Beekeeping: First Inspection After Winter & WOW!
Beekeeping can be devastating coming out of winter. Today, let's open up a hive and see how it's doing, even though technically it's still winter.
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Whoa, you made it all the way down here! Thank you ♥️ Love you
Wow, so many bees and brood! I will be following your feeding instructions to the letter.
Wonderful!
Which commandment says I shouldn’t have brood envy for another man’s hive? 😂
Both my hives made it and looks like they started brooding up early. I’m a 1st year beekeeper. 2nd season is looking good. I haven’t done my deep dive inspection yet. Hoping for 60’s this week or next. Thx for your videos.
Good to hear!
Hey! You stole my bee smoker! Haha just kidding but on a real note i have the exact same smoker as you, its large size is great for inspection multiple hives. And green is my favorite color.
David I really really appreciate your videos. You have substantially helped me get through my first year! One hive is struggling, was a top bar with an older queen, but my langstroth is running strong!
Great to hear!
My 1st successful winter as a beekeeper thanks to your videos. Mite control & starting to feed in the fall thru winter were key for me. I have so many bees coming out of winter, its amazing. Theres no other way to do it now it, this is it 😉 thank you so much for making this hobby so much more enjoyable for me. 😊
That is awesome!
Ours hives are looking similar in Kansas this year. Seems mighty early. The bees probably know more than we do.
Impressive numbers. Well done!
This video was so helpful to me. I have a heavily populated hive (I follow your feeding recommendations and mite control). I have been anxious on how to start inspections and prevent swarming due to crazy Colorado weather. We’ve had days in the 60’s and now over a foot of snow. Hearing you talk about how you handle the same dilemma and inspect your hive and use liquid food now was a huge confidence builder for me. Thanks for all you do to help us!
They ate most of the first winter be kind, haven't touched the second. Here in southern NY we've had a few days where we've made up the 1 to 1 mix placed it about 200 feet from the hives and they have been emptied by the end of day. Yes community feeding, but soon going to switch from the winter be kind to 1 to 1 on the hive. This is our second winter bee keeping and feeling like this hive may make it. We lost one in fall to robbing and swarming. They left and the next week the robbing started before we caught what did and was happening.
Thanks David, Wow what a great video, they are very educational and helpful.I hope I have similar success my first two hives made it through the Central New York mild winter.
Hey David. We love all you do to support the BK community. We’re avid students. We survived our first winter thanks to all you teach. The Winter Bee Kind boards were auhmazing! We’re in Kansas City MO. Probably similar weather. What entrance reducer are you using as of March 12? What do we use to help gauge when to make entrance changes? Thanks!
Not too worried about it. That hive is wide open.
Great looking colony! I went thru hives yesterday here in Michigan, various sizes of brood patterns, saw drones and drone brood in the larger colonies
Oh wow!
Ordered a burn's feeder board and ur backyard beekeeping book. Can't wait to get the book
Here in Virginia the weather has been amazing, and we have lots of things blooming. My bees have lots of brood and drones, and they are really multiplying. 70s several days this week even. I'm excited.
My first hive made it through the winter. We had a nice, random warm day. I was able to lift the lid and take a peek inside. Unfortunately, the rest of our days are topping out at 35. So can’t get back in there just yet to do a full inspection. Looks like they have plenty of honey still though. Thank you for this video. I have been very anxious about this coming spring. I’ve seen a lot of videos of you and others handling the bees without protection. My bees are rather aggressive most of the time. Even with the smoke they will sting through my suit. The beekeepers at the apiary I bought my nuc from were all sporting welts although these are supposed to be Italian
I have so many people argue about putting any kind of pollen in feed during Winter. They say they don't want to stimulate the queen to start laying eggs. I keep telling them this is why they have such small clusters coming out of Winter if they even make it.
Proof is in the video!!
I'd love if you could include some explanation on what to do if anything went wrong. Because beekeeping is quite seasonal by nature, if someone messes up and has a barely alive hive by March, they really couldn't care about what to do at the end of the year but rather what they should do now! I think this would help inexperienced beekeepers stay engaged in the hobby as it can be quite ruthless.👍 Love your Videos
I like the suggestion!!
Great video David. Your colony looks beautiful and strong. 🐝✌️💜🌼🍯
Thank you kindly
00:11:06 This is a rocking good queen concert!😂
Thanks!!
Look so great hope my 2 hives come halfway as good been feeding all winter in Michigan
I hope so too!
Timely and helpful. I used your candy boards this year and both hives look good. Not crazy good like yours, but they are full of eggs, larvae, starting on drones, and they are packing in the pollen. Of course they have your feeder boards going with two bottles each. Big improvement from last two winters!
Great video it's perfect timing 😊 Thanks David
Perfect!
Thank you...great video!
Glad you liked it!
David, thanks for the video, their very educational and helpful. I really enjoy watching them. Have a Blessed day.
Thanks
"Let's get the bees off" *BONK BONK* Too funny. Love the videos, getting my first nuc in May. Super excited!
Good luck!!
That hive is looking good David!! My hive that I have has 4 frames of brood, 2-3 mostly capped, 1-2 frames have eggs, larvae, and a little capped brood too. Hope you have a great season David :) have a great week!!
That is awesome!
Great hive David You nailed it! Well done!! Great video!!!
Thanks 👍
Amazing
Thanks
I’d love to try it, We cant get winter b kind in Ontario Canada
Hey David, really like the video awsome tips and great hive. When will you put a queen excluder back on it? and at what level to put it
Enjoyed the live show with hives for hero's
Thanks it was fun!!
Excellent video. Nice to be able to see inside a colony this early in the season That is a ton of brood and can be concerning. If we get freezing temps that effect early bloom nectar flow This helps me a lot since I am a couple weeks behind you in Grand Rapids Michigan Thank you God Bless
Yes, we can still get cold weather and if it turns bad, I just pull off the liquid feeders and put the winter bee kinds back on.
now that is a lot of bees
So easy to do if we can just break free of traditional methods.
Beautiful hive! I open my hive and there is a ton of burr comb between the levels, LOTS of clean-up! It also gives me an opportunity to take a peek at the drone larva for mites (I didnt see any yet)!
Sounds great!
We finaly hit above 50 sat wooo. Here in idaho falls idaho
Still kinda too cold for an inspection.
I just look at my hive and get stung…gotta adjust my vibes or something 😂
David i see you didn't have a screen bottom on this Hive.? Im in the Uk and i have many Bees come though the winter , but still holding off opening hives as weather is still a little cooler than where you are on the 13 March. love your vids.
I’d say 80% are screen BB. Doesn’t make a difference in my winter survival. If it does for others it’s good to block it off.
Out of 18 hives I’m down to one very strong one that’s trucking in maple pollen like crazy, that’s incredible for north east South Dakota in march
Is it warm enough for you to use sugar water instead of candy board? If so, what is the rule about when to use sugar water instead of candy board.
seems a bit early to be putting on liquid feed with it still being march. the temperature changes could mess up the vacuum of those jars and drip all over that brood, and could also start causing mold and moisture problems in the hive. you need consistent temps over 50 degrees to be feeding liquid, and if your weather is looking like ours in NY, its going to be back in the 40s and 30s for highs later this week.
I’ve never had those issues, and this has been my method for over a decade.
Do you worry about early swarming?
It’s March the 12 here! I looked all the way down in my hives and they weren’t half as strong as yours! Next winter I’m going with the candy boards!
Try it!!
I had a hive die or abscond and left me with a ton of honey that I froze. What is the best way to thaw it without a getting the condensation in the honey or would that happen anyway? The rest of the hives did good but nothing like yours I'll have to try it thanks for the video
Your not afraid to chill the brood with that strong wind ?
Great tour after winter. Curious why no mite count check since this is first inspection?
Still a bit too early for me to be concerned.
I sure hope not to try to do a split too soon... If I make a second hive, can I feed them 1 to 1 ... even though things are starting ,,, and in the rain season (south western coast Oregon) .. on sunny days they still bring in pollen. 4 days of sun in a row .. so Monday we are going to try the split ... it will replace one of the two hives I lost last fall .. late
How cold does it have to be to use the candy board?
It worked for me also. Capped brood on frame after frame. Atta girls. If I put a red bulb in my yard light, would that keep bees from flying out at night?
Depends, try it and test it out. I would think it would help.
David, should I split before the spring nectar flow or after? I want as much spring honey as I can get.
I’m deciding.
Dandelion, comes in around May here in Colorado. What do you recommend to build brood before they come in to blumb
Feed 1:1 as shown in this video.
What do you do when it gets cold again in a week??
Ha David really enjoyed this video, if u do not mind how are u going to manage this hive to keep it from swarming also what is your breed of bee, Thanks. Have a blessed week.
I’ll make splits from it. My breed is my unique mix. I raise queens from my string performing hives. I feel mutts do the best for me.
@@beek Thank you for responding have a blessed week
If overnight temps go below freezing, won't your jars with the sugar-water freeze and/or break?
Na, I’ve got 5 days until it dips to 30, but I can always bring the feed jars inside.
GREAT VIDEO DAVID. One question - I have a hive with 2 deeps and 1 super with WBK board on top. I believe the queen is in the top super because last week when I looked up, a massive amount of bees in the top box and I couldn't see into the deep below it. When I inspect the hive and I do find the queen in the top super, how do I get her back down into the deeps? What do you recommend?
I’ll explain that in my next video tomorrow. Good question.
You mention a screened bottom board. Do you leave it open? If so, how high off the ground are you hives?
A mixture of open and a few that I closed. About 1 foot off the ground.
Hello David Burns new subscriber and Fairly new to bee keeping. I was just wondering if you set up all your hives just like this over winter, or is it a select few?
I have some hives from manufactures that are not langstroth type hives and I can't place WBKs on them, like the little round hive. I have some hives that I did not give as many WBKs to over the winter, and several that I always test by not feeding anything.
Our temps in Pa spiked as well. 70's today and tomorrow, then are going to tumble into the 40's and fifties next week and looks like through the end of the month. Is it ok to take the fondant off and feed 1:1 syrup with the temp change?
Great question, I explained this in my recent video. Take a look.
David, I live in Ohio by the Michigan line. I'm not touching mine yet. I'm ascared😂
I hear you!
Wish I could do that but my bees will swarm early March if I provide pollen sub in anything.
I was looking for swarm cells. I plan on splitting before they swarm.
My main concern is feeding pollen during the winter. Am I wrong that doing so can cause dysentery in the bees?
Proof is in the pudding. You saw my bees! No Dysentery and they are a ton of open pollen substitutes powder.
David-doesn’t a lot of bees mean earlier swarms? And what if you don’t want to grow your apiary? Wouldn’t a slower buildup be more advantageous?
I used to come out of winter with a small amount of bees, so I need lots of bees. But yes, if you want a lot less bees just feed them less in the winter, just enough to keep them going.
How many feeding boards you go true for one colony in one winter?
As I said in the video this one went though about 5 if I remember right. I let them completely finish them which I normally don’t do. I usually replace them at about 20% eaten.
Isn't there a chance that the sugar water will freeze and break the jars overnight?
I checked my forecast and only on Sunday will it dip to 30 (F) but there is enough heat from the hive not to let it freeze at 30.
Hey great video David!!! Hey my 2 hives are looking good so far . Hey everyone subscribe . David's way to get bees through winter really is a great way to get your bees through winter . I'm personally going to continue to do what David does!!! Thanks again David I for one appreciate all your efforts!!!
You’re too kind 👍
why are your bees trying to get under the roof ( look at the end of your movie ) and they did it at the beginning as well ? is there a gap somewhere?
Great question and I explained this in my recent video.
1 WBK a week and starting when? Can we assume 1st week of December? So on avg about 3months, or ~12-15 WBKs per colony? I can't do that since i'm snowed-out from accessing my hive too often when it's over 1' deep. Do you make double-deep WBKs?
I think only gave this one 5-6 even though they eat through one is 5-10 days
So... You said you leave your screen bottom open but this hive has a wood bottom board...? So that means it's like a closed off screen. So which is it?? Closed or open?
It's really a coin toss for a strong colony.
How can I differentiate d queen among d millions of bees
You mention you love your queen. What type is she? Italian, Russian, Caucasian, Carolinian? Thank you!!
My own mutt. 😀
@beek your video on Wednesday showed how prolific she is. On other websites, other bee keepers proclaim the strengths of their queen. Would you mind saying what kind of mutt she is? Thanks and I love watching your videos. They are very educational!
brilliant box of bees for late winter in IL! Way to go I'm inspired. I've got one hive that looks pretty slammin near Aurora IL, didn't feed them at all and they still have their super of honey seemingly untouched... I'm not sure how!
Sounds great!
I miss Dave's "I found the queen" dance.
Need to do that again!
David, at 14:23 you said you use a screened bottom board, but at 19:19 it looks like a solid bottom board. Why the mixup? Did you switch out back to solid before winter and just forget that you switched? I tried using a screened bottom this year like people suggested and i lost my hive during the polar vortex. I can't imagine how any bees could keep their cluster warm with -50 degree wind chill lapping at their heels just 5 inches below their feet? It seems you were wiser than me to switch to a solid board at some point. Would you still stand by your statement that you think it's alright to use just a screen throughout winter instead, even though you didn't use one? Or did you use one but your colony had two to three boxes to move up into during the coldest wind chills so they were able to get out of the way of the strongest gusts, but you already switched out the SBB in prep for this video? I think i'm going to pitch my screened board in the garbage, if i had to bet, that's why they died, even though i tried using a windblock around the base on the windward side. I'm cold each winter and i have wool-socks, a polar down sleeping bag, and a 70deg heated house! No way am i letting the risk of a -50 deg wind lap at the feet of my next batch of bees!
Was also curious about the SBB comment. Lost mine this winter with solids and was thinking about SBB but then saw the solid… a little confused.
Hi David today is 3/12 not 3/13. Lol
I notice that in the edit room 😀
Your winter are not really what I would call winter my beens stay confined for 5 months maybe even more you don’t want queens laying brood like that up here in the north your North and my North are different and you would have to feed so much it’s not really logic I still have 3 feet of snow on the ground lol
I see other videos of people talking about their bees in making it through winter in Alabama and Georgia. Guess it’s a matter of perspective. Lots of winter losses this year around me here in Illinois. We stay cold.
@@beek I’m in Canada’s we are Always cold 😂
New beekeeper in central TX with one hive started in spring 2023: now 1 deep and 3 medium boxes. We made it through the winter very well. Already see brood in two of the medium supers. Now my question for you. Your bees are so gentle. My bees were fairly gentle until fall of last year but my bees became quite aggressive during the fall. Now, a number of bees will follow me to my workshop (abt 100 ft away). They keep buzzing me until I go to my dark garage, where I can take my suit off and get to my house. Why would the bees become aggressive after being fairly gentle? Do I need to request?