Spring Checkup - How are the Bees Doing at John's Farm?

In this video we are checking on the four hives that we have at our friend, John's, farm in central North Carolina. These hives overwintered on the farm and are doing well. We added frames to fill out the hive boxes in three of the hives and left room for more frames in the fourth (smaller colony) hive. The next time we go into these hives will be to harvest honey this Fall.
The insecticide that we used under the hives in this video is Scotts GrubEx. Roy sprinkled a handful of the product under each of the hives. It is supposed to kill grubs in the ground but is safe to use around the honeybees. It should be available wherever you get your home and garden supplies.
We are practicing natural beekeeping methods using Layens horizontal hives that we built ourselves. To get a copy of the plans that we downloaded for free and used to build our swarm boxes, frames, horizontal hives and insulated horizontal hives, click here: horizontalhive...

[@weirhauch1002]

You're doing great work, I use horizontal hives, but not Layn's. I just advise you to use thick cotton cloth to cover the frames and separate them from the rest of the box space.@12:50.

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

Howdy Roy and Shirley. A few years back, I built what I thought was 3 8 frame Layens swarm boxes. Well, me being me, I inched it. I made a 7.5 frame box. Big gap with 7 frames. I picked up a tip from some northern Lang beekeepers. They use grain bags for an inner cover instead of a wooden inner cover. Some use canvass. I use cotton canvass cut to cover all the top bars plus the extra open space. You really just need a piece big enough to cover the gap plus a few frames, but I find at least half the width of the hive works good enough. The bees will proprolize the canvass but won't build cross comb unless they are cramped for space. Always a pleasure to see you two working your bees, thanks for posting. Have a great day, Brice

[@randsbees]

Yeah, we need to do something different. Roy assures me that he will be able to get those frames out this fall where he beat the board in at the end. We'll see. There may be some foul language involved, so it may not make it to KZbin.

[@patriciadouglass9972]

You guys sure get around. All the hives are so pretty. Love watching your videos.

[@randsbees]

Thanks, Pat! A little backstory: the hive at Gene & Jody's house is painted like her playhouse. And that's the playhouse that Crissy played in as a child. Crissy and her daughter are the ones that painted all of our hives. So, we go back a LONG way. Did you paint your hive?

[@91932net]

Love your channel, Newbee here😅I live up in the Rockies. My question is…..i had bought a few Nucs (I know, I just couldn’t catch any swarms last year and am so impatient to catch swarms this year). Anyhow, my first Nuc I cut the langstroth frames and then screwed them into my layens frames. My second Nuc I built adapter frames and used those. My third Nuc I just placed the langstroth frames sideways using my layens frames as a holder, does that make sense? My question is….for this third Nuc how do I rotate out the langstroth frames out? And should I do this before winter?

[@randsbees]

We started out with Layens equipment, so we've never had to deal with conversion. If you go to Horizontalhive.com, click on the Plans tab, scroll down to "Convert Langstroth hive to Layens,"and hit the Plans button. The page it goes to steps you through the process. We've seen Dr. Leo talk about doing this. It may have been on Offgrid with Doug and Stacy. You can search KZbin for those videos. Gene over on Enjoy Beekeeping has some videos on this, too. He started with Langstroth equipment and converted to Layens. You should be able to rotate those frames out over the next couple of seasons. You can checkerboard your regular Layens frames with those converted Langstroth frames and slowly work them out. I wouldn't rush to do it before winter. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[@johnrazor8720]

Ah, the beauty of spring. I have a honeysuckle in my backyard that smells great and you would think would be covered in honey bees. Not the case. Apparently too many chemicals being used in the neighborhood. Enjoying your springtime adventure.

[@randsbees]

Thanks, John! We had honeysuckle on the railroad track bank by our house in Apex. Then the RR sprayed it, and it hasn't come back. That was a few years ago. At least you get to enjoy the honeysuckle in your backyard.

[@kristymeyer432]

Maybe you guys can help me. When you combine two hives and use sugar water mixed with Anise, are you using Star Anise, or Aniseed? I am confused about which essential oil to use and I cannot find the answer on the internet. Thanks in advance.

[@651journey]

How often do you guys like to inspect the hives