The Way To Bee with Frederick Dunn - Backyard Beeping Q&A 338 December 26th 2025 with Frederick Dunn

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

This is the audio track from the live Chat YouTube:  https://youtube.com/live/U8mxuJGaoZ4?feature=share

I had to pose for that live shot, because they always take the thumbnail when I least expect it, so I'm not ready. So we're going to go ahead to kick it off the way we do every Friday. So I want to thank you for being here. This is Friday, December the 26th of 2025, and this is back here, Bekeeping Questions and Answers episode number 338. I'm Frederick Dunn. And this is the way to be live edition. So people are here right now talking to each other, and I'm really glad Keith Spillman is in the house. He's my bouncer, so don't act up.

Get out of hand here. He will delete you so fast. So anyway, if you want to know what we're going to talk about today, please look down in the video description. I realize this information will be delayed because it's live, so that usually comes out the following Saturday. So today is Friday. And all the topics will be listed in order. There will be links that get added later, and the timestamps also. get added later. So if you want to know how to submit a question or a topic of your own,

please go to my website, which is the way to be.org. And there, you can fill out a form on a page marked contact. So I hope you'll do that. Now, the other thing is, if you're watching this at a later date, you've got a question. The advantage is right now we can answer your questions live if you're here. But if you missed it, and this happens the last Friday of every month. So you can go to the way to be fellowship on Facebook and you can talk to people there and you can send pictures and photos and videos and get the opinion of your peers, people that live where you are and just may know things. No one is smarter than everyone. So once again, I know what you have on your mind right off the bat. You probably want to know what's going on outside. Keith Spillman thinks we have

sunny, nice weather here. Well, you know what? That's just a reflection of where he lives because here we're in the middle of an ice storm. I'm in the middle of it. You go outside from my house right now and you will start sliding. I don't care what's on your feet. You will slide right down the driveway until you hit a fence

because there is ice on everything. Here's the other part of that. The potential for us to lose power in the middle of this live stream, so if I go blank and the screen goes blank, you'll know what happened. The power lines came down. They can only handle so much ice.

Even the bird feeders, the bees can't get to the bird feeders because there's so much ice. So you might be wondering, at what temperature, Fred, does the ice form when it's raining and sleeting? Well, right now it's 28.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is minus 1.7 Celsius. Perfect conditions for rain to turn to sleep, to turn to ice to cover everything up and ruin your day. So the other thing is, along with that, what's the wind? What's the wind got to do with it? Well, six point, let's see, 6.3 miles per hour. I don't know.

You want to know kilometers, so that's 110.1 kilometers. I almost said 101, and we would know that's not true. And then we get these really cool wind gusts that caused the icicles that are at angles with a consistent wind. 22 mile per hour wind gusts, and that's 35.4 kilometers per hour. And I know some of you are sitting out there on the water, your sailors, and you're wondering what the knots are for that. So today, because it's a day after Christmas, I'm going to do it. 6.3 miles an hour is 5.4 knots. And the wind gusts at 22 miles per hour, 19.1 nautical miles per hour. So there, now you're happy about that. It's also 89% relative humidity,

which I don't believe. I think it has to be higher than that because it's leading and raining. Okay, you know what? Nicholas Rowan, who writes in her 78.72, Good for you. I'm just glad that some of you are having the best heat wave and everything is just perfect for you. And just a heads up, if you want to put a comment in there, and if it's for me, please make sure it's in all caps. It'll get my attention because I do look at the chat, but unless it's in all caps, I'll assume that you're just talking to one another. And for those who join us later, please pass that on. So all the topics that we're going to talk about, we're submitted during the past week. And we have a lot to cover.

But I will stop and answer your questions because you're here. You're in the now with me. So let's just go down the list really quick. Just all these familiar names, all these people are here. If I say a name, I'll forget somebody else. So I'm just going to say hello to all of you together rather than going down the whole list. I know it's a day after Christmas. So everyone has everything they ever wanted.

They're all set, perfectly happy. And now you decided to go on a live stream on a Friday when you're, You could be shopping or doing what else. In my neck of the woods, state of Pennsylvania, northeastern part of the United States, northwestern part of the state of Pennsylvania, what started today? I can tell you. Right before sunrise, we heard rifle shots going off. What kind of rifles you might be wondering? Flint locks, because that's the season.

Day after Christmas, 26th of December, archery hunters and people with flintlocks are out there. And there's something about some late season rifle deal. this is not the time to be in the woods. Now I've heard, and you may have too, historically, this is the most danger time, dangerous time to be in the woods, and that's because new hunters with new guns that they got at Christmas

that are going out there and shooting things. You know what I found out? That's not true. This isn't the most dangerous time to be in the woods. Here's a funny part, too. They don't have to wear orange to go out in the woods now with Flint, Lock, and archery season kicking off. So you can dress all in camo and everything. I have my Hawk in 50 Flint lock, you know, because I watched Jeremiah Johnson like probably

the rest you did. And I ran out and bought my Hawk in 50 by Thompson Center. And it just sits on a rack. But they're cool to have, cool to shoot, a little bit of nostalgia. Anyway, guess what? What is the number one thing that injures hunters? I know you want to know because this is a bee discussion. What is the number one reason that hunters get injured in the woods while hunting. Anybody know? They're falling out of deer stands. Falling out of tree stands, deer stands is the number one reason that they fall. They fall out of trees. So do not loiter underneath a tree that has a hunter in it that's not very agile. I'm just letting you know. So nothing compared to stinging insects through the year. So we're going to get right into it.

Very first question, since nobody else has posted one yet, all in caps. And I thank you all for being here. Oh, wait. Nicholas has something in caps. It is working for seeing you at Novi. Okay. The North American Honeybee Expos is coming up, by the way. Hope the rest of you are going to be there soon.

So I'm looking forward to seeing you. Looking forward to seeing you all. I'm sure you all will be there. And Kamen Reynolds made a huge mistake, and he's going to allow me to speak again this year. so I have a presentation. When's my presentation? The first day of the North American Honeybee Expo at 5 o'clock.

You'll have to look at the schedule. Now they have this thing on their phones, which is on my phone too, and I'm sorry if you've been reaching out to me through this app that the North American Honeybee Expo has is on your phone for people that are going to come and see your exhibit that want to reach out and contact you and all this other stuff. I'm not good at that. I don't carry my phone around with me.

And it also gives everyone all of your contact. information when you use it. I'm not saying don't use it. I'm just saying I'm going to economize my personal use of it because I just don't have that kind of time. But I will see you at 5 o'clock on the first day at the North American HoudiBi Expo. And as Keith says, use all caps. You have a question. We're going to jump right in. This is from Kristen, Kristen Vogel. How far away from your hives do you set up the feeding or robbing station? So this time of year, you realize things are different all over the country and some people as has been pointed out to me here here we go with uh i have gg here saying wish they don't have you at the same time as randy oliver

that's good most people can go and see randy oliver if they want to uh i like the people being able to make decisions and go to all different presentations if they want because if you've got one I know it's not as cool as being in a presentation. We're talking about the Honeybee Expo again. It's not as cool as being there in person, but all the presentations are available later. So you can see the videos later. It's not as cool, but, and I don't feel bad at all.

Somebody chooses to go see Randy Oliver from scientific beekeeping instead of me. That's perfectly fine. I don't mind. So don't expect a bunch of funny jokes from him, though. I have jokes. I have not heard Randy crack a joke. So I'm just letting you know. It just depends on what you want.

You want to feel happy or you want to feel informed? It's up to you. So anyway, how far away from your hives do you use that? You're feeding a robbing station. Some people are trying to feed their bees. Somebody wrote last week, and that's where I think where this comment came from, they were putting feed right on top of their hive

so their bees would not have to go far to get to it. Your number one way to feed your bees and make sure that the colony that you are trying to tar. target gets the resources that you're providing should be inside the hive. And the best place to put that inside the hive is right on top. In other words, cover, outer cover, inner cover, on top of the inner cover, insulated with a hole through the middle, and I hope you're feeding fondant. We also talked about dry sugar last week, and anything is better than nothing.

So I hope that you do that. And this is a great time to check that. Now, today, we'll be out there with chippers and everything else, probably ice picks just to get into the hives next week. And I don't know you also probably wondering, what kind of wildlife are we seeing outside deer? There's so many deer right now, I can't believe it. I've got video sequences because I've got cameras out everywhere just to see what they're doing. And there are a lot of bucks walking around it there with just one rack, one side. So, too many.

but you want to keep your feeding stations away from your hives if you're feeding like let's say you're in one of those areas where it gets really warm your bees can really fly make your resource area specific that it stays the same all the time don't just shift it around to different places so the bees will know when they go out where they're going to find it what they're going to find and make the resources high and sucrose value as possible to justify that flight so So, see, Tommy Chew, this is my people right there, a fan of jokes. And he's clearly, if he's going to be there, he's going to come to me. Okay, so Jesse says, I'm trying to add feed to a colony,

but the bees are clustered right on the candy board that needs to be changed. Will smoke drive the cluster down so I can add an inner cover and some fondet. Okay, here's the thing. I actually have that question in my pile today. So I don't know if this is the same person that submitted that question, but here's the thing. And it's a good one. Should you be using smoke when we're going to open our hive? First of all, organize yourself.

So when you go out there, and I do realize, too, this also ties in with where you're located, how warm it is. But you want to make your visits to your beehives in winter as brief as possible. So have your replacement feed or a candy board or whatever it is ready to go. So when you take it off, because some people worry there are bees on there, and then what do they do with them when they pull it off and they put their replacement right on there? Do it quick and smooth. Smooth like, I always say chitee, but I know it's Tai Chi. So your movement should be smooth, deliberate, and slow.

And then you pull it up, you replace it with the new one, and then you take the old ones got bees on it. Now what do you do with them? Well, you shake them off on the landing board and hope that they go inside. You are making a move to provide resources for your colony. It's going to save them. Do not use smoke. Here's why.

When you smoke, first of all, if it's cooler, I mean, if you're in an area where it's warm, it would be a normal hide visitation, so none of this would apply. But if you're in a cold area like I am, then smoke actually wakes up and gets a response from your bees. The other thing is smoke means fire, and then fire means time to consume honey resources. So you're very disruptive to this. them when you use smoke. I would say personally it's much better to save the smoker, keep your movements, deliberate and conservative, get in, get out, and just deal with whatever

bees come at you and some will. You would think it's too cold for them to fly, but you'll have minimal impact on your bees if you're not using a smoker. So I highly recommend you don't. And just, yeah, make those swap. If it's candyboard, the other candy board has to be ready to go. And no bumping and slamming and knocking and vibration is the enemy of bees that are at rest and they're clustered they're in torpor we don't want to disturb them and get them all going so smooth and fast so here is the dog annie so hi fred would the float super lifter help with placing bee escapes when harvesting can you place the excluder on that yeah you can so for those of you don't

we're talking about the hive super lifter means a honey super lifter and what it does is when it latches onto your hive the brood box and then the super that you're trying to lift and it can lift two supers at once when you tilt that back there's a lift off when it does the tilt back so it does create a space so you could add or remove a queen excluder you could add or remove on a skateboard so it's very easy to do and it does create the space and it does facilitate that so that's a really good question and it does work. And if you want to see what it is, you don't know what we're talking about.

You can go to my YouTube channel or you can just type Frederick Dunn, Hive Superlifter. And I do a step-by-step demo of how to set it up. So here we go. This is Devin Hudson. It says, Do you have experience doing Demery method with a long hive?

Sub-question. Please comment on using a queen pheromone to suppress the need for swore cells in separated brood where Demery when Demery method okay the Demery method by the way it was just published in a B journal article and it was it took off and a lot of people want to use it this is I consider this an advanced manipulation method and the reason is because you're going to have to get into your hives and not only that you need a double brood box that are both deep so because you're going to be moving frames from your brood area this is looking way ahead into spring

you're going to move uh brood out of the area where they're building up and you're going to move it above a queen excluder and make sure your queen's not on it and then it decongest the brood area and then they emerge out of those cells up there and then they migrate back down through the queen excluder and this is supposed to help reduce swarming and i'm sure it does um but you need to actively check for swarm cells at the time that you're doing it and you need to make sure and keep up with it. Now the horizontal hive, the long Langstrath hive, you can put a frame size, which is just like a follower board in the hive, which is how we control the size of it, right? So you have your follower board that marks the end of the hive. So if you've got 15 frames in

there, it's at the 15th frame position. If you create a follower board that has a queen excluder in it, then you set that close to the brood area. And now the Demerre method is kicking in. you'll pull the brood out without the queen on it and you'll put it on the opposite side. In fact, you could put a couple frames of honey and stuff between that even. So farther down the line, there's the other brood. You need enough of that brood with enough workers with it, nurse bees in particular. If you're moving open brood, which I don't recommend, but if you did, make sure you bring plenty of nurse bees with it because we're dividing their resources when you do that.

Nurse bees need to attend to open brood. if we can just pull capped brood your way ahead because they don't need resources they just need warmth and we put those back there and you have decongested the area you're supposed to put replacement frames up there that have drawn comb that's important so the queen has space to lay and i will say i don't personally practice that so it's just another method that you can use if you want to try it out there's nothing wrong with it at all so let's go back up here Marie. We'll move on from that. Oh, yeah, the queen pheromone. So to suppress the need for swarm cells, let me tell you what works with the queen pheromone, because temp queen is what it's called and sold

at Better Be, probably among other places. And it's a queen medibular pheromone, two MP. Sometimes you'll see it that way. And I don't use it the way it's supposed to be used. And let me tell you what it does and what it doesn't do. Okay. So you just had a swarm, let's say, in your hive. And they, um, you want to re-queen the hive and you don't want them to make a new queen. Well, you're kind of too late because they're already in the process of making new queens when you do that. So then you want to control the genetics. So let's say you're going to keep them from generating new queens because you're going to buy a queen. Hypothetical. You're buying a queen through the mail. You're getting a carniola and whatever it happens to be. And you're going to

install it in your hive. And in the meantime, you don't want them making replacement queens because they have the absence of the queen mandibular pheromone when you put the QMP noodle in there and these things are cheap they're only like seven bucks you get two of them you keep them in the freezer fantastic highly recommended when you put them in there you will not necessarily stop their instinct to develop a new queen if there are eggs in there and there are newly hatched larvae in there They have the potential to start to build queen cells, even with QMP present. So for me, what it does do is stop.

So let's say we've got a hopelessly queenless colony. You did an inspection. This is what it's really for. You did an inspection. And there's no evidence of the queen. And there's no open larvae. There's just a bunch of cap larvae. Now we have to be worried.

We don't want the worker bees to activate their ovaries. Every worker is a female. Every female has ovaries. And in the absence of the queen mandibular pheromone, they become active. And it takes them how long to start to produce eggs, 21 days. So by putting the queen medibular pheromone in there, the synthetic QMP, we suppress that urge. So that's where it does work.

They won't activate their ovaries. We won't get laying workers, which means a bunch of drones. And then they're hostile when you go to install a new queen. So if you're using QMP, they can, and like, likely will, if they have the resources, build new queen cells, and build new queens, develop new queens. They also, with that there, that's pretty much it. They just won't activate their ovaries. So I hope that helps.

I highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun to play with QMP. I use it all the time in ways that you're not supposed to. Jess Connelly in Northeast PA What? Right in my own neck of the woods? My daughter lives. The supervisor whose hive tool is still here

lives in that same town. So he's selling honey right now. I hope he's going door to door in ice and snow. So this is from beekeeper Carmine. Hi Fred. One of my colonies are showing brown feces on top of their hive alive fondant and top bars of the double.

deep condensing hive. Oops, I moved it. I checked the bottom and it's airtight and the bottom board is clear. So that's dysentery. It doesn't always happen because of nozema, for example, which is something actually that hive alive is supposed to help with. So this is ironic. I would want to identify what the brown feces are. Do we know for sure it's coming from the bees? Let's think again, where is this at? It's in my colony showing brown feces on top of their hive alive fondant. See, if it's on the faunit, the bees shouldn't even have access to that. On top of the bars of a double bee, deep of a condensing hive.

I don't know what to tell you. Just keep the nutrition going and hope that by spring, hope they get cleansing flight days and they can get out. So that's my other question. Are they having cleansing flight temperatures where they could actually get out? because bees if they can will defecate outside the hive and you'll even see it on the front of a hive

when they've got dysentery so I don't know what to tell you if they have access to the outside you've got this sealed up condensing hive you get hive live fondant on you're doing everything right and they're still going to the bathroom where they shouldn't

that's the best I can tell you clean the bottom board make sure the entrance make there's no water and stuff built up in the bottom and keep an eye on that colony, but there's nothing that we would do specifically for that colony. So this is from Woodland Apiary. It says, can you discuss winter brood in Northwest PA?

Is there always brood in winter, just a small amount? Are they fat-bodied bees? Do they emerge in winter? So, yes, there's always brood. And the way that I can tell, it just reduces the number. So we already passed the lowest brood cycle, the lowest. brood cluster size inside the hive was before the month of December actually based on thermal scans. So they always have some brood. The fat-bodied winter bees were actually produced

about mid-October. And they're the ones that live for many months. So they're already in there doing their thing. They'll be in the center of the cluster. And we can expect by the end of January that they'll be building up a pretty decent sized brood, which is why you'll see the heat pattern if we're doing thermal scans on the surface of these hives, the heat pattern of the cluster will get larger and larger because there's more brew to attend to. And remember that even the dead of winter, if it's minus 10 outside or whatever it is,

it's 94 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit on the actual brood itself. And so when we're doing thermal scans of the surface, we're getting the outer mantle of that cluster it's called. And so we don't see those high temps. But I know that if the outer mantle is like 85 degrees, then I know that I'm good to go and that the brood is still building. Now, depending on their nutritional resources and how much has been stored in the hive and how many bees there are will directly correlate with the size of the brood they start to rear.

But they're producing what we would consider to be a skeleton crew right now. So just enough bees to sustain and cycle and help replace some of the bees that are dying off in winter. And then they just keep building. So, yes, there is brood. We're never 100% broodless unless, as in some cases, you're 100% queenless, which can also happen. And that's when we see a small cluster that's kind of warm when we're doing thermal scans and they don't compare it all to any of the other hives. I know that they're dwindling then because a colony that's without a queen that can't reproduce, they can't continue their brood through winter, just end up getting smaller in number.

And you'll see the temperatures cool down and you can just tell. just going to dwindle until you have nothing left in the colony um when you replace old dark comb the frames are also getting dark should you also replace them okay so this is from den b7181 okay so i get about five or six years out of brood comb specifically because that's where it gets the darkest and to rotate them every five to six years and get them out uh would i pull the frames themselves and get rid of those too i don't And so here's why. Those old frames, if they're in great shape,

and I've never, maybe I've had one wooden frame since 2006 actually come apart because I'm careful about the way I handle them. So I keep them around until they're not functional. Because when we cut out old comb and throw it away or you push out the old plastic foundation, let's be honest, sometimes I do not keep the old, if it's a plastic foundation, usually it's acorn. If I have to punch that out and it's got old brood comb, I don't even try to clean it up.

It's such a hassle. So I do scrape it out and then I just install a new foundation in it or I put it in as a foundationless piece. And they do draw some of that old beeswax. It's collected all over the old wooden frames. But you'll also notice that those wooden frames look really good. They seal them up with propolis. There's almost no bare wood left on them anymore. They've really covered it, and I think that's really good.

So I keep those. I don't throw them away. I throw away a frame when it physically can't do the job I need it to do. But the comb, definitely, and some people may be wondering where are we throwing out this old comb. Well, part of it is because it's concentrating pesticides. And no matter how holistic you are in your approach to beekeeping, you can't keep the pesticides out of the comb and the beeswax. So what happens is cycle after cycle, it just continues to build in the comb. It's like the liver of the hive, and it concentrates that material,

which is why five to six years is pretty much all you want to put up with. And for those of you are wondering, sometimes really old comb can cause your bees to abscond. Some people have speculated that the queen won't lay eggs in these old cells because the cells just get too small. Because with every cycle of reproduction that goes through that cell, every emerging new bee, it comes out, leave some residue behind, and adds to the thickness of these sidewalls, which is why you end up completely fibrous after a while. But really, they stop laying eggs in it because it's not suitable anymore because of the pheromones that are associated with that.

They're actually smelling the concentration of pesticides that are in there. And so then they're just not laying eggs and not developing in them. So they can start, you can abscond, so they can just stop using the whole area and find that the entire colony is not suitable. So I keep up to six years. That's it. Here we go. When you're a place, there's come. Now we're Ed Swart, E-D-S-W-R-T.

Speaking of smoke, my honey harvest was negligible compared to other years. My hives were treated and healthy, but we had about a month of smoky days, thanks to the Canadian wildfires here in Minnesota. Yeah, and that's why we do the smoke. smoke checks. I have been interested in because we get those high smoke days to the point where you're not even supposed to go outside where it looks like the fog of war out there

and it's smoke from Canada wildfires. And so my question is, does that impact the bees? And do the bees think that there's a fire nearby and will they start acting like there's a fire that's eminent and they don't? They haven't. So I've seen no activity changes

from the honeybees themselves even with those heavy red alert days. where you're not allowed to go outside, especially old people, whoever they are, that should not be outside doing strenuous work. Because it's a respiratory challenge, those are particulates. The bees are not, as far as I know, and I paid attention to that, particularly, the bees are not responding to that. So, do-to-do, do-do-do-do.

There's another one. What did I just do? How well does your thermal scan work on insulated hives like the Apameh. And this is from Gigi, who's in California. Anyway, not well. If I went out there when it's 35 degrees. Now, for those of you don't know, the Apame hives are insulated. They're plastic hive with polystyrene sandwiched in between the plastic.

Very durable plastic, by the way. I have a bunch of them. and I go out when it's 10 degrees, 12 degrees. Now, there's a drawback to that. I can see proof of life. So even the APMA and the insulated layens hives that have sheep's wool and everything in them, every insulated hive has a heat signature when it gets that cold outside. So I can see that they're alive.

I don't see anything else. The other thing is I learned about my Fleer Pro, which costs a pile of dollars, can't handle the cold weather. So when you get out there, I have made. maybe four minutes to work with it, and then it shuts down. I have to put it in my pocket. And now I have to wrap it with hand warmers, hot hands, those little chemical pocket heaters just to keep it going.

But on a very, very cold night, you can go out there and definitely see proof of life. You won't see necessarily how big the cluster is as well as you can with some of the other hives. I'll tell you another part of that when you're doing thermal scans on your beehives, something I do not like. And a premiere was really good about this. I don't know if you know about the premier company. They do the propola hives that are roughened up on the interior so you can get propolis on them. I asked them to please send me hives to do not have handholds cut into them.

And it's ironic because that's one of the things they brag about with their design is that they have these really big handholds so you can grip them with your thick gloves. And I don't like them because when you do thermal scans, look at the hot spots where the handles are. and so I would like to see personally all the hives not have hive handle cutouts in them and I just can put cleats on them you can just screw on a couple of one by twos and grab onto that if you want to so that's way better in my opinion because now we've added thickness to it I can't say that there's a big impact in the thermal loss of a colony like that but the handholds

just glow there thin material you only had three quarters of an inch of wood to begin with and they cut the handhold in. What do we have then? You know, a quarter inch, three-eights. I don't know how thick it is, but I would like to see handholds go away and we could add cleats. I think we should be adding thickness for where we grip them. What else do we have? Thermal Scan. Next is Elizabeth from Temps in the 70s for several days, central Missouri. My bird feeders are swarmed with bees. I put out pollen patty, which they ate and have gone through two. gallons of two to one hive live syrup other suggestions well the bird feeders here's the other thing this is how this is how intelligent our honeybees are i don't know what we're feeding in the bird

feeders but since elizabeth is here maybe she can tell us uh the black oil sunflower seeds are all we put in our bird feeders we do have suet and the bees will fly in and roll around in the dust from the black oil sunflower seeds and come out with their little legs like they're getting pollen from a flower zero nutritional value there i even looked into this because i wanted to find out the companies that are processing the seed are they also processing other plant parts is there any chance there's real pollen or some of the protein that's in there and there isn't it's just dust so our bees are definitely failing the nutrition test on that one um so as far as two to one hive live syrup Any other suggestions?

I would ditch the hive live syrup and go with the fondant patties. It slows them down, gives them a very concentrated resource of what they need. And two to one is super tough to mix. I don't know how many of you have mixed that stuff. It is the consistency of honey. And it's just a lot of work. I would shift to fondant personally and just keep that going. And that's the best I can suggest on that.

And warm days, I highly recommend making sure they have water available. and people that are putting out pollen patties and things like that. I have one philosophy about pollen patties. I don't know that we're getting a lot out of those if we were bees. And maybe this isn't the place to talk about that. But bees need to, let's just food for thought while we're sitting here, just the two of us. If you had a pollen patty, and this might make some people that make pollen patties mad, If you had a pollen patty and the bees are using it as a winter resource and they're getting pollen in the pollen paddy.

What do bees have to do to pollen to make it so they can get maximum nutritional value out of the pollen? The other thing is I always ask the pollen paddy makers. What's the source of the pollen? And you know what the universal answer is? California pollen. Well, California is the state. It's not a source of pollen. So if the pollen comes from California, it has to come from a specific plant variety.

and they just don't tell you. I think that's really interesting. Now, here's the other part of it. What do bees do to make the pollen so that it's digestible even to the bees? Well, the bees taken inside the hive in a normal pollen gathering trip, it goes onto their corbicular,

they get back into the hive, they scratch it off their corbicular, and they stuff it in these little cells, and then it starts to get worked by nurse bees that amend it. And what happens? It goes through a fermentation process. So if they're eating pollen and the pollen patty, because the pollen patty is full of nutrition to get them through winter, it's supposed to be a major carbohydrate, but they've added this protein.

And then we rank the pollen patties. 15%, for example, would be inexpensive on high pollen content. But if they don't take that pollen and treat it like pollen, if they just consume it, I don't think it's going through all the stages it needs to to break down to make the proteins accessible to the bees. digestive system, and therefore it's metabolism. I think that, unless they take it in and make bee bread with it and put it through a fermentation process, they don't break down that hard shell that's on the pollen, and then the proteins and all that great stuff doesn't come available to the bees. What do you think? That's why I don't think I would be putting out pollen patties. Now, I'd put out pollen substitute. Listen to this. This is the advantage. Let's say it's AP 23,

just off the top of our heads. AB-23, mega-B, and ultra-B. Those are the top three pollen substitutes. They're not pollen. So here's the thing. So if they don't go through fermentation process, that protein is actually available to metabolism of the bees without going through that, making bee bread first.

What do you think? Just food for thought? That's all I'm saying. Okay. Your pan on syrups with sucrose versus those with H. HFCS is one measurably better. So what the heck is HFCS? High fructose corn syrup.

So here's the thing. Sucrose is superior. That's just it. If you're going to make your syrup for the difference in price for the backyard beekeeper, now if you're a commercial beekeeper, your number crunching goes way off the chart. I'm not a number cruncher because I'm backyard beekeeper. So I'm going to feed white, processed sugar. That's what's going to be mixed with the water, and that's what I'm going to use.

I'm not going to use high-fructose corn syrup. Now is one better than the other. There's a lot of yelling and arguing about not using high-fructose corn syrup, and yet you find it in a lot of things, including what people eat. But for the bees, we can just cut to the chase because we're talking in this case to some backyard beekeepers that some are very sophisticated with a long history with their bees and some are new and thinking about what to use, I would not go past dry processed sugar. So another thing that comes up sometimes is people get really specific about that.

What about the beet sugar compared to the cane sugar? And they'll say cane sugar is way better. And I can tell you this, at the end of the processing, there is no chemical difference between the two. so why do people make such a scene about beet sugar like if you're dry white processed sugar comes from cane or comes from beats is there a big difference no the difference comes into play where some of the beats are produced as genetically modified stock so if you're voting against GMOs then you probably won't use the beat sugar but as far as the bees are concerned at the other end of it after all the processing and then you mix it with water. And is that going to be chemically different from

the cane sugar after it's been through you're mixing it with water and the processing which makes it dry sugar? No, there's no detectable difference. So it's just a vote for how it's being farmed and whether or not chemicals are being used to do that. And remember that these are emergency resources and supplemental resources also. So measurably better from the bees point of you. I can't say. I can just say that I don't vote for high fructose corn syrup when I have sugar already if I need it. So this is Elizabeth says I have a fondant patty on the hives with syrup at separate site with water and the patty. I think we're kind of overdoing it. I don't think you need all of that. Some of the things that people tend to do, and this is not, you know, a hit for

Elizabeth. It's just we feel like we want to make all these options available to the bees, but we're wintertime now so we're providing just a sustaining diet and when we offer all these different things separate that's free choice for the bees so they can choose to go to these different things it's not the end of the world but it's unnecessary because I don't think you'll see a significant or measurable advantage to providing all those different options and the other thing is these patties don't last very long so that's an expense so I like to go with what's least expensive most effective So there again, the faunton patties are definitely not the cheapest, but for me, they're the most effective. So that's what goes on the hive.

I'm not going to set fondant patties out and about because I don't want other things. I don't want other people's bees coming to my stuff. I don't want to feed other people's bees. And I also don't want the bees to have to travel for it. But if they're already out, they're already out foraging and they're doing things, here's what we're actually in the wintertime, when there are no resources for them. if we provide an outside feeding source for them, we're actually encouraging the bees to leave the hive and go get it, where if you can tell what colony they're coming from,

feed them inside the hive. Because what they're doing is it's going to go out, it's going to get the resource, it's going to come back, it's going to do what? Waggle dance, tell the others, there is a resource now. So now it kind of perks up some other foragers that otherwise wouldn't be out.

And now they join together, and they go out to this feeding station, to this resource that is now artificial that we've provided. I vote for that during dearth periods and things like that because then we're risking robbing and other things. There's a lot of pressure on when all of a sudden the environment's not providing. But if we can target the specific colonies that need it,

you're way ahead. So I would highly recommend reducing that and not encouraging them to leave the hive at a time when there's nothing else out there. Let's see. We'll be as draw new comb on plastic frames coated with reclaimed better comb mixed with bees wax, yes. They'll build on Bettercombe the same as they do regular beeswax.

For those of you who don't know what this is that we're talking about. Bettercombe is a synthetic beeswax. It's made by biochemists, and it is in every way similar to the beeswax that your bees produce. It's just not made by bees. And it behaves in every other way, like beeswax and the bees accept it. so i did early testing with that when it first came out we also melted it down because people it's like once you found out that better bees bees wax uh then um better comb is what it sold as once you say that this is not a problem with it then the people that want there to be a problem

say yeah well okay then if what if they make candles out of it then the candles don't burn as well beeswax candles are healthy for you was what one of the next claims was so what did we do we collected a bunch of better comb and we collected real beeswax and we turned them both into candles and then we burn the candles and the better comb candles burn cleaner and longer than the regular bees wax candles so the bees will take to it it can be used that way it's more expensive to you the beekeeper if you want to buy better comb it's great for kicking off something if you had a late season colony that you needed to provide comb for so they could really kick in and start brooding up and getting resources stored before the winter comes that's what it's kind of top drawer for the rest of the year they can build

their own because you can just kind of add sugar syrup until they do it but yes they take it the same whether you mix it with regular beeswax or not and so this is also where if you're a purist and you don't want anything but these wax made by the bees then you won't be using better comb because we know that they repurpose wax and moving around inside the hive how far does it go is it in your edible comb if you're doing cut comb and things like that highly unlikely so but if you don't want that in there then you just don't want it in there but there's no detrimental aspect to it at all um so will be strontocom did that and this is from dennis please talk about entrance, location,

and the difference between where the entrance is on the Langstroth and the Lans is that important. Okay, so Lankstroth and Lairns, because again, people may not even know what we're talking about. Are we talking about long Langstroth and the Lairns, which is also a harnizontal hive, are we talking about the verticals? I treat mine the same.

So the Lans hives, they have unique frames, they are the DeLeyans hive. and when it comes, and I bought mine from Dr. Leo Shirashkin, I pick the most expensive, the top drawer unit that he has, and I bought two of them, and they have entrances. There are three on one side of the hive. I only use one of those, and I leave it right at the end, and that's all I do.

With my long-Langstroth hive, same thing. My entrances are on the southern exposure all the way to the southeast end of the hive stays that way all year long. We have the ability to move our frames around, so we don't need to change entrance. unless you're doing multiple colonies and the same hive, that's when you would have an extra entrance. So for me, those extra dials and all the extra entrances

down the line do absolutely nothing, I just close them up. And then you can move frames around and move brood and resources and everything. And like when spring comes along, for example, let's talk about that. If you had a long Langstroth hive, your Bs have entrances over here, let's say,

and we're moving down the line through the, stored honey through winter, and then spring gets here. And now we have four or five empty frames between the entrance and where the other resources start to build again. And usually it's mixed resources with your actual brood. Well, you can pull all those frames out, take the brood and those resources that are left over, slide them right up to the entrance and put these empty combs beyond them, and then they can start to fill them again.

That's the equivalent of swapping boxes. in spring, which some people do. But the horizontal hives make that perfectly easy, so I don't see the need unless, again, you have multiple colonies in the hive. I don't see the need for additional entrances. So they're always at one end, and they stay at one end. So, let's see, and this is from Funky Buffalo 88.

Are there any metal inserts one can use with the InstaVap? if you are inserting through a drilled hole into the hive. After two years, my original holes are getting pretty loose. Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. I would not put a metal insert in, and here's why. So I think what's being described is there's a quarter inch hole that's been drilled, been using this, and the way this vape system works, it slides right into a quarter inch hole,

and you vape the hive for exhalic acid vaporization, you pull it out. Now, if that hole's getting a little bigger, could we line that and make like a grommet of some kind that they slide through i would not do that and here's why uh that would help disperse heat away from that tube that you're putting in there so what you could do is get yourself a three quarter inch dowel rod right they're made out of wood and uh drill through the center a new quarter inch hole and drill a three three quarter inch hole through the hive itself, insert the doll rod, and now you've closed up the hole again.

I don't see a big problem with having a slightly oversized hole as long as you just put a nut or something through there, not a nut, but a bolt through it so that you keep that sealed up so that the bees can mobilize it on the inside, but it's open again for you to use it again. I don't think it really needs to do that, but if you had to do it, it would be just like fixing a hole for anything else. Drill through a quarter inch hole, replace it with a dial rod, and drill a new quarter inch hole through the dial rod. Personally, what I would do. And I would use Taibon 3 to glue that up. So I think that would be good.

Let's see, but the metal would pull the heat away. So I definitely avoid that. I would use wood because it's a little bit of an insulator. Let's see. Cassinger's Acre says it's a lot easier to make fondant than I expected. True. For those of you can make it, make it. And I would try to follow the recipe to you that includes the,

I have a live syrup in the fondant that you make so that we can get the Nazima numbers down in our midgut for the bees. That's really what that stuff is made for. The hive live syrup and everything else is made for Nazima. Nozima concentrates in the gut of your bees during the wintertime, particularly February, March area. And so we really want to help them out with that. So if you're making your own, I would highly recommend getting the syrup and adding that to your formula for that. and make the cold fondant version don't risk changing that i'm going to reach out to a candy company to make a video for hives for heroes fondant video that's cool and hives for heroes great

organization by the way if you've never heard of them uh for those that are listening or watching right now um hives for heroes is a great way for you to support an organization that helps veterans that are suffering from PTSD and helps give them a hobby, get them involved in something that gives them something to look forward to and interact with bees which are way friendlier than people and highly support that organization and I think it's great to do that. Here is one fast, Freddy. Is it true that you must plant flowers 150 feet away or more from your hives or the bees will not go to them for nectar and pollen. An experienced beekeeper told me this never sees bees nearby. Okay, I don't want to step on the toes of what someone else

has said. However, bees are opportunistic and you do not have to plant 150 feet away or more from your hives, the bees will go after resources right next to the hive. I do a lot of photography and cinema work of bees in macro and everything else. And as you get closer to the apiary, you get more bees per blossom per plant. So for example, we have confrhy that's found nowhere else on my property other than 15 feet from an apiary that I have here. And they're all over it. Honeybees go to resources right next to them. So I would have to say just based on the fact that we find the bees on everything everywhere, that I don't think that's the case. So easy to prove, easy to find out, dandelions, in other words, based on that, let's just follow that

theory a little bit. Look at dandelions that are 20 feet from your colony. Are there bees on it in spring? It sure are. How about the clover? Yep, all over it. So I don't buy into that a sign specific distance or farther that somehow they wouldn't start foraging until they got a certain distance from the apiary. Logically, that just doesn't make sense. Economically, it's a terrible practice. The other thing you would say, let's take this for an example while we're on a roll here. Let's take the 150 foot thing. When beekeepers go to almond pollination, to the almond groves, they would then, if that were true,

have to keep their hives 150 feet away from the almonds that they're going to pollinate but they're not they're right in there and the bees will leave the hives and go right to the trees right adjacent to the hives and then spread out as they start to exhaust those resources nearby so it's very easy to see that bees are opportunistic and they're going to go wherever the highest sucrose resources and as close as that may be so here we go let's see remember if it's for it's in caps. So once again, always ask questions. Somebody tells you something.

Just do the logic test. Does that make sense? I don't know. Is it something we could test? Then let's test it. How would we find out? We go outside and we look. So that's it.

We just question everything. And if people kind of get light on, or that's the way we always did it. When I was on active duty, we heard that a lot. We've always done that. We've done that longer than, and they'd like to put you in your place because you've only been here so long, and we've been doing this long before, blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll ask questions anyway.

Just figure it out and see if that holds true. So this is, I can't even say it, B. Rouse Parish. Anyway, any thoughts about how to integrate the new suppressant Neroa into an IPM calendar? There's a lot in that. Noroa, N-O-R-R-O-A. So that's something that a lot of people are talking about. And by the way, at the HoneyB-Expo, I'm going to interview those people heavy. So here's the thing.

IPM, by the way, if you don't like acronyms, it's integrated pest management. So it's all the things that we do to control pests collectively in your beehive. And so this Neroa is getting a lot of attention. In fact, I had a question about it today. in here, which I guess we can go right into it. Wait, let me find that question. Somebody wanted to know. So what happens is Neroa is being sold right now by Manlake. There's pushback on this. And I think that people don't understand how it works, what it is, how effective it is. And the thing is, it is RTU. And that is something that you're going to hear a lot

ready to use treatment for your bees. No mixing, no PPE, so no personal protective equipment. You put this in in a little packet. So what it is, and I'm not going to use all the acronyms that go with it because people get alarmed and they go, that's DNA alteration. That's genetically modifying everything. It is not. It isn't. It's not the same. What this is, Neroa will not impact your bees, not impact your queen, not impact the genetics, not impact the drones, and only impact the varroa destructor mites that feed on the honeybees that have consumed this resource. And they sell these packets and you get two.

And there are two packets per brood box that you use. So it's not cheap stuff. I'll bet you're wondering what it costs, $22 to treat. single brood box with it it's also the equivalent of extended release and by that i mean the extended release happens because the bees consume it's in their bodies while it's in the bees bodies the varro destructor mites feed on the nurse bees when they feed on the nurse bees these foundress verro destructor mites so these are the ones are going to reproduce in the pupa cells of your other bees once they get into that they start to reproduce they find out what they're sterile

So these founders mites get into the pupa phase with your bees and start to feed on the pupa and they feed on your drone pupa in spring when you're building up drones and they cannot reproduce. So the same number of founders mites come out as went in. It doesn't stop them from feeding on your drones. It stops them from making new varroa destructor mites. So this is where the discussion comes in. You have to do something to knock the numbers down if you have high numbers. If you have lows, ones or twos, and your mite counts, then it will stay at ones or twos because the adult founder's mites can live for several months.

So they're still feeding on your bees. They're still spreading their diseases. They're not multiplying. And that's what it does. And so I did some price checks for you. A 12 pack. So that's going to treat six colonies is $114.24-pack, $216. $216. And you cannot use it with your honey supers on. So some people will like it because it's

ready to use. You get the packets. You're good to go. They fit on a little, if you had a half inch space above your hives. You peel the top off. The little perforations are already in it. The bees go right to work. They consume it. And the nurse bees get the benefit. And the nurse bees are also, of course, feeding your queen, and they are also, of course, providing resources with their own bodies to the varodistrictor mites that are feeding on their abdomens, on their fat stores. And that's where it's going to get into the mites, and it makes the mite sterile. So that's it. No baby mites. You might be wondering if I'm going to use it? No, probably not just because I don't feel like I need it I don't have the numbers that are that bad

and I don't know what else to say I'm not sure if it qualifies as an organic treatment I don't know if that I made a pros and cons sheet let me check it out but I was comparing it to exalic acid by the way so exhalic acid just for example and there's exhalic acid is coming out also at the North American Honey Bee Expo that is RTU, which means what? Ready to use. Who's going to sell it? Better be. That's right.

So anyway, you can use, you know, dribble method. So that also doesn't require PPE. But anyway, exhalic acid, all dispersal phased mites are killed. So if you do an oxalic acid vaporization, 98%, the numbers are even higher than they used to be as far as the effective kill of exposed mites. The Neroa only stops mite reproduction, so the numbers stay the same. No impact on adult mites other than making them reproductively sterile. So, safe check.

The other thing is, it's not even legal in all the states yet. So you need to check that out, too. Neroa is not yet accepted in all states as a miticide. So with exhalic acid vaporization, you have to wear respirator gloves and goggles. You do not have to do any of that with the Neroa. So anyway, instant treatment. with exhalic acid vaporization it hits everything and you're done up to 18 weeks is how long the neroa is existing in the hive and preventing reproduction uh exhalic acid uh and it stops at the next

generation so those you are thinking of the dna's modified or that it somehow changes the fundamental structure of the bees themselves it has zero impact on the reproduction of the bees themselves nothing is passed on to the next generation. So they have to consume it to get it. There's nothing in their genetics that continues that going on. And so I have also then answered Pat's question that she sent to me. All right. Let's see if there's anything else that I'm missing here.

Any thoughts about the unit? That's it. So I moved on. Next caps. What do SHBs do in the winter if they're, in the hive are ready. I found a few small high beetles larvae on the sticky board in December. Yeah, they're right in there. They're living. So SHBs are small high beetles. They live in the hive. They hide in corners and crevices and away from where your bees can be. And your

bees will most often, if they still have the warmth to do it, they'll propolize them into little corners. Like they block them in. And so that's just it. They exist. Their reproduction is not great and that's your chance maybe to get them i don't know here's my problem and as a problem i hope to keep forever i don't have small high beetles i've been approached by a lot of different companies that make a lot of different formula to attract them traps to kill them preventative measures that i cannot test myself because they just don't have them and let's be honest i don't want them but uh the reproductive stock of your small high beetles are still in there they're just wherever your bees cannot get to them so that's a number lambbrook farm i am concerned about

neroa being another crutch that can affect selecting for varroa hygienic behavior could this be a concern no because here's the thing it's actually not another crutch because we're still going to see what the hygienic bees. That's a really good question, by the way. Your VSH bees, your Veroa-sensitive hygienic bees are still going to go after them, still going to groom them, or still going to see the adults falling on the bottom. You can still selectively pick your colonies for reproduction based on how they're managing adult mites because that stuff has no impact on them other than no more reproduction. So if you've got bees, in fact, it works in favor. Now I don't even I'm not promoting Neroa by any stretch.

We're just spitballing, right? So, because here's my thinking. If you have a colony, bear with me, you have a colony, we do a bunch of mite checks on 10 hives. Okay. So we have the numbers. We know where they're at. And now we introduce this Neroa, which keeps them from reproducing.

So we have static numbers. Okay. So then if we have colonies that are dwindling in their mite numbers without any other treatments that we know that it's the colony itself that's screwing them off, biting their feet, getting rid of the varodosuritonites on their own. So we still have our target reproductive colonies that are doing extremely well in managing for roamites. And as someone else mentioned earlier, as part of an IPM structure, your integrated pest management, there's a lot of people. Again, let me change my phrasing because I don't want to criticize anybody. But there's some people

that, you know, don't like screen bottom boards within closed, trace, at robert. remove at the bottom of the bottom board. I don't know why that is, other than the fact that it's more geared to store or have around or make or adds cost, those screened bottom boards with trays enclosed underneath your hive collect for Roa mites and they do not get out of there. Why would you not use that if you're a backyard beekeeper and you can afford the gear? I highly reckon, in fact, I move more and more towards that. When you find mites in a tray underneath that, anyway, I'm getting off track here. But do everything you can to kill the mites, I don't think that that is going to alter your selection process for which colonies are effectively also helping you groom off, bite the feet, if they're Purdue ankle biters, whatever you've got.

If you've got mutts, then most of mine are mutts. I have bees right now that bite the feet off of erode destructor mites. And it's a very sad scene when you get down there and you pull that tray and you see those little mites with no feet and no chance for survival or reproductive. and no future, no eyes? I mean, it's, it's rough. You can still find the colonies that are actively engaging with and removing mites. So there you go. So I don't think it's a crutch. The question is, do you really need it? See, I don't know if you need it. I'm, I'm, it's somebody's going to have, that's why I want to talk to them. I want to talk to the people that developed it. I'm going to see them at the Honeybee Expo. We're going to see what's up. And I'll decide what I

want to do. We do, this is from rivity reptiles. Way to go. We do O-A dribble. Any reason why we couldn't put it in a spray bottle and sprayed on each frame instead? Seems like it would. Okay, so here's the thing. That's a very good question. And the reason you don't want to put it in spray bottle is you have to deliver a metered dosage. So you need a metered. syringe to do it. You need to know exactly how much you're putting in the seams. If we're going to follow the recommended dose, and we're going to follow the label, you have to use a delivery system that meters the dose that you're delivering in each seam of bees. So that's the space between the frames, of course. That's why you can't just spray it on there. Now, there is an

exalic acid method where I think there's some drenching, but the dribble is the approved method and has to be metered. So I have to stop with that and just say that there. And then the next one here, Steve Hunt, it says, where can we get a hold of any of the studies they have done on the Neroa, especially the studies on how the bees may transfer it to the reproductive organs of the flowers they visit? That's an interesting question. If the bees could transfer it, now, okay, let's look at this. How are the bees going to transfer it to the reproductive? of organs of the flowers that they visit. Now, I'm not a Neroa expert.

Good question. We could ask their scientists that. But what is in contact with the flowers from the bees are on it? So you've got your foragers, your senior foragers are out there. Could they have had some of the Neroa in their gut, in their digestive system?

Yes. How would they deliver that into the flower to make it a part of the flower somehow? They would have to regurgitate it onto the flower. They would have to have it on their proboscis. on their tongue. They would have to have it on their feet or something to leave it there. I would not put that very high on a list of risk factors

for spreading that out to the greater environment just because of kind of how they ingest it and then where it travels. They're not going to defecate on flowers because it's the other thing. It's got to come out at the other end at some point. But they're again, they're not doing that usually on flowers either. So I don't think that's high on the risk.

Would it be zero? I don't know. That's not as much of a concern to me as them spreading to form wing virus and things like that. So I think, here's, let's argue with ourselves. If we were thinking about things that the bees would be spreading to flowers, which then could be spread to other pollinators, native pollinators, specifically to form wing virus, we know for sure the bees can spread. And where do they get that?

Most often it comes from the virulmonary. Veroa destructor mite. So it's a vote for mitigating the varroa destructor mite and then also reducing these pathogens that get spread around on the flowers. And bumblebees get them. I even found deformed wing virus in Yellowjacket wasps, which was really interesting to me. So there are a lot of things that can be spread around, but I think Neroa would not be high on my personal concern list. I'm not a scientist. I haven't tested it. But I'm just trying to think of how it gets spread

why it would be something that they would then pass on when they were trying to collect nectar from the nectar or pollen from the anthers and how would then they leave a residue like that because it's not like they carry it on their feet and stuff. I think that's kind of on the safe side. But studies that they've done, I don't know of any formal studies.

In fact, I didn't even read any published studies on Neroa itself. So it might be out there. I just haven't gone that deep yet. Because every time I did research on it, it led me back to either a YouTube from somebody that's promoting it or it led me to the website.

That's selling it. And that's Man Lake. So I didn't find, if you go to Google Scholar and look up Neroa, there might be studies that show that MRNA that there are ways of splitting, you know, the DNA so that they can work on the reproduction of this. I don't know what's going on with that stuff.

I've not seen studies. So no formal studies. Just 10, they say when you go to the website, 10 years of testing and research and development. It seems to me always, and I'm not saying there isn't a study. I'm just saying I haven't found one myself. If you found one, post the link if somebody watching or listening has one. Usually, if there's a study, a published study, a company that's selling a product would feature that study on their page. Those who have peer-reviewed studies, publish them, they make a big show of it.

And the reason is, because that's a lot more wicked, so that has to go through it, means when they say peer-reviewed, people with equal PhD status in the same area have critically looked at it, challenged it, torn it apart, and decided whether or not this is a good study, whether or not the tests that were. done were viable and done in a very good way to arrive at some solid scientific evidence at the end. I didn't find it. So, I don't know. Probably need to look deeper. So as far as where we can get a whole of studies, I haven't been able to find any, so I don't know. Just to let you know, my wife got me the way to be Academy Coffee Cup and shirt for Christmas. Love them. That's from Denb, 71, 81. thank you I wondered who bought that shirt and coffee cup I really appreciate it and so for those that you don't know it is on my website the way to be.org it just says store and by the way

I designed a whole bunch of new shirts and stuff on there the way to be shirts for pollinators including more than honey bees and the best selling shirt was my wife's chicken drawing so I mean I don't feel bad it doesn't hurt my feelings at all but it is a bee store, not a chicken drawing store, but my wife is out selling me. So this one says Dan Weaver, 2049. Fred, have you seen any new studies from the Penn State on the medicinal properties of the lanternfly honey? That is hot stuff, by the way. And Dr. Robin Underwood, I even had dinner with Oztook Fairhot, who does the research

down at Texas State on the medicinal properties of honey and the honey-do honey from the spotted lanternfly, which we are ground zero for the spotted lanternfly, mostly to the eastern part of the state of Pennsylvania. But the medicinal value of that is sky high. And it's very interesting because now this creates a problem. What's the problem? The problem is the almighty dollar and if you can get honey from beekeepers that is determined to have high value and can make the grade they actually grade it for medical purposes and they have this method where they take that honey and they introduce it to a bacteria area in these petri dishes and they evaluate the bacteria's response to the presence of this honey and i know i am giving the most fundamental explanation of

this because phds can explain it so much better but the The more bacteria are destroyed, interrupted, and impacted in a negative way by the presence of this honey, the more value it has in medicine. And I think that is an incredible advancement in medicine. Okay. The fact that they're taking something made by bees that they're finally going to acknowledge has this kind of power. And so protecting tissues that are damaged. Now, if you have ever seen Dr. Osstoke's presentation, it's graphic because there's a lot of clinical. injuries that are shown in great detail and then they show the reaction of medicinal

honeies that are used on it now historically you would say manuka honey everybody wants to talk about manuka honey it's so awesome it's so medicinal it's so everything and people put on white coats and sell manuka honey we got them beat with the spotted lanternfly honey we have it beat so why is there a problem because beekeepers instead of wanting to wipe out the spotted lanternfly which everybody wants to happen because it's detrimental to, for example, the grape growers, because they attack grape vines, among other things. Tree of heaven is one of the top trees that they go after, but they're also finding out

they go onto walnut trees and stuff too, which does what? Produces a high value honey-dew, honey. So what's the honey-do? Well, the honey-do is what they're excreting while they're tapping into these layers and the trees and the plants that they're on, and they're excreting it out the back, and it puts these little clear bubbles. It's not discussing. It's not like they're eating waste material in the traditional sense. They're not eating solid waste. I don't know if you've ever seen aphids being farmed by ants. They're just drinking as these ants are produced as the ants are

taking the honeydew off of the aphids, which makes plants accessible to the ants that otherwise wouldn't be. Same thing with honeybees. The honeybees discover it. Whoa, there's this high concentration of carbohydrate, this high sucrose content that they otherwise couldn't even access and honeybees are fast learners. Once they find an insect that's excreting this high sugar content stuff, and clearly there's something else in it, these enzymes are incredibly valuable as a medicine. The bees are metabolizing that, taking it back, drying it down, making honey. They're inverting it. You know, they use invertase and everything else. So now they're coming up with this fantastic honey.

And we were using the honey initially as a way to find out the spotted lanternflies were even around. So it was very easy to identify in the honey. Now, they'll actually want that when they find out that you can get over $100 for a pound of honey. It may even be higher than that.

And so now, if you're in an area where you can get that, it makes that valuable to you, which means you want to go off killing these insects are going to provide these resources to you. I'm a little concerned that farmers might start farming spotted lanternflies. I mean, I realize people do not make moves just to pad their bank account just so they can have more money. I know people are not like that, but it is at the edge of the realm of possibilities.

So spotted lanternflies. Yes, there are studies, and they're working on that all the time. So you would look up Dr. Robin Underwood, look up her name. So if you go to Google Scholar and look up medicinal properties of honey, and you'll find out, you'll also see Dr. Oztook-Ferhot. You'll see, I hope I'm not messing up his name, but you'll also see his name all over these studies in this research. And it's incredibly valuable. They're able to heal people that traditional medicine has not been able to take care of, particularly in skin injuries, burns and things like that. so regenerating new tissue.

To do to do, let's see. Oops. This is from Cecilia, and it says, I bought a cheaper vaporizer off of Amazon. When I use it, the exhalic acid was in a puddle in the tank. Don't know what to do about that, but what time of year would be okay to treat with the drip method. So the dribble method, I've had people tell me that they would use that at any time.

Anytime the bees have broken cluster and you can access them and they're in the frames, there's no temperature parameters associated with that. It's just your ability to put it on the bees. I've had people say that they use it in really cold temperatures. I personally would wait until it's in the 50s or 60s before I put it in a colony of bees. but the dribble method is looking far more appealing to me, especially with the new formula that's going to come out. Remember, they have adjusted the exhalic acid dosage.

So it started out, I think, initially at one gram, then it was two grams. Now it's four grams. And they've proven that it has no detriment to the bees themselves, and it is a fantastic detriment to the varro destructor mites. So again, it only works on the dispersal phase. mites the exposed mites but yeah so um using that durable method is whenever my rule of thumb would be if they've broken cluster and you see landing board activity they're coming and going and it's not just

cleansing flights that they're doing coming and going like they're forging i would consider that have your ducks in a row be prepared open it up treat the seams follow the guidelines on the labels and according to the experts you can use it So this comes from Norman Macbilly. It says if I were to have input into a new insta-vap design, I would ask for a much bigger heat sink. So once it is heated up, the operational temp, you add the OA would not drop in temp as much.

So okay, for Norman McBilly, there are a lot of them that have these really thin bowls. They've got ceramics. They've got all this other stuff. And the heat band is made out of copper. and you're going to see a new one that's going to come out at the North American Honeybee Expo called the turbo unit turbo instant vape. But the instant vape, which I don't have here, but it's a big, it's got a big stainless steel

shroud over it, that is a block of milled aluminum in there. And so it really does hold the temperature a lot. And that's why once it's up to temperature, it recovers quicker, it drops less when you're delivering your exhalic acid vapor and draws less. power from your batteries because of that residual. So those that have the smaller, thinner materials on them, they heat up quicker. But of course, then they have to spike when they get cooled down as they vapor off. So they sublimate. And then that draws on the battery to charge it up again. So I'll be interested to see what the battery draw is. So Larabi's will be having the

turbo unit at the North American Honeybee Expo. That's another one I'm going to talk to. We're going to look at that unit, and I have questions about how much it draws, recovery rates, things like that. But you're exactly right if the bigger the unit, the more aluminum in there, the heavier it's going to be, the more expensive it's going to be to make. So there has to be a trade-off to that. But I like the instant vape unit that has already that heavy-milled piece of aluminum. Yannos did a fantastic job in research and development on that. So the smaller, thinner ones, more power, and it doesn't hold the temperature just as you're

driving. So let's see to do golden honey we trust somebody says. Okay finally I can go on to my other question here. Next one comes from Diane and Warren, New Jersey. It says I went out to check on the bees on a 56 degree day a few weeks ago. There was lots of activity of both hives. I don't have any experience getting stronger colonies for a second winter. So I don't really know how to read the activity. I looked at a lot of orientation flights and is this normal? Yeah, there's newbies coming out all the time. So it says you mentioned last week, the activity could indicate starvation. And so I went out to add some hive alive and an already installed, insulated feeder shim, 36 degrees, sunny.

One colony was clustered at the very top under the intercover, spilling up through the feed access hole. When I opened it, I would have normally preferred to smoke them down. So this is the same question, should we be using smoke? And I would say not, just as I described earlier. And just be prepared to swap that out when the beats are up there. And the other thing is, I would like you to wear a veil when you're out there, even when it's cold. And in the 50s, be careful because they will fly right into your face.

They will sting you. And it feels personal. So you're there to help them after all. So please wear a veil, some eye protection. I'm never going to forget that a woman one time was stung right on the eye. I don't mean the eyelid. I mean, it left a stinger in the white of the eye. so it can happen it's weird it's rare but that doesn't mean it's not possible so just a veil just do it

my wife made me wear a veil just to go out there to do something and i usually argue but i do what i'm told so protect your eyes uh let's see what else now to do living on this comes from john from frederick maryland it says this evening you discuss building two house hives one of my farmers wants me to do the same thing, but without tubes, just open windows. Once inside the building, the bees would find their own way to their own hives. Why not? Okay, so this is talking about my desire to have a row barn for beehives, and I'm going to have it. It's going to happen. So I'm just going to describe my thing again, knee wall. So it's roughly, you know, 24 inches high. we don't want to when you're using stock lumber and dimensional materials if you do things in two foot

increments your way ahead because you're not wasting material by cutting smaller and so on so two feet four feet eight feet 12 feet so on anyway the knee wall is there and the entrances from my hives are going to go through the knee wall now the option that we're talking about here is why not just put all the hives inside have some windows open the windows let the bees go in and out through the windows and they find their way back to each hive. Okay, I vote against that. The building will have windows, and they all face south. So the long wall of this building all faces south.

Mid-summer, it's not a problem, because the sunlight is almost directly overhead mid-summer, and that's where the roof is going to catch it, and there will be no windows that have direct sunlight coming through them, so we won't cook our bees in the summertime. Where there are windows, bees fly to windows. So the idea of opening a window and saying the bees will just find their way through it in and out, it's not great. Bees are incredibly accurate in what they go to and where they go in.

So when you run an entrance through the wall, first of all, you don't have to worry about a bunch of drift. The bees don't get confused about where they're going. And we all know, I hope, by now, that bees drift. They fly through the pheromone of another colony. They just go to that colony, especially bees that have been out foraging that are coming back with a lot of research. sources, they often don't get rejected at the landing board. So you could encourage drift by doing that. Having the entrances themselves through the outside, because mine will be set in from the interior wall and the tube will go through it. This way I can set inside the building and I can

see the traffic through the tube before they ever go out. That saves me having to create windows that I can look out to see what the entrances are doing from the inside. So by having clear tubes that they travel through, I get this observation. Think of predators and robbers. Predators and robbers can come through an open window much easier than if they had a long tube that they had to come through. That is also the tube where the guard bees are going to be and they're going to help defend the colony against wasts, against robber bees, against hornets, and anything else that should not be there will get intercepted through a longer entrance tube. I looked at the entrance tubes for the hives at Cornell University, the Dice Lab for honeybee studies,

and some of them looked like they were almost four feet long. So this meant you had a lot of time to really observe in there what's going on before the bees are getting all the way out or the ones that are coming in and what the behavior is on their way. So I prefer that. If you notice when bees come in, if they go to an entrance, if that entrance gets moved at all, they go to where the entrance used to be. That's how tight they are when they're outside going to a set entrance.

So I think that's much better. I also don't want to worry about, well, at nighttime, I have to go out and close the windows. Now bees inside. Because bees sometimes will fly out, even at night. Because they do cleansing flights are at the end of their life. So they fly out and they just go wherever light is.

And the windows, as far as they know, is light. so the other thing is i just think that's the best way to go i did create a comparison sheet for that so open windows bee traffic bees fly against the windows against the glass they'll just be up against the glass and they can't figure it out so an entrance to the wall eliminates that very targeted climate control is the other thing uh if you have to have windows open so your bees can come in and out But if you get those odd really cold days or a heavy rainy rain day or heavy wind day, you just lost the ability to control that climate, whereas through the tubes, through the entrances, that's it. Tan Weaver says something about, I figured you ruled out a sea container. So what is the sea container?

Is that like a cargo ship container, those big metal things? This is not going to be like that. it's only going to be 10 feet and it's nine feet high and i know i just finished saying the thing about do it in twos but that's the back wall up against the other building so and then it will be eight feet on the front wall and then the length is 32 feet so it's by 10 feet so that is not i don't need a container to do that i want to make my own i like to build things so um anyway i'm just going to cut to the chase and say entrances are better than just opening and closing windows so including wintertime you don't want to leave those windows open in the wintertime and let's see if they're

somebody wrote no fred's wife ruled that out yeah you're not wrong okay let's move on uh have another question to hear from brent trading 2363 why would you allow the queen to lay eggs in the flow frames it doesn't make sense to me so this is something that somebody complained about on a flow high video because we let the queen lay eggs in the flow frames to see if she could lay eggs and to answer the questions of whether or not those would be drones or would they be workers so you know they went out of the way to design a frame that hopefully would not be appealing to the queen be they're deeper the cells are deeper and they're a little larger than a worker cell a little smaller than a drone cell So I have to test it.

I have to ask questions, just like I suggested earlier, challenge things. Check it out. So I let the queen lay eggs in there. Did I ruin the flow of frames by letting the queen lay eggs in there and waiting to see what emerges from the cells? No, because then all we do is put the queen down below, put a queen excluder above, let them emerge from the cells, and then they go their happy way down through the queen excluder. And all we did was answer her question. Could she lay eggs in there? Yes.

would she? Yes, she did. Would they be workers or drones? Yes, workers and drones. So it's good for everything. So that's it. Glenn Perkins says, Fred, quick question, what size entrance hole do you have on your observation hives? They are, they're different sizes. So the one inch hole is optimum. I have that all the way up to an inch and a half in diameter. So the one-inch holes have proven to be, to me, the best. Not only that, there's a reason for that. I clean them in the wintertime with a vacuum. So if you have a narrow hole and I put a vacuum on it from the outside, it sucks it clear.

If I have a larger diameter hole, I don't think it improved ventilation better. The colonies did not demonstrate that one, for example, produced more honey quicker, dried their honey faster, had less condensation on the glass, or more condensation on the glass. So the one inch diameter hole for the entrance was adequate, and also it's easier for them to defend and things like that. So if I were building it new and I will be, the one inch diameter holes are going to be pretty standard. Now, there's more to it than that if you have to do risers. So I'll add that right now for talking about it. If you do an observation hive inside, this is kind of fun. The entrance hole could be an inch, but then you do your 90 degree elbow and now you have a riser because let's say,

it either the entrance is high and comes down or you're inside and you want it to rise and then go into another hive inside. If you make those risers, the three inch diameter clear, translucent plexiglass stuff, they don't climb up it. They fly up it. So it's pretty funny. Some bees will follow, you know, they walk up it, but they get to that opening and they fly up and then they go through the smaller opening so there are some fun dynamics going on in there and how the bees travel a space and they don't build any comb or anything in there because they're not yet inside the hive and that's where they'll do it so really interesting stuff but yeah so that answers the whole question and this question comes from lorry columbia city indiana plan on adding a second hive

the spring what should i be doing to prepare for this in the next 60 to 90 days i'd like to get my bees from a local beekeeper what should i consider before buying i also need to add a second hive because they have trouble lifting a box filled with honey i'm considering a long langstroth keeper's hive or a new okay so let's talk long langstroth for starters to me of all those for somebody that's having trouble lifting things that's all i'm saying long langstroth You can also go to my website, the way to be.org, and click on the page marked Plans of Prints and get a free PDF that you can print out. Ross Millard drew those up for me.

So I want to thank Ross. I haven't seen them in a conversation here for a while. Anyway, those prints can be printed and it's a starting point for you. It can also be the final thing. But if you're having trouble slipping, now here's the thing, you can't just buy those anywhere. If you had to buy a horizontal hive, a long-lying straws, specifically, the number one name that comes to mind, Beersville Bees, B-E-A-R-S-V-I-L-E, B-E-B's. He makes very, the guy's cabinet maker, fantastic, well-crafted, long lengths are out of

hides, so it will last the rest of your life. So anyway, but the other thing is getting your bees. Let's talk about that. Think about where to sight your bees. Look around. Where does water pool? Where are things really wet and damp? Where are the prevailing winds? These are things to avoid. What kind of activity is going to be near where you're going to put your hive? Are you going to have, is it going to see your driveway? Is a FedEx and UPS people going to come up and be met by some guard bees? So think about where you're going to put your hives.

I also saw people cluster a bunch of their hives together. They completely forgot to leave space to walk behind their hives. So think about access to where you're putting your bees. I prefer a southern exposure for the entrance. Also, bees where I am in my neck of the woods, it may be different for you. once you find this dry spot in a high area that doesn't get flooding, I highly recommend that you don't face your hive towards prevailing winds either. So a little bit of shelter, sunshine in winter, very helpful.

So don't park it on the north side of a bunch of carniferous trees, for example. It'll be in shade all the time. And bees do better in sun in northern climates. So the other thing is getting your bees. How do you decide? Well, you want to talk to other people who bought bees. bees from the people. And I do. I 100% support getting your bees from a local beekeeper. Locally acclimated bee stock is really fantastic. So you want to just find out what the

reputation of the person is. And so make sure, talk to the people that got bees from them in the past. It's the quickest way to build up. Now here's the other thing. And I want everybody listening to think about this. Get free bees in spring. You don't have to buy bees. you can sign up to get swarms. Every bee club should have people willing to teach new people how to collect a swarm, how to hive a swarm, how to keep a swarm. That's the segue into what? Into my talk that I'm going to give at the North American Honeybee Expo

at 5 o'clock on the first night. We're going to talk about swarms, how to get them, how to keep them, how to make them your friend forever so they never, ever leave you. That's what I'm going to teach about. Now, where would you register for free bees? B-swarmed.org. B-E-E-S-W-A-R-M-E-D dot org. You get on that list, you get free bees in spring.

The early spring swarms are prime swarms. They're the best swarms of the year, and they cost you nothing. Plus, you get the experience of going out and collecting them yourself and bringing them home and finding out that they want to stay with you. So it's very important. I've helped you.

And if it all works out, you owe me forever. Okay. Speaking of long-laying plans, I can't find the size cafeteria trades I suggest anywhere. What? Okay, cafeteria trades. I'm going to make a note because I have them. I'll find the link.

I just bought a whole bunch more of them. Cafeteria trays, link, long, Langstroth. It works underneath all the standard Langstroth hives. For those of you who care enough about your bees can provide number eight screen at the bottom of your hive with an enclosed base underneath that. It has a removable tray to help get the Varodistructor mites out of there and you can examine their feet for damage.

so that's it for that get free bees don't i mean there's nothing wrong with buying bees but even inexpensive people are what i consider reasonable people uh 160 dollars for a nucleus high it's a lot of money considering all you need to do is get a bucket and some screen and go get some beats uh does vix vapor rub spread onto cardboard strips kill varroa local beekeeper recommended highly do not recommend it i can answer that question right now that question comes for mr anisto okay anyway fixed vapor rob is a petroleum product please do not put that into your beehive so uh cardboard strips to kill barra it doesn't kill them it traps them so i highly recommend something else you don't want to put that first of all where your bees can get to it

so let's just start there cardboard strips where are these cardboard strips is there underneath the screen bottom board, sure, because then they'll just stick to it. But remember, what's in the title vapor rub? So it's supposed to off-vap, right? Not effective in killing Varroa destructor mites. But as far as causing them to get in a quagmire, get stuck on it, you can use Pam cooking spray. You can use mineral oil. There are a lot of things. It is amazing what a varroa destructor mite cannot navigate. The thinnest film of sticky stuff traps a varroa destructor mite. They just can't go anywhere. Below a screen is my number one recommendation for that.

And I personally would not be putting VIX in any of my, any petroleum jelly product in my hives. And there's no evidence I know of that would cause for a destructor rights to die just from the fumes of it. Okay, so I think that's it. If anybody else has a question for me, this is your chance because we're going to wrap this up this last question of the day comes from lynn from russelllvania have you or would you consider a special chicken qu and a session once

and a while with all the books and videos available it can still be challenging for new chicken owners to know what information is reliable uh so there's so many different opinions that's true in chickens well you think honeybees is a tough area to talk to people about with all their predisposed ideas and opinions. Chickens. So a lot of you may not know that I'm a licensed poultry technician with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and I've kept chickens for 26 years. And I'm happy to talk about chickens during any of these conferences or any of these live streams. We, I did a chicken live stream a couple of times, and not a lot of people come to them but i'm always open to chicken questions uh photography questions if you want

to put everybody to sleep let's start nerding out about photography by the way before i leave that is my oil painting right there that is going to be at the north american honeybee expo it is for the um highest for heroes uh auction so that is an oil painting on the side panel of one of my first beehives ever. So we repurpose it, and now it has this scene on it. It's called The Way to Be, and it's going to be at the Honeybee Expo.

Go see it. Stop by their booth for the Hives for Heroes, support their organization. So the fluff is, these are marching orders for the week, right? Keep feed on. So if you've got bees are at the top that might need emergency resources,

it's time to keep that going. Once you start, you have to continue. Unfortunately, just keep reloading it if they're using it up. Check for rodent activity, stored equipment, and your beehive entrances themselves. Make sure that mice and stuff are not trying to chew in there. Look for leaks and shifting hives. We have some really weird weather this year combined with really high winds. Your hives may be tipping.

They may be misaligning in how they do that. I don't know. The best recommendation I can make is when you've, got your stacked boxes and one of them is just shifted a little off because of all this vibration from wind and everything that happens, you can use bar clamps, run one high, run low, and slowly realign those and then strap them down again. It can happen very subtly and you may not be aware. If you go out in your B yard and you've got a bunch of drunken hives, just make sure they're not going to fall apart. Shipping straps, very important. So, and keep your entrances open.

this big ice event right now, I know it's going to encapsulate most of the beehives. And so I have, me personally, I just got a battery powered hot gun, heat gun. Somebody use that to help melt away some of the openings and stuff so that we can get those bees so they can do a cleansing flight because we have this right on the edge of freezing temperature range right now. And if trees don't fall down and branches don't break and if power lines, look at this, the power lines did not fail, even though we're in the middle of this, this ice storm right now. So that's good news. And let me see. Last check for questions.

Coda Vista commune apiaries. Coda Vista commune. Fred, you are going to be making videos of the booths at the expo as you have in the past years. Yes, I am. And I'm going to change something about that. There were some vendors last year that were upset that, I think, didn't stop and talk to them. And here's the problem I have. Kamen Reynolds, darn that guy. He has too many vendors. So what I'm doing this year is I have people coming with me. So I have very good friends that are beekeepers. And they can help me find the key presenters and people that are there that have new items at the Honeybee Expo. And I will be interviewing them. And I'm going to put out a video, not like last year. Because last year, it was

two and a half, almost three hours long, people look at that and they go, oh, man, a three-hour video, time to watch that. So they are, they're compartmentalized, so you can look to see each vendor, who they are and what their timestamp is. But that's a lot of effort for people. So I am going to change it up a little bit this year. And we're going to feature different vendors at the North American Honeybee Expo. And so we're going to do a little mini stand-alone videos that I will put out for the vendors that had really interesting innovations and new advancements in beekeeping so I'm looking forward to that and of course we're just going to interview people talk to people I also apparently I

need to spend time and talk to other YouTubers and put them on and you know that makes me really excited you know people that we're seeing every day anyway so talk to some other YouTubers is that is that important is do you do you want to hear from other YouTubers like should we talk to them and include them on the way to be? I don't know. So and it says here, Wendgrove says check for the new smoker. Oh, I'm going to because there's other vape systems that are out there. There's new smokers. We're going to check all that out. So Vince says no, no what Vince. No what. So Tom says, Hey, Fred, we still haven't had a frost yet.

My bees are flying at 45 degrees. This is highly unusual. I actually don't like that. The bees flying out when there's nothing for them to get. It's not good. Now, I like what Dan Weaver says. Just be you, Fred. Is that the Dan Weaver from Bee Weaver apiaries in Texas?

Or is this another bee weaver? So, well, I'm definitely going to talk to Keith Spillman. By the way, Keith Spillman, you should all. thank keep he's my sponsor for the north american honeybee expo so i don't know he's not just my bouncer he is the guy a dan weaver says no he's not the one so that would have been funny if it was the dan weaver from you know what i'm saying b weaver okay so that's it we're going to wrap it up i'll give you 30 seconds and say goodbye to each other and we're out of here i want to thank you for being here spending your time with me the day after christmas and i hope that you're all eating

leftovers and watching some good streaming stuff on whatever happens on tv and i'm going to see you in a week and then that will be the last one that we have i think what happens in a week it'll be the new year and it'll just be before we head out for the north american honeybee expo so thanks a lot for being here and also for watching my videos overall have a fantastic new year that's what i'm going to do