What If I Do Nothing? (Dead Simple Hive Combine)

[@BugFarmerBees]

This is what makes you a good beekeeper in my opinion. You are never afraid to try something new. I am plagued with real-time ideas as well. I get it.

[@stephenrobb8759]

I have been binge watching... Totally my favorite soap opera ever.

[@julieenslow5915]

At the end of the day, any day, if I can say "I tried something, it worked, I learned something." Then that is a GOOD day!! Congratulations!

[@johnpotter7873]

@3:41 🤔🤯 perfect placement of the lightbulb 💡 Great editing!!!!

[@emk7132]

I learn something new from you every day!

[@chrishumphreys9363]

As they say the bees know whats best. Well done.

[@MattBaker1965]

Well done. Looks like less messing about makes calmer bees 👍

[@davea4889]

Good job… Often times the best solution is the simplest one!

[@ianhegan-rumohr791]

Great job Jim! The queenless hive having little to no queen pheromones, and needing a queen would pose no threat because they don't smell like a different queen. This should making combing hives a lot easier indeed.

[@aRedstepchild]

The reason this worked is one side had no brood, eggs, queen. It doesn't matter if this was all removed 5 min ago. Once their hive was deficient, they absconded to the hive next door with these elements. I do this with split with queen right hives to give a new mated queen a hive of foragers. It's a simple rebalancing split. If that queen had a ton if empty drawn comb, she would've spit out eggs to match the flood of new bees that joined them.

[@hyfy-tr2jy]

Jim, it puts a smile on my face to see your bee season going so well this year. If your spring flow goes like it is here in KY be sure to have lots of supers at the ready! Its looking to be a great spring

[@heatherwanderer777]

That one nuc was queenless for a good amount of time which made it work so effortlessly. I think if you had a deficient hive or you wanted to combine two weaker nucs you'd want to make sure they had at least 24 hours queenless before letting them migrate over so they'd be more likely to accept the new queen. Glad this worked so well, easy is always nice :)

[@oscarcaraan810]

I learned something new today. Thank you for trying another new thing. Another convenience of having a double nuc.

[@andrewc7369]

Well played Jim. Good move.

[@emmawood2784]

Nothing to lose only nucs that I don’t need, not what I expected from you, Im glad it worked

[@vinofarm]

Nucs are back-ups to make up for winter losses and to replace lacking resources in the main hives. All main hives made it through winter and are slamming. The nucs have already done their jobs! I don’t sell bees and do not want to expand.

[@mattf3238]

O no you did it again! Those trolls are pissed hahahaha. Good job Jim. Your outside the box thinking is going to be the thing that makes you a youtube beekeeping legend. Someone to truly follow. Thank you for sharing your ideas and experiences.

[@brown5588anna]

I love your videos and have decided to make bee barns this year as well!! Though I have been using 10 frame boxes, will be using the following boards and only have maybe 9 frames in each. I have only been bee keeping 3 years and have had a struggle keeping them alive in the winter due to multiple factors. Bears, mites, and not insulated enough during winter. Hoping for a more successful season this year, since I will be in better control those factors this year

[@minion450]

I love how you can clearly see how the queenless hive flapping wings like crazy, compared to the queenright. Especially how the sun is reflecting off of them!

[@hisimagenme]

I love that we all get to learn something new with you! Fantastic! Keep it simple, that's the bees way and the best way! Wahoo!! Smiles and blessings...go bees!🐝💞

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Love real time ideas

[@chrrmin1979]

I love how you're always trying new ideas. Heck yea

[@sandiriggert5345]

Thats fabulous! Great for you and the girls:)

[@beewize9982]

Thank you for sharing

[@CastleHives]

Going to setup a double NUC in the next week. Good stuff Jim. So many things to do to the double NUC setups.

[@lagrangebees]

Effortless merger... Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? :D

[@2listening1]

Yikes, I’m glad that worked! 😊👍🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@kirbygrip2]

I’ve seen Jamie Ellis combine two nucs in a full brood body. He just put one nuc to one side and the other next to it - no newspaper no fighting. But one Queen between them. He’s never had a problem combining this way.

[@twistin140]

Thanks for the share!! love the videos!

[@markkarstad2899]

Perfect! 😁👌

[@angelacross2216]

So impressed with your willingness to try something new.

[@mayan9458]

Your very resourceful with your cool ideas!

[@texascowgirl319]

Nice job Jim! Keep it simple!

[@lialos]

"Nothing to lose here." Except maybe another queen, hahaha. Awesome that it worked out! I was thinking that maybe your plan was going to be to super them, with no QE, and thus they could go up and over, and maybe, eventually, the queen could lay into the other side, at which point, you could then re-separate them, and have one of them act like a walkaway split.

[@vinofarm]

That sounds really complicated. Ha ha.

[@markbee5787]

I love it when a plan works out! Although I didn’t see all the frames close up I noticed that there wasn’t that much brood present . I think you noticed it also, when you were beginning to wonder if there was a queen in the colony. Also there wasn’t much food stores in the frames. Just my observations.

[@vinofarm]

I added a nearly full frame of honey from the queen less side.

[@StereoIsTypica]

Love your bees and videos. Just a thought for next time you design your hives; you could put a divider board between them that way if you ever had this scenario you could just slide the board over to expand them. Thanks for sharing what your learning 😁

[@buildingwithtrees2258]

He did

[@StereoIsTypica]

@@buildingwithtrees2258 Its two nucs divided. Whereas if it was just a deep box with a divider board than you could take it out and convert the nuc into a deep.

[@maryjanebeatty6030]

Love it when a plan comes together! Great job with much less work! Love your bee yard :) Thanks for sharing and letting me tag along!

[@robinb1451]

we all learn something every day, life would be real boring if we didn't thanks Jim for another tip /video experience 👍

[@woodsfriendlygarden2190]

Great experiment and video. ❤️🐝👏

[@spudgn]

Booya my friend. Good on you.

[@kentcostello5286]

Love your channel full of good information & HACKS. Been beekeeping for about 3 years still learning the trade and you help me .

[@BlanchardsBees]

🐝🐝Love when a plan comes together. Not to often that happens in beekeeping.

[@schammond8993]

Good job.

[@kennith.]

Great job Jim, that was informative. Thank you.

[@unpunlievable]

Very cool! They shuffled right over and made themselves at home :) 7:30 bee on the camera, love it! look at that little abdomen twitching 😄

[@jpthedelawarebeeman6239]

Good job Jim - resource hives are good to have but can be more maintenance especially if you have great laying queens in them. I have 3 now and love them. My 1st resource hive was 4 frames but I ended up just going to 5 frame nucs pushed together.

[@Eiandri]

Love all the updates you have given already this year! Keep it up! :D

[@ellendang1088]

Really love your creativity with regards to beekeeping.

[@appleiiee]

I think you did an awesome job!! 🐝

[@sallythorpe9138]

So is it gospel that by combining 2 hives the bees will actually fight without newspaper? This proves differently. Or is it because they have been so close together that the pheromones are already combined and so they are already acquainted? Really enjoyed watching this. It just shows that we need to try new things. Well done. Sally. Dorset UK.

[@LadyEzri]

Sometimes, it is the crazy ideas that just work brilliantly! These bees just know what to do.

[@buildingwithtrees2258]

I did this last fall and walked away, 3 hives in fact. They are alive and well today!

[@LittleDergon]

Glad it was nice and simple, I know you've had your fair share of issues with queen's in the past 😅

[@kathyhathaway8823]

Good thinking 🤔

[@RyanMcDonnough]

Timely video. I just did 5 combinations with no newspaper. Zero evidence of fighting. Just removed the old queen, removed any queen cells, and allowed that colony to be queenless for an hour -> added queenright box to queenless box -> done. It works. I think the trick is that the queenless colony needs to be queenless for a little bit of time so that they *want* that delicious QMP…then you give it to them.

[@Mike_squarebeefarms]

cool idea! nice job!

[@michaelpariera4328]

I have a double nuc also and I was thinking about this very thing on a combine, would it work. I think that the empty space probably helped. You are doing a good job

[@ericduncan3028]

I wonder about a communication hole in the center board that can be sealed when not needed and opened to ease queen movement laterally. I’ve been thinking about nuc expansion and the benefits of vertical growth for brood factories in your barns and how tall they would get with your xl frames. Sometimes maybe it would be easier to let them expand to the empty double nuc side and then harvest frames or make a split. A lot of the benefit of vertical growth is based on taking advantage of hive colony temps to easier maintain brood temps as you know…your barns help already with colony temp maintenance so I wonder how it would go. A nuc experiment? Good luck.

[@scottbenzing1361]

Nice.

[@budgiebreder]

That was quite impressive. Like they just knew what they needed to do. Another bee barn win?

[@neospiderman2165]

That hive with the 3 supers is slamming I wonder if you may to put than 3 by the end of the season

[@vinofarm]

It's two plus the insulated box. And I only JUST added that second one because they were jammed in the first one. Then it got cold and rainy for the past week. Next week should be slamming up here.

[@yosse.g577]

Epic

[@aRedstepchild]

I learned a way to add a mated queen to a queen right hive and get 4 + frames of eggs in 1-2 days. Hive 1- lots of EVERYTHING. 3 medium boxes with xl drawn comb. Bottom medium is empty. I picked up the brood box with the mated queen and moved it 20 yards with entrance facing sunset (prev entrance was facing sunrise). I placed 1 frame of empty comb in the bottom medium (in original spot). Foragers will come here still. I placed window screen over this medium. I put a brood box from a different mated queen on top of this. Placed the new queens bottom board upside down as a lid. Now both top and bottom have a separate exit. The queen up top had 10 frames of empty drawn comb and maybe 50-100 bees in her cluster, and 5 larvae, 5 eggs. What happens: foragers comb back, confused, roaring. They stubbornly go to bottom and back out. Then, top cluster fans the top entrance, inviting foragers to come up. They do come at nightfall. Some gradually come during daylight and will also fan entrance to say "I found home.. here it is".. 2 days later I opened top and the hive was filled with eggs. FILLED. And all the foragers were with the new queen. I removed empty medium and screen below, so now they could all use bottom entrance. I had to remove several frames of eggs to other hives, because there were too many. I gave a frame of capped brood about to hatch. The eggs would be better fed if spread out in other hives. I can always return the capped brood. 2 weeks later, I've got a full double medium deep and it's ABSOLUTELY needing a 2nd double medium and checkerboard more empty frames to draw out. The hive I moved.. I had to give that queen more frames to lay on. They did just fine too. It was slower to forage but it had the resources to make it. It's stacked with bees. They both are. And frames full of resources. So that's how you split a queen right hive and add a mated queen to 2nd split with no loss of foraging or brood raising. As you saw, you don't add a mated queen. You lure the bees to the queen that has brood. They will instantly move over if there's no brood/eggs in their hive. It doesn't matter if they have a queen 5 min ago. It matters who has brood (and a mated queen) NOW.

[@vinofarm]

I think you should make a video explaining this. It sounds interesting.

[@IISheireenII]

I wasn't aware that this is an uncommon way to combine in America. In Germany we usually don't have a solid seperation of the split boxes, but a board hanging between the frames to seperate them in a normal box and when combining them that board gets replaced by a frame so they all chill in the same box and all is fine. Vertical combinations are very normal here.

[@vinofarm]

Cool. I've never heard of that. Are your entrances on opposite sides or same side?

[@IISheireenII]

@@vinofarm Opposite sides usually. If you want to split, there are bottom boards with two entrances on opposite sides. After it has been recombined, those bottom boards usually get switched out again for one with only one entrance, alternatively one of the entrances gets blocked.

[@vinofarm]

@@IISheireenII Neat... that's just not something I had seen before. Good idea.

[@firefly4f4]

Happy bees = happy beekeeper! I was wondering if that's how you'd do the combine. Only difference being I'd thought you'd use a queen excluder (just to be sure, although I guess drones would also be left out), but hey if it works it works. No big contraption, just let the two sides share bees. Kind of like using a single honey super over both sides of a resource hive. I'm surprisingly sad that the new queen didn't come back, but that's nature and it happens. Good job, and I love seeing these videos.

[@susanrowland8915]

Thanks for the video. What type of queen are you using in this hive? Thanks

[@Bee_Cathy]

Love the idea of having bee barn nucs. Was this a 10 frame hive you split and modified or two beebarn nucs you wrapped as one? Our season is going great design. The bees do build up fast having a stable environment to live in.

[@vinofarm]

It's a standard divided 10 frame "resource hive" that you can buy at betterbee. I combined deep and medium boxes to fit my XL frames and wrapped the exterior in permanent insulation. They are super-able and work GREAT!

[@alphaxanon]

And now you have an empty nuc to put a split into! Would you split to make more Balboa descendants, or something else?

[@sala_evans]

What's the hardest part about beekeeping for you Vino??

[@vinofarm]

Making videos while beekeeping.

[@vinofarm]

(Serious answer) My new hives have eliminated almost all the things I used to HATE about beekeeping: lifting boxes, bending over, disturbing brood nests, rotating boxes, wrapping and unwrapping, stressing about winter, stressing about spring, stressing about summer, worrying about cold snaps, worrying about feeding, juggling 16 frames per hive/ per inspection, etc... Now, I only worry about Varroa. Beekeeping is fun again.

[@LarryLeesBees]

Thanks for showing this Jim. We were just hanving a conversation on this very subject the other day. Perfect timing. 😃 Awesome to see you getting back to a somewhat regular video schedule again. How’s that barn looking? Did you get the interior all finished?

[@vinofarm]

The more videos I post, the less I get done in the barn. And vice versa. My regular posting schedule should answer your question.

[@LarryLeesBees]

@@vinofarm - Fair enough. 😃 Thanks for all you do! Appreciate your videos immensely. Take care Sir.

[@robertgillespie4214]

That's fascinating.Did the temperature sensors show the migration at all with a temperature drop in the Queenless hive? For that matter, did the temperature in the one hive fluctuate at all around the missing Queen?

[@vinofarm]

Yes, I kind of knew before opening the lid that the bees had moved out of that side. The temp was lower on the missing queen side. They keep temps at 92+º when there's brood. No brood, the temps fluctuate all over the place.

[@justducky0]

Are your frames larger than the socalled Dadant frames used in Dadant boxes? If so do you think the difference is advantaged?

[@Robot_Eva]

I liked the part where a bee crawled on the camera lense

[@1202Sid]

Maybe you'll get the chance to try the flow super this year :D

[@Ikantspell4]

Nice I was wondering if this would work apparently it will. Im aware that people keep 2 queens separate below a single super for what I understand are banging results. I always wondered if you could do that with these setups?

[@rogierdikkes]

The moment you saw the queen cell and saw a fat larvae, you could have left the hive alone for 3 weeks. A queen cup gets closed on day 8- or 9 I believe, a queen emerges on day 16. The fact you could see the larvae told you she had 1 week to go atleast before emerging. A queen gets ripe to mate after 5 days leaving the cell. After those 5 days she usually takes a few bridal flights and it takes another couple days before she starts laying. That's where my 3 weeks come from. Virgin queens are very skittish and will often get balled in when you disturb them. They do not have all feromones going till 3 weeks after mating, and once they are that far they get less skittish. So the moment you saw the cell I would have decided to atleast wait 3 weeks instead of 2 before taking another peek. And at that third week I would have checked for eggs only and not go through the entire hive.

[@vinofarm]

I understand that, but the roaring bees and total lack of any sign of a queen after two weeks made me want to save the bees I could. That nuc had been queen less for about a month (aside from a short time with a virgin) and they were dwindling and stressed. And again, this was one of six nucs and I don’t need six nucs right now. I think it all worked out for the best. Thanks.

[@mikkoainasoja5018]

I wonder would the result be same if those two hives haven't be so close neighbors? See they might already have get to know each others smell and presence before you even joint them. That is not always the case when you do combine hives. But I don't say that it could not work. interesting. Thanks for the video.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

quick question: do you think there is any merit to making all the standard Bee Barns convertible to double nucs? The entrance configuration would have to be adjusted somewhat, but being able to slide a solid board down the middle to convert a full barn to a double nuc temporarily might add to the versatility of the design. Do you think there would be any downside to having an off-center entrance to a full hive?

[@vinofarm]

Interesting idea, but double nucs work best when the entrances are 180º opposite each other. I've tried side by side nucs with the same side entrance and got a lot of drift and queen mishaps.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@vinofarm what if you did a full size entrance on both sides of the hive just offset flush with the outside edge, then you could just close up the rear entrance when it wasn't in "nuc configuration", but keep the 180. alternatively, is there any reason that the entrance has to be perpendicular to the frames? you could keep your standard centered entrance, orient the frames paralleled to the entrance (at a 90 to normal), then open up the rear entrance when you put in the divider board. I'm just spit-balling ideas really, I love your design and plan to build several once I get the green light to get bees; though wife is terrified atm. :D

[@cbbees1468]

Just my hypothesis of what could have happened, your insulated hives were producing drones earlier than normal but not enough drones from other colonies were available to mate (since the queens try to avoid inbreeding and can go up to 9 miles away to mate). Bee trees would probably have similar insulation to the Bee Barns but maybe there weren't enough feral colonies pumping out drones this early? PS: That one virgin queen could have easily become a nice meal for a bird or other predator or some other factor as well.

[@vinofarm]

"Feral" colonies really aren't a thing up here. I'm thinking bird food.

[@deanclarke392]

Fun video Jim as always. Do you not think there is less bees than there was? You have 4+3 frames, now very few 2+ max. Impressed the queen was still there and alive.

[@BernyHi_CosmicHoney]

Nice strategy! Thanks for sharing. Did it seem like the (now) empty frames were robbed? And did you close the entrance to that side or leave it open? Always a delight seeing your videos pop up! Good luck with the bees and weather!

[@chriswelch7944]

You've likely been asked this before...but, how do you extract those huge frames?

[@IISheireenII]

He doesn't. Those frames are for the bees only. Any honey on there is for the bees consumption. He only extracts honey from the supers added on top of that and those frames are normal sized. He does get that question quite a lot though.

[@vinofarm]

I don't! They are brood frames. I add supers and only harvest super honey.

[@PilotMcbride]

And that's it? 😂😂 😉. A great job but gee, I made my coffee, stretched my watching muscles, calmed myself, ready to watch another great vid, and, boom..... 😫😫, all over. Ah well, not to worry, I'll do a double dose of young James, 😂😂😂. Thanks for posting James, I really enjoy your videos. 👏👏👏 👋👋👋 🇦🇺 🐝🐝

[@vinofarm]

Click the little gear icon and choose 1/2 speed and you can watch me do the whole video drunk.

[@PilotMcbride]

@@vinofarm 🤣🤣🤣

[@billc3405]

Shows how we can complicate things

[@ssmith7074]

Seems like a queen excluder would have been a good addition just to be sure the queen didn't cross over too and start laying in the other side.

[@vinofarm]

The beauty of this was that I did nothing and the bees just did what I expected. A queen excluder would have complicated things.

[@dyershov]

If you don't need a nuc, can I borrow one? :) I've seen a similar setup for horizontal combine with Apimaye hives. With their 10-frame deeps they provide a vertical divider board that can be used as a solid divider, queen excluder, or pass-through for all bees. Apimaye hives are also insulated and have a build-in feeder. Following your videos on insulated hives and this video on horizontal combine, I thought I wanted to start beekeeping hobby and definitely want to try Apimaye hives. I'm trying to catch feral swarm, but if I can borrow a nuc, it would be splendid. BTW, I'm in Mass so it will be easy to move ;)

[@vinofarm]

You need a hive that can handle 16" deep frames, though.

[@dyershov]

@@vinofarm I'm thinking of getting Apimaye Ergo Plus Honey & Brood Beehive Set, and make a similar setup to Beebarn. Use one deep box and one medium super as a brood chamber with XL frames. Then use the leftover deep and medium boxes for good and not so good flows.

[@peterstockschlaeder956]

Busting more beekeeping myths!

[@sporkintheeye]

I don't know what your nectar flow situation is... but in a nectar flow, I move stuff around all the time and no one cares.

[@2listening1]

👸🏽💛🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

[@nickford5549]

Check out stout also in ma, he does similar frames that may make stuff like this easyier

[@Leftistattheparty]

The mad lad of beekeeping youtube. You certainly know how to do clickbait and get those views. It's impressive.

[@vinofarm]

It's only "clickbait" if it doesn't deliver.

[@LarryLeesBees]

What exactly was clickbait in his title? Just asking.

[@crosswriter5279]

Not "mad lad" mad genius is more like it it's only a mistake if it doesn't work

[@JohnDavidDunlap]

The difference between madness and genius is the outcome.

[@billc3405]

All veiws were earned very informative video

[@tjjastrem127]

Usually works if one side is desperately queenless

[@vinofarm]

Do you do this often? I've never heard of it.

[@tjjastrem127]

@@vinofarm Havnt done this per say I took a box and put it directly on and it worked same thing basically. The one side is desperate to accept a queen they aren’t going to harm the queen. The issue is if there’s potentially a laying worker it could kill the queen. But generally it works out, they may fight a little. This also may work because I’ve seen the dirt rooster dump them in front of a hive and let them beg their way in. Kind of the same concept except they beg across the divide. Usually the guard bees are the ones that eject intruders but if they are busy foraging for the most part it may also help the cause. I think generally the hopelessly queen less is the answer to the success

[@victortarasyuk8042]

Sometimes they get fights But it is lucky situation. I would spray some moonshine on upper box and it usually works without newspapers.

[@SzychaPMI]

Give them food.

[@vinofarm]

They have frames filled with nectar and honey. Pollen is abundant.

[@thomaswilliams6155]

Howdy brother, I've enjoyed you shows in the past but I've always been on the verge of moving on. Hey, I got an idea, I'm moving on. Bee well.

[@vinofarm]

Was it something I said?

[@kamoboko86]

Have you seen many videos of Canadian bee keepers? I feel like there is a lot to be learned from people who bee keep in the snow all year long. (Almost)

[@timothyodonnell8591]

Jim follows Etienne Tardiff and Ian Steppler, both Canadian beekeepers.

[@idk57-m4m]

Put a flow super on a hive

[@salembeeman370]

I would have been afraid the queenless hive would have hurt the queen from the other hive.

[@paganpoet3]

Stop having ideas...it's bad for the bees and the world in general.

[@vinofarm]

I feel the same way about negativity.

[@timothyodonnell8591]

Paganpoet3: You seem nice.

[@richardwalterbee]

To paraphrase / comment Kaylee from Honeystead >>>> "DAVE? You learned something new today? Did you get your hands dirty?" c20-22inkRWBEE

[@Typhus-th6ud]

Dont say you have nothing to lose it cost me 190dollars for a nuc and I wanna start another colony I've only got 1 need something to fall back on I would buy them off you or just mail them to me

[@vinofarm]

What I meant was that the WORST thing that could happen would be the queen getting killed. And then the bees would just make a new queen. And then I'd have a fresh queen. Not a loss. I'd still have the bees and the frames and the resources, etc. I wouldn't "lose" a nuc.