter size opening along with jamming some grass into the hive opening after we made the new split so that the transferred after bees would reorient after they pushed the grass out. I know it is a sample size of one, but it worked perfectly and had zero migration of bees back to the parent hive (which was right next to the split).

[@vinofarm]

Yeah, I could have done more to keep the bees in that hive, but I just let it slide. The main thing is I should have shaken in more bees when I made it.

[@DreamofaHive]

Just a thought, if you are going to make a split using nurse bees you can do a couple of things to ensure success 1) make sure any donor brood frames have emerging brood 2) place a board from entrance to the ground and shake bees directly onto it - foragers return immediately to the original hive - nurse bees eventually walk up and into the Nuc ...but the good thing is you can see exactly what your population is going to be 3) you can get queen pheromone strips which you can store in the freezer - cut one into three and place a piece on top of the frames of queenless splits (remove in a week)

[@stevelachappelle8571]

COME to Phoenix AZ lol we have triple digits this week. Keep up with work love the channel.

[@vinofarm]

I put up with 6 months of freezing nights just so I can live in a place where I never have to see triple digits. (Except for one or two days a year.) Good luck with that!

[@StephenBiggers]

Just a thought, while they are waiting for a queen to hatch you could remove that excluder and they can fill the super faster. Sometimes the excluder can cause pressure to create a swarm. Just a thought. Thanks for the video.

[@vinofarm]

I hear many opposing opinions on this. I'm trying excluders this year but I'm not totally sold on them. I'm also trying the single brood box system this year, but not sold on that yet either. All my hives have upper entrances so the bees do have direct access to the supers either way. The one time I tried removing an excluder under a super last year, the queen laid up into two medium supers in one week. It made all that honey un-harvestable. I am not in it for the honey, but I do like the idea of the supers being free of brood. If it means less honey, that's fine. I just saw the mess it made last year and gave it a go on all the hives this year. My opinion may change!

[@bluzervic]

I suggest you take the flow hive frames out and brush them with bee wax. They will take to it quicker. My neighbor has the flow hive and even in my climate they refused to work it until he brush on some familiar smells. Hopefully they take to it so I can see if it works. My girls have been and still are on fire filling supers. Can’t wait to see the results of your splits. Again in your situation you might try the snelgrove method next time you want to make a split. Very happy with the results I have seen. I also had one hive swarm but was able to recapture the bees through my swarm trap.... they flew high up in the tree and then discovered my trap.

[@charlesthomas5737]

To help keep the nurse bees from leaving the hive you need to add a Temp Queen strip to the nuc's that just have a queen cell in them until the new queen starts to lay eggs. A temp strip is a queen pheromone strip that last for about three weeks It really helps a lot with nurse bees from leaving the hive. you can get them from Mann Lake bee supply. their not cheap but they come in 2 inch strips that you can cut into 1/4 or 1/2 inch peaces and they come with zip ties to use with each peace. look in the queen rearing section of the catalog page 71

[@vinofarm]

Never heard of that! Interesting.

[@BLachance75]

Its been my experience that in our area the early summer flow will start in the next few weeks. It is usually mid June to early/mid July. I think the past 4 years I've done my first extraction in the July 14-21 range. Then we get about 3-4 weeks of dirth/minimal flow. I take that opportunity to treat with oxalic. We then goldenrod for a month. My second extraction for the year has usually been the last week of September.

[@spokehedz]

The people wanting to see the flow hives need to relax. You might want to link in the "This isn't about the honey" video, just to remind the newbees.

[@LarianeCostaRamos]

Louder for those at the back! Love the videos as they are. I like Jims take on KZbin.

[@fishmut]

Alexander Borsi ...flow hives make me cringe so much crap to go with them , I’ll stay with the normal hives we always have had. Just my 5 cents worth, I have no idea what the rave is about flow hives plastic rubbish no thank you.

[@LeeMann]

Depending on how low your temps got and how long they were without bees some of that capped brood could be viable. I would just put it in a strong hive and let them deal with it, no need for the freezer

[@vinofarm]

I could see a lot of chalk brood and cappings that were removed to expose dead pupae. It had probably been like that for several days and we had a lot of chilly nights. They were gone.

[@TheBHiveHomestead]

Hey I love watching the videos. You have been a great help to me and my homestead. I actually raise honeybees and chickens. I do have a question for anyone who can answer, my hives have two brood boxes full and I put an excluder and a medium super on top but they haven't started building in it yet. Do you or anyone have any advice or tips on how to make this better for them to build.

[@jpthedelawarebeeman7887]

Jim whats up ? Hows the garlic coming along ? I built a resource hive by the way. for like $33 most of it precut :) ---- Painted it all white lol - I like your paint choices

[@ernstrudolfhayward4078]

Would it be possible to post the measurements for the double nucs on the next video?

[@vinofarm]

Ernst Rudolf Hayward They’re 10 frame deeps on the bottom and two 4 frame boxes on top. Search “double nuc Betterbee”

[@nnonyanonya2250]

I would love a mite inspection video. How you are inspecting and how often. Do you have screened bottom board or not, powdered sugar method, etc. Maybe you already have a mite inspection video? I couldn’t find one anywhere, just one where you treated. Thanks again for all of the helpful videos, has made my first few weeks of beekeeping go much smoother than it probably would have. Even marked my first queen before I put it in the hive thanks to you! - SLC, UT

[@vinofarm]

NNonya Nonya kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYnahnl9mLSjncU No powdered sugar. Yes screen bottom boards. I’ll let you all know next time I test. Probably in the next few weeks.

[@decaturridgebees8761]

This is how we learn man

[@jackpeated8297]

I want to start beekeeping myself I'm loading up on info from all over. I've heard of blocking up the nucs so the bees can't leave and strictly feeding them all they need till they get established. Idk if I'm right or not. If this helps awesome, if not then sorry 😬 I love everything your doing man keep up the good work. #savethebees

[@timothyodonnell8591]

I don't remember you mentioning it, but I noticed you passed 50k subs (the page for this video says you're at 54k). Congratulations!

[@vinofarm]

Yup. That happened. Thanks!

[@timothyodonnell8591]

@@vinofarm It took your channel 3.5ish years to get to 50k. I predict you'll get 100k subscribers (and qualify for a silver play button) in a year and a half or sooner from now.

[@nikola2blabla]

vino do u know that you are the only chanel on youtube that i follow regulary. nothing else . Except some chanels with cartoons for my kids.

[@vinofarm]

Nikola Blazevski I appreciate your comment, but I must admit there are lots of great channels out there worth following! KZbin is vast and with a little patience, you can find some real great content.

[@Keith-xc9wf]

man you're so damn smart seriously I don't think I could ever keep all that straight..I just have 2 hives and I'm jkeeping it that way LOL

[@AIM54A]

I had a swarm of bees fly over the house today. Not sure where they ended up.

[@vinofarm]

I want to witness that someday.

[@smokeydops]

If you dont miind me saying... since you've disturbed the russian hive the least, perhaps they should get the flow box... when the time comes of course

[@vinofarm]

The Russians are in a double deep. But they have mostly stuck to just those boxes and never expanded. Even with supers on. I think the trick is to put them in a single box and then add supers or the flow box. They don't produce excess. They make what they need and stop.

[@dalgrim]

Couldn’t you use that failed brood frame to check for mites on the developing brood?

[@vinofarm]

I could, but you usually do that with drones, not worker brood. I’ve been looking at every drone cell I’ve accidentally damaged and have not seen a mite yet this season.

[@mikeries8549]

It seems like you're a couple weeks behind me. Honey flow will hit you hard and sudden. You'll have splits coming out your ears. Right now I've done so many splits that I've lost count. Finding newly mated queens is fun but for now I'm an anxious expectant father. Of course the state bee inspector chose now to come poking around. Not a good idea but it's like telling officer sniffy to not look in your car once he's got you pulled over. Doing splits in june...seems kind of wreck less but this year is a wild one. Hang on and go with the flow.

[@vinofarm]

What is the bee inspector going to do?

[@sissydewoody8717]

Hi ... totallylove you channel. Frederick Dunn [PA] [prof. photographer] has video about what an inspection is like ... not sure how typical, as this inspector is a friend ... kzbin.info/www/bejne/emWpaJR-htpgf9E --- OTOH .. Jason Chrisman [OH] talks about red tape frustration and inept inspector kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4XSYmmprrKoapY

[@mikeries8549]

@@vinofarmInspector? not a thing. Can write a book on what we think is going on. Bottom line... new guy playing games at the state level. One theory is that when he figured out how long it'll take to look at 39 bee hives he bailed. Even if it's ten minutes each that's HOURS of looking at bees. Myself? My eyes get tired quick so I take lots of breaks. It takes me two days to inspect all mine. I can not sell bees or queens or transport them without health certification. I want to be inspected but I can't force the authority to do it. I've gotten the idea that Illinois apiary inspector is a part-time job without benefits. The temptation to fake the books is real. $$$ The guy can just say he did inspection and get paid for it. My queen rearing is over. Only one mating nuc left that had a Virgin in it days ago. All my splits made queens despite awful weather. Hives I thought were queenless 2 weeks ago...surprise! Now would be a great time for bee inspector to come thru. I've been keeping bees since 1978 and never had one in my yard that I know of.

[@mikeries8549]

Hey vino. Those double-hive resource colonies can be supered. It's possible to get a lot of honey from them too. You can put a metal queen excluder on top of the resource hive and stack a super or two. There's an up and down to the metal QE. Put the wire side down. That's upside down I think. That way the queen stays in her own side. I have mating nucs in resource hives that made 2 boxes of honey this season. 2 queens and 8 deep frames of bees. They made honey while queens were mating and just kept on going. I'll pull honey and add two 4 frame nucs (empty) on top after the flow. Yes...you can winter 16 frames of bees, two colonies side by side in them doubles. It works great too!

[@mikeschickensandgarden3370]

I love my carniolans. They are so calm and population is just exploding

[@vinofarm]

They're my rockstars this season so far. I'm hoping the split makes another great queen.

[@mikeschickensandgarden3370]

Vino Farm good luck this year. I enjoy your videos

[@owenburnsforbes7667]

Can you show us how to make the jar sugar syrup feeder or show us how it works please

[@vinofarm]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/onakgn-GnLx6nac - That's the basic concept behind the feeder, but that video is about the bucket method. For the jars, it's just a mason jar with a standard lid. I poke 8 or 10 holes into the top of the lid with a hammer and nail. Syrup is just 1:1 sugar: water.

[@wadebarnes6720]

When they build up both top and bottom you know you can put a honey super on top and they will share it and you don't have to divide it just put a between the boxes and the Honey sweeper

[@surrealsadi841]

I'm a simple gal. I see a Vino Farm vid, I hit Like :) Shame about that one split.

[@vinofarm]

That was my first split fail ever. Probably my error... I should have shaken in a lot more bees at the start. Lessons learned.

[@rosemariehozjan723]

Well our hive is a goner😞 more bees ordered - Vail Closed all resorts so back to the beehive we go. Got plenty of frames to clean, poor babies made their Frankenhive in the most natural way, broke our hearts to disassemble it-don't get it - plenty of food left in the hive so it must've been the cold, contemplating a heater underneath for next year, the cozy and thermal wrap didn't help much at all. Thanks for being an inspiration to us newbies

[@markoverman9628]

Time for a new map for the nucs?

[@vinofarm]

I'm going to wait until they're all queen right.

[@p.j.sstitches346]

🐝🐝🐝I enjoy your videos so much. Your a great teacher and you use such viberant visuals, along with the story telling, that I can't wait to do some hands on!!!! Keep the videos coming!!! And also what kind of crazy weather we are having. Wondering if it's gonna make an even crazier harvest in the fall??!!❤💛💙💚💜🐝🐝🐝

[@lostkittycat4521]

I feel like Jim should have his own Pixar mini short film

[@Smh1821]

I think I'm going to have to buy a Queen for my split. She hatched but its been back in forth of rain and heat. Few days of heat then 3wks of rain. Farmers havent even been able to plant much. Kinda in the middle of a flood. It sucks.

[@vinofarm]

I've heard it could take a couple weeks sometimes for a virgin queen to mate and start laying. Give her a little more time.

[@Smh1821]

@@vinofarm i was reading if she hasn't started laying eggs in 2wks after hatch she wont ever start. The 20th would be 2wks from her hatch date. I'm definitely waiting and hoping it worked but I'm nervous and expecting the worst. I'll probably be checking the monday after the 20th cuz I'm getting married the 21st and will be busy. I don't want to wait too long and a worker start laying but I don't want to not wait long enough and end up with an extra Queen.

[@nbb2339]

What makes the bees not go back to their original hives once you shake them in? I'm not a beekeeper by any means but I absolutely love your videos!! keep beeing awesome:)

[@raerohan4241]

The ones who don't go back are usually nurse bees. Those are the ones taking take of the larvae; they don't leave the hive.

[@nbb2339]

Rae Rohan thank you!!

[@luckydubeinrc5165]

Subbed, supertrooper, hang on in there, it will soon explode, im in South Africa, in our winter, caught a swarm on the lawn, hoping they will make it to September :)

[@nicktohzyu]

how do you know that the frame of capped brood is dead?

[@vinofarm]

I could see lots of open cappings with chalky dead brood inside. The pupae that was exposed was clearly not alive. There is a chance a handful of pupae may have still been alive, but I could SEE in at least 50% of the cells and every one was dead.

[@Parian101]

I have noticed when a hive has many queen cells they would swarm, If I were you I would either knock all the cells and leave two cells near each other. Alternatively look at how you do artificial swarm, leaving the laying queen in same place with no brood and the flying bees would go back to the original hive. Shake two frame of bees that way they can maintain the queen.

[@kareneaton9080]

I agree. leaving 20 cells your sure to have cast swarms depleting the colony drastically. I also leave only two of the best. Meaning not the longest ones or the stubby ones. I just learned this year that in the longest cells, the queen can't reach the royal jelly and will be malnourished. We are always learning.

[@kareneaton9080]

I learned this from a recent Ian Steppler, A Canadian Beekeepers Blog video as he pulled his recent cells out of his builder.

[@kwell88]

yeah cast or secondary swarms are a pain. Pinch some of those queen cells or make more splits with them.

[@simonwinstanley1105]

Another great video, thanks. How do you tell the difference between nurse bees and foragers please?

[@vinofarm]

Bees have different jobs depending on their age. They generally live for about 4-5 weeks in the summer months. Newly hatched bees clean honeycomb cells and haul out dead bodies. Then they become nurse bees and care for the larvae. As they age, they start to learn to fly and will leave the hive for brief orientation flights outside the front of the hive. Once they've locked their GPS on the hive, they will spend their last couple weeks of life as foragers flying out to bring back resources. They spend their last weeks literally working themselves to death. They will fly until their wings stop working bringing back pollen and nectar to the colony. When you see a bee on a flower, she is nearing the end of her short life.

[@simonwinstanley1105]

@@vinofarm Thanks for the info Jim

[@Thatfishguy05]

Do you prefer the double nuc boxes over nuc boxes? My weather is 30-80F degree throughout the year. Not sure what route to go. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.

[@vinofarm]

ParkersBees Have you watched any of my videos??? All I have in the bee yard are double nucs! I have a couple old single nucs for emergencies, but they are in storage.

[@Thatfishguy05]

Ya I’ve been watching your vids for awhile now. I know you have mentioned using the doubles because they help keep both sides warm. That’s why I mentioned my temps for my area. I have 2 single nucs but I like the doubles to save space.

[@wadebarnes6720]

Are the boxes doing pretty good though I was thinking about building me some

[@lc7014]

question, did those double nucs have a small space above the divider board allow some airflow into both sides? My betterbee double nuc does, not sure if I should seal that space.

[@GLuft3]

Where do you get those double nuc boxes?

[@vinofarm]

Betterbee

[@GLuft3]

Vino Farm thanks. I’m going there in a couple weeks!

[@vinofarm]

@@GLuft3 Someday I'll make the drive out there. They're only 2 hours away from us, but I've never been there.

[@GLuft3]

Vino Farm www.betterbee.com/classes-and-events/2019fieldday.asp

[@Yuubah]

Hi, where do you buy your resource hives? Looking to pick one up for my little backyard apiary

[@vinofarm]

Brian Yu Betterbee

[@kirstenwright5868]

Why don’t you close the entrances to the nucs?

[@toska5466]

also more of the russian bees!

[@tylersroyce]

Where did you get the double nuc boxes and covers? I also wondered how the entrances can keep rain water/melted snow out, since normally you “pitch” a hive so that it’s slanted in a manner to shed water from the landing board/entrance. Since the entrances are on opposite sides they can’t be slanted?

[@vinofarm]

I got my double nucs at betterbee in NY. And yes, with an entrance on each side, they can't be properly slanted. That's another reason I have the awnings on my hives. Rain sheds away and almost never hits the bottom boards on any of my hives.

[@zanedravitzki2773]

Idea for the russians- if you're tired of the them and want to grow your Italian or Carniolan lines, cut some queen cells from a hive that has an abundance of them (like Adrian's or Cornelia's old hive) and plant them in , destroying all the Russian queen cells. In this way you'll use them to propagate the other lines

[@vinofarm]

Good idea. Thanks.

[@jacquelinebelzberg6608]

Love your videos!

[@jennyhemfjell8876]

that brood frame u are going to put in the frezer. could it be an idee to check some of the cells to look for any anomolis. i know its not likly that there is any mites in normal worker cells. but what do u think ?

[@vinofarm]

Jenny Hemfjell I May open a few and have a look, but I just did that to a drone frame a couple weeks ago and found zero mites. This time of year we have very low mite loads.

[@rogierdikkes]

Last year I learned that splits get 6 frames, 2 frames of brood, 2 empty, 2 resource. And then you make sure you shake 5 frames of bees in. That's enough for the hive to survive

[@vinofarm]

Rogier Dikkes These are 4 frame nucs. 6 frames with 5 more shaken in sounds more like a full colony than a nuc. Some of my 8 frame hives didn’t even have that many bees 2 weeks ago.

[@rogierdikkes]

@@vinofarm ah, I see. Most of the beekeepers here have 10-20 frames before we make splits here. We use "simplex" size mostly here. We shake in about half of the hive, like a normal swarm would cause.

[@Tyler-B91-i8e]

Where did you get your resource hives?

[@LarryLeesBees]

Thanks for another great video Jim. I have a question; are you aiming at a certain number of hives, and is there a point where you won’t split the hives but allow them to get large to be able to bring in the resources and produce that honey. I know honey isn’t the reason, but growing them to strengthen the hive and bring in the resources seems like a plan. Unless the goal is a hundred hives. Not a criticism, just a question as a new bee keeper. I want my two hive to get as populated as possible, to bring in the resources to make it through winter. Thanks again for all you do sir!

[@vinofarm]

I wish there was a place to answer this question once and for all. I get it many many times per video. My goal is to keep about 15 full colonies and at least 10 overwintering nucs each year. I will be there at the end of this season. Then I will use the nucs to cover losses over winter. I will also start using the nucs to build up the larger hives before the fall flow happens. If things just grow out of hand, I will be giving away or selling nucs. I do not want to be bigger than my bee yard can hold. I have other goals for this channel and our property that I will be getting into over the next couple years. I want the bees to be in balance with the property (and region) and also be in balance with my life. 100 hives would not survive here. 50 hives would take over my life. 15 or so colonies and 10 backup nucs is just about perfect.

[@LarryLeesBees]

Thanks for the quick reply Jim, I hope I didn’t touch a nerve, I was really just curious I have followed you since day one, and was wondering about the size of the bee yard that you wanted to get to. I was just thinking that in my situation of two hives if I build them up, by my second year should be strong enough to produce the resources for them to make it through winter and still give the fam some for our tea. And I was thinking that the same could have been said had you build up your initial hives to begin with and then each year grow in a little bit bigger, but that was just what I was thinking. Hope I didn’t offend. Again, thanks for what you do, I’ve learned tons watching your channel. Don’t change!

[@vinofarm]

@@LarryLeesBees Not at all... I just find myself typing it often and don't know the best way to address it. I guess I could make a video, but new people don't go back and watch everything. It's just a common question for a lot of people. Might be time for a FAQ video or an AMA video.

[@LarryLeesBees]

LoL!!! Fair enough!

[@lynxacres1293]

Awesome video. That rain sure was a bit crazy. I was wondering, are all your hives 8 frames? And why you chose 8 vs 10? Thanks :)

[@vinofarm]

I started my apiary with the flow hive equipment and that's 8 frame. As I grew I kept buying 8 frame so things were interchangeable. Then I realized I really liked 8 frame after seeing and lifting a friends 10 frame deep box. So I committed to it early and it stuck.

[@lynxacres1293]

Vino Farm thanks for the explanation. I think if I ever get Lang’s I’ll use 8 bar. They are definitely supposed to be lighter.

[@lenoretalon9958]

Where’s. The new video 👀😁

[@vinofarm]

Tomorrow. We're in the midst of a sad time with a failing dog. As soon as we get over this difficult time, I'll be catching up with several videos and then back on track. Please be patient.

[@ryanbateman766]

I truly enjoy all your videos. I’m also a new keeper 3rd year with 5 hives slowly growing every year. Had a rough go with queens this spring. I’m not far from you maybe 25 min down the road in Hardwick. I’ve been following your videos since the beginning and compare them to my hives all the time!! Thank you for all you do. Between the hives and the filming and editing and farming I know it’s a lot of work! You ever need some help want an extra hand going through the hives please don’t hesitate to ask!!

[@matthewbennett558]

I'm not a bee keeper, I just enjoy watching these kind of videos, and I had a question. Since your bees keep flying back home, would it help to confine them to quarters for a week after dumping the bees into the new box?

[@vinofarm]

Not for a week... but that is one technique. Probably 24 hours or so would work, but I'm concerned about boxing them in on a hot day.

[@nathanbarker4394]

Do you use branches in front of your hives when you make a split?

[@vinofarm]

No, I've never done that.

[@nathanbarker4394]

Vino Farm: lots of people say it does not work and mabye ig Just works cause i have more nurse bees than I thought. But I put a branch in front of the split. Seems to help the bees decide to stay cause the surroundings look different then on the next inspection you can remove it.

[@Stratic1357]

You're gonna need a bigger -boat- beeyard, At least if this continues like last year. You're obviously keeping track of which hives produced which, soon viewers are going to need a family "split" tree to keep track of it all.

[@vinofarm]

My friends and family are going to be getting bees this summer. I really don't want more than I have.

[@td4190]

Question why are you adding so many hives what are your future plans I remember kind of at the beginning you weren't talking about going into the bee business necessarily. Just a question

[@vinofarm]

I've reached my capacity/goal. The nucs will remain as nucs and overwinter to replace future loses or old queens. I want to maintain around 15 colonies and 10 nucs. If things spiral out of control, I will be giving away or selling splits. I do not plan on expanding beyond what you see here, however, there may be a couple experimental "outyard" hives placed at other locations this summer. Stay tuned.

[@td4190]

@@vinofarm always do!!!! Watched em all

[@osmacice]

You would convince more bees to stay in new nucs if you close them in for a few days

[@stevehockey4]

Ok, apparently I have OCD. Can you please tell me what’s up with the one crooked hive?

[@vinofarm]

I need to spin that hive around. It's facing backwards because it grew out of a nuc that was facing that way last summer Rather than change its orientation, I just left it over the winter. I had it cocked a bit to the side because the flight path would be going directly into the electric fence charger. I plan on turning it a few inches a day so it does an almost 180 and ends up facing south like the other hives.

[@phpnotasp]

Many queens are not marked. Why did you stop doing this? You made a whole video on how to mark them with some tool.

[@vinofarm]

Jack T One day I will remember to take my tool and pens up to the bee yard during an inspection and do them all. I’m pretty busy with other things in life and just getting up there with the camera gear every week and keeping all the colonies straight in my head takes up a lot of brain bandwidth. I’ll get on it soon.

[@mattf3238]

Where did you get your resources hives from? I found one at better bee but it is not a complete hive.

[@vinofarm]

Betterbee. You need to buy the lid and frames.

[@jlwilson1988]

Part of the reason you are having too many bees returning from the nucs is because you're adding only food frames and capped brood. You will catch some nurse bees getting food, and some warming capped brood, but the majority will be on open brood actively feeding it. Partial capped and some open brood will delay when they hatch but you will start with more bees in the nucs. Also, with walk away splits you should really let the main hive build the cells. A weak split will nearly always make for an inferior queen. Not to say she won't lay or make honey, but her output will be less than her genetic potential. Grafting into very strong builders, supersedure cells, or swarm cells are all far better choices. If you do leave the strong hive to make a superior queen you may still miss the honey flow due to the length of time before your new queen's brood starts hatching. I only run about the same amount you do, but I graft to make splits or use swarm cells to get the best quality queens possible.

[@vinofarm]

jlwilson1988 Good tips. Thanks.

[@jman414999]

the flow is full on here in south east MA. the pollen and nectar coming in is unreal. Nice splits, careful with those storms

[@timeformore]

My tired eyes read “splitting bees” as “spelling bees”. Lol

[@mikeries8549]

Hey that's a good idea for educational tv. Animated bees spell out words. Spelling Bees Cursive for advanced kids. Now go make your millions. ;)

[@nnonyanonya2250]

YAY FOR THE FLOW! Can’t wait to see it in action

[@keirallen81]

Mate, you need to cull some queen cells or expect to be chasing swarms

[@vinofarm]

Keir Allen I’ll have a look at that hive today and see how they’re doing. If the cells are still there I’ll cut most of them down.