Honey Bee Queens Piping, Colony Swarming, Injured Queen, Lessons and Observations about honeybees.

solo and welcome to the way to be i'm  frederick dunn and i have a long one   for you today we're looking at an observation  hive in this video a lot is going to happen   but we're starting off with listening to queens  piping that's right queens plural more than one   in their cells piping inside this observation  hive you're going to hear that and you're going   to find out that there's a lot of segments to  this therefore if you just look down in the   video description i will give you time stamps  based on behaviors that you're going to observe   in this video because this video is an hour and  12 minutes long that's right sorry about that   but i decided i would tell a complete story  here sir we're going to see what happens   inside an observation hive i've said it many times  before that observation hives are basically swarm   generators there are three observation hives  in this building and they were all started   different ways one was with a swarm another  one was started with three frames of brood   including a laying queen that's the one we're  looking at right now the middle observation hive   that we're not talking about today only had two  frames of eggs brood and larvae so this is the one   that had the laying queen and the reason it has  my attention is because these queens are piping can you hear that there are several queens there's another one and i'll try to turn the sound up a little  bit so that you can hear them better   you're also listening to the natural  sounds inside this observation hive   so their wings are flapping  some are fanning others are not   so we're looking at a small face section here  so that you can see some of the behaviors going   on inside the hive while we're listening to them  and we can see how these workers spend their days   and how other bees don't necessarily put in a  day's work we'll see those too and the recording   is made inside the hive so it's recorded separate  from the camera that way i can turn it up or down i hope you can hear that if the device that you're  watching this video on doesn't have good audio   maybe put your earbuds in or your headphones on  and you'll hear much more clearly the queen's   piping now the reason this is important to the  beekeeper is because when we hear queens piping   this can happen several days prior to their  emergence from their queen cells so what has   to happen before they emerge the queen that's  currently in this colony and we've seen her she   walks around we see her on the surface sometimes  and yes you're gonna see her in this video too   and there's some aspects to this queen that have  me concerned and we'll talk about that when we   see her but for right now what we're looking  at on the comb here is a waggle dancer on the   left she's got pollen on her hind legs brought  him in bragging to the others about where that   resource is so they can follow her waggle dance  guidance and go out and find more we also have the   advantage here of looking through glass that means  we're looking at the undersides of the worker bees   if they had varroa destructor  mites attached to their undersides   which is a favorite location for baroque we  could see them here these bees can groom a lot   i also want you to see that a lot of these  cells are open vacant unused at the moment   that also should be a concern this time of year  because we would expect to see eggs open larvae   and of course capped pupa in a in a hive like  this this time of year so the warning sign that   the queen has stopped laying is the fact that we  can't find any eggs anywhere this hive holds nine   frames in groups of three so that means there are  four sides of these frames that we cannot see we   can see this side of the hive the other side and  another trigger that we normally would see is that   they're finished they've filled out all of the  available frames they've drawn out all the comb   and then they wouldn't have space to do more work  but that's not the situation here as you can see   that's the top frame they have new comb the cells  are empty one of the reasons the cells are empty   is because the workers have consumed all open  honey in preparation for departing this hive so we're traveling down the face of  all three of the levels of this hive and you'll hear some high pitched beeps as well  and those come from workers and now we're showing   you the entire face frame here of the middle  level and you can see some beads are fanning   to ventilate like those over to the right  and that's because they channel airflow   up through the hive up one side and down the  other although it's not necessarily very hot today not only that have storms coming in  we have bad weather ahead that's why   what's about to happen in  this video was so unexpected   but if you look over the surface of the frame here  you'll see that there's capped pupa to the right   larger cells those are drone cells and on the left  we have smaller size cells which are the workers   i'll let you look at this for a minute and  just listen to the sounds of the piping queens my now we're getting a close up here  right dead center see that oversized   super fuzzy bee that's a drone attaching  itself with this underbelly showing next   to us but it's a great opportunity to make a  comparison because he's shoulder to shoulder   with a worker bee you can see the difference in  their sizes the difference in their mandibles even   and their abdomens and how much hair there  is on it now since we are on a brood frame   that has drone cells on it this may be a freshly  emerged drone drones are male bees and there's   another one that we can see from the back  side here you can see how large their eyes are and you can also see some behavior that we  call washboarding but the bees are doing it   independently washboarding usually is a bunch of  bees all in a row usually on the landing board or   near the entrance but here we are up inside  the hive and on the left there you see them   working with their mandibles on the surface of  the interior of the glass and they're twitching   their front feet their forelimbs over the surface  of the glass the same way they do at the entrance   this is why i think and again to the right there  you see others washboarding on that surface   i don't think that it's a method for them to call  in foragers from the field at the entrance there's   the queen dead center there and this is why i'm  worried about her her abdomen looks large she   looks healthy but if you notice the wings there  as she travels and i track her with the camera   her right wing is damaged and i also want you to  pay careful attention to the length of the wing on   the right it's been chewed by the bees themselves  this is not a clipped wing on a queen as part   of an identification process which some people  do but this queen has been spotted before with   perfect wings so that means the bees themselves  while they're trying to route her around and get   her to get prepared to depart the the hive they've  actually chewed on her and abused her a little bit   and we're going to see a little more of that but  this shows us that the queen is scooting around   and she is not pausing to lay eggs so she's making  preparations to leave they exercise the queen more   they still feed her they just don't feed her as  much and we lost her there there she goes again and she disappeared under the frame and in the meantime we can listen to the  other queens piping even louder inside their   cells they make that noise by vibrating their  flight muscles without flapping their wings some worker bees can also create a beeping sound  and that's the high pitched as a steady e and   you'll hear that periodically and those are worker  bees they beep each other for various reasons   and here's a waggle dance going  on again with a pollen forager and those that are paying attention to that  waggle dancer are other foragers that will   use the information she conveys and they'll head  out and find the same resource if they decide it's   something that they want and need inside the hive  nectar is taken by the bees that are inside the   hive and transferred to the cells so outside bees  do not get to come in and deliver their cargo the   nectar into the cells themselves but when it comes  to pollen they do come in and scratch off the   pollen from their hind legs and put that in the  cells themselves they also mix pollen so pollen   from a variety of sources can be found in the  exact same cell and then the nurse bees amend that   with nectar and honey and it causes fermentation  of the pollen and turns into what we call   bee bread which then the nurse bees will consume  and feed back but here on the top right i want you   to notice there's another one doing the grooming  of the surfaces the washboarding only individually see the four limbs they're mandibles their tongues  are tucked back and they're just lightly scraping   the surface with their mandibles and that keeps  the interior glass of this observation hive   clear so we can see through it and do what  we're doing right now which is make a video you'll also notice there's a lot of unemployed  bees here they're sitting very still they're   conserving their energy honeybees are  conservationists when it comes to energy   and they don't move around unless  you really have a reason to do it   you will sometimes see bees going through even  during this video they'll be grabbing other   bees and vibrating them i call those cheerleader  bees and they have their own reasons for doing   that maybe they're activating a forager that's  been dormant for a while they sleep in shifts   they sleep in small periods of time the older the  bee the more frequent the naps the longer the naps   younger bees nap less often  and for shorter durations you see bees that have their abdomen sticking out  from those cells and they are in there feeding   and attending to open larvae but remember  what's missing are the eggs so when you're   doing your inspections of your hives and you  find that there are no eggs and you don't see   your queen pausing and laying eggs you should  maybe make preparations for that colony swarming that is a nice loud queen  piping sequence right there   now we've got some grooming going on  just off center from the left there   you've got a worker that's grooming another worker  and they really are aggressive about it someone   asked me if they groom all over including the  underside of the bees they absolutely do and often   the bees that are getting groomed will submit to  that and they'll even spread their wings apart   to give the groomers better access to their bodies  there you go the right wing extended off there   and they don't miss a micro inch of that v when  it's getting groomed and notice how that bee   willfully holds her right wing out and then  later folds it back when the grooming's over   so these bees are very active when it comes  to grooming they do that on the landing board   sometimes they do it inside the entrance and  they can do it at any other location inside the   hive although there do appear to be portions of  specific frames where a lot of grooming happens   but anytime this is back that a bee has  something on them they go into a grooming mode   and i do notice too that the workers that do  the grooming do grooming more than others in   other words i don't see a worker groom a  bee and then go off and do some other task   they groom one b then they move over start  grooming another one there's grooming going on   at the 10 o'clock position  over there just light grooming and of course we have those bees moving  their forelimbs really fast on the surface   and using their mandibles to scrape the  interior surface and again it's like deck   washing but they're doing it more independently  here we're on the landing board you see them in   large groups moving together forward and  back and grooming entire areas together we're looking at the space between two frames here   top and bottom and the reason i'm focused on  this area is just inside between the second   frame and the face frame here there are  at least two queen cells the problem is   the workers are in the way we can't see them  but that's how i noticed it in the beginning and then hearing this piping closed out that speculation and even after they  emerge from the queen cell they can continue to   pipe and those that are still in their cells may  respond with their piping sequences which helps   the newly emerged queen track down competitors to  open the side of their queen cell and sting them now you might say fred why don't  you open it up find the queen cells   get rid of them and keep the queen you have  well i like to let them do what they want to do   when it comes to getting rid of their queen they  have their own reasons probably for doing that   reasons that you and i don't know but the other  thing is remember they physically have damaged   their queen they chewed her wings they're  running her around they're not letting her   lay eggs so for example if i went in and  squashed all the queen cells then i might   end up queenless because they could push her out  anyway so i just let nature take its course here   now of course my plan is when i said make  preparations when you find out that your colony   may be getting ready to swarm my preparations  here i mean getting ready to collect the swarm kind of knowing where your bees tend to  congregate being aware of their activities   when they do swarm out it usually happens from  noon on and that's going to be the case today   and then it gives us a chance to track them  down and the other thing is trying to get   them to swarm to a branch that's accessible to us  that we can reach but that's a whole other topic   i've been very successful in getting  bees to land on lower branches   by zip tying pieces of queen mandibular synthetic  pheromone i can get a swarm from one branch to   another that way but that's another video today  we're listening to the audible communications and   we're looking at some of the waggling that's  going on inside there to the left now we have   one with pollen on our hind legs notice the other  one is waggling with no pollen on her hind legs so   she may have found a nectar source sometimes they  waggle even to show that there is a water source   now the number of waggle cycles they do how  long they remain on the dance floor and repeat   this information the higher the quality of the  resources that they've found and the more that v   believes in what she's bringing in or the quantity  is high so if they just do a few wiggle cycles   and then they disappear from the dance floor  and go off to scratch off those pollen packs   from their hind legs and put them in the cells  they probably don't believe in that source much   themselves or there wasn't much out there and this  is another opportunity too when we sometimes hear   worker bees beep there are storekeeper bees that  when someone is doing a waggle dance they headbutt   them and give a quick beep and they do it over  and over and they can actually shut down a dance   i haven't observed that myself but  that's a report from thomas seeley so of course another trigger for swarming is the  number of bees in the hive so the more congested   they are number wise that's a trigger it could  be that they have gone honey bound which means   all available cells are full of honey and capped  and so on but that is not the case with this hive   and another trigger is the beginning of a  nectar flow which is the circumstance here um so lower right you see another waggle dance there  pollen again likely pollen and nectar sometimes   when they're doing the dance you'll see them pause  and they'll pass on some of the nectar they've   gathered through trophallaxis which means the bee  that's got the nectar in its honey crop will just   open its mandibles and the bee that wants to taste  it will extend its tongue and take a sampling here we are right in the center and remember  the waggle directions the waggle is longer or   there are more cycles to the waggle if it's more  complex if the instructions are more detailed   if it's farther away and their information  is related to the position of the sun and they'll go clockwise then  they'll make a turn counterclockwise   and then they'll do clockwise again  and then counterclockwise again and there they are trophallaxis that wiggle  dancer is now passing on her resources to one   of the foragers so they can taste what it is that  also helps them when they go to where they think   the source is they smell and taste and find the  same resource that was brought in by that forager   now her waggling is done and she's  headed off to get rid of her pollen now sometimes it can sound like  one queen is louder than another   but what's really going on here is one queen  in her cell is closer to the microphone now there have been instances  where the worker bees themselves   had selected their own queen that they wanted  to hatch out to emerge from her queen cell to   the point where when the queen starts to chew  herself out some honeybees have been known   to reseal the queen cells preventing a  particular queen from emerging from herself   meanwhile they permit another queen to emerge  from herself so they're making preferences   even before the queens have emerged and from egg  to emergence of a queen from her cell is 14 days worker bees are from egg to an adult in 21 days  and of course the bee that takes the longest and   requires the most nutrition over the greatest  amount of time there as far as pupation goes   is the drone 24 days here's  the queen again walking around a little unsettled there now in the past this queen has moved nice and  slow across the face of the frames she was laying   regularly her patterns are good so i saw no reason  why they would supersede her sometimes they do   that if a queen fails to perform she looks healthy  she looks large her abdomen is fully extended   which everything about her  identifies a queen that's productive and there's a me that stopped her  to do a little grooming really quick   and there's another one that's feeding her and those that feed the queen are the youngest  you're retinue those are nurse bees that have   early days in the hive they've never  been outside so if you want to be in   contact with a queen you have to be fresh and  clean and never have been a forager outside now nice fuzzy drone there again dead center and remember if these sequences are  boring you or it's extending too long   please look in the video description and there'll  be a time stamp to show you what happens when so now at the top of the frame slightly to  the right you'll see some grooming going on   that bee appears to be very young it's  fuzzy and it's hairs are kind of silver   and it was trembling a lot and sometimes they  do that to get attention from the groomer bees   especially when it's never been outside so also when a forager comes in and trembles kind  of in a sporadic way and continues to tremble all   over the hive and seems to approach other workers  that can be a forger that's coming with nectar and   it needs one of the housekeeper bees one of  the story keepers to take its nectar from it   and if it gets no takers it does that for a while  and then just retires itself to a corner somewhere   here again on the drone frames drone  cells and lower right there we've got   one that's emerging doesn't seem like  it's in too much of a hurry to get out and you can see to the left there are some  new beads in here that have kind of very light   blonde hairs all over their eyes all over the  thorax there's one moving along up to the left   and the more fuzz they have on  them the newer they tend to be   and of course that telltale  light silver blonde color another reason that i know  that they're not looking to   invest in infrastructure is you don't see a lot of  wax working going on let me show the upper frames   where they have available space to  expand they were not making new cone here's a groomer again to the  left at the nine o'clock position   very very detailed grooming going on and yes if they find a varroa destructor  might on the body of a fellow bee   they remove it prophylaxis is going on dead center   just at the six o'clock position an older nurse  be feeding what looks to be a newly emerged worker and this is the new wax at the top of the  hive you can see that the foundation is black   it's heavy wax and the surface of that foundation  is very smooth that's acorn heavy wax foundation and again they've stopped drawing out that  comb they're also not putting nectar in it   and they're not investing that will all  change soon when the next nectar flow comes in   but as i mentioned before i  think they're being conservative   because things are about to change in this  hive i don't think they plan to stick around aside from the fact that we have  all these newly emerging queens more grooming of the surface  there to the left four limbs going   and the little mandibles just lightly  scraping the surface of the glass and the yellow things that you see  these bright yellow dots on the glass   that's where they've put little tabs of wax on  there but there really isn't enough space between   the surface of the drawn comb and the surface  of the glass for the bees to draw more comb   so they're just depositing wax which by the  way they can take off of there and reuse so sometimes you'll see little collections  little globs of wax on the surface of the glass   only to come back in a few days and see  that area clean and no wax on the glass i also pay attention to their abdomens  when that's up against the glass to see   if there are wax flakes there now we're on  a worker brood frame and you can see the arc   through the right hand side almost like a rainbow   and they still have capped pupae that's good  because if they swarm out we're going to lose   a lot of the workforce and we're going to  need replacements so these are worker proof and of course once we're in the pupa  state they don't require feeding anymore   they just have to be kept warm and the temperature  they're kept at is 94 to 97 degrees fahrenheit and you'll notice there's not a lot of fanning  going on and there's also not a lot of heat   generating going on when they're generating heat  they don't flap their wings but they vibrate   quite a bit and there are what's known as heater  bees but i think they're at a pretty comfortable   temperature here because they're all relaxed and  they're not really trying hard to move air around they can also heat cells by sticking  their heads in generating heat through   the thorax and heating all six adjacent cells  if they happen to be full of larvae or pupae so notice how calm they are now   imagine coming in and inspecting your  observation hive and finding them doing this now the words out it's time to go   all the bees in this observation hive are  heading out the entrance so there's a lot   of chaos it actually looks like every bee in  this hive is going to leave that's not the   case but every bee in the hive is definitely  active and no one's taking a nap right now and now we can clearly see the capped pupa that  are still there so those would be workers we need   later to the right those are drones who cares  top left more worker brood caps so this will   be replacements but that queen is going up here  we have a second tier also with root in it and   above that one we have the top two or the third  one because they're only three high here nine   deep frames total the top tier has nothing but  honey but there again they've robbed themselves   in preparation for starting a new colony somewhere  else so they've all filled their honey crops with   honey they've taken all the resources they can  handle from this colony and they're leaving now we say 50 to 70 percent you know those  are averages any colony can do anything really but remember one of the problems we have today   is that we have stormy weather coming  in so why on earth would they depart and the queens continue to pipe in their  cells they don't know what's going on and here we are outside look at that sky now  we're alive with bees with a horizon start   there's clouds everywhere who's leaving this  is the question i get too do nurse bees leave   well nurse bees aren't the toughest bees  in the hive they're probably not very   good at doing things that are  necessary for starting a new colony   but foragers that have pollen on their hind  legs are turning around and going right back   out with the swarm drones are just along for the  ride they go anywhere the other bees are going   lots of workers we have a drone park  on the face of the entrance there   and i wanted to show you just what it looks like  when you're looking at a hive that is swarming   and departing this is the kind  of frenzied activity you see   and those that often fly out of the entrance are  facing the hive and hovering around in front of it   and the question comes too often which  beasts decide where they're going to   bib whack where are they going to land  on a branch well the foragers do that   the queen just follows the swarm of beasts  in fact the queen's not the first one out the   queen can change her mind and go right back in  if she wanted to but in this case she needs to   go because her replacement queen soon to emerge  and they'll emerge within the next few days see the pollen on their legs  we have wax workers that go   with them because they have to build a new comb   their crops are full they can take on body weight  about 30 percent more than the normal body weight   those are averages again i'm sure there's some  bees that overdo it that weigh themselves down   but the whole point is they  know they have to start a new   colony somewhere else and that means wax building you have to find a cavity now they don't  fly straight from the hives that they're   departing and go directly into another hive or  a cavity in a tree or some other suitable space   they find an intermediate location  usually that's a fence post   it's a tree branch here in my apiary they  use the same trees and the same branches   over and over again which makes it very easy to  walk out in the ap area and see if we've had a   swarm because let's be honest if we weren't  here looking at this hive when this happened   it happens in a very short amount of time and  we might not know that it occurred so later on   in this video we're also going to show you what  the interior of that observation hub looks like   post swarm and see if you would have been able  to tell the difference if you didn't look for   secondary cues like the fact that there are no  eggs and that they've also robbed themselves now when they rob themselves what i mean is they  consumed open honey they didn't uncap and tear   things apart problem is we've got heavy weather  coming in and these bees are leaving at a bad time the weather report is bad micro storms  micro bursts they were telling us so why on earth are they going now some people will wonder how do they navigate  if they need to navigate by the sun don't they   need to see the rays of the sun don't they need  ultraviolet beams cutting through the sun so they   know how to orient themselves honeybees also  navigate by landscape features so they don't   always have to see the sun or the ultraviolet  polarized light coming through the clouds here's a   drone i picked up so you can get a close look look  at those oversized eyes he's along for the party now which branch are they going to land on  where will they collect hopefully someplace   low and accessible but there's a problem with  this swarm i think you already know what it is   if we've been paying attention since the beginning so we have a little break in the weather here  and there they are clustering on a branch but   i want you to look at the activity of this cluster  first of all there are not very many bees here why   is that with so many bees leaving the hive so  many bees flying out to cluster on this branch   well if you pay attention to the cluster they're  animated they're actively searching for something   and there are just as many bees  joining this cluster as there are   departing it so the cluster size really isn't  changing it's not getting any bigger look at   those on the surface that just fly off of it  you know what they're not finding the queen the queen's pheromone known  as queen mandibular pheromone   is carried by the workers shared by  the nurse fees through direct contact   they become the pheromone signalers  regarding where the queen is located honeybees know when their queen  is missing within 15 minutes so we're kind of in the calm before the  storm here it seems because there's no wind   where's the heavy wind gusts  they told us we're coming the bees are quiet now but between you and me i don't think they  picked a great day to head out there's   some blue sky up there these are cosmos in  the landscape and the reason i show them   other than the fact that it  looks cool against the stormy sky   because look how many of them have not  blossomed yet cosmos provide nectar and   pollen for the bees we also have sunflowers  here that you can see that are not yet open   so again the big nectar flows ahead here  we're in the northeastern united states   there's some blue sky up there maybe the bees  aren't that concerned about the weather situation   look at the horizon could it be any darker  now we're looking to the west and that's   the direction the storms are coming from  according to the weather people and they know sunflowers provide pollen that can  actually be medicinal to the hive we also have goldenrod that's just getting  started the rain's welcome we have a water deficit   pond is low the bees go to the pond to get  their resources we've also been putting out sea salt in their water for drinkers  and that's an option in addition to   fresh water one teaspoon per quart  for those who want to try that out   morton sea salt highly recommended by bees based  on their own selections and they don't always   take a lot of minerals and salts in their  water but this time of year it's in demand it's a walnut tree there in the background and we see a turkey vulture flying overhead there and there's goldenrod lower left a lot of  varieties of golden rod and that's a heavy   nectar flow and asters will also join in providing  for them maximilians are just starting to bloom now another thing since heavy winds are  coming i want to walk through and make   sure everything is strapped down tight lanes  high there langstroth hives here by the way i   get questions about these stands these are lyson  adjustable heavy metal stands these are an iron t   post if you have straps around all your  hives if they should by some chance blow over   you can just put them right back right side up  we have run out right after a rainstorm before   and stood up hives and the bees have been fine  look at the rain coming down over there i think   we're gonna get it now look at this cluster  building up getting larger no staying the same   searching for their queen we know that the  queen probably isn't in that cluster unless   we had multiple queens in that observation hive  the queen that we saw had her right wings damaged   and therefore she couldn't fly she wouldn't be on  this tree branch at all so what this is are the   foragers and the workers inside this hive trying  to dictate to the rest of them including the queen   exactly where she would bib whack momentarily  on this branch and they need to cluster fast   and they need to tighten that cluster up because  wind and rain is coming for sure i'm sure bees   know that they know everything about weather they  always do the right thing at just the right time and the reason i want you to see this cluster  and the behavior on it is when you see a cluster   acting like this they're missing their queen  so what happens after so much time passes and   they can't find their queen well they just go  back to the original height that they came from   so it's another way especially late in the year   when beekeepers that just don't want  to lose the numbers from their heights   they want to restore those workers there's a brood  break no matter what because the queen's gone   but if you can get into a cluster of bees  and you can find the queen and remove her   you'll see them returning to the  hive just like these are doing   they gave up the combination of the rain  coming in the storm and the wind picking   up and the fact that they can't find their  queen means they're headed back to the hive yeah that does not sound good now this was the beginning of  a storm system and overnight   we have a storm counter that counted  168 lightning strikes within 10 miles so you can see too that the foragers that   are carrying pollen on their  hind legs just join the swarm but they've given up and they're  coming back rain is starting to fall so you may be wondering why on earth am  i standing outside with a storm coming   videoing honeybees and if you notice the bees are  returning to other hives too look at the other   entrances down the wall there how am i doing  it could rain on me i could get my camera wet   doing it for you so you can see it maybe  you don't have rain where you are right now   watching rain coming down somewhere else could be  therapeutic seeing what bees do when it starts to   rain can be fascinating get out there with your  umbrella i'm not carrying an umbrella in this case   i've decided to just let the camera get  wet look what's going on in the face of   this entrance if you look to the right you'll see  these bees sticking their abdomens in the air and   you'll see a light dot on the back of their  abdomen that is the nasanov land and they're   spreading the queen's pheromone because they're  recalling those bees that just left to swarm   so it's the equivalent of a navy ship  hoisting its recall pennant and saying   all hands returned to the ship things  are about to get bad wherever you are   and if you notice the landing board too look  at all those abdomens held high and that light   dot which normally is close up that's enough  putting out their pheromone that's going to   anchor all those bees and get everyone back  inside the hive before things really get bad and they've got a lot to overcome because most  of the bees are airborne and they circle around   the area in groups and they smell pheromones  and they find out where they're supposed to go   and of course they're looking  for that intermediate cluster   the thing is they're abandoning  that tree branch right now they're going to return without the queen because if  she flew out can she fly back   i don't think so she has one set of good wings why is that called the nasanov gland by the way  because a physicist named nazanov discovered it   he found an anatomist i'm sorry he's  not a physicist an anatomist now look   at the cluster that's on the face of  that and the sky has lost its contrast things are getting even worse around here some of the bees are just clustering to the wall this is what's left of the cluster time to go there's no queen here just go home now they got the message there are no bees on this   tree anymore although look at the ones  that are still airborne flying around that's a spruce tree by the way for  those who want to know look at that just after supper come back outside the rain has  stopped there's sun in the sky and look at this   cluster of ease why do they move inside because  they've already made their decision to leave and they're staying out of the way  they're making preparations to go again   but there's a problem where's the  queen they almost stepped on her she's right there with a tiny retinue of workers  now if you don't pick this queen up off the ground   if you don't provide her some way to  seek shelter without flight she's dead   if you left her out there overnight a  skunk would just come along and eat her so i thought who's going to waste her time on  a queen that has chewed wings i would why not i've got boxes sitting around we could start a  nucleus now this queen let's be honest i would   never use an injured queen like this to start  a colony really but since we have surplus bees   and it looked like they wanted  to swarm and go with her   why not just set up a box here i mean  she can't fly she could walk there she is   she's going to go up this blade of  grass it's going to pull vault over   and she's going to go right in the entrance  of that five frame deep nucleus box that's how we tell ourselves i mean we know   it's a perfect box there are five frames  of drawn comb in there there's a tiny bit   of honey in it you know she's gonna go in  look she's right near the front of the box then what does she do she doesn't even care doesn't want to go in  it's like she doesn't want to save herself   so i can pick her up maybe i'll just show her  the entrance and she'll go in look right back out   certainly these workers  could just show her the way   it's one of the frustrating  things about beekeeping   and of course i know this takes a lot of time  there's people watching this going you're just   wasting your time look at those two feeding each  other down there i don't know from this distance   who's feeding who but that's trophallaxis  again one is providing a resource to another   the queen is not going in the box she doesn't care she seems to just be willing to   end her life and if she did if she died if a  bird ate her if the beekeeper stepped on her these workers would just go back to the  original hive so why not just release them   because i like underdog stories i like it  when i take a bee that appears doomed or   a tiny swarm at the end of the year  that looks like they can't make it   i didn't buy this box just to do it it's sitting  around it cost me nothing to put her in there   like there she is again out in the grass and i  took the hive and i put it up on a hive stand   because i thought you know if she does go in  there i don't want her to be on the ground   so let's pick it up there she is of course  avoiding the grass i'm grabbing the reason   i'm taking the grass with me is just in case  it has her pheromone on it then the grass will   smell right and other bees will come get that  queen i didn't want to grab at her wings anymore   her right wings are very truncated they're damaged  they even chewed some of her left side wings so i'm trying to carefully get her and of  course encourage her to go into this box   certainly she understands this  is her only chance for survival if you grab a queen never grab their abdomen  it can be easily damaged so your goal is the   thorax which is right behind her  head or pick her up by the wings   if she has good ones she's even beeping  there she's not happy can't imagine why i mean a couple hours ago it was raining out here  that means she spent her time in that rainstorm   down in the grass with a tiny cluster of bees  around her and look at these faithful workers   dedicated to their queen they want to keep  her clean they're constantly checking her   they're feeding her they're  making sure that she's okay   now the key is you have to  get her inside this hive would you keep this queen or would you just end it  right there here you can see even her left wings   have been chewed and damaged a little bit but  all of her legs seem okay look at this worker   down below opening its mandibles wide so the  queen can stick her tongue out and get a drink   so it's they're making resources  available to her they want her to make it and i thought i would sit out here and  make this video and you would see the queen   discover that there's an entrance and shelter  did you see her tongue stick out right there   and then of course she'll walk right through  that hole she'll be fine life will be great   there's already comb in there see that  feeding going on see her tongue trophallaxis these workers are there for her these  are dedicated nurse bees that can care   for her that were just old enough to fly  strong enough to get out in the world so she does some things that  uh frustrate the onlooker   i have a lot of things to  do i have coffee to drink   it's getting later sun's going to set soon  she needs to get inside where she's safe the grass has supposedly had her pheromone  on it it's parked over there on the left   none of them cared also none of them  are flashing their nazinov glands   and trying to draw in others what are the chances  that we can get the bees that are now clustered   on the front of their hive entrance that they came  from what are the chances they're going to figure   out that their queen is over here 20 feet away  from the building facing southwest the chances   are going to smell that pheromone and come over  there and join this group slight slim to none they're not even trying all right i got one the one on the left is opening its nasanov  glam but it's not flapping its wings yet   i have to fan it oh look at the ones  that are on the face of the hive they are   fanning and they do have their abdomens curled up  and they are showing their nasanov gland maybe we   can get some bees over here before it gets  too dark for them to fly because after dark   honeybees can't fly their vision's terrible  that's why they end up on the ground that's   why beekeepers that decide to check their hives  at night end up with bees crawling all over them because when they can't see they crawl or  they fly to white light give the flashlight   to somebody you don't like some of these forages  are pretty old look at the edges of their wings   so it's a mixture old and young look here goes  the queen she's going to walk up the front   she's going to go straight in that  entrance it's going to be a perfect world how old's this queen by the way well she made it  through last winter this was one of my resource   nucleus hives that i overwintered with just  two boxes and an insulated top and no food they all made it except one last winter so  having nucleus resource hives like this one   these are nice thick wooden  ones i like the round entrance   they're deeps so they take standard  lengths throughout the frames you collect the odd queens and tiny swarms and  underdog collections of bees and that tiny space   gets managed very well by them they build up and  use them as resource hives for the rest of your   apiary and they surprise you at every turn which  demonstrates that that's a perfect interior space   five over five now this year i've had to  go five over five over five so i have three   high in some cases just depending on the  population of the colony that's inside of them   this queen could not be more frustrating why don't they lead her somewhere why don't  they grab her and drag her into that entrance just tooling around there she  goes she's going in for sure it's very agile on her feet and you would think she would go  right in that entrance but nope   where do you think she ended up right  on the ground again right in the grass   by herself and now she needs  everyone's help again enough of that so what i did was i put her in a queen clip   she walked right out of that walked right out the  entrance onto the ground again would you give up   so the queen clip just had too big of an opening  so i put her back in the queen clip close it up   pull the frame now i have four deep frames in  here and a queen clip hanging in the middle   of it with a queen in it so she can't get out  i made the decision for her she was otherwise   going to die for sure it's guaranteed they're  using their nazinov glands but if you listen   to the background sound night insects  are starting to chirp the sun is setting   and their chances of getting a lot of bees in  here to help them out are slim to none even the   one on the landing board with their abdomen  curled up fanning away now trying to get the   message out to those that are still struggling  in the area look at them just stuck on the   face of that entrance doing nothing they don't  even care they're not going to come over and   take care of the queen they're not going to join  the group i'm going to have to help them out so i'm going to take my nitrile gloved hand by the  way for those who ask this question all the time   nitrile gloves do not protect you from stings they  can sing right through them and i figured since i   had picked up the queen with nitrile gloves it  might smell a little bit like her her pheromone   might be there these workers don't want to go  inside there must be a reason they're hanging out   outside and that's because i'm sure they want  to join the queen in her tiny nucleus hive   so if i just put it in direct contact at  the entrance they'll smell her pheromone   and surely they'll go right in there  and want to take care of the queen now her queen clip is at the forward part so  just above this entrance and they go in that's   promising so that showed that they were ready to  defect from their original colony that they're   more than happy to join their queen so rather than  show you the tedious transfer of all these bees   i ultimately collected all the bees from the face  of that entrance and transferred them to this hive   and they all walked in just as these are doing  so we end up with you know a thousand bees we also had a little cluster of bees on a  qmp pheromone strip down in the lower meadow   that my wife wanted me to do something with them  because their orphaned piece and we clipped that   branch off brought it over to this hive they're  not related to the queen at all and wouldn't you   know it all of those bees also walked into this  hive so now we've got a couple thousand bees as of   today inside that hive so now this is a follow-up  this is today august the 24th look at the entrance   they're stress relieved things  are quiet look inside the hive   would you know looking at this that this hive  had a swarm and the queens are still piping a   little bit in here not as vigorous as before look  how calm they are you can hear neighbors mowing   queens are still piping but if you had not  witnessed all this activity from the hive   two days ago now would you know that they had  swarmed this looks like a heavily populated hive they're about to get some new queens and the queens that have to emerge from those  cells not to mention the queen combat that's   about to happen where one will hopefully kill the  others and leave them with one really good queen   she still has to fly out we're a good 14  days out from having a queen that emerges   flies away does remaining flights comes back and  starts laying our insurance policies right here   i know she left the hive she  didn't seem to care about anything   they didn't like her i mean she had trolls in  the community that were chewing away at her wings   and that she was doomed if we didn't pick her up  and put her in this but what this will produce   hopefully because now we have a couple  thousand peas in here don't forget   she'll produce eggs and these eggs and resources  will be available in the strange event that   within a couple of weeks we don't see new  eggs happening inside that observation hive   now i've got a frame of eggs i could reintroduce  they would also be in decline because remember   they're not producing new eggs new larvae for the  entire time that they don't have a laying queen   and we can of course reintroduce her if we wanted  to so that's what resource nucleus hives are for   eggs larvae surplus queens resources i  don't know what's wrong with that worker bee   and why they decided that it doesn't get to  be with them but it's getting a working over   that looks like very aggressive grooming  which is different than trying to sting it   biting chewing and going over it like  that is different from turning their   abdomen into a little you and  trying to insert a stinger   so there's a tight inspection service going on  in this hive and we're going to do follow-ups   that's ive number 15 the nucleus underdog hive  and we have a lot of time ahead and of course   what do i hear over here another hive is swarming  august the 24th that's not the end of the world   all the resources are the same uh the other thing  is why are they swarming well by the way this has   a hive gate on it so those that want to know  do hive gates inhibit swarming no they do not   plenty of activity going through this one now they're leaving the queen is leaving with them  this is a good sized swarm good sized hive by the   way and again it has a super on it so it's got a  deep a medium all full and a super partially full   so they're not cramped for space their numbers  are up and again the triggers are they must be   making new queens so if we inspect it  you would expect to find queen cells   and i'm putting you right in front of this so you  can see what it looks like from the landing board   and when you watch your hives and this is going  on there's a very good chance you're going to   see the queen depart and if this queen departs i'm  going to show you because you deserve to see her   there it is in slow motion she's coming out right  there she is healthy look at her wings perfect   look at her abdomen fully extended she's capable  of flight she's going to go right up the front   of that metal panel and then she's just going  to take off there she goes joining the swarm i'm not going to take you through the whole  drama of seeing this swarm land and then uh   see them get hived and things like that but  this is not your fault i guess the lesson i   want to make here is bees reproduce as a  super organism their purpose is to gather   resources build their numbers establish  another colony and their ability to do that   is why we have so many honeybees around today  in spite of all the challenges they have so for the rest of this you can just  watch these bees fly out one by one guess what tree they went to the exact same  one the other bees were on this bridge tree   guess what i'm doing to make them accessible  i'm putting a queen mandibular pheromone   qmp synthetic pheromone lure  with a zip tie on a low branch   what are they going to do they're going to  ultimately move to that low branch instead   of 15 feet up in the tree and then i'm going to  go and collect these and put them in a hive box   for those of you who don't know  what the hive gate is by the way it does a lot for the dynamics of the  hive but it also creates a long corridor   that helps reduce and prevent robbing  it gives them a longer area to defend   but uh rather than explain all of that there'll  be a link in the video description if you want to   learn more about what it is where it was invented  and what the evaluations are looking like now but i thought you would enjoy seeing  this in slow motion and all the bees   are just scooting out of here  by the way this is a big swarm this swarm is so large on the tree branch that  uh it looks like it would be a good four pounds   i know some people have had larger swarms than  that there's always something bigger somewhere   else but four pounds of bees is nothing to sneeze  at so i'm not going to just let these go here in   the state of pennsylvania i've collected swarms  as late as mid and the third week of september   and still manage to get them through the colony  that's in jeopardy is actually the hive that they   leave from at the end of september they're the  ones that have to produce replacement queens   they're the ones that have to have those queens  fly out and get mated with drones at a time of   year when the weather could go cold and  stay cold so the swarms if we hide them   with a laying queen actually have a much better  chance of survival late in the year than the   colony they departed from which is now queenless  and counting on their queens and queen cells   emerging and getting successful mating flights at  a time when birds and everything else dragonflies   they are all hungry for  anything that's on the wing so collect your swarms at the end  of the year don't just let them go   if you've got hive equipment and it's empty  you have nothing to lose by putting bees in it   and as i recommended before nucleus hives put your  swarms in those this worm is too big it would fill   easily you would start them off with a 10  frame box and 10 frames by the way 5 over   5 based on dr tom seeley's research that is  an optimal sized hive for a swarm to start in so there they are see what i  mean it's a lot of bees now   what's different about these compared  to the ones we started this with today   look how calm they are the queen is there they've  got one she's good to go so i want to thank you   for watching this really long video i hope you  learned a thing or two and found it entertaining   and i invite you to subscribe to my channel i'm  frederick dunn and this has been the way to be   i wish you all the best with your bees  wherever you are thanks for watching you

Channel: Frederick Dunn

Views: 18,711

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Id: MkYzkuAN2Oc

Length: 72min 47sec (4367 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2022