Beekeeping – How to make lots more Bees – Using the Rose Hive Method Part 3
In this Beekeeping for beginners on Artificial Swarm creation. You will get quite a lot of info in an easy to understand manner by Tim, the inventor of the R…
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Last year, when I was still living in Ireland. I went to a fellow
beekeeping friend and neighbour to film his Rose Hive setup. We made three
videos. This one being part of the three.
Here is the much awaited video by Tim
on his YouTube channel WayOutWest Blowinblog.
How to make a Rose Hive.
How To Make Rose Bee Hive Boxes
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 7, 2014 at 3:45 pm
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 7, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Only read after you watch the clip.
pickerick1
I just was curious how many splits can be done with a really large hive. 3,
4 or 5? more? Does letting the bee’s raise the own Queen work better
(genetically speaking) or should I purchase new Queen’s for each new hive
of good genetic stock? Do you feed the new hives? aka sugar syrup? If so
how long? I really liked your video’s. They showed the basic’s very well..
Thank you David !!
Answer:
No prob,
So to answer your first question. If you do not feed sugar and they prepare
to swarm early in the year, up to 6 nucs from a very strong colony is
possible. So this would be then in around May.
(If you feed sugar and I would not go down that road, or only in an
emergency. You can even make more)
But anyways you will have added a second brood box ontop in April, using
only foundation. The bees will draw out all the foundation. This means lots
of new space for egg laying by the queen and then lots of brood and bees in
May. Then the bees will naturally get congested and make queen cells. You
could also add one more brood chambers and wait longer. This is all a
natural process that is what you would expect to find in any colony.
When there are queen cells divide the hole colony up into 6 nucs. Or divide
into as many as you have, queen cells, frames of brood, frames of stores
and bees to cover. Do this very gently, making sure the frames are not
knocked or bees agitated. As you know each nuc needs 2-4 frames of brood,
with at least one good queen cell, two frame of food, meaning pollen and
honey and two times as many bees to cover the frame of brood. Also fill
each nuc with 5-6 frames. This might seam excessive to some beekeepers. But
we need a strong enough force to build up for winter and we do not feed
sugar.
Next bring all the nucs to a site where there are no other bees and more
than 3 KM away from the parent colony. Then wait 4 days, go back and take
down all queen cells but one. Also you will find a queen will be in one of
the nucs and most likely there will be no queen cells. You will know by the
presence of eggs in the worker cells and perhaps torn down queen cell in
witch nuclei she is.
Then leave them all alone for 3 – 4 weeks. Bring a new brood box and frames
to give each colony that made it, more room.
When you find queen cells, you must judge into how many nucs you can split
a colony before the next winter comes. This will depend on strength of
colony, how early you can make the split. How many combs are drawn out and
is there a flow on, is there lots of food in the hive.
In Ireland you would split into less the later it gets into the year. With
only two by late summer and only if you have two broods with full comb.
Trying to make full frames of comb is what it all really boils down to.
Naturally when the bees draw out comb, the bees will need to bring in a lot
of honey. For that you will need lots of bees. In order to get lots of bees
you will need lots of space for the queen to lay eggs into. Therefor it is
best to start with a big colony for comb building and then you can divide
as much as the colony has to give.
Hope that makes sense 🙂
Note that it is a must to divide and manage swarming as much as is safe, or
bees will become less in your apiaries intill one year you will have none.
Wild bees do not last long in the wild anymore, due to varroa. Apiguard
combined with a varroa floor is the only natural means to kill varroa. It
is 98% effective, even more so than the chemical stuff being applied to
most hives these days.
To answer your second question. It is best to let the bees raise their own
queens. Less stress when you don’t stick in a new queen that could get
killed and you paid for her too.
In Ireland we have the black honey bee of Europe. This bee is great for
working the flowers even when it rains. Much better at staying alive in
this climate. So I would try to only get that queen here. But there is no
harm in letting your bees make there own and letting the queen mate with
local drones. Any bee you will have from your hives will be just as good as
any ones you could buy. Plus usually they are better adapted for your
region.
I hope you don’t mind this turning into an essay. But to answer your last
question. I only ever fed 3 colonies sugar in my hole life as a beekeeper
and that was because the colony was a swarm late in the season or some
other problem. Bees eat honey and sugar is for tea 🙂
Hope that helped.
Any other questions feel free to ask away.
Best wishes David.
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 7, 2014 at 4:12 pm
What kind of bees are your bees?
The primary races here in Finland are Italian, Krainian and Buckfast.
Götterdämmerüng
June 7, 2014 at 4:21 pm
man you sure did piss them off!
Joe Dirt
June 7, 2014 at 4:52 pm
delightful video…first time I heard queens called princesses…lol…
steve syvan
June 7, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Loved the video. I’m not sure most folks can watch their hives close
enough to catch the swarm cycle as closely as you did. Having said this
bravo to you for some really good information and great entertainment.
Bill Astell
June 7, 2014 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for your hard work. =]
AxelNotHuman
June 7, 2014 at 6:08 pm
I got a queen in my car
Tej Mehta
June 7, 2014 at 6:56 pm
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el mutaz el baghir
June 7, 2014 at 7:02 pm
First and foremost, than you very very much, what a great video! I work
with National hives but this was still a good lesson, largely transferable.
My question is; I’ve been told/taught that if you move hive, or split hive,
and the new position is less than 2 miles or so from the original position,
and more than a few feet, the bees will be confused and will fly to their
original home.
How come all (or most, anyway) your bees stayed with the split and did not
return to the hive left in the original position? Is it because they think
they have swarmed, and therefore adapt to the new location without
returning to the old home?
Petr Gilar
June 7, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Uhhh gives me chills
leon miller
June 7, 2014 at 8:01 pm
thank u for posting this video.
stan stasiu Stanislaw
June 7, 2014 at 8:32 pm
Thanks, this was very informative and so interesting. It is wonderful to
get a visual example of how to carry out these activities.
Just one piece of advice; please keep the camera trained on the action
rather than the person’s head or the trees behind him! I keep trying to
scroll down to see what is happening.
GPSJane
June 7, 2014 at 8:58 pm
In your case I would just buy the gear. You really need to be extract for
making hives. This is to do with getting the bee space right, or the bees
will glue all your frames to the inside of the hive. Or fill in the gaps
with comb for larger gaps. David.
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 7, 2014 at 9:15 pm
Will do. I don’t plan on being a huge beek with anything more than two
hives. thanks for the help and the videos! God bless!
forevals2
June 7, 2014 at 9:37 pm
I see the queen when do I get my ice cream?
TheKarver79
June 7, 2014 at 10:02 pm
No prob, Glad you found it useful. If you split a colony later you would
have to leave even more brood per split. You can have 3-5 frame splits in
April and let them build up. A rose box is enough for July, but 2 are
needed for any later than that. Over all have one full box with brood per
split. The rose hive box can be enough to get over the winter. I even had a
few nuclei survive before. Your 10 frames with deep box is fine for over
wintering, but you might need to feed…………
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 7, 2014 at 10:47 pm
You’re right about e.Queen cells, but I wanted propagate from my stock, a
strain that hardly ever swarms, but tends to supersede their old queens.
They are very productive and docile and varroa resistant: I don’t treat
them for varroa and they thrive. I guess the best way is to leave the
nucleus alone for a week to realise it is queenless, remove any e.Queen
cells, then put in a small strip of eggs and young larvae to rear as good
queen cells.
Fuzz Bonce
June 7, 2014 at 11:28 pm
This is absolutely fascinating! I was mesmerized. Beekeeping is such an
ancient and honorable vocation, going back to the dawn of recorded history,
maybe even further. How wonderful that I can now sit in my house in the
city, and virtually gaze into beehives throbbing with life, listening to a
master beekeeper explainin what’s what!
nameofthepen
June 7, 2014 at 11:29 pm
More important question: Why do others practicing Apiculture discourage
drone broods?
Mog of War
June 8, 2014 at 12:24 am
This can be done in Feb. if you are in Ireland, because of the nice mild
spring. Bees hardly use honey in the winter, but use a lot when the brood
is starting to be raised again in spring. Usually though you will have mild
enough weather to feed some thick syrup, when the queen starts laying
again. Or if you don’t like giving sugar, check out the video I have on
feeding honey. Don’t be tempted to take out any frames to have a look. It
will still be to cold. Hope that helped. Best wishes David.
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 8, 2014 at 1:14 am
Just watch the other two videos and it will become clear 🙂
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 8, 2014 at 2:07 am
Bees often go into a hive that has been empty. Just make sure the previous
bees did not perish because of disease. There is almost always food and
water in the area for bees.
How to Videos Organic Gardening & Beekeeping by Work With Nature
June 8, 2014 at 2:51 am
another question, how do u get so strong hives :O ^^
Göhlsdorfer Imker
June 8, 2014 at 3:08 am