so hello and welcome I'm Frederick Dunn and today I'm going to walk you through a lightning round of
supering my beehives this is the APPA May 7 frame nucleus Hive that was occupied by a swarm this
spring and they're moving along pretty quick in fact throughout the apiary everything's building
up fast that's my smoker I'm going to talk about that smoker fuel at the end of this because it
lasts for hours and it's really interesting so we're going to pull this off classic apame clamps
that hold it together does really well there is no syrup in these Hive top feeders I'm also
paying attention to the hive top feeders to see if the bees are propolizing and sealing up the vents
it is set for the liquid setting but again we're not going to feed
because we're supering even though this Hive we're not going to be taking any honey off
I'm going to use this here to grow and look what's going on right here there is a resident jumping
spider at every single Hive in my apiary and I've gotten very used to them it's interesting that's
the nest because they don't use webs they scoot around and yes they hunt your bees I did another
video just about that and I apologize in advance if you don't like spiders but you know if you're
gonna like a spider I would say that this is one species that probably could get a pass
they're black they're also called The Bold spider bold jumpers and maybe they eat one bee a day
that's okay by me they can be there they're really passive and here's the other thing they're curious
about people they don't always run and hide the way you would expect a spider to and the reason
I know that is because this one although it's pinwheeling around inside this little Connie
Webb area does not seem to be scared at all and look for the down the line there's another
one here it comes that's a female right there she's not running away she's coming towards me
she does some interesting things with her forelimbs here which I think is pretty interesting
almost like a semaphore Communicator here she raises her forums look at this what's going
on it's like hey I'm over here did you notice so yeah I see you there I think that's weird
and then she disappears scoots all over the place comes closer and closer to me which I find very
interesting maybe it's misidentification because she sees the lens of a camera and thinks maybe
that's a big eye too so she's just saying hey not too far from the other one that's underneath
of that Kanye web so that won't make you stare at that for very long in case you don't like spiders
but I think it's interesting that they're everywhere but let's look at this hive seven
frames almost all the way full and that's why I wanted to make sure and get the message out to the
people that are in my area Northeastern United States Northwestern Pennsylvania in this case
that's 80 full you have to Super it so I put another deep on there and I'm going to try
something for fun here I'm gonna do Ross rounds so we have a new foundation in there clear plastic
rings and we're going to see if by keeping them in the center two spots that uh let me see if this
nucleus High builds those up we also put heavy wax Acorn foundation in there and we're closing
it up no syrup no feed there's plenty coming in from the environment so there's nectar there's
pollen even without rain a lot of other people are saying the same thing we're getting a bumper crop
if only this year so that's a configuration I'm keeping all these vents closed because I
want to keep the brood down near the entrance and that's how I avoid using a queen excluder
and then this is the hive next to it now this is a full-size one so it's a 10 frame deep length
throughout the Apple May high five number 30 here you have the sliding front entrance there so you
can control that but I'm going to Super them too with another deep so a deep 10 frame but instead
of the normal frames I'm going to install two cirocell rapid rounds also and so this has nothing
but Foundation that's been heavy whacked so we're not giving them
a boost there they have their own spider too look at that telling you they're everywhere
they don't care that you're here and that one looks like it's already done with its little
web area either that or I tore it apart when I pulled the lid off I don't know
but we're going to take a look at the feeders here and you'll notice that these bees in this Colony
are sealing up all these vent slats with propolis provolas comes from trees around here sap from
plants that are defending themselves and the Beast collect it bring it in and spread it around but
look at all of the beeswax and the capped honey in here if you weren't supering they'd be swarming
and we've got it looks like about two and a half frames that are not yet completely drawn out
so that's an indicator that you need a super Hive because the population is good everything's going
well we're going to put another deep on there these beads are really quiet too we did give them
light bumps of smoke but we didn't have to overdo it now the super is on Apple May hives are very
convenient and we're leaving space on the ends here so when we go to inspect later we can pull
them to the sides before we start to pull them up so I like to push all the frames to the middle
I also like to Mark the ends so that if you're pulling them I like to put them back the same way
and again closing the vents no are preventing and again the bees are telling us they don't
want you preventing because look they sealed up those vents through the feeders with propolis
so we're going to slide this one open a little bit if we want to you can open or close those
down if you're worried about robbing later on you can close them up make it smaller easy to defend
so now we have double deeps on that one now let's go over here to this flow High base
and that's a cedar flow Hive with a standard Pine looks like a man Lake medium super and no feed
this is a b Smart Designs insulated in recovery with a box around it so we can accommodate feed
and I'm going to pull that off and we're going to Super it always bring your bucket with you
so you can collect the bur comb and scrapings and I'm going to put a flow super on this one
and each time you use these flow supers the bees take to them quicker so if we lift that insulated
inner cover look at the population there once again we're just in time with the super ring
they're filling up if we let them fill completely wall to wall you're
kind of in a pickle because they may already be making plans to swarm out
so let's take advantage of this nectar flow here we are June 11th this was filmed on June the 10th
and most of these are already capped honey so gotta do something other than if you're left them
sealed up just like that they would build their populations in this warm out you end up with a new
Queen and you have to scrape off these be smart designs in recovers because there's zero clearance
above them so if you're putting in a flow super that doesn't have any clearance above that see
the frames there so this insulated inner cover is going to rest directly on that scrape away
all the bur comb propolis and things like that and you get a good fit like this the other thing is
make sure that all of your flow frames if you have them are in the closed position that means
when you look through these clear views on the end they should be pushed down you can't really
put the caps in unless they're pushed down anyway but I'm just reminding you it's one of the reasons
that some flow frames don't get used by the bees they're installed in the open or drain position
so that's the setup adjustable feet sitting on this that's one of my oldest Hive stands
it's been there since 2006. still going strong and it does have a slotted rack
on it that's a two inch spacer standard deep and this is only an eight frame box
and eight frame medium super and then the six flow frame flow super and I already checked
them today and they are already working the cells so we did that in the nick of time and we've got
that feeder shim on top but do not feed because we want pure honey out of this thing now we're
taking a look at Hive seven solid bottom board two inch slotted rack deep and this is a 10 frame deep
and then a medium super so we have to get on top of this look at again capped honey lots of new
wax here you know it's new because it's nice and white and pure looking across the board we do have
a couple of frames here that are not yet drawn out completely so we didn't miss our time opportunity
and we're going to see for this Hive too
so I want to lift that up just to show you that they're already pulling out wax from this Acorn
Foundation look at that and I do like the wooden frames now around the plastic Foundation because I
think about when we're scraping propolis with our tools we're not scraping plastic by some chance
so now we have another medium super on there 10 frame medium and we're gonna see how that goes
and I think they're going to fill things up quick because as I said they are rapidly expanding
one of my observation hives even swarmed today very annoying so anyway we're all configured there
medium medium and a deep slatted rack entrance reducer 3 8 by 3 Inches solid Landing board
I have number six has that laminate material on the bottom board that I don't like anymore
I won't be using that stuff I'm not going to replace it either though because I'm just going
to keep tabs on this hive and uh we're gonna see how that goes I'm leaving it to itself because it
recently swarms now we're out here at a flow Hive this is a flow Hive plus it's got this aluminum
black coated metal adjustable legs it's got that tray that you pull out deep
10 frame deep root box and that's got a medium super on and they're already full
so they have to be expanded otherwise I'm going to lose these bees they're going to swarm
and they're very productive this colony is always active so Hive number 16 the entrance is wide open
I could close it up a little bit and I'm going to remind you again if you're using the insulated be
smart inner coverage you have to scrape them smooth before you can put them on a flow super
and look at the difference in material this flow super is a seven frame hoop Pine and it's coated
with a marine varnish so it's been used before again so the flow supers that have been used
before when they're not falling off in the grass are are quickly reused by the bees it smells right
it's got wax on it and they're going to use it so we're getting rid of the insulated inner cover
on this one because they couldn't get all the material down on top of the flow super we've got
a hole in the center there I'm going to cover that with a piece of wood and uh so that shim
I actually made out of a flow brood box I'm going to show you that on another Hive here in a minute
and that gives me space to put a feet around if I wanted to and we're using the flow Hive roof but
I've insulated that with double bubble and the double bubble is glued to the interior surface
of that flow Hive cover so there it goes now this is a really tall Hive so it's got
a mismatch of equipment hoop Pine flow Super Man Lake medium box and of course a flow Hive Cedar
brood box that's 10 frame and we have to strap it because it's tall
so that's pretty much it and then we look inside that today on the 11th of June and they're already
working those cells so I did that in the nick of time too these colonies are really productive and
it's amazing to me because we have not had rain and you also want to go down and look through all
these connections to make sure you don't have a big gap in there somewhere they will seal up the
smaller gaps with propolis but you also notice that these boxes mismatch in size and I'm going
to fix that this one is going to be the best looking flow hype in my apiary right now it's
a flow Hive 2 plus it's got those ant moats on the legs adjustable legs aluminum supports
it's all made out of Cedar we've got that baseboard with the aluminum
screen in it it's got a tray that you remove this is a 10 frame brood box
and here's what I did so this is part of what I wanted to show today is I took that inner cover
and I actually glued it to a shim that would accommodate a wrap it round for example and
I'm going to show you that in a second this is also the roof and just as I did with the other
one I took double bubble glued it to the inside of the flow roof and created an insulated roof
I also loose leafed in here the double bubble on the feeder shim that I've made from a brood box
and I just put layers in here we have an empty rapid round feeder that's just there
as a placeholder the plug is back in the corner there but this will stay empty what we're doing is
building up this colony because this is a recently hived swarm so we're going to let them fill out
that 10 frame brood box but I made a medium super for it because look what's going on here
six or seven of these frames are already drawn out most of it's capped that is incredible
progress for a freshly hived swarm and so we're going to expand this one and what I'm showing
you now is a good enough configuration to get your bees through winter so we have a
10 frame deep root box we're supering up with a medium super that I made from a full depth
10 frame super that's where I got the feeder shim I cut it off at the bottom now I have a
matching medium super that I put medium frames in and from the extra material I made this
feeder shim that's why it's marked brewed there and that's glued to the inner cover
and I've got all the space I need and now I've got the flow roof on it and we're going to strap
that down into until they propolize everything together but what you're looking at here for a
new Colony this year is all they're going to need to get through one of our Winters and there's no
queen excluder or anything like that because these bottom two boxes for me and the way I manage flow
hives are always just for the bees and because this is a new swarm I'm just going to give them
an added benefit here by sticking these wedges in now the bees are going to tell me if they want
them there or not right they're going to seal them up with propolis or they're going to chew at them
if they don't want them so seal with propolis they want it they welcome that smaller entrance
if they don't seal it with propolis and they chew away at the wood then they want
that opening wider and these are all 3 8 inch high mice can't get in them no need for a mouse guard
so this should make it easier for them less work defending and we've got a whole winter flow Hive
configuration with everything matching because they don't sell the medium supers
so I bought brood boxes I'm cutting them down and getting two things out of a deep brood box
a feeder shim that are glued to the inner cover and I'm getting a medium super that
they'll use for winter now if by some miracle they super expand and they fill that Medium
super wall-to-wall I'll be getting honey from them this year here we are in another Hive
looking things over again the same thing over and over draw and come capped honey we've got
a deep box here on number 14. this is also a flow Hive it's been around for quite a while
and it's a double deep actually so they've already filled this out and swarmed out on me
once they got ahead of me that's what I'm trying to help you out with here get back on these the
good news is somehow a queen went out came back mated even though we've robbed this Hive and we
made a split from it now we have triple deeps so we have two deep boxes and this is a eight frame
langstroth and it's a six frame flow super on there I was out there today and they're already
filling those flow supercells so we did that just in time too the bees let us know what's going on
so there again the smoker just keeps going this fuel is good stuff it's not overwhelming the
beets don't seem to care a lot and this colony is a little bit behind and that's because they beat
me to the punch and they swarmed but what they did is they left behind a lot of capped honey
so what I'm hoping for and they had Queen cells that recently hatched so or they emerge from the
queen cell they hatch from their eggs and uh so I super this one too because the activity
at the entrance is enough and what if I'm wrong if I'm wrong they just won't fill it
so I'm taking that gamble right now so Hive number 12 has a lot of activity they're bringing a lot
of pollen Hive number nine is another old uh flow hive the flow Hive 2 not the two plus
you can tell because it has the wooden legs the wooden supports around the legs there
and they're adjustable it's just got a deep this is a eight frame langstroth box eight frame medium
and I'm gonna put a Ross round super on this one I just want to see if they're going to
fill it out this Colony seems to pump up and generate a swarm and then build their population
and generate a swarm and I'd like to have them build their population and fill these comb honey
cassettes for me and of course they have their own resident jumping spider also
they're everywhere they just come to check you out they want to see how we're keeping these
maybe they think you're gonna hand them a tidbit I don't know there's a whole culture of people that
have pet jumping spiders and they feed them and the jumping spiders come out to get the feed from
them so there we have it uh like love this is I just use these gloves uh keep my nitrile gloves
keep my hands clean a little bit they don't hold up they fall apart your hands sweating them now
I want to go over the smoker this thing is it's still lit in fact it stayed lit right past Sunset
I had to leave it outside and I'm going to show you what this stuff is it's a biomass pellets from
Ernst seeds and they parted up with my Beekeepers Association the Northwest Pennsylvania beekeepers
and uh I guess they're selling these I bought two of them they weren't given to me I paid my
money for it so there's your contact information if you want to get this smoker fuel if you want
these pellets they burn low-key they generate a nice even smoke the bees respond really well
to it and I want to thank you for watching so I hope there was something helpful today
and if you're looking for a configuration for your flow hype for winter hopefully
this answered those questions for you thanks for watching start supering it's a busy year
foreign
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