How to set up your first beehive.

all right let's go get our bees Bud come [Music] on over here next go down this way be careful you got it come on good [Music] job all right good job hey hey hey no no don't run down the road stay over here all right the bees are here we better make sure that they stay right there don't need a bunch of bees getting loose in the vehicle [Music] all right so once you get your bees home the first thing you want to do is get them indoors where there's some air conditioning if you can uh if you can't if you have your hives ready to go immediately you can take them straight and put them in the hives but if they're going to be sitting for any amount of time they need some air conditioning or they need to be in a shaded cool place uh out of direct sunlight uh they're very restricted in here so if they get too hot too much sun beating on them they can't move away from it so you have to make sure that they have uh all the shade that they need okay so the obvious thing you're going to need first is your beehive and let's look at what that consists of all right so the first component to your beehive is the bottom board and there's several different options uh this here is called a solid bottom board and then you also have what's called a screen bottom board and this just kind of helps keep ventilation going uh it also can be used to check for things like veroa mites and uh by by sliding a little thin piece of corrugated plastic down in here that covers the whole bottom the uh the verites can fall through the screen and land uh in that or a trap made specifically for verites and that way you you can kind of tell uh where your M population is at veroa mites uh can easily kill your hive if there's too many of them in the hive and they are a pandemic when it comes to honeybees I highly suggest you do some research on mites and uh learn all you can about them so anyway screen bottom board helps with ventilation in the summer uh and then this here obviously is just solid and uh I use these uh I used to switch them I used to have ventilated in the summer and these in the in the winter uh now I'm I'm trying to stay mostly with solid just because it's kind of a hassle to swap a bottom board out on a beehive especially if it's a really big beehive so there you have your bottom board all right the next component is an entrance reducer and an entrance reducer basically helps a new colony of bees or a weaker colony of bees defend their hive a little bit better it also can reduce the amount of ation going into a hive uh say in the winter time so you have a small entrance and then if you flip it of course it would be like this you have a wider entrance and uh and you can take it out completely if your hive is big enough uh whenever you're starting out though uh I highly suggest that you have something like this that you can easily uh put into place and your bees don't have to work so hard to defend a tiny little entrance like that uh if there's a hive reducer uh in play all right the next component is a deep box and that goes right on here just like this now this is called a deep box because it's the deepest box with a lang Stu Hive that uh they offer and you've got these deeper frames that go all the way to the bottom and provide the proper spacing for the bees uh bees will build comb anywhere that there's not enough spacing so if you take a frame out and leave it like that they'll fill that whole space with comb and it'll be quite the mess trying to get in there and clean it all out so this is a 10 frame box so 10 frames like this can fit in this box they also have eight frame boxes uh um but I always run 10 frame boxes myself now whenever your frames come they will come like this basically um you can get frames in multiple different ways this is a plastic uh insert that goes into the frame it has the honeycomb pattern already built into it and they come with a small amount of wax on the frame now if you go this route I highly suggest that you buy yourself an additional uh I don't know pound or two of of beeswax melt it down I take a roller and just roll it on to your frame and coat it with uh with extra beeswax the bees uh don't really want to build on the plastic itself so if you coat it in beeswax they'll start building on it and if you don't have beeswax on it one thing you'll get is comb that's raised up off and not connected uh necessarily to the plastic and these come in uh all plastic frames you can get them with out the inserts uh and just put like string across here and the bees will build their own wax but you know whenever it comes time to work on these frames pulling them out and stuff like that if it doesn't have a nice solid foundation you could easily uh mess up or tear your your uh comb if it's just drawn out and there's no Foundation to support it so I use these plastic inserts you can get these in uh several different colors you can get white you can get like a yellow um I go with black because when the queen lays her eggs the eggs are little tiny white specks and it's a whole lot easier to see that little white Speck on a black background than it is in like a white or even a yellow background but to each their own and like I say these fla frames come in uh made completely out of plastic um one of the things sometimes you have trouble is as these age the little Staples will pull out of them when you're working them um just something you got to consider I like the wood myself uh so this is what I go with now whenever you're starting out you won't have comb that has already been drawn out this is an old frame that has wax that they've already started using and I uh of course have that a new beekeeper would not have this unless you know someone who keeps bees and it could help you out uh with with some of it um but if you have something like this then whenever you release the queen into the hive she can immediately get started uh laying eggs uh within a day or two and the hive can get going uh if you don't have something like this then the bees have to draw out wax and make all this and that takes a a lot of uh sugar syrup nectar that kind of stuff for them to draw out this kind of wax now they're ready to go they can definitely do it but it makes a lot easier for him to just get going with this stuff all right now the next component is not something that you necessarily need to have just starting out um but this is something that you'll want to get eventually when it's time to start uh looking at at collecting a honey crop so the bees will collect honey uh all year for their own uh purposes to make it through the winter and stuff like that and they'll store it in here they'll use it to feed themselves they'll store pollen and use it to feed their their brood and uh but when it's time for us to start thinking about trying to get a honey crop uh one thing you want to do is you want to keep the queen from going up into your honey and laying eggs and so one thing you need is a queen excluder and basically these little metal slots are just the proper width that a queen bee cannot fit between them but all the other bees are smaller than the queen so they can actually get up through these slots and and deposit honey uh up into the top of the hive so when it's time for the honey you'll want to get yourself a queen excluder I use these ones that have wood all the way around because I like how the wood um just fits with the the rest of the hive and the bees can seal the edges and stuff like that now just a plain metal excluder they also have the plastic ones you know just sits here and sandwiches in between two boxes and I've always felt like it just you know the Box on top slides a little too much for me I like these they're more expensive but you can totally use the other ones it's not a problem at all this is what I use okay and then the next option uh which is again when it's time for the honey crop is you want to get yourself a honey super now honey super goes right on top of the queen excluder like that and now the bees like I say can come up through the queen excluder and into the honey super and store their honey in here and the queen will stay down here and raise a big uh bunch of bees so in the in the honey excluder we have what's called a medium box so it's smaller than the the Deep box and the reason for that is if you put a deep box on here my goodness you got to be a muscle man uh or woman to lift a dag on thing when these things are full of honey they are super heavy uh let me tell you even when these mediums are full uh they're super heavy a deep would be astronomically heavy um and very hard to deal with uh they also make these in shallows which is just a a tiny bit smaller but it makes it easier for uh folks that aren't as able uh to lift and carry and stuff like that to deal with their own honey now generally what I like to do this is also a 10f frame box you can get them again in eight frames uh the frames are also shorter than the Deep frames and again you're going to want to wax your frames just like I've done uh you won't have the drawn out comb but uh one thing I like to do is I like to take the uh take one frame out and only have nine frames up here and I've got a spacer that actually slides down and spaces all these frames properly and you basically want to have a wider Gap in between each of your frames something like that and the bees will draw the the honeycomb out wider on each frame and so when it's time to harvest your honey you can take a knife or whatever you use and just cut the cappings off you know the bees will cover each one of these little holes with a cap and you'll just be able to cut all those off and then stick it in your your spinner and get the honey out or however you extract your honey um so they end up storing more honey on each frame and it makes it easier to harvest in the end so nine frames is what I generally run but you can absolutely do 10 if you want to so these two items are optionable uh optional uh for the beginning beekeeper but definitely the following year you're going to want to get yourself a honey super and a quint excluder okay so now that you've got your deep box on and your frames in the next component is your inner cover this is an inner cover it's got a lot dust and stuff on anyway this is an inner cover and what I've done here is I've I've cut out some holes on all four corners and put some screen in there you absolutely do not have to do that I'm just a crazy person and that's how I run my beehives uh I like to give the bees plenty of insul or insulation plenty of ventilation in the summertime and then in the winter time I'll cover these holes uh to keep the air flow restricted uh but not completely completely I don't want it completely restricted just try to uh maintain some of the heat in the hive but they also have a top entrance right here cut out some of these don't have that um and there's lots of different options for these some some of these Center slits come as a wide slit uh this one here is a a big round slit so this goes right on top here and what it does is it gives the proper spacing on the top of the frames to keep the bees from building comb on top of your frames um and it works as a a buffer between the top cover uh in your bees there's also a hole here that usually comes with a plug that keeps other Critters from going in up here and getting down into your hive um but what I end up doing is I've made these little wooden pieces here with a piece of screen on them and I end up just laying that right over top of this so anything comes in here looking around can't get down into the hive and and build and uh be able to bother the bees and the bees will come out through this front entrance so they won't ever bother with this back hole whatsoever uh it's really not an issue okay next is an optional piece uh this is what I do uh not everyone does this at all and it's totally not necessary but again it's how I run my hives I've taken these uh shallow supers and I've drilled holes at an angle like this so any water will run down and out and I've put screen on here to keep Pest and stuff from getting in and it's on all all four sides there's two holes on each side and what that does is it allows the Heat and summer to come out and in the winter time I'll put burlap down in here and the burlap will act to Wick the moisture out of the hive and these holes will help to air dry the burlap and and uh it's just a good ventilation system and I've had a lot of success using this but it's not necessary at all a lot of people just go with inner cover and then put the top cover on so the next component is obviously your top cover top cover has a piece of metal on top there's all kinds of different top covers you can go with um all different kinds of configurations but this is what I use it just has a gal nice piece piece of metal on top and uh I've had some that are arched like a real roof uh but this is what I I really like the best uh inside of it is just wood and it goes right on top just like that now the reason uh I really like this ventilation system is the holes sit uh right up underneath this lip so even if it does rain even if the rain's blowing it's it's under this lip far enough I've put these holes holds up high enough that it really doesn't uh affect anything at all but you can see the entrance the top entrance is right there let's uh let's look at it without this on you put this down over top of the inner cover and now the top or the the entrance is actually up underneath the lip on this thing so if the bees want to come out they have to come down and if if you were to push this back like that so that it's up against the wall there's no seam here at all they can't get out the top entrance uh whatsoever now bees don't have to have a top entrance but I've found that a lot of them use the top entrance so having this additional space keeps this up and off and and keeps their top entrance open and uh I really like this method myself and again this is a shallow so it's smaller than the medium we just saw um and that's what I use all right and so there's one more uh piece that you want to consider uh whenever you're starting a brand new Hive when a new Hive comes in in like a package uh you you end up having a bunch of bees that aren't established whatsoever and they need some extra help and so you need to feed those bees uh once you put them in the hive um that'll keep them going while they set up their hive they build their comb and uh and they get established so provide them a feed Source now they've got uh feeders that can be put on the outside of your hive and it it's got like a little tray that slides back in there so only the bees inside the hive can access that tray but it's got a big jar that sits out here that's full of sugar water and sugar water is uh one part sugar to one part water so if you have one pound of sugar then you use one pound of water and notice I didn't say one gallon I said one pound of water so one to one and I I initially used the jar feeders that sit on the outside of the hive but what I found is that uh other bees from other colonies would come over here and try to Rob and there' just be a tussle going on a big fight with all the bees trying to get in there and and all these bees trying to fight them off and it was just a lot of extra stress that the bees didn't need so now what I use and what I'm going to suggest to you is some sort of internal feeder now I use these things they're called rapid round feeders and basically it's a bowl with a raised part and it's kind of indented here and this little piece here goes down into the hive the bees can crawl up in here and come out the top here and it's rigid on the edge here so their feet can grab hold and then this little cover goes over the top and what this cover does is it keeps the bees from like coming out and getting in the water and drowning but it lets the water go up underneath and raise up to the edge and the bees can stand on the edge and and uh eat all the sugar water they want and take it back down into the hive so that would sit right on here you'd fill it up with the sugar water and then you put the lid on top now the problem again with just having this lid is this particular feeder that lid's going to sit on top of the feeder just like that and that's less than ideal so either find an internal feeder that's small enough to work with this setup or do what I do add the ventilation piece and then your lid now your feeder is in there it's protected from pests and stuff like that yes there is the small entrance on the back that pests can get into but you also have a lid on top of that feeder so they can't get to the food in there and they can't bother the bees now admittedly some bees will drown but very few uh this is a very good feeder and it works very well um but it's a lot better than the fight and the hassle that's going on outside and I would highly suggest using an internal option they also have feeders that go you can take a couple frames out of here and the feeder will slide down in here and you can fill it up and it'll be internal to the box so it's really up to you and your preference uh there's all kinds of ways to do beekeeping everybody has their own way and I suggest you find what works best for you uh in your area and in your climate and uh so starting out your first Hive may end up looking like this and the next thing that we need to do is add the bees all right so we're going to go ahead and install this package of bees now obviously I'm starting off with some pre-drawn comb that the bees can start using immediately and uh you as a a new beekeeper won't have access to that you'll end up having frames that are empty like this or whatever you choose to go with I would highly suggest rolling more beeswax onto it even if it comes pre-waxed add more beeswax it uh it'll definitely help you little Pro tip there all right so I'm going to take out about five frames here let's take out this one so that there's plenty of room for the bees to uh go down into the hive there all right first thing to do is to take the top off of this it's just held down by a couple staples just like that now the bees eat sugar water they love sugar water and that's what's in this can right up here so if I take that can out of there a lot of these bees are going to go up into the air and uh be all over the place so one thing that I like to do is get a little spray bottle not not a spray bottle you've used uh anything else in you don't want to have any other chemicals in this get a a fresh brand new spray bottle put one part sugar to one part water into here and uh you're basically just going to spray your be and get them wet and if you look close I don't know if you can see on the phone there or not but the bees go right to cleaning each other so now they're going to be occupied and uh and busy getting each other clean so just spray both sides then you can kind of do a little Shake here knock them into the bottom spray them a little bit more just like that now the mo majority of bees are going to be occupied okay I'm just going to lift this can up out of here and I'm going to have my lid ready to go to cover the hole like that and there's two little pin holes in the bottom of the can here that the bees have been able to get sugar water out of flip this over cuz Staples are keeping it from sitting properly and that staple is going to be a problem child all right so just like that okay now the next thing I want to do is I want to get this queen out of here she's attached to this little black piece man they got some sturdy Staples now all right you guys are getting out aren't you all right a few bees escaping are no problem at all and what we're going to do is just lift the queen cage out of here shake it a little bit and there you go now the Queen the bees have built a little section of Comb onto this queen cage here no big deal but you can see they're they're sitting here they're trying to feed the queen uh you know they want her to to be their Queen basically now if if the bees were rejecting her you would see their little butts trying to get their Stingers down in there uh to try and kill her but these bees are trying to care for her and uh make sure she's good to go one thing you definitely want to do is you want to look real close and make sure that your queen is alive and moving around down in there if she is dead you're going to have a big problem and you definitely want to call the uh people you bought the bees from and get that fixed ASAP okay so since I can see my queen is alive I want to install this somewhere in the hive uh and what you want to do is try to put it somewhere on a frame use a um a rubber band around the frame or something like that to hold it in place or you can kind of wedge it into some of the pre-existing comb if you have comb uh if you don't have comb you can you can set it on the bottom of the uh you know the bottom board or whatever but never like there's a cork right here and there's a cork right here and I'm about to lose the whole thing I don't know if you can see but there is a piece of candy right here this white area and if you take the cork off here the bees will start eating that candy from the outside and the bees inside there's several different worker bees in there with her and they're in there to take care of her the queen bee doesn't do anything for herself uh they feed her they clean her they do everything for her uh the only thing she does is eat and lay eggs um the bees will care for the the babies when they're born and she does nothing but lay the eggs so the bees will eat through that candy and give more time uh for the bees to get used to her and uh become more established with her so if you feel like that she is uh that they're already accepting her and she's good to go you can go ahead and pull the cork out from this end without the candy and that will release her immediately um but if you feel like she needs more time then pull the cork out on this end and it'll take them two or three days to dig through that candy now I'm thinking I'm going to do a direct release uh because I can see how these bees are trying to get in there and feed her uh they are very concerned with her well-being and so they've already decided this is our Queen and uh they've accepted her so I'm I'm happy with that okay now I'm going to spray down in this hole and wet the bees some more this will help keep them from going airborne as much whenever I put them into the hive all right there we go now the last thing to do is to shake them down into the hive now this looks violent and to some extent it is but uh these bees are tough and they can definitely take it no problem all right and then I'm going to just set this cage that still has a few bees in it right down here at the base of the hive and the bees will be able to go right into the hive looking down into the hive this is what it looks like so I have drawn comb on this side I have drawn comb on that side I'm going to stagger these frames maybe get the debris off of them so the bees ain't got to full with it anyway I'm going to stagger these frames one empty frame gently lower it down because there's a pile of them down there and then I'll put a drawn section and so on and so forth I'm rolling the queen cage around here all right so what I'm seeing here is a bunch of these bees are clinging to this Frame that has the drawn coal and they're already kind of sticking their heads in the the different cells and uh basically liking what they're seeing so I'm going to just gently lay this on its side gently and then all these bees are over here trying to care for their queen I'm going to release the queen right now I'm pulling the cork out of the end that does not have the candy just like that and hopefully the queen will come out through that hole all right instead of the queen coming out I see a lot of workers are going in so I'm going to open the top part of this so that the queen can come out a little easier just like that now let's raise the lid here well they're just anxious to get in there to her and the queen is right there on the outside she's just hanging out there while they feed her that's her right there in the middle and they're all carrying for her she's working her way around the edge of the cage here there she is take this cage out of here hey there's the queen all right like I say that's how you do a direct release of the the queen and right there you can see the candy that I'm talking about uh it's just a big white chunk on one end and bees will eat all the way through that and let her out eventually but in this case uh they already were happy with her so this is the route we went all right so this box is here the bees should be able to work their way out I hope I'm just going to set it like that and then come out that way last thing to do is to cover this hide Hive up and feed them so now to feed them initially I'm just going to poke some holes in this can and I'm going to expand some of these holes and just pour this sugar water down in here you see one little bee there is already after it he's a hungry fella and he jumped right in the bow all right you want to save your bees get them up out of there so that they don't drown put your lid on so that no one else gets in there and then we're going to put our ventilation top on all right it has been 5 days since I installed this and I just want to show you uh what progress they've made thus far all right so you can see they're all kind of centered right here and uh if you remember we staggered the frames so let's just open them up and see what it's looking like not sure if you can see but there's liquid down in the holes so they've been going out and uh Gathering nectar and storing it he this is a one of the empty frames and you can see they've drawn the comb out on it quite nice they've been putting it good use okay so here we have got a frame with drawn out comb and as you can see the queen is right there it's got the Green Dot on her back she's right here as I'm looking down in these holes I'm seeing little white eggs so the queen is laying and uh very active so we're doing good now when you're getting into these you want to make sure that you're not damaging your queen so I'm watching her she's she's crawling this way and these little joints have to butt up together so you definitely don't want to end up getting her squished or pinched in between the frames so you kind of want to make sure you know where she is on the frame and be very careful putting her back in I would never suggest uh you know where I've got one frame missing if she's on that one frame sliding it down here where there's very tight tolerances I would take a frame out and give a two- frame Gap and Slide the frame down in there with her on it put it into position and then take the opposing frame and put it back in uh that's just me that's how I'm I'm cautious with my Queens so I want to make sure and not damage her at all okay and last one we're going to look at this is an empty frame and you can see they've drawn it out with all white comb I don't know if you can see or not but down in those holes there's little white specks and those are eggs a lot easier to see them against this uh White comb and the in that black background so that's what it looks like up here on the top you can see a lot of nectar stored and you can see some pollen oh oh oh all right so don't do that that's a good way to make the bees mad trying to point this out to you I drop the whole frame uh I'm the K clutzy beekeeper if you haven't noticed anyway you've got nectar all in here and little white eggs all down in here and some of these colorful specks are your pollen and I crunched a little bit of their comb right here and it looks like I injured and killed three bees just glad that the queen wasn't on there and they should be just fine the majority of them have taken flight and are headed back up to the hive these gloves keep your hands from getting stung but uh your dexterity goes out the window so if you can learn to do this without gloves then that's probably a good thing but uh I am not gentle at all so I would end up getting stung left and right if I didn't wear gloves I'm a bowl in a china shop so there you have it 5 days in and you can see the progression and see how they're doing all right so that's all there is to it now this here's the queen cage I set off to the side and as you can see be have went back to it uh the reason for this is because everything to do with bees is pheromone based and the queen puts off a pheromone and so the whole time she's been in this cage it now has her scent in it and all the bees think she's in there they're also in here working on the candy and stuff like that so what I'm going to do is just set this cage right here until her pheromone wears off and the bees uh you can see these bees here let me get you closer okay these bees right here have their backside in the air and are Fanning and what they're doing is they're putting pheromone out into the air to let the rest of the bees know hey everyone this is where we live now and you can see some of the bees that are landing are working their way over and going into the entrance they're picking up the signal signal and answering the call and here some of the bees that are left in the Box are crawling their way out and will fly up and make their way into the hive uh here in a little bit so by Nightfall this whole Hive is going to be in and tucked in for bed and good to go uh I'm also going to mix up some more sugar water you want to keep uh the sugar water flowing for uh you know a week or two maybe even more until you see that your hive is established and they have plenty of resources stored and can make it on their own and that's how you set up a brand new Hive now I've got another box of them right over here and I'm going to set up that Hive right over there but that's how you do it and uh like I say if you have any questions feel free to uh drop them in the comments down there excuse me I got got sweating my eyes drop your comments down below and I'll be glad to answer anything that you might have a question on I read every comment and so I'll definitely answer you and guys if you like this kind of stuff and you want to follow along with your new beekeeping hobby uh or career then uh hit the Subscribe button and uh follow along got lots more coming and I appreciate youall watching we'll see you on the next one bye

Channel: Ryan Grady

Views: 390

Keywords: First beehive, Installing bees, Beginning beekeeper, New beekeeper, How to raise bees, How to start a beehive, How to become a beekeeper, Beekeeper basics, Beekeeping basics, How to keep bees, Honey, Honey Bee, HoneyBee, Beehive, Starting a beehive

Id: 9d-cHpalNsg

Length: 41min 58sec (2518 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024