1st year Beekeeping – Tubbs Berry Farm

August 1st Hive Inspection, Getting Ready for Winter!

Heidi Tubbs — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 20:11:31 +0000

It is still pushing 100 degrees during the day here in Twin Falls, Kirk walks through a hive inspection and what we should be seeing and doing this time of year! 2 Part video.

Fall Varroa Mite Discussion

Heidi Tubbs — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 20:08:45 +0000

Varroa is enemy number one! Kirk discusses the what, why, and when of our successful mite treatment program!

Getting Bees Ready for Fall To Do List

Heidi Tubbs — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 20:06:50 +0000

Kirk walks through the biology of what is going on in the fall and what will need to be done in the next few weeks to get bees ready for winter!

Hive is struggling to grow and produce, and has a bad attitude.

Heidi Tubbs — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:48:57 +0000

This short clip walks through one of the common causes of a hive that fails to grow and seems extra crank.y! Also note, it was only the one hive that seemed to be bothered by the skunk. The colony was also short pollen which limits the ability to raise brood. This hive check was preformed July 21.

Some favorite late July blooming plants !

Heidi Tubbs — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:42:26 +0000

Two plants that bloom in late July and really help the bees out,. Nectar and pollen flows can really vary depending on the moisture received.

July 21 Hive Check

Heidi Tubbs — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:35:48 +0000

Checking on the hives started on Bee day the end of April.

Bearding or Out of Room?

Heidi Tubbs — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 21:34:08 +0000

This video shows what bearding looks like. During warm weather bees will often beard on the outside of the hive, especially in the late afternoon. One easy check is if the bees go in at night. If they don’t, then that is a good indication they are out of room. Kirk gives some suggestions on how to improve ventilation to help the bees deal with the heat!

June 15, 2022 Hive Check

Heidi Tubbs — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 04:23:54 +0000

Hive check on new packages hived on Bee Day this year. They went into boxes with drawn comb. Nectar flows are on so they aren’t taking sugar water. Some are ready for honey supers! Kirk walks you through hive checks on 4 colonies. Some patchy brood due to the cold rainy weather we’ve had. He shows you to look for pollen, capped honey, supercedure cells, etc. Some talk of varroa, checking drone brood for varroa. Really will start looking in July for varroa though.

What to do if you find a supersedure cell

Heidi Tubbs — Wed, 25 May 2022 14:35:15 +0000

We can’t stress enough that hive inspections should be about looking for evidence of a queen, not about finding the queen. Look for eggs, larvae, and brood. What do you do if you find a supersedure cell? These are typically on the frame in the main brood area. As a general rule we leave them to let the colony raise a new queen. They may see something in the queen that we don’t, they may just not like her, for whatever reason they are going to replace her, let them. We just know that in about 3 weeks we’ll want to make sure the new queen made it back from mating (again just looking for eggs, larvae, and brood) and that things are ok. Colonies probably replace queens more often than people realize, and most of the time they just take care of things on their own just fine.

Is it time to add another box to your hive?

Heidi Tubbs — Sat, 21 May 2022 14:01:02 +0000

Our general rule is that you add another box when the colony is covering 60-80 percent of the frames in a box. (Kirk says 80-90 in the video but don’t let them get that crowded if you can avoid it). This is a new package started 21 days ago in drawn comb from a deadout. This means that the capped brood will be hatching in the next couple of days and we will start seeing exponential growth in our colony. They are out of room and need a new box, but knowing that the new brood and exponential growth is starting in the next couple of days means that if they were just 60 percent we would add another box as well because they would run out of room with the new bees before we get back for our next 2 week hive check.

What to do about a queenless hive

Heidi Tubbs — Sat, 21 May 2022 13:52:05 +0000

What do you do when you don’t see evidence of a queen in your hive? Whether you smashed her during an inspection or something just happened to her, what are your options? This is a new package that ended up queenless as evidenced by no larvae or brood. Kirk walks through options, and decides to add a couple of frames from another hive. Make sure one of those frames has eggs and very young larvae (under 3 days old) on it so they can raise a queen. He’s going to add a frame of capped brood as well to give this colony a little more work force to take care of a new queen.

May 14 2022 New Package Hive Check

Heidi Tubbs — Mon, 16 May 2022 14:15:06 +0000

It’s been 2 weeks since we hived these packages! Here are a couple videos to give you an idea about what we are seeing and what bees should be doing. Recommendations, check hives in the middle of the day when it is warm. You can learn a lot just by watching the entrance! If they are bringing in pollen they should be feeding brood! They may be consuming pollen patties or taking sugar syrup!