Bee Yard Queen Failure | Is That a Swarm I See
Hello everyone!! Hope you all are having or have had a blessed Easter and Resurrection Day! This video was tough to make, but in the end, it's a day in the bee yard and needed to be shown. It's not always good days and bees doing great things. Sometimes it's failures. This was a queen failure and I am still working on the problem and why it happened. It's another first for me, but it won't stop things and everything will work out. We just have to learn from the failures and adapt to the situations. So come on out and let's see what happened along with a couple other things that went on in the bee yard.
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Thanks for joining me in my bee yard here in Louisiana as I share how I maintain my beehives. My videos are not meant to be 'How To' videos, but simply me sharing my experiences in beekeeping as I learned it from my mentors, teachers, and studies.
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Still rolling with the punches!!!
That’s about all I can do Brian. And wait until the next video…..oh boy…
Enjoyed that swarm catch Mike! It appears your weather is fluctuating as much as our is these days. I bet that cold snap played a role in your queens.
Yes Dawn, I believe the cold weather played a role. We’re also having g some research done in Mississippi on the effects of the yellow jasmine on that first run of queens. Thinking we had some toxic nectar going in there. Hope you guys are well.
HAPPY EASTER!! Try adding some pure tea tree oil and wintergreen oil to some sugar water for the bees you think has the EFB. One drop each.
And of course I already put the meds on before I read your comment….and after I read it, I remember hearing about a fella in Australia and then also Bob Bonnie mentioning what you are suggesting. I’ve even heard of using towels instead of putting it in the syrup. Thanks for reminding me Rachel. I need to get some tester. I already have wintergreen. Hope you had a wonderful and Blessed Easter!!
Odd thing with your queen cells, I’ve never grafted before looking to give it a try this year. Thanks for your transparency. Waiting for the next video.
Just trying to keep it real Randy and hope you have great success in your grafting endeavor. It’s very rewarding and gives you a bit more control on how you do things.
@@MikeBarryBees thanks Mike. And being real is all we can be
I think you're right on about the nutrition issue with the small queens. I've found that to be an issue. Probably worth adding a pollen patty in the cell builder just in case. Hopefully your next round of queen will be a success! Take Care!
Just has to be and thanks for the comment. We’re also having some research done on the effects of the yellow jessamine. Thinking that might’ve affected things as well.
Thanks for keeping at it Mike, Keep on posting, I'll keep on watching, Happy Easter!
What bucket are u using
It’s an office waste basket. If you’re referencing my feeder, I just use a 1 gallon pail.
I see you finally took my advice on the wire mesh trash can!! They work awesome!! Randall’s Scoop and Score works! Thanks Mike!
Yea, I just never get around to anything and I finally decided to sit down and just order one.
@@MikeBarryBees It’s the best way to get swarms out of trees and catch them in midair. Thanks Mike!
Checking 2 hives last weekend after splitting and found 19 virgin queens and was able to make 14 splits. Waiting to see if they get mated.
Wow, that's a lot!! I've found two or three now and again, and even that was rare for me, but 19!! That's great. I bet they'll do just fine with the mating flights. Earlier spring the better. Thanks for sharing that.
As someone getting ready to dip my toe into queen rearing I really appreciate these types of videos. I want to see the successed and setbacks.
It’s a great way to control how, when, and with what you split and/or requeen. I’ve had great success and fulfillment in it, just a bit of a failure this season. Can’t let that stop us though.
Love those swarms that don’t involve a pole and bucket or a ladder!!!!🙌🙌🙌 great video brother, keep cranking them out!!
Thanks Tim!! Of course if those items are involved, a camera is a necessity as you never know what might happen😂😂😂
I’m in atlanta and haven’t had a swarm year like this in a while! I’m a backyard keeper and have had about 3-4 swarms take off. Queen/swarm cells galore. Made splits. Now all colonies are not quite Queen right. Too soon yet but hoping all mated queens return
Same here. I’m seeing the ramp up even after splits. Just crazy from year to year. I have several that still haven’t gotten the new queens mated yet. Stressful to say the least.
Nice swarm catch and queen catch. That is a nice size swarm. Sorry about the queen cell/queen development issues.
Thanks Jim. Glad I was out there to catch them. They didn’t want to stay and it was a challenge and finally a queen excluder to get the queen settled, but they’re finally setting up shop.
Thanks Mike, happy Easter,God bless you!
Hope you guys had a Blessed Easter Brother!!
Hay I love your videos and information you and your fellow beekeepers need to get to gather and make a video on Diy gear for beekeeping hacks.
Glad you like the videos!! That might be a good idea. Beekeeping hacks? Hmm. I need to consult with a couple guys and see what they think.
Although I’m just now watching your video the information you share is timeless. Once again your tragedy you refer to are genuinely inspiring teaching moments you are able to capture and convey the reality of bee keeping. Please keep in mind you are real, in the trenches style of bees your way is a treasure of information that is valuable asset and extremely useful way of thinking and sharing your knowledge with us. Thanks
Wow, thanks so much for the kind words and encouragement!! Glad you enjoy the videos William.
Another awesome video, Mike! Loaded with great information. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm confident many more of our colonies survive by watching and learning how you do bees! Thank you again!
Thanks for the support and vote of confidence Johnny!!
Happy Easter World famous Mike Barry.
Hope you had a blessed Easter!!
Happy Easter God Bless, hope you a great day Mike. Can’t wait to see the rest of the season.
Hope you had a blessed Easter and thanks for the support!!
Textbook how to on the swarm catch and relocation!!! I’ve been busy pulling swarms out of boxes already this year. We’ve definitely started out much stronger than last year.
Textbook is a rarity for me Van!! Great to hear from you and hope y’all are well.
Happy Easter Mike. Thanks for sharing. I lost some brood in a hive that swarmed due to the sudden winter chill we got. At first, the brood box had a few larva on the landing. The second day, there were at least a hundred. The swarm did not leave enough bees to keep all the brood warm and they chilled. As usual, onward and upward. I gave the hive a couple of frames of brood from another hive and I’m hoping for the best. Blessings
Jim, hope you had a blessed Easter my friend!! I often wonder about the bees when they do swarm at certain times that’s detrimental to them or the colony they leave behind. Or the ones that swarm themselves to death by several casts until they have nothing substantial leaving or remaining behind. Or how about the tiny ones that aren’t absconds, but true swarms that leave right before fall. You know they won’t make it with no stores. Crazy sometimes.
Hey Mike, my thought for the first bunch would be that they didn’t get enough royal jelly to develop properly. Now whether this was due to insufficient numbers or age of nurse bees or poor pollen as you said is unknown. Pollen adjacent to cell building frame? I’m sure they would have had enough nectar or syrup for energy though.
Myself and Kent have come to the conclusion it was the yellow jessamine with its nectar toxicity. He had a similar issue and he has some Pupae being tested in Mississippi right now to see if the toxin is present. Definitely had pollen on both sides of the graft and plenty of nectar and sugar syrup. But did they bypass and go after the yellow jessamine, that’s the question Russ. Just not sure yet. Plenty of nurse bees were there. And actually more than I had in the thing last season. That’s the confusing part is that everything was the same….EXCEPT….the time of year. I was three weeks earlier and the yellow flowers weee everywhere and they are normally the only thing blooming after the red ample has stopped.
@@MikeBarryBeesGood to know. Guess that proves the more you know the more you need to know. God Bless brother.
Mike I love your videos. I'm starting my 2nd year. I'm in Texas west of Houston. You are correct about this being a gang buster year for swarms. I put out 2 swarm traps 3 weeks ago and both cought in less than 10 days. 5 days ago I moves those bees home and replaced the traps. I drove over and checked those this afternoon which is Easter Sunday and one had a swarm in it and the other had scouts, score 3 out of 4.
Thanks and glad you like the channel!! Glad you got the swarms so early. Early swarms seem to build so fast because they’re normally the strongest in my experience.
Thanks for the honest video on what is happening, that's how people like me learn. I'll have to remember that wire mesh basket tip for catching swarms. Hope you don't have any new neighbors close by spraying yard guard misquote spray or something trying to get a head start on those things. Pesticide is what I'm worried about the most in my area, the insects we used to have in my area are completely gone now as compared to the eighties and especially the 70's when I was a young kid. You could barely make out the streetlights when I was a kid.
Just trying to keep it really Tommy. I don’t have anyone near that would be spraying. Not anything that the bees would get in. But what you mention does line up with what we’re thinking happened. Only with natural toxins. Nectar from the yellow jessamine. It has toxic nectar and Thai season, unlike the last three, I grafted a couple to three weeks early and that was the main nectar source around, and it’s everywhere.
2nd attempt: A mesh basket works great. I got this one from aussiemike's bees ... He uses a folding laundry basket to capture AND transport a swarm. It keeps the bees well ventilated and does not take up storage space. Saw it in his - Summer Swarm 18 January 2023- It's called a Collapsible Round Popup Foldable Mesh Laundry Basket
I’ll have to take a look at one of those. That would be great to keep behind the seat. Thanks!!
@@MikeBarryBees .. ( my 1st comment didn't make it as I mentioned the seller's name. 😀😀 . )
Mike great catchof swarm.please let us know what cause cellproblems
We’re thinking it was the yellow jessamine Russell. That’s the only thing different from past years. We have some larvae in for testing now from another beekeeper that had similar issues.
What the name of that trash bucket? Seems to work well
It’s just a mesh waste basket on Amazon.
Oh you just hit a serious point. I had a hive want to swarm so I split and they seriously made cells in the split and I think I actually lost the queen and some bees in the “split” due the the fact they swarmed anyways. It’s been so odd this season so far. I was thinking as far as you saying your queens were tiny or dead I was thinking. Hmm, would it be the temp drops? That’s what I have worried about with grafting since I’ve never done it before I have yet to graft because I’m so unsure of myself. That and the fact I just don’t know where I’d put 10-15 cells once complete and they are ready for emerging. I don’t know what to do with unmated queens if I don’t have the splits or colonies for them right away. Nice swarm, I haven’t seen one yet so far. Caught 4 by this time last year.
I think the temps, although I’ve had some last year do very well while going thru a freeze and mainly nutrition. Also the fact that yellow jessamine was blooming. We’re having that checked now. I learned the hard way on leaving too many cells. Even two sometimes is too many, but you always want a spare. Thanks for watching and for the comment!!
@@MikeBarryBees haha I had to say I hadn’t seen a swarm. Lost one a few days ago. Thanks for responding :)
Where did you get the basket?
Amazon. Mesh waste basket should pull it up on there.
Happy Easter!
Hope you had a blessed Easter John!
Did you choose the right age of larva for your queen cells?
Yes, they were all built out except for 4. All within 24 hours of egg hatch.
Happy Easter
Hope you had a blessed Easter!!
Wow interesting. Thanks for sharing the strange and weird with the good too. Helps all learn. Have you ever tried putting Russian Scions to put around your yard to try for the swarms? I was just looking into them and they seem interesting.
I have not tried them. A few years ago I saw them on KZhead and was very interested and then just never tried it. They are very intriguing and it would be neat to try one.
I was interested in doing Demarees this year, but I'm thinking they are over-complicated. Equalising might be the way forward for me. I will Demaree if I think it's really required.
Demarees are not complicated but be ready to do some heavy lifting. It does work to prevent swarming as long as you don't miss any queen cells in the top when moving brood frames. Always check for cells every 7 days.
I think Demarees are a lot of work if having to do them on a large scale. On a few hives, I think you save yourself from swarm control and make a good crop, but for a lot of hives, I can’t see doing it. My opinion of course and I know a lot of folks like doing them. Definitely worth trying on a hive or two to see how you like it.
Mike, just an idea, maybe buy an insulated Apimaye hive to use for the cell builders. Would help keep the bees from clustering in the cool nights.
I actually have one now Russell. But I want to use it as a timing box. Video to come on that later. Talk about a really neat hove setup!! Very nice product!
Hey Mike., next swarm could you put a sheet on the ground with a hive on it an have a nice March into the hive..? Love the " how I do video's "
I need to do some more ‘march in the box’ videos. I used to always do them, but these days I just get in a hurry. Hopefully I’ll get one for you Ed. It then again, do I hope for more seems😂😂😂. Thanks for watching my friend!!
How cold is it getting there at night?
Only in the 50’s during the graft.
You sure got me curious about those queens being small. I don't think you would want to mention any brands of sugar or anything since your not sure what's up yet. But that and my sugar ratio then pollen I would be looking at like a cat scoping out a mouse. Any farms spraying crops nearby? I have a video of a queen just barely bigger than a worker. Very odd to see a queen that size laying. I caught her on video.
After some discussion and a researcher in Mississippi, we’re leaning toward the yellow jessamine and its toxicity. It was blooming everywhere and the bees hit it hard. They will forgo the syrup over nectar in the wild and we have a couple pupae being tested in a lab. I just use regular cane sugar. Great value.
Make a fresh builder hive with young nurse bees. Also be careful with that EFB it’s very contagious. Use throw away gloves and clean the hive tool.
I use alcohol to clean off my equipment and heat of course. As far as the builder, the bees were all young nurse bees. That’s the thing with the cloake board is you get them from the emerging brood and from the lower box as it grows. I actually bring up eggs and larvae during the build up of the starter som I have crazy amounts of young nurse bees. But, you are correct in the observation. If it’s the builder, it has to be the lack of young nurse bees. Outside of nutrition, that has to be the problem. What’s confusing is the amount of royal jelly in the cups, so it’s being fed as it needed to be. And honestly, the cloake has worked great for a builder for the last couple of years. I am running one more run thru this colony just to experiment, but if I decide to make more cells for late NUCs, I am taking your advice for sure. Start fresh. Thanks for the insight Mark.
Is it possible that the larvae was too old?
No, I don’t believe so Jason because they most likely wouldn’t have started them. As far as the failures in the first run, while I’m not the greatest at grafting, out of the 30 grafted, at least part of them would’ve been good age. They made 26 of the 30. But here’s the latest development. I’ll hopefully get this out on video. We have determined that it was quite possibly the yellow jessamine, Carolina Jasmin. For at least the first graft. It was blooming like crazy and there was a lot of nectar in the colony and coming in. The toxicity in that nectar is harmful to bees, but they go crazy for it. Also a lot of azalea. Both toxic. This season I grafted way earlier and that Jasmin was in full bloom, where other years it wasn’t. We actually have some larvae from a beekeeper that experienced some similar problems submitted to a research project in Mississippi as we speak. The second round that only made a few, I firmly believe now that it was the cold snap. Again, not a pro grafter, but the start and stop and then only 6 of 30 is way suspect. I get larvae that you can barely see in the cell. The cold getting down to 34 that night after grafting would’ve caused the bees to cluster, and while there were a ton of bees in there, they had at least 6 frames of brood, plus the cells to keep warm. And the cells were three frames in surrounded by two pollen frames and being away from the central brood location. Only other thing could be lack of young nurse bees and more older nurse bees? I think a graft from a NUC, what’s setup as what’s called a swarm box starter, that is closed up and then fed sugar syrup from the top is going to be the way to go that early in the season. I know that’s a hugely long answer, but that’s our findings as of now.
It is a strange thing that happened to your cells. Even stranger that they went back to drawing them out. I am interested to see what the cause was.
I’m pretty sure for those it was the cold snap. It happened the night after putting them in and I think they abandoned them more than the brood, although the box was packed. But in a cluster and they would’ve been neglected at a critical time that first 24 hours.
what was the nurse bee population like
It was packed John. I bring up a frame or two of larvae a couple days before just to get even more young nurse bees. And my capped brood is right at emerging. Should’ve been plenty, although that is one of my theories; not enough nurses.
What is your favorite race of queens?
I honestly like the Russian queens. They’re very good honey misers for winter and build very fast and intentionally.
@@MikeBarryBees thank you love you videos
@@ericshipplett3517 Thanks Eric for the support and I’m glad you like the channel.
Dream Big brother 🙏
I am trying Brother! Things are going a bit sideways right now I’m afraid….
evening,, if that hive has EFB can you transfer it to other hives from your gloves or hive tool,, thank you ,, keep up the wonderful videos,,
Yes you can! You are correct. I clean all my equipment with rubbing alcohol and heat before I dip into other hives. Next video will be interesting for sure with my other yard and EFB. Thanks so much for the support and glad you enjoy the videos Jim!!
Mike clip the queen
I’ve never clipped a queen. I have enough trouble marking them without a marking tube. Can you imagine me with tiny scissors or clippers trying to clip her?? Oh man, I’d be nervous as ever. But it is something that could help me out with swarm control some. I need to learn to do that, I really do.
✝️📖✝️ Brother Mike, Please let me have the telephone # for Guardian Bee Apparel. GOD BLESS 📖🛐
Brother, I don’t have it. They don’t have one listed. You’ll need to email them at support@guardianbeeapparel.com. That’s how I have to get a hold of them.
Using the same gloves and tools that you handled the sick hive then dealing with other bees, wouldn't that possibly expose the other bees to the disease?
Yes it will. I sterilize my gloves and give tool before moving on. I’m dealing with an entire yard of EFB in an outward, and nothing comes back home without a heat and alcohol treatment.
As far as the dried up royal jelly I noticed some swarm cells with dried jelly. I had a cold snap a couple days ago here in KY. I think the bees basically forsake the queen cells and covered the other brood up to keep it warm and I think that's what done it. Just my thoughts on the matter
@@CentralKyBees very well could be that. Sounds reasonable since we did have a cold snap.
I can see why you get nothing done when your videoing , sorry man but you do way to much standing around talking and talking , try getting it done on the move with the camera instead of wasting so much time and cutdown so much unnecessary chit chat about this that and what ever other story’s , look back on your videos and see where there might be to much content that can be shortened of unnecessary things , just pointing it out to you if you want to be productive with out videos being a chore , hope my criticism is a positive one to help point some ideas out with making your videos and getting stuff done .
Well, I actually did try more talking on the move than standing, but in the end, it’s harder to keep my thoughts in line. It’s a VLOG, so I do my best to log everything I’m doing, but what you’re saying is definitely a way to pick up the pace some for the simple tasks. I tried it in the splits and chaos video. The camera will still take up a lot of time no matter how I slice it, and most KZheadrs will agree. I know Mr. Ed agrees, we talk about it a lot as does the DortRooster. I do appreciate the time you took to offer your critique in a positive and courteous manner. Making videos opens up a lot of vulnerability and there are some that tend to go a little overboard. But in the end, it’s a VLOG, so talking will always be part of explaining my day, my week, and what my plans are. As the mantra has become, it’s not a how to, so I don’t have specific points to get across. It’s all about my experiences and that comes most time through explanation. Then the rest is showing what I’m doing. Thanks for watching.