The Great Drone Suppression Conspiracy: how to work with your queens, not against them

[@jackgouws9913]

Hi Phil! I am very new to the whole "bee-thing" and have learnt so much from your videos. I don't have a hive yet, but rather like the idea of top bar hives and the bees building their own comb, etc. Thanks for the explanations; it makes sense to me as a novice / learner. 🌻

[@stevenogborn5892]

Thank you Phil.

[@luckydubeinrc5165]

yip came to be educated...not dissapointed , thank you Phil. 4th year bee keeper. (African Bees, western cape south africa)

[@awbegg]

Great explanation Phil, keep up the good work

[@nuruzzaman4893]

I love your wisdom and the things you say sit really well with me, because a lot of the time you refer to the natural disposition of things, in Arabic we call this the "fitrah". Whilst others are always talking about new innovations, which half the time are gimmicky and quite unnatural, and just comes across to me as waffle. Please continue doing the good work.

[@KKIcons]

Yes whether as a trainer or type of agriculture, the more we go against the nature the more difficult it is for us and what we are working with. I find that so much all around my farm.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Thank you for teaching me a new word!

[@carolinecrolla2097]

Really helpful. Thank you. Until I discovered “natural beekeeping”, I always struggled with the advice of drone culling in my National hives. So, it is great to hear that drones are to be celebrated. Adding shims (is that how to spell that?) to enable thicker comb to be drawn for honey was also really useful to know.

[@colinevans1177]

Yes. I can imagine queens getting pretty stressed out not being able to lay drone eggs in a british national. It would also be interesting to find out the proportion of queens that return to the hive unmated as a direct result of some beekeepers persecution of drones in this way and how this may effect bee numbers. Just a thought.🤔

[@SalCapuano]

Thank you Phil! I hope conventional beekeepers will one day understand. I love your videos!

[@newparksfarm]

Nice talking point Phil, I am using national size hives and frames with hoffman spacing but adding only frames with starter strips this year, my biggest hive (of 8) overwintered in two deeps and end of March had full 22 frames of bees with 6 frames of worker brood. I moved up into 3rd deep a few frames of brood and replaced with starter strip frames in middle of brood nest in the lower boxes and outside of top box. 14th April I had 33 frames fully drawn and full of bees, 10 frames of worker brood and 8 frames of drone brood and they were 35lb heavier, (I have the whole hive on balance scales), I put an excluder between 2 and 3. The weather has not been good since then and they have lost almost all the 35lb but have drawn most of the 4th box and it is full of bees. I have done some quick checks for swarm cells since (none yet) but not counted brood frames, there are drones everywhere in the hive but the drones not been flying much, workers are flying in all weather and when the sun comes out you can't see the entrance for bees. I think drones are playing a part in keeping hive warm letting the workers fly more but will hopefully see what happens when the weather is right and there is a flow, next week maybe?!?

[@dominiquelesbirel3259]

Interesting point. I'd never thought about how they are also (amongst the other ways in which they contribute), contributing to keeping the hive warm.

[@KKIcons]

I wonder if the drones also provide Air con in the summer. Big concern for me here in TX.

[@nicholasjordan1697]

Very informative thanks Phil

[@wendygadsby8080]

I left a straight wire frame in my langstroth hive recently and exactly as you suggested it was filled with drone comb. Hopefully it will be filled with honey after they hatch, that’s a win win I’d say 🐝

[@grahamrdyer6322]

Thanks for the info, yes it is a good idea to leave enough space for drones, I never thought about that side of it, thanks again Phil

[@907heart]

Interesting information and very well explained. Thank you Phil.

[@laziacoff503]

That was absolutely lovely. Look forward to the next video.

[@tripbalch4851]

Tom Seeley's study of wild hives says that succesful hives are made up of 20% drones when left to their own management.

[@poppies5095]

Thank you.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

I guess Comb is wider under the Top Bar, as it is the foundation (the structural base) which will take a large load off it. Aka like the foundation of a wall in a house. As the Comb is drawn down lengthwise, the wider top can take the weight, and be strong enough, for each subsequent row, or rows of Honey Comb. 💪 Seeing you comb in this video, is rather like a tall building in reverse... Wider at the start (base) and narrower at the finish (top). I guess New York skyscrapers caught on Drone Camera footage, could be interpreted as an upturned top bar hive Wax built structure ! After all Bees are one of the best civil engineers ever... 🤗 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@tarquinbristow]

Hi Phil, excuse me for being late to the party. I have found this video very insightful and reassuring of attention to patterns and behaviour. I do love the idea of the shims, quite simple and intuitive. I cant help but notice though, how they seem to only use the top 80mm as dedicated honey comb. Having in mind what you have said about the preferred bee spacing it leads me to ask if you have considered a scenario whereby one could run a very shallow super (say 80mm) of 48mm bars above the standard 38mm brood area? I imagine it would be helpful in that you could be more selective when cropping in only taking capped honey, have cleaner honey comb, and give the bees somewhere to fit some drone cells when they feel inclined. I am a novice and just thinking aloud.

[@alphaqubec2508]

Hi! Maybe someone has already asked this question. But why dont you do all the topbars 46 mm wide instead of 38? Why use spacers, i understand what you mean by honey argument. But Isent it simpler to have all the bars 46mm. Im currently building a cathedral hive. I must say very informative videos! Keep up the good work! Best regards from Sweden! Jim

[@timtation5837]

Great videos… Thank you for sharing your wisdom and observations…. I am fascinated by your top bar/natural hives. I really like the trapezoid shape. I think it would make for a more energy efficient hive (for the bees, easier to maintain ideal temperatures). I will have to do more reading and research on these… I will definitely be building some of these and running them in the near future…. Granted, I will add insulation all around… How are you extracting those combs? (I might just run some for honeycomb, but I prefer to save the comb and give it back to the bees whenever possible. Anyway… Thanks again… Great stuff!!!

[@benlangton3484]

Thanks Phil, great video, personally I find it irritating that Hoffman spacing in nationals is 35 mm especially seeing as national boxes allow built to accommodate 11 such frames will (before propolising) fit 12 frames. Which causes no end of issues for me. As it almost forces me into using a dummy/follower board. I do wish manufactures would bring out a 38mm spaced end bar. Otherwise I think I will end up moving to castellated spacers (11slot) in my brood boxes. Love the videos and am hoping to see more on your quadratic hive this year. Specifically some roof designs as I find your plans in the ebook somewhat lacking in that area.

[@leroyharris5207]

👍

[@bjduvall227]

Wonderful presentation! It makes absolute sense to me. I'd like to know, now that you've had a year to test this, how did it turn out? Did you have a larger number of drones and more honey stores? Were your bees able to sustain themselves with the honey or did you have to add supplemental feeding?

[@juliaschofield847]

Thanks Phil. How is the larger drone comb re-used, do you know ? Would Queenie keep a drone comb solely for new drone larvae, and might it get used for honey storage further through the season? Do you advise repositioning an empty drone comb as winter approaches?

[@ianturner5444]

Hi Phil, Having studied your videos, I like several others have taken up bee keeping. I noticed that you used an inverted top bar to act as a super frame, no doubt the roof of the hive was pitched. Having built a top bar hive with a flat roof I had the idea of increasing the depth of the hive above the top bars. I'm installing standard super frames above allowing beespace with queen excluder sheets between top bars and bottom of frames, and will give space between the top bars. Have you tried this and did it work as in giving the queen more brood area and letting the workers produce more honey, over and above what they need to get through the winter. Thanks Ian

[@KKIcons]

You can find it in his top bar tips and tricks video. He also said there that someone else had taken his idea of the cathedral hive and marketed it. If that's what you are referring to.

[@mayamachine]

yes I agree with you.. And if we're not helping genetics of disease resistant queens we're hurting bees.. but veroa like drones, so any ideas to promote drones and fight veroa? thanks

[@Ogur1981]

That's the advantage of being a total beginner at this. I can experiment. Those shims might be very usefull up here in northern Sweden, where the season is short. Less time spent on comb building means more time on honey produktion. This is an argument I understand. But how will I know the bees are starting to draw in honey?

[@KKIcons]

It's been a while since I raised bees, and only got to do it for one season. so I'm here for the answer to your question too. I thought there's a way to tell the difference between The Brood Combs and the honey ones. Also don't they put the honey in top on the supers? But I don't know how they do it in a top bar Hive but I have to figure it out LOL. We could try looking on his website.

[@MistressOnyaCox]

🤓🧠🍯🐝🤩💕💕

[@stevenogborn5892]

Why Charles won't make you Sir Phil, I'll never understand.

[@lesleyreith2135]

I call creating conditions to increase workers and reduce drones Social Engineering.

[@DanniEsotericMoment]

It's a lovely video, but can we all take a moment to appreciate that exquisite shade thrown at Americans using inches 😂 I'm dying!

[@rezganger]

"which is very sweet of them"! lol but yes,its quite a clumsy system,if were completely honest. the reason is that it does not mesh with any other measurement system. metric is much more elegant. 1 liter of water has a resonance with many other relationships relating to 1,10,100,1000...