Hi everyone, welcome back to Cody's Lab
So as you can tell spring has sprung and my bees are fully busy, and are very hungry
You might be able to see that occasionally a bee comes in with some pollen
So they are bringing in food from outside sources and they're actually visiting flowers and bringing back nectar and pollen
Pollen of course is their protein and nectar is their carbohydrate source
Now I've been keeping bees here for quite a while and I know that most of this pollen is actually coming off of some aspen trees
And so they don't really produce a lot of nectar, but they've got plenty of pollen
So I need to supplement their carbohydrate source, their energy
And to do that I'm just going to give them a little bit of sugar to get them going for this year
And as you can see, I've got pretty much a truck load of sugar to feed them
You see I've actually found a pretty good deal at one of the local stores
See that 99 cents for a 4 pound bag of sugar, and so I brought everything they had
And, the bees will eat everything I give them so I'd say "Why not?"
So I've got a bucket of warm water here, let's mix up some sugar syrup for them
This is basically artificial honey
So I'm just gonna rip open these sugar packets, and dump this sugar into the warm water
I'm gonna be adding approximately 50% sugar to water by volume
It doesn't have to be super exact it just seems to be easiest mixture that I could make
So I'm essentially going to fill the rest of this half full bucket with sugar
And there's the last one by the looks of it
I'm just gonna stick my arm in here and give this a little stir to dissolve all the sugar
I might've filled the bucket a little too high, but it'll work
Now that the sugar's all dissolved, I'm gonna be adding some chemicals to the mixture
Now two years ago I would've never done this, you know adding chemicals to your bees seems so blasphemous!
But you know what? It works, two years ago I lost all of my bees and then I started using a little bit of chemicals, and here we go
So, by chemicals I of course mean vitamins
So this is essentially going to replace the vitamins that would normally be in honey
So what would naturally be in nectar
So really, it's not so much adding chemicals to them as it's really replacing the chemicals that they need to have
I could probably make these "Honey B Healthy" stuff myself, but I mostly bought the bottles to get the recipe
And when I run out of these, I'll probably start making it myself
The recipe, the ingredients on these doesn't seem all that complicated
And this stuff is your essential oils, this wouldn't really be in honey, at least not a lot of it
But this is mostly... I guess I can describe it as cannabis for bees, it makes them want to eat it more
It also has a nice smell to it, which is very recognizable in the hive, so I know if they got this stuff in their honey supers
I'll know about it because I can smell it
And the actual most important thing about this, is the fact that the oils actually help with the mites
Mites are a really big problem for the bees
So there we go, let's get this mixed up
That looks very nice, smells exactly like Froot Loops
And is very tasty
And the bees will love it as well
Look at that, the bees already found my bucket
The honey bees, their sense of smell is probably as good as a dog's
And when you've got something that yummy smelling, out in the yard, especially when it's a windy day, the bees find it almost immediately
So here is where I'm gonna be feeding them, I'm gonna be doing some open feeding again this year
It seems to work really well
I'm just going to be doing this trailer here, with these hydraulic rams
That's just because this location happens to be in roughly the center of where all my bee hives are
Now the reason why I'm doing open feeding, is because, well, I can
My bee hives are the only bee hives within, I think, 9 or 10 miles
I'm not gonna have a problem with the neighbor's bees coming and stealing all of my nectar
Because there are no neighbor's bees close enough to come get it
Bees will fly maybe three miles
So 10 miles is definitely outside of their range
Now these are actually in-hive feeders, normally I would actually put these inside the hives
Especially if I had a little weak colony, and I was just wanting to feed that one hive, I would definitely put it inside
The major problem with that, is that unless you get that hive sealed up really well, that very few bees can come in and out
Other colonies around in the area will come and steal that nectar
Now if I was down in town where there's other bee hives in the area, or like I said, was trying to feed that one hive, then I would do it
And I would bundle them up and make sure one hive had the best chances of getting the nectar
But today, I wanna feed all of my hives, and not all my hives will actually have these feeders fit
So I figured if the other bees in the area come and steal nectar, may as well let them
So I made a little fake hive here, where I'm going to be storing that nectar
I have a lid to keep the weather out of it, but the bees will still be able to get in
I imagine in hours from when I load this in, there'll be bees all over this, and they'll packing it away
This five gallons of sugar I'm gonna be putting here, by this time tomorrow this will be empty
So it's also a really easy way to do it, I don't have to lug it around to all my hives
I can just feed them in one spot
Ok, so looks like the flies are gonna want the nectar too, but the bees will out compete them in just a little while
Let's pour this in, I do have a funnel this time, but I don't have to worry too much about spilling it
Because spilling the nectar all over the place isn't gonna cause the other bees to rob more
Because it's not really robbing, because I want them to come get it
Ok, let's see how long it takes them to find this
My guess is the wind is going to mess them up a little bit, but they'll be swarming this within the hour
Now that she's found it, she's gonna get a bunch, take it back to the hive
Then she'll do a little dance, tell them exactly where it is
That's another reason why the bees are going to out compete all the other insects
They're just so much better at telling each other where the food is
Ok, so the wind is not getting any better, in fact it is getting quite a lot worse
There must be a storm coming
But as long as the bees are still flying, it's still ok to open them
It is a fairly warm day, so I'm not too worried about chilling the brood
Now, since it is inclement weather and I haven't opened these guys in a while, I'm going to have to smoke them
I usually try to avoid smoking the bees, but sometimes it's smart to do so
I know better than opening a hive that I haven't opened in months without some smoke
Usually I get away with the bees, because they're very gentle, but this is a good idea
Just give them a little bit, just to let them know I'm here
Alright, that will help immensely
Let's open it up
There are two main things I need to check on today, are whether they are honey bound
I need to make sure the queen has enough room to lay eggs
And also whether or not they are making swarm cells
Since this is my strongest hive, I'll be most likely to see either of those here
Alright, let's get rid of some of those dead bees that they couldn't move
Looks like they've got some room to build combs
So they're not that cramped
Lets move the camera over a little closer, so you can see what's going on
You see, they're very calm
Any time when you can wave your hand over top of a hive and not have them come attack you
You know you're doing pretty good
Alright, so, let me pull out some of these edge frames here
See, there's nothing on them, so they've got plenty of room to build comb later on
Two of them are like that
Probably means that once they've got these filled in with honey, they're gonna be super producing
Or what I'm actually gonna do is split the hive, I don't think I'll do that today
But it's definitely something I need to do fairly soon
Yeah, see, this frame here is built onto it, but all the cells are empty
That's good, they're ready to start making honey and making bees
They'll have room to put all the honey and nectar they collect this spring
Oh my gosh, as soon as I get the hive open, of course, is when the hurricane force winds start
Great
This might be the only hive I can get into today
Ok, I can see some drones, and there's the queen
What luck that I've just found her on the third frame
See her right there?
Making sure the camera's focused
Yeah, she's right there
Nice and long, good sized queen
Yeah, she's working
Good
Ok, let's see what we've got over here
Let me push these bees aside, there's some capped brood
And some larva
So they're coming along just fine
And, I see a queen cup, but it's made into a queen cell
That means I've got at least another week or so before they start thinking of swarming
This is all full of eggs, it's all going to be drones
They'll probably make quite a few drones here, early on
Let me check if that queen cup has an egg inside of it
And it does not
Excellent!
That's really all I needed to know, to be honest
I can tell that they've ate through most of their honey reserves this winter
So they're not honey bound, and they don't have queen cells that are developed quite yet
Since it's so windy, i'm gonna stop there, going to close up the hive
And, I think in about one week, I'm going to take a swarm or a total split from this hive
So, I'm probably going to make a video then
But, right now that's pretty much all I can do
Maybe I'll go move that tree off that other hive
Here we are at the orange feeder box, about one hour later
And as you can tell, the bees are definitely here in force
You can see in there, lets actually pull the lid off, so you guys can see just how many bees are in there right now
Yeah, so still not a huge amount of bees, but they're definitely coming to get the nectar
Looks like some of them got wet
They'll be alright
The other bees will clean them off
Oh come on! I clear one tree and another one falls
At least that one's small enough to move by hand
Ok, that's better, at least the trees isn't right on top of the hive
I'm sure the bees will enjoy not having to run into that on the way out
As you can tell, it's very windy
The bees are still alive and well in there
Look at that, there's a cow's hoof print right where my little tree used to be
Man, they'll won't let anything grow
The weight of the tree actually shoved the hive's leg down into the ground a little bit
You see there?
So, right about there is where the hive is about level
I'm just going to stick this can under there for now
There, I figure I'll pour some cement down there to help hold it up
I think I'll have to call it a day, the wind is getting way too strong to do much of anything out here
And tomorrow and the next day is supposed to be stormy, so that's it for me this week
Hopefully the wind didn't cause too much sound on the camera, my little mic should've blocked most of it
Anyway, until next time, I'll see you then