Swales Honey - Splitting Bees.

[@AntennaBee]

Hi Trevor Good old demeree stack Smoker repair good old gaffer tape in your toolbox 😂 Good to your girls working, we don’t have OSR in south east , but hawthorn everywhere atm Great vid keep it up 👍

[@swaleshoney]

Thanks Colin. I’m not sure we’ll have OSR for much longer. The hawthorn is looking fantastic this year. Been building more of them stacks today.

[@jimydee]

Outstanding. Never knew about a vertical split, simply brilliant.

[@swaleshoney]

Hello Jim and thanks. It’s a fairly widely used practice in various forms. Just google Demaree swarm control.

[@Іванко-э5ц]

Hello Trevor! A good video lesson on the Demaree method. I advise you to use a leather smoker's bellows. My leather bellows has been working for 10 years. But, every spring and every fall I smear it with castor oil. Your video shows scout bees. Bees with viral paralysis move slowly. They have a bloated belly. They are attacked by other bees to remove them from the hive. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🤝🤝🤝🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝✌✌✌

[@swaleshoney]

Thank you Ivan. 10 years for a set of bellows is incredible, I’ve never had any last anywhere like that long. The bees I was referring to on the front of the hive was one or two hairless shiny bees. They weren’t obvious and I only spotted them whilst editing and thought they may also be robber bees. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝👍👍👍🤝🤝🤝🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@simonrouse3995]

OSR finished here in Leicestershire,been doing vertical splits myself due to big colonies the bees seem very reluctant to swarm this year not found many with cells,normally the bees are very calm though out the year but at the moment very aggressive!even though it’s been a warm week the supers are just starting to get some weight in them, but rain and bad weather is forecast for the next coming week 😢

[@swaleshoney]

Hi Simon, I’m finding queen cells and some honey today. The bees are overall much more docile as well but we are forecast poor weather from tomorrow.

[@beekeeperkev]

Glad it’s not just me finding this year one of the strangest in 24years, got colonies with more brood than stores to support them and empty supers at the moment, the OSR is nearly gone

[@swaleshoney]

Every year is different but this one is just crazy. Strong colonies but I don’t know how they’ve built up with what they’ve suffered weather wise. Many of us are finding the same issues regardless of whereabouts we are.

[@WellesbourneHoneyCo]

Oil seed was flowering here in Warwickshire then it rained for 2 weeks, now the oil seed has gone over.

[@swaleshoney]

There could be some poor spring honey crops I think. Just not sure how badly the lack of OSR will affect things.

[@alanbrady6071]

Hello Trevor . Enjoy your videos! Question, on the splits that you don’t shake the bees off the frames & just lift them to the top, how do the drones get out?

[@swaleshoney]

Whenever I do any sort of vertical split whether the bees are shaken or not, I always stagger a super to leave a small top entrance at one corner. I did show this in the video and said it was a bit big and needed tightening up. Even when I shake bees the combs that are lifted up contain drone brood which is constantly hatching. I hope that’s helped. Thanks Alan.

[@johnthebeekeeper1706]

There’s definitely something going on with the bees this year considering the bad weather they’ve built up very well but many people are commenting about the bees been very aggressive I don’t usually have a problem with the bees being aggressive but this spring they of the scale any one else having the same problem in uk !!!!

[@swaleshoney]

I normally find them fairly good up to the end of the OSR flowering. Then we have a few days of real aggression. I can’t recall ever having to deal with this level of spite in early to mid May. The colony strength is surprising considering the poor weather we’ve had.