Nuc fever setting in!

here we are time to make up a lot of nooks for the final bash for the season we're now July the 15th 16th I think and our chestnut flow is finished for the last day everything is kind of hunkered down the bees aren't flying the day there's a little bit of clover left but what I'm doing now is making up all these mini nukes get them all ready got a big pile over here they're all going to be out made up split and some more old nukes to use to make as many colonies as I can before the end of the year but also make them properly and make them in a state where they can be Queen very quickly and that's what I'm going to show you how I do and then that's what's coming up [Music] so inside I've got one two three four partitions here okay these two partitions to the left and to the right will stay in the nuke the other two here those two and frame or foundation go into the hide so our hives will go from 10 frames to 7 frames so the nuke basically gains three frames of bees and they have one frame to build on if they want to which they obviously will do and in time I take out this one and I hopefully take out this one five or six frames of bees and brew by the end of the year but what I have to do is hunker them down a bit and reduce down the surface area so that there's the three frames of bees and brood that I put in will generally have a little bit of room if they need it but they won't feel they've got to heat a big space because the two partitions here and here take up that space for now and if I assess them inside three or four weeks and find that because I fed them well and the Queen started to light up take out this first partition and move that partition of that replacement I replaced that partition with foundation I removed that to there and give them room to build if they want to but that's only when they're ready you let the bees tell you this is all about managing your nukes correctly this time of year so you give the colony the size it needs for the amount of bees that has and what I do when I make a nuke I take as I said these three frames out so two partitions and one foundation goes into the hive and from the hive comes two frames of bees and brood and a frame of honey and stalls and or mixed bees and brood depending on what I can get from that colony if the colony isn't strong enough it doesn't get split and if I have three they are not very good I just I could take a frame from I'll make up a nuke by taking three frames from three different colonies it all depends what you've got and then they'll be coming back here to mate and you can see here that I've got a lot of nukes already now a lot of these nukes or existing nukes that are going to be split I've got my five over five you can see some of them over there's another one there they are all going to be split and basically the Queen right section will be taken away to another apiary and the non queen right section in other words the queenless section will stay here to have a queen put in it so what I'm doing is I'm trying to juggle everything so that I've got nukes that are Queen right taken away and anything that's left it just is waiting to be given a coin so it's that time of year where I'm just trying to juggle everything I'm trying to get ready for my honey harvest I'm trying to make as many splits as I can before the end of what I would call the realistic time to make Queens and that's about number two to three weeks the first week second week of August is that the absolute last time I want to be putting virgins into colonies because after that we need that those Queens laying and we need them to be foraging that's why we make these up with good-sized nooks so that the emerging virgin that goes off to mate has got a good support staff to get going quickly so that it can profit and we get it ready for the autumn because that is what we're doing now everything is going towards the autumn there we are preparing for the winter the bees have already been doing it they've been doing it since summer flow and they know now there's nothing else coming around till the ivy so we have to be vigilant now there's feeders going on everywhere and we're making nukes and all this is just autumn prep really to get bees ready for the winter and I'm going to go to my one of my yards where I'm doing the splits and I'll go for a split from the start to finish and you'll see the amount of work it takes because making splits this time of year is two weeks really behind where I would like to two weeks ahead of where I'd like to be making them and the reason why I say that is it'll be so much easier if all the honey was off the hives before I went to make a split but it just isn't possible but by doing this and using my time wisely while I've got time I can get the honey off temporarily I can assess what honey I've got so I've got an idea what I'm up against when I harvest it all and it gives me time to look at each colony it gives me time to prepare I'm not waiting to find that colony queenless in three weeks time then going oh what am I going to do now I'll know straightaway I'll be able to get a virgin into it before the end of next week and then hopefully if I do make a split from it or it means I'll put it this way some colonies you go to or queenless but they've only just become queenless so you go right has it swarmed no it's obviously the queen missing okay can emergency ourselves yes fine cut them out is it big enough to make a swarm yes let's cut this into let's let's use this calmly still give make a note in the book give the other half a new virgin and give the the colony you've taken away a virgin and that's how it works it's just using your experience and knowledge in your area to get this underway and kind of rounding off the season it really is now we're heading down that road of autumn and before we know it it'll all be over it's just getting on with it so or go out to the one of my close April reason out and we're gonna make a split and I'll show how I do that so here we are out at the bee yard I've got this little a pre which is up the road from where I live so I use this for mating as well because I keep all my drones and mating stock at home and this is within a kilometer of that so it does a pretty good job I'm just getting everything ready here I've run for a couple of things okay first one to show you was this is why I keep my hive tools in okay a lot of people are kind of know well not all people ask but there's always questions about how do you deal with hygiene in the area well the number one thing is wash your hands but obviously wash your gloves so first of all I use I'm using these gloves that are basically the French French beekeeping shop stop please and I actually love them the reason why I wear these is when I'm doing big III work I wear these because I'm in a hurry I haven't got time to mess around and worry about how nice the bees are you just have to get the work done and that is now that is the time now where we're just going through as many columns we can getting the splits done before the harvest and getting organized for the winter because you've only got such a short period of time to get your mating done as you know so I use these gloves but the second thing is the second reason why I use these gloves is for hygiene if I'm going for all these hides quickly and in and out of different aprons I want to be able to just come back and just plunge my gloves into the bleach after I've been to EJ Puri and I didn't rub my hands and then I have some water I've got a little bottle of water I carry this brilliant it's a hand washing bath so I basically leave each a tree fairly clean yes my bee suit is grubby but I wash it every two or three days and I've got other suits now I change into and but you do most the work in the hive with your hands and it's the contact with your hands in your hive tool that are the most important to keep clean and obviously clean your smoker keep all that area where you pick it up with your gloves so what it is when I come back I put my gloves on the smoker when I just put bleach on them and rub it all over it keeps the smoker cleaner and keeps off any possible contaminants you don't always know if you've got European foul brood it does turn up about two cases this year I don't mind saying but I dealt with it really swiftly and I've had no more sins so we we have to keep on top of the the hygiene side of things we we do that in two ways by keeping our gear as clean as we can and is changing you know bleaching hives spraying scraping off not leaving anything that's drone laying all that kind of thing keep the colony strong keep them clean right but the other way is to obviously use good stock that is reliable that for instance doesn't have chalk brood that kind of thing because you know if you haven't got your brood the bees are being hygienic and dragging out any mummies or stuff of that I used to have a lot of darker bees as you know and I always got taught brood every year in a certain amount colonies since I changed my genetic eye and I've got fairly what I would term as hygienic bees I don't see anything I very rarely see any disease and any disease I do see is always in a colony that's like our equine with an f2 or f3 so it's fur so in other words second and third cross I so rarely see anything at all there's an f1 so that hygienic line is passed down with that first queen cross and generally things stay clean but that's what I do for my smoker I use some granules these little wood wood chips they keep the smoker going for ages they're a little bit of a job to get them going the best thing ever found to use to light your smoker is one of these you just have it in the truck it's as good as a lighter but you can direct the flame there it is this was sent to me by gas vet when I was trying out one of their gas trap vaporizer oxalic treatment machine and it's a fantastic little piece of kit and I'm gonna do a little review on that later in the year but this is the burr they sent with it it's just a kitchen gas burner but it's brilliant and I use this for like my smoker I use grass what I can and as you sow the wind is always blowing in the wrong direction and what you can do is if you want to you can put the burner on the side there and that that makes everything catch if you if you're if you're if your smoker goes out when you're in the middle of your a prairie and you haven't you've just about to start you've got all the gear on your gloves on you open up the hide you can just grab this burn the side of the smoker and the heat will cause see that red glow the heat will cause it to catch inside you see look and now that's done that's so inside I've got some grass here I use grass where I can because it's cheap and it's I've got a big bag of grass I've also got some newspaper and I've got these wood shavings now which shavings are brilliant a bit dense but what you need is stuff that's bone-dry so that goes on top of there and that stops you granules coming out okay so I'm just gonna pump this a bit and that's me done there's no there's no perfect way to light smoke everybody's ways different what a water one this is to get really hot now and then you just when I don't use it I just turn it on its side like that and it'll stay a lot a light all day if you leave it vertically it enables that funnel to come up and it what you can do is just use a bit of grass sometimes and block off the end because obviously material for you or a smoker is quite valuable but it'll take a little while to get this going there because I didn't set up as I'd normally would but it's pretty good that's how I like my smoker generally I'll start off with newspaper to the sawdust and then there's when the heats there I use the I usually do granules and when the granules get going basically they will stay lit all day and you can so easily add to it then just by chucking a handful in you know but smoke a few all that's dry is one of the key things to been a successful beekeeper for being efficient if you haven't got try some a few you know I just want give up because you'll be there for hours wasting hours in the apron you know that's well lit let's go and split these combinations absolutely love this a pre it is about one kilometer from my house which is that way it's south-facing everything does really well here all the time now started in here yesterday you can see this colony nearest has a lot of bees these and some of the nooks I made last autumn in exactly the same place so I just kept the nooks here they've all done really well I've added to this a purr as well during the season we've I've got swarms because it's all seen near the house but I came in here yesterday and didn't realize how much the grass that grows I'd have to hack everything back yes sir but now we're back on to knocking out these nooks you can see the bees are really flying well now there must be something in flower because there's still some still some nectar coming or something's happening but generally there's not much going on it is quieter but the Sun is just coming out now so [Music] let's get cracking I've got six more to seven more to do here and then I'm on to the next eight tree so before they get crack and I just wanted to explain that I've come in a few a couple of weeks ago added the last couple of supers this is an a1 typical colony I don't know whether this is City one or not I've got some city bees amongst all the others and what I'm going to do is just split this to show you what it's like what the reality is okay of splitting a hide that's got honey on this to the flows just finished this is the real world of beekeeping it's not working with lovely little nooks that like you know one hundred hundred and fifty bees this is the reality of a big colony with a lot of bees so I can see the bees are being a little bit of high genic there we've got some bees being binned out that could be a few drones starting to go and they're probably just being cleaned out after the flow stop the bees get a bit bored so we'll see what it's like when I open it but I'm going to open it and just do the whole thing and you'll see what it's actually like and I'll try and go through it as I do it so I've got my Nick on the ground here and but what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to slide the hive over a bit so you can see as well it's just gonna mean the bees a little bit disorientated for a little while okay but it means I can put the nuke on here so you can see it as we do things all right so I use these rubber bands because basically it means I can not have to worry about my lid blown off on the back of my truck I've discussed this before with you there's my new already why don't I do is get it all prepped first now this time of year I use my bigger hive tools because you need to have really good leverage to get the Super's off because i'm going to get the supers off here one two pull it in glue down I don't know where there's any honey in this I hope there is the others had really good honey so I'm hopeful there's a good colony of these I'm assuming it's a lot of honey in it so what I do is also I put one of the things you should always do is put your roof upside down on the floor so you've got a room to stack what that means is it creates an area where you can put your super and it's clean it doesn't stick to anything on the floor we have some honey in there it's not full but it's not bad so but I don't peel off my cover on there because it sets the bees on so why does I get my smoke already and I'll start to take the first super off and this is easy to get off this one it's clean off the grounds it doesn't get affected you sir but good honey in the second super a little bit of smoke it just keeps something's getting rise up just frame isn't fall but there's honey in it there's also pollen which is alright you know it this is what you get this is the reality you get a mix not every colony but the frame is full there that side you know it's just a little bit in the middle that isn't full you know so the edges look fuller often that's the way but I'm not going to hang around here we're gonna get to the brood nest making a nuke here we're not here to play this is the reality of things I try and leave the Queen eats food up on the top but this one has come off already so that's probably bad but if you sometimes you do that and the Queen excluder comes does stay on and I'd like to do that but see this has got plenty of these looks like we can make a nuke from this town I see brood yes I can so we have to make a nuke from this any of your smoke we haven't got time to mess around I take out the three frames from the inside and then to the side for the moment and to frame the foundation which is it off frame yet but it's cleaned or rebuild that it's not a problem this is reality so the bees are getting pissed already so nice frames of bees and grow these are shitty bees they've got eggs and larvae in this frame there's plenty of brood this is not what I like but it's it's a frame of bees and brood that's gonna make me there's even some drone brood there there's pollen there's honey in this colony so that's fine and there's a laying Queen plenty of larvae that's my first frame and I can go on the inside near the partition so what I wanted is I want to select three frames two frames of bees and through that one frame of honey but I don't want to take the Queen out this is a thicker frame more honey when it'll look at that bruise even though these are the best-looking bees they a little bit runny there's quite a few drones in here which is good and bad nice frames brood check there's no Queen in some colonies that are that are not the best layers and they run a bit you sometimes a better off having more brood because it's easier to get more bees in the box and you want the bees to be calm or when they hatch so you want nice bees more but in other colonies that are beautiful it doesn't really matter if you have a few more worker bees but I generally like to make my nukes like that and let the bees fly up so I'll do these these are biting well and these aren't really nice at all this is the reality of it I can't always have nice things this is actually an F to this colony it's too warm the wedding this year and this is what you get when you get the second cross so there's a third frame there but I'm going to shake these off because there's a lot of nurse bees on that check there's no Queen shake them in there and I'm going to take a frame of honey next these are really attacking me well give them a bit more smoke this is why I wear these long gloves has a feeling this was going to be a bit of a hot potato this family there's a frame with eggs on and quite a lot of honey so I'm probably going to take this one because it means if his egg cells have to make those eggs will be in the colony for longest and there's less chance of the Cubs right lane work this is see if we can shake some more bees off plenty of honey here on that one but there's just bees and nurse B so I'm gonna move this one across I've been preparing this hide in there for seven frames smoked them and they all go away then five minutes two minutes later they're all back so the nuke is made but I just need to add some more beads so I'm gonna find some more nurseries and a frame that's fairly decent they're not running so much hopefully don't shake the Queen in but having a founder yes she's probably unmarked there's a nice frame the bees like these in any that flying bees will come out and the young bees will be left this is one of the biggest misconceptions I see in BP thing all the time because people want to shake the bees in and close it down shake the bees close it down you want to leave your bees fly okay because that means then that these older bees the forage of bees to this colony are going to be flying back to this side to the front okay and that means that you won't you won't have a colony that's that's really aggressive towards the new queen they're going to be more sympathetic into a new queen anything because I'm not gonna I'm not going to take I'm not going to give this colony a queen so let's have the chance to make Queen so this will be queenless for seven days until I put a new cell in it so they'll have to take the so I give it but this is why I do it there's a lot of bees in here wannabes are super and do another shake this is just full of larvae and there's no sign of the Queen in this frame either so those could go in [Music] these aren't the bees I want that that the bees you get you know this is the reality of it I won't call my bees in this but it doesn't always happen and they're not that bad I'm still mad you're able to do my work there's no one living around here that gets bothered by these because we're in the middle the countryside here this is great so they stay here so we've got seven frames now we've moved the outside frames in we've taken the brood nest out of the middle we haven't disrupted the colony that much because the size will stay the same in goes my frame at the end that they'll drop if they need it in goes my partition and when when and as and when they need food and if they get enough in the autumn they'll come around and build out that partition if they need it or if they don't do it and I see there's seven frames of bees and blue that's quite happy here that that's how it'll go into the winter that's the overwinter the configuration most of my colonies that I get to in the spring if they haven't built that out and I see it in fun to build out this number one frame I then whip out this partition and put another foundation and that's what gives them the space in the spring or I take a nude from it in the spring when they get strong it's the best way for us to manage our bees in these ten frame boxes you see our date on frames are really deep so we you can go to twelve frame day logs but if you do when you have a honey super you need an adapter because the the existing supers fill that much and when you put on a super you need to fill this block so it's like it's better just to stick with ten frames that is now done we've made a split we've reduced the size of the colony down but we haven't affected the kind of amount of bees because we'd put partitions in we've kind of compartmentalized it but we've also given it partitions to reduce that to make them think they're still going to send them out these so Mike we need sluder this is where it gets tricky so you've got to put the Queen excluder back on for this one for example straight on the bottom of the bog and often you pick it up and it stays there's a good bit of honey in here there's a queen excluder going back on you always get a couple of bees here there's not much else you can go but I've broken that seal now and it's unlike you don't rebuild anything before I come and harvest okay guys the top box and there's a nice bit honey in that too I'm glad I put two supers on this colony it did swarm I know that that's why these these are a bit grumpy you know so that's done on guns the lid see what happens when the ants move in they finish its the insulation we leave the end of that insulation on all year because the outside temperature never gets hotter than what is inside the college so why bother taking office it's something less to move out you know all those fees are flowing from here now on goes to Paula start at the top of mine nuke on goes the lid done long back on goes elastic and that keeps it all intact okay there it is done the roof will not flow up in my truck when I stood stand these I'll stand this like that and this stops it keeps the air flow so I stand at an angle to the airflow see underneath the beach look at a few bees on it a little hole in this one but I don't mind because what it means is the bees that are going to fly will fly and they're just nurse bees in this colony and they're hatching brood when that comes will flood that box with three three or four frames of these you know everything's good yes they're a bit aggressive yes they weren't the nicest would be but the Lucas flipped the honey stood on the hive I've inspected it I know this honey I know what to expect when I come and I probably will reclaim this if I can if I've got spare Queens I'll stick a new one in that's the reality of it that's what I'm doing now just going around making as many splints as I can and and this one will be a good layout the next year I hope you know the bees will settle down there minimal disruption to the colony in and out done no stings to me really I can feel they're trying to sting me a bit on my arms but you know that's why you wear these sort of dated gloves because you can just get on and do things you know you don't have to worry I can now plunge my fingers into that bleach to clean between each hive when I take this outside that's what I do anyway I've got a heck of all work to do [Music] [Music] well there you go they're a bit lively a lot of these got the same Queens I put it in the spring I'm delighted some really good strong colonies here they've given me nooks they've given me a crop of spring honey they're giving me a crop of summer honey because you can see the top there are these two here absolutely full well there's three supers books and yes for us three supers is about 18 to 19 kilos of honey sides you can work it out from that think that's about forty pound in weight Americans size it's not a lot for a host for a summer crop but that's all crop that is offload we don't have huge flow so we have a spring float and a summer flow and you can get from each hive in a spring play to get maybe between 40 and 60 kilos as a maximum from each one each crop and in the summer hive about the same so you can get about you can get maybe 200 kilos a year from one hive if it's worked right and you've got good Queens in the right flows in further else in France where you have different flows don't we only have to hear other places you have acacia which is a big crop you have chestnut which is obviously what we have here they have sunflowers we don't help here there's a lot of other things we'd like to have but we don't you know and that's that's how it is for this 8-3 stand on to the next one catch again soon bye for now look at clean gloves [Music] you

Channel: Richard Noel

Views: 7,206

Rating: 4.836431 out of 5

Keywords: Honey bees, Nucs, Nucleus colonies, Honey bee Nucs, Richard Noel Bees, Bees in Brittany, making Nucs, Bees, Honey bee splits, the reality pg beekeeping, French Beekeeping

Id: gfP7Rn8RcOM

Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 19 2020