okay well I have a new swarm collected
and hived in a box outside and wouldn't
you know it it drops from 80 degrees
down to 54 and overnight we had almost
two inches of rain and look what's going
on outside we're gonna have to do
something to help these bees and not
just the bees that we have hives that
our recent swarm but all the bees
because all the pollen on these
sunflowers that are now taken down by my
squirrel and the heavy rain has put a
strain on them look what's happening
here this is a worker bee fits on a
landing board in the rain it's been cast
out by its fellow workers here's a drone
also cast out now this is at 7:30 in the
morning so it's really early it's much
darker then it appears here because the
camera has keyed it up a little to make it
look brighter but the bees are busy if
you don't go outside into your bee yard
and see what's going on at sunrise
you're missing a lot of activity these
bees are hygienic and they've been
pulling out cells of bees they don't
approve of so they're pulling out the
pupae you can see all the little legs on
the right there that are laying on the
bottom of the board you can see they've
chewed stuff down they're also leaking
all the surfaces and sanitizing the
colony if you didn't come out early in
the morning all these bits and pieces
would be gone and you wouldn't know
about it here's another worker bee she's
out she's been in the rain she's on the
landing board and she is not welcome
back in the colony for reasons that we
don't always know of I also you see some
little red spots some of that is
propolis and the bees are just cleaning
house look to the right there we have
remnants of developing bees developing
brood that they uncapped the caps are
still laying around there and that
they've been throwing them out also
these are all different colonies all
doing the same thing because they are
the same hygienic strain of bees and you
can see in the background there they're
working
here's another drone laying
down in water he's pretty much doomed
they're tossing him out and he's
wiggling his feet but nobody cares you
can see all the females in the
background they're just going about
their interior colony work lots of
castoffs again if you came back in an
hour you would see no evidence of this
behavior so it's important to come out
now if you look at that larvae that's
dead center there it is alive so they
uncapped and pulled it out there may
have been varroa in there
these bees will pull out developing
brood and discard them if there's any
evidence of varroa in the cell now
notice that the waters beaded up nicely
on my hive body here that's because I'm
using helmsmen exterior finish on all
these hives now and it looks like it's
holding up great I've been using that
since March this is the flow hive to
these bees are all staying inside with
the cold weather didn't cast out any and
here's another flow-hive full size
they've cast out a lot and you can see
the bee dead center in that entrance
there it is alive and you can see its
antennae moving and again you might feel
like you want to put these inside the
hive and save them there's a reason why
the workers are tossing them out there's
some the health aspect to them that we
don't understand as observers but the
bees certainly know what they're gonna
put up with and they discard health
workers groans and bee parts developing
larvae as they see fit
that's what hygienic bees do even in
this cold weather
no big surprise Yellowjackets are
getting around and they are cleaning up
around feeders and just doing their
thing they can fly in the rain they fly
in the cold even while the bees are
still grounded
now this is my hive that I established
recently and I just put a swarm in it
and we put those screen reduces in there
to help protect them it's a single deep
but with all this rain we're gonna have
to feed it so I'm gonna review a couple
of things today with this video and one
is this hive top feeder it's called the
rapid beef eater and I got it on Amazon
it's very simple the plastic materials
are very thin they say they're food
grade plastics and of course it has this
little inner cover and notice the ridges
on it pretty well-designed
I'm not excited about the material
thickness it is fairly flimsy but with
these ridges the bees can climb up
through that central column I'm looking
at the little tab sticking out here that
supports the clear cup that sits over
the top this keeps the bees from free
swimming out into the liquid sugar water
whatever you're gonna put in it and
keeps them safe in this little cone so
we'll talk about some of the things I
like about it here it is all put
together and of course as you fill that
outer reservoir it will fill through the
inside there too now this is the upside
down part of it as central cone actually
extends beyond the bottom of this feeder
and there it is sticking out so if you
have a normal inside cover it has a hole
in it that hole is not big enough for
this tube to stick through so it's a
puzzle to me kind of why they designed
it this way the flow hive inner covers
do have a large diameter hole in them
and it does fit this hole perfectly and
we are gonna put this on a flow hive and
I'm going to show you how I overcome
this that hole is about an inch and a
half in diameter
so the standard holes and the inner
covers are not big enough for that to
stick into so I'm gonna have to use
shims to raise this up off the bottom
and I have other reasons for doing that
which I'll explain here are the parts
the basin from the underside of course
that clear cover this shows how much it
protrudes and I've made shims out of
two-by-four material I'll just sanded
them down a little bit these shims are
gonna do some things for me and for the
bees one it's going to keep this up off
the bottom of that inner cover so the de
bees have access to that space and can
roam throughout it
and they can also now that the shims are
pushed in until they're touching that
central column the bees can climb up the
wood and go right up inside there and
get feed so they will have access to the
box that I'm going to put this feeder
in and here it is with the cover on
again the materials thin the number one
complaint about it of course is being
damaged upon arrival based on Amazon
reviews so here we go this is brood
booster now you know I use honeybee
healthy and I use pro health and I've
tested all of those this is something
new that I'm going to try out which I
also picked up on Amazon I like to try
new things made by bountiful bees it's
made in the United States all natural
food great materials and it has built-in
measuring reservoirs here one ounce and
1/2 ounce so that's what I'm going to
use we're gonna follow the recommended
dose of 1/2 an ounce per quart and so
we're going to put 2 ounces for a gallon
here here's information about the
company they're in Wellsville Utah and
it's interesting so we're going to
review this I'm going to use this as a
stimulant for the feed but mostly it's
going to make sure that the sugar syrup
that's 50/50 that I'm going to put in
the reservoir there to feed them will
not spoil so when you add essential oils
like this to your sugar water you're
never gonna see that black buildup in
there that happens as the sugars degrade
so here we go
we're at the entrance here of the swarm
that I put in it's been in here a little
over a week I'm gonna give them a little
smoke probably not necessary they're
very calm and we just don't want them to
waste any of their valuable resources
defending their colony so we're gonna
pull up on the top here this is the
inner cover that again comes with the
flow hives and it is big enough to put
the feeder in without any modification
they have been building comb they're
kind of running it everywhere in here
now to the left they did follow the
frames but if you notice near the middle
there they started bridging the frames
together I don't care how they build
their comb I'm just trying to get these
guys through winter so now if we put
this feeder in the top here and it sits
flush on top we've basically lost the
ventilation capability plus we've
provided an area in the top of the hive
that the bees can't get to so they can't
enforce their own
parasite protection and things like that
so I put these shims in there we're
gonna put this round for you to rent on
top and now there's an airspace
underneath and the bees will just climb
up the shims and go right up that
central column and then they'll have
access to the syrup but we will also
be able to provide ventilation through
that top cover so the inner cover
doesn't seal things up now there's an
advantage here we can pour this one some
of the other hive top interior feeders
if they tip a little bit they may spill
into the hive we really want to avoid
that some of the bucket styles that
invert and have the screen on them if
there's expansion and contraction with
these rapid temperature changes we have
this time of year they will leak out
into the colony as well and we want to
prevent that we want to keep our bees
dry so that they can keep themselves
warm so this thing looks like it's gonna
hold about a half a gallon there's a
yellow jacket zipping by there we're
gonna close it up here and the good news
is of course I can pull the cover off
without smoking or anything and we can
inspect the levels of the sugar water
and see how the bees are taking it in
the days to come so we're gonna put a
medium frame around it here and that's
what I have a medium super it's a Mann Lake
design sitting on top of a flow
hive base the Mann Lake boxes are a
little bigger and there it is in place
lots of room in there we're gonna come
back and check on it a few days later
but now we just put another inner cover
on top and then I'm gonna put the
ventilated BeeSmart Design cover
on top of that and this thing sheds
water pretty good and it stands out
farther than some of the other covers
that I have and it has an airspace in it
so it's insulating and ventilating so
those are two characteristics that I'm
looking for I want to make sure and get
this warm off to a good start and during
days like today when it's raining and
the weather's terrible we want them to
have resources well up inside the hive
which prevents other bees from being
able to rob them out so that's the setup
pretty simple I'll give you updates
later on
and of course there's the landing board
of that same hive and you'll notice that
the bees are finding lots of pollen even though
it's been raining a lot lately I don't
know if that's coming from the
sunflowers we have lots of pollen
resources that are just coming into
bloom now so we're gonna provide for
these bees pretty well the thing that we
want to make sure they have is plenty of
energy to keep their brood warm so again
now these are the same landing boards I
showed at the beginning of the video and
I want you to notice how clean and dry
they are now so the bees have cleaned
everything up notice there's no dead
bees no dead drones we don't see torn
apart brood strewn all over the landing
board so if I hadn't come out early in
the morning I would never know that
they're cleaning house the way they have
been here so it's very interesting the
rain finally did stop these guys are
doing wash boarding again which means
they're licking the surfaces
everywhere and they're doing their
general cleanup routine very interesting
hygienic bees they're doing well I
think they're gonna go into the winter
really strong now here we go with the
Yellow Jackets 82 buzooka Yellowjackets
zero so the bug-zooka is what I use I
carry it with me when I go out if I find
wasp on things I just suck them up with
that and here they are in the capsule
thank you for watching don't forget to
feed your bees when it's raining
otherwise they're gonna consume all the
honey and resources that they've worked
so hard to save thanks for watching all the best to you!
the best