Beginner Beekeeping Questions and Answers 40 how to keep honey bees

Welcome to Questions and Answers about Beginner Bee Keeping in your own backyard. The Way To Bee is all about the managed honey bee.

Questions in this video are as follows:

1) Do BeeWeaver Queens produce more defensive colonies if permitted to cross with local stock?

2) If I allow my bees to swarm, will there be more competition from those wild colonies nearby?

3) Are the traits of BeeWeaver Bees genetic, or are they learned.

4) If I use flowframes in a horizontal long box design, what can I do about honey leakage?

5) I live in Texas and am thinking about getting Saskatraz Bees and I've ordered the Weaver Queen for spring. Are Saskatraz bees suitable for Texas climates?

7) Do you clear the snow off of your landing boards, or does it matter because they are clustered?

8) Can a smaller hole screen or openings be used to keep yellow jackets out?

9) Should you turn the entrance reducer upside down in winter?

10) I have a HOT Queen, replace now, or should I replace her in spring?

Thank you for watching and subscribing! I look forward to seeing you during my next LIVE- chat session coming up next week.

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[curtstivison]

Another very information filled video. We had a speaker at our bee meeting this week taking about collecting feral colonies of honey bees in southwest Ohio. They are checking bottom boards of feral bees put into hives. They are tracking the number of dead mites that are on the bottom boards and looking for mites with legs and other parts missing using a microscope. They have noted in some feral colonies up to 50% of the dead mites have missing legs and intestines. They are using a group of high school kids to count the mites.

[roberthowells]

Another great beekeeping experience! Very informative! Thank you>

[LarryLeesBees]

Late night watch for me tonight. Love the questions everyone is posting!
Love the new mug as well Fred! Had to get one. So I did. 🤣

[webee]

Much of this info was beyond what a beginning beekeeper would need to know.

[StandardLand]

Thank you for answering my question. I have been wondering what’s the best way to dispatch a Queen, and when you said it, I went, oh duh! I’ll wait until the spring. We are located inside Dallas, Tx.

[mohammadsalah]

Welcome Back Mr Fred another amazing video as always
These are my comments and questions on this episode:
1) Yes everything was fine in the live Chat till a very nice lady shifted your receiver :):):):) what a punishment for being late :):):):):):)
2) Egypt is mentioned on my favourite YouTube Channel you for that ;)
3)What a nice trick with the home depot sticks we can do the same with the barbecue wooden sticks and attaching an allen key to make it more maneuverable will be better as you will only use one stick ;)
4) A nice question from JB The Bee man about turning the entrance reducer I did not know about this one tell you mentioned it...


5) By the way I liked the Bee log soo much and I have two questions:
a) I would like to by it but I am so far away to find out after a month that there is something better so is this one your favourite and best suggested or do you know of a better
b) DO you know of or have something like this for Chicken or pigeons
as I intend to raise pigeons before bees in my farm for technical reasons.


Thank you again my friend and many thanks for those asking these wonderful questions

looking forward to the next one

[donnadarter]

Thank you for thoroughly answering my question. I’ll probably order another Bweaver queen for the spring. I only have 3 hives but I’m planning to requeen one and do a split on another. I want to keep my hive count to just 4. Also wanted to mention that I appreciated your stating in one of your previous posts that not everyone wants a jillion hives or gallons of honey. I just want to observe, learn and understand the fascinating little creatures. I appreciate that harvesting honey is not the main focus of your posts well as all your other helpful advice.

[georgegarcia]

Thanks for an enjoyable and interesting video. Potential topics. 1) your thoughts on narrow frame beekeeping as a way of producing frames that have mostly worker combs 2) a discussion on how bees use brood frames during the year (for example, in the winter, when bees store honey in brood cells, do they elongate the brood cells to store honey and then shorten the cells when they need to raise brood? 3) how one stores empty brood frames versus empty honey frames (I didn’t know that wax months prefer the former and cannot live on the latter). 4) different ways of honey extraction (for backyard beekeepers).

[jamesgrissom]

I'm almost becoming a couch potato. Monday night fishing school, and Friday evening, A Better way to Bee. Life is good Another great episode Mr. Dunn

[mtlundy]

Watched all your FAQs. Extremely useful to a new beekeeper like me. I've heard a lot of people mention adding boxes or supers to hives to delay swarming. Question: Does emptying a flow frame have the same effect? In other words, is it more space for bees or more space for storage that limits the swarming? Thanks for all the help.

[danskisbees]

As Thomas would say: "I'm saving this treat for my morning covfefe." Lol!

[roberthowells]

Have you considered holding your live sessions at a fixed time (same day of week/same time) each week so we can plan our schedules to include the sessions? I have not seen previous notifications far enough in advance to be able to include the live session in my schedule. If I knew that it would always be (for example) at noon on Wednesday, it would greatly help planning.

[donbearden]

Thanks for the video Fred.

Question for next week:
Do you treat your weaver bees for mites?
Is BEEWEAVER bees the ones you spoke about on this video? I found a RWEAVER website in Texas and want to make sure. Thanks?

[thinless]

If you were starting a new hive this spring and couldn't afford the flow hive, what set up would you use? Beesmart base and top with wood brood chamber or a complete wood set up?

[roberthowells]

My bees are flying in large numbers at temperatures just below 40 deg. F. I have read several sources that claim that bees can not live or fly below 42. Mine are still bringing in pollen and my hive scales indicate significant weight gain during the past two weeks. Thoughts?

[kenjackson]

Darn! I have learned so much from you in prep for my first colony next spring! Sadly, I do not Facebook so I have no chance to receive your clever hive log book. As an aircraft pilot for 31 years, I used logbooks daily and recognize the value of precise record keeping. As a new beekeeper, I would certainly appreciate a pre-formatted log for beekeeping. Did you mention how someone may purchase one?

I planted three acres of native pollinator meadow this fall and hope for good results. I have one flow hive ready to accept my Saskatraz package order and another Langstroth for a local Italian package. Fingers crossed!

I am 70 years old and diving into beekeeping for the first time. I have learned more from you than I can recount. Keep it going my friend.

Ken Jackson, Hillsboro, Oregon

[MarcellaSmithVegan]

Thank you for answering my question, I did not realize that yellow jackets are so small!

[jpthedelawarebeeman]

Hi Fred - Question on the BeeWeaver queens... If I get a clipped queen whats the odds she will get superseded because of the clipped wing? Does it have any impact or could she get replaced for the clipped wing?

[thinless]

I just bought a couple rapid round feeders from Amazon and the round opening does not extend below the bottom of the feeder and they do not seem fragile.

[jewelscliff]

Huh, that was totally interesting about crushing up the queen to use her pheromones as a swarm trap.