JBEE'S HONEY & OUTDOORS

Checking on the splits, queen cells, and feeding the shook swarms. Listen for the queens piping from inside their cells near the end! We are looking into Hives #8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 (in that order oddly enough). Support: paypal.me/jbeehoney https://paypal.me/jbeehoney?locale.x=en_US

Quick video, feeding the split hives and taking some honey frames. Thanks all for watching! Support: paypal.me/jbeehoney https://paypal.me/jbeehoney?locale.x=en_US

OTS Split on Hive #2, move queen to shook swarm in Box #6. I need more practice finding the correct larvae to notch. The hive was open much too long. Practice, Practice, Practice....Results and more hive inspections and updates coming soon! Support: paypal.me/jbeehoney https://paypal.me/jbeehoney?locale.x=en_US

Time for summer solstice OTS splits, shook swarms, brood breaks, stopping swarming and bee mayhem. Hive #3, sister hive to #4 in a side by side 3 high nuc, sharing several honey supers. This doesn't go as smooth as hive #4, previous video. But we do still make a split.

Enjoy a little honey extraction video. Hoping for a much bigger harvest in a month or two.

The original over wintered queens are doing great and expanding. it looked like rain so we didn't get to video. A deep brood box was added and another honey super.

The results of our first try with OTS. We tried for 3 new queens and got 2. Not bad for the first go. Hive #2 has a queen! She gets marked. Recorded on May 25th, 2019. More bee keeping is in the works. Stay tuned.

Continuing the videos from the OTS splitting. Now it's time to check for queens. Looking for a Queen in Hive #5. Marking a Queen. Re-combining two hives into one. Lots of bees and some good looking hives! What a crazy time in the apiary!

Looking thru hive #1 for a mated Queen. Some inspection mistakes (box of bees sliding off) and discussing next moves with Jared.

Multi part hive inspections coming soon. Looking for new Queens, are they mated and a hive re-combine. Stay tuned!!

Melting down Honey Comb into bees wax.

Found this little queen crawling around outside hive #1. She has a bad wing. I hope they kicked her out because there is a better queen in the hive🙏. Time will tell.

Just added the shared Super to #1 & #5. Should wait another week to check these for mated queens.

Have Noticed hive #1starting to beard at entrance in the evening. As of today all brood including drones should have emerged, which means more bees in the hive. If the queens have mated and returned, they may have brought more bees with them as well. Same for #5, except they aren’t bearding. After removing inner cover #5 is also packed with bees. Adding a shared honey super above an excluder to give them space. However, this evening even more bees are bearded outside. This is also the only hive with a solid bottom board. Will be keeping a close eye on these hives. It would be sad if the queens got mated and immediately swarmed.

Just added a super. Have the queens mated? Should wait one more week to check.

The Queen right splits in the double nuc, get a honey super to share (above an excluder). Both sides were working the second story and with everything blooming I’d like to try and get some honey. Only time will tell.

The hawthorn blooms and the bees have found it👍

This cold snap has been hard on this split. Looks like a few more nights of this stuff. Hopefully the queens hatched ok and most of the brood will survive. I purposely tried to leave more bees in this half as it’s not the original entrance the foraging bees would return too.

Checking the hive for queen cells and cutting down the extras. This hive was not as prolific at producing queen cells like the previous hive.

Continuing the OTS Split process. Putting 2 good queen cells in each side, and removing the "extras".

Wrapping up the first hive ( hopefully soon to be two hives). Took a little longer than it should have. Practice practice practice.

1 week after doing the OTS notching and it's time to nock down the extra queen cells and in the case of this hive, split it in two.

Again, sorry for the camera work. Finding it hard to work the bees and worry about the camera. Checking the Queen right splits after the OTS last week. Adding a second box so they have room to expand. Watch for the queen scenes at 3:03!

Quick check of the second side of the splits and adding a box.

When a siren goes off and you realize just how many coyotes are in the woods with you, and just how close they are!