Beekeeping at FiveApple

The first portion is about bees and the ups and downs of Fall care. Then in a change of subject, I want to tell you about what happened in my little section of Western NC in the floods of Hurricane Helene...as well as try to help get you thinking about your own disaster preparedness. I'm grateful to all of you and want you to be prepared for the when-not-if of weather disasters in your region. 

And WELCOME new patrons Leslie and Robert! I appreciate you so much. 

Late Fall...and Large NC disaster (Ep 121)

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Fall prep list (120) How can it be September already?!? In this episode I go through my own fall prep list and considerations.

WELCOME new patrons Sam, Phil, Taylor and Missy! Thank you so much for joining us and keeping this podcast free of advertising.

Thank you so much for listening, sharing and leaving a good review if you are enjoying the episodes. Leigh

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In the second part of the interview, Troy talks about his late summer/fall management strategy as well as how he manages to overwinter nucs (a core part of his operation as it is to mine) in New Hampshire winters. He also gives me some great tips on how to make winter feeding of those nucs easier in my apiary. Troy also talks about the benefits of raising and selling overwintered nucs as a premium type of nuc due to colony cohesion, something I've noticed as well. 

If you are enjoying Beekeeping at Five Apple, please share the podcast with your bee friends, bee clubs and your online networks! I appreciate it so much. :-) Leigh

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Today's episode is part one of a rambling bee chat I had with full-time beekeeper Troy Hall of New Hampshire back in the Spring. At Hall Apiaries he produces honey, queens and nucs in a creative, stationary operation of 700ish hives primarily managed without treatments. What a delightful and inspiring person and beekeeper! Hope you enjoy it.

Show Note Links:

Hall Apiaries Website

https://nhbeekeeper.com

I got to hear Troy's presentation in the 2024 Winter Conference of SBGMI. I love it that they offer their conferences online so that folks from everywhere can partake! If you join for $20 you can watch their past conferences. They also offer discounts on bee magazine subs and much more. Please check them out:

Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan

https://sbgmi.org/

If you are enjoying Beekeeping at Five Apple, please share the podcast with your bee friends, bee clubs and your online networks! I appreciate it so much. :-) Leigh

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Tips for keeping bees cool, Solstice Queens, Split Comparisons & Patron bonus bookmark (117) 

Part 1: Ways to cool off hives, benefits of post-solstice queens . 

Part 2: continues for patrons with bonus content on comparing the Runaway and the Cut-Down/Reverse Doolittle splits, more about post-solstice queens, detailed show notes with links to some helpful videos. 

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A bee-radio-reader episode with Tina Sebestyen's how to overview of a Reverse Doolittle Split which, spoiler alert, is the same as a Cut-Down Split! But Tina explains it so much better than I have! 

This episode released last week with detailed show notes for the Patreon supporters. Thank you patrons for keeping this podcast rolling! 

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Detailed show note (usually a Patreon exclusive but wanted everyone to get the links below):

There is hardly a split that is as easy and that yields the reliable results as the Runaway split we all have learned from Ang Roell and Sam Comfort. Remember it when you just need to get it done!

This is their description of the process from their SARE grant description:

"....Move the hive to a new position in the yard.  (It can be close to the original spot, i.e. on the same pallet, but with the entrance facing a new direction.)

Set up a new, empty, similar box where it was.  

Move back one NEWER comb of MOSTLY OPEN BROOD with adhering bees and one comb of food (nectar/pollen) with adhering bees.  If the queen is seen, leave her in the new position (or remove her for use elsewhere).  Replace the combs with foundation or empty bars.  Put the brood and food with bees in the new box (away from the entrance), place in foundation or empty bars, cover with a lid, and you’re done.  The field bees will join this queenless hive and help build a new brood nest.  

Check the hive in 4 weeks for eggs, larvae, and the first capped brood from the new queen.  If no eggs are present, or if laying workers are laying multiple eggs per cell, the hive can be shaken out or combined with a different split at no loss.  

NOTE: You do not need to find the queen, but if you see her during the splitting process, she can be caged and used elsewhere, so that both sides raise a queen and experience a break in brood rearing.  Or she can remain in the moved portion to be split again later or the hive expanded for honey production.  (Note that continuous brood rearing also can build large populations of Varroa mites.)  (Source: https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fne20-964/)

Leigh again here. You may notice the things I do different are:

1. Putting drawn comb in the new box at the original location so that the field force might collect honey while they are waiting for their larval queen to grow up and go on her mating flight. For three weeks they will have no brood to care for and the could spend that time collecting nectar if you have a flow. On the other hand, their method could yield a lot of nice new comb. I haven't tried it with all foundation.

2. I shake in some additional nurse bees to the hive bodies at the original site....just because I'm like that. Ha! I also put more garlic than called for in most any cooking recipe. ;-) Ang and Sam's recipe places the brood frame WITH clinging bees but I know some beginners would be nervous about moving the queen so I gave an alternative nurse bee transfer method. Either way is good as long as there are nurse bees in there. 

Finally, the link to their PDF handout is here and it has the conclusions of their study as well as the split instructions. The illustration is using the top bars and a Comfort hive but the process is the same no matter what kind of hive you use.

https://projects.sare.org/wp-content/uploads/ComparingQueenRearingMethods_FactSheet.pdf

Thank you all so much for listening and for all you do for the bees. 

Leigh

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(recorded the first few days of March 2024)

There was a tech glitch (what happens if you don't do updates regular on the old computer OS...ha) and I couldn't edit this one like usual so it's both late and rough cut, with an even rougher addendum pasted in! But wanted to put it up for everyone. Next episode starts my usual obsession with splits! 

Links mentioned in this episode… (new Patreon exclusive for supporters!) 

So as I mentioned last time, there was an episode on another podcast I eagerly played because I'm fascinated with the topic, only to be disappointed at the angle they took on some things, and in outright (friendly) disagreement on other points. Just a random ramble of thoughts and reflections for the patrons who keep this podcast going. Huge appreciation to you all! Leigh (episode continues for Patrons)