Expanding Your Apiary

A casual discussion on growing your apiary. Includes techniques for nuc production, splitting beehives, increased honey production, enhanced queen acceptance, mistakes to avoid and much more. Lake Country Beekeepers Association, 2019.

[farms]

I had 8 colonies last year. I'm already up to 28 this spring and hope to hit 50-70 by this fall. I have been splitting like crazy. You are a great teacher Bob. You have helped me become a bee keeper instead of just being someone who has bees.

[ApiaryManager]

There are lots of 2nd/3rd year experts telling you how to manage bees on YouTube. This isn't one of them. It's one of the few presentations I watched all the way through and enjoyed every minute of.
Thank You.

[opokudonyina]

I love your presentation. I live in Ghana and I have 120 top bar hives. 109 colonized. I'm doing it full time

[larryjeffries]

Started with 2 colonies died first winter got 2 more next year died in the winter got 4 colonies the next year 11 years later 5000 colonies. Mite treatment, mite treatment, Mite Treatment, finally feed them.

[robotron]

For 75% chance of success with mating a queen, there is 100-25^2=93.75 % chance of at least one mated queen in 2 nucs. That’s 93.75 of 1 or 2 mated queens. Just a little token of statistical appreciation for your sharing of beekeeping techniques.

[evenchira]

Am watiching this channel for years now. from Africa and realy it makes me a succesfully beekepeer

[peterolsson]

This is the most mature, honest and actually helpful video i have seen. This guy got this true mentor vibe.

[tylerpoling]

Wow..just wow. This guy has a lifetime of knowledge. Good thing its recorded, I couldn't keep up!

[burleybeeyard]

Your information of 4 frames peak in 7-8 was a game changer for me. Thank you. Had swarm cells in my best colony in April; checked my notes and guess how many frames of brood it had 8 weeks prior.

[JosiahGarber]

Your advice on growing with your bees is great advice. It applies to all areas of life. It's one reason debt can be very dangerous in business. It allows you to grow your business even if you have not learned the skills necessary to handle the next level.

[johndismang]

Bob you have the absolute best presentation style I have ever saw. I have been watching and gathering bee knowledge for the last 3 years and the info you have just flows and is easy to understand. Love it and keep it up!

[nancynolton]

Just cottoned onto your videos - they are more than EXCELLENT! I'm a forth year beekeeper and been running about 45 hives at peak each summer for two years and then reduce numbers down for winter. Took to beekeeping like a duck to water! Have fallen in love with making increases and selling local nucs here in Pennsylvania. Working on overwintering a large number of nucs this year in addition to full sized hives (12 nucs/21 full). Have had three years of 100% winter survival on full sized hives and hoping the strategies work for another year. Again thank you for the wonderful content of your videos and your willingness to share your wealth of knowledge. Loved what you said about pooling all the info out there and then filtering it and making some of it your own - so spot on - I know too many beekeepers who have not figured this out yet.

[godisbusymayihelpyou]

"The skill that comes with experience, is the art side of beekeeping". 🐝🐝🐝

[muleskinner]

A great video, worth watching every year, people spend a lot of time and money getting this info, and Mr. Bob has given it to you freely, I sure appreciate what you do for the new comers and the older ones too, Bob has let the bees teach him hoe to be successful. thank Bob

[stephencarey]

I'm a new beekeeper and gleaning a lot of information from your channel. Thank you so much for the knowledge you are giving so many of us newbies..

[davidwhitman]

Hi Mr Binnie David Whitman from Augusta here. The 2 single colonies I got from you on April 6 this year are doing so well. In such a short time they have made a deep and medium of honey apiece. I put a deep on them immediately when I got them as they were mighty with a few frames of comb and rest foundation. No excluder. Queen had free reign awhile and when brood present put on excluder and they backfield deep with honey. All just like you said it would happen. Learned so much from you and not bad thing to let queen go to lure bees up before putting on excluder. I appreciate your vids and couldn't be happier with my colonies.

[viscache]

This was fascinating! I live in Washington State and have been considering selling my 10 acres….for which sale price I can buy a 300 acre farm with house, barn and 240 acres of active pastures for bees and sheep in Tennessee. Going to 500 colonies would be a dream! When I first started breeding sheep I experienced the ‘spinning plate syndrome’. That’s the way it starts and it always seems to find a natural maximum. I think tripling every year is perfect. With sheep I could just keep up with doubling every year. My superpower is that I’m stubborn. If all my bees died tomorrow I would sit down and figure what went wrong and start again the next season. I started breeding rare breed sheep…so rare that they are near extinction…when one dies it is a real tragedy…but you figure out what went wrong and don’t do that again!

[AmericansBee]

Just made 60 double screen boards. I can't wait to use them. I had 1 last year. I over wintered 43 colonies with 100% over winter survival in 2023 into 2024. 39 double deeps, 1 single deep, and 3- 5 over 5 nucs. I plan to graft cells again for the second year. My first graft of 45 cells last year had 0 take. I attribute that to prolonged larve exposure as I had to relook for the queen in a packed double deep after she escaped the queen cage; then, I retried a few days later and got 43 out of 45 cells to take. Anyway, I am excited for 2024 !!! 🎉❤

[fiveacreshoneyfarm]

♥️ “Beekeeping is 50% science and 50% art.” ♥️ Great slice of wisdom!

[chrissteinbacher]

I wish that I had listened to your advice on this video around 2 months ago about peaking at the right time. All of my big second year hives have swarmed and I'm paying for it. Its been quite a journey thus far and I'm taking it slow and learning by experience and people like you. You my friend have one of the best beekeeping minds on YouTube and I've listened to quite a few. Thanks for all that you do.