The Way To Bee with Frederick Dunn - Backyard Beekeeping Q&A 305 plants, aggressive bees, new nucleus that won't fly and more... May 9th

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

This is the audio track from today's YouTube:  https://youtu.be/tznWzcA9Tz8

So hello and welcome, happy Friday. Today is Friday, May the 9th, and this is Backer, Be Keeping Questions and Answers episode number 305. I'm Frederick Dunn, and this is The Way to Be. So I'm really glad that you're here. I hope that you'll stick around for the whole thing. Weather has turned for the better, even though last night it was ridiculous. It was really bad.

It froze. Went below freezing, and that wasn't even in the forecast. If you want to know what we're going to talk about today, Please look down in the video description. You'll see all the topics listed in order and some links and things that will help you better understand some of the explanations. If you don't have time to watch the video but you don't want to miss it, please Google the Way to Be podcast and you'll find it. I guarantee it. You'll be able to listen on your phone or through your car stereo and you won't wreck your vehicle and you won't be staring out of screen.

So I know you want to know what's going on outside because I was up at 4.30 this morning and it was 31 degrees Fahrenheit. It's really bad. But the important part is what it's doing right now. 55.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 13 Celsius. And where is this happening? Because it's different where you live, I'm sure.

This is in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, the northeastern part of the United States. Winds are nice. three to six miles an hour barely noticeable and that's six kilometers per hour if you must know UV index is eight you can go outside get a tan today you should not be sitting in front of your computer unless your computer's outside take it with you it's a laptop for a reason a lot of you are listening by phone the number one listening or viewing a piece of gear that people use for my video seems to be the television it used to be the phone so now things are changing anyway of humidity is 47% that's fantastic because there's a nectar flow on there's a pollen resource

overload going on out there and by far the plant that they're going after the most here is the dandelion no rain today thank goodness we have a great weekend ahead mother's day is coming sunday if you didn't know that now you've got time celebrate your mom my mother has passed but i post a picture of her anyway and so we can think about the people who are mothers who are still around not just your mother and celebrate them this weekend so what else is going on i did look at flowers when outside um also the pond i think we're going to have some baby coy someday soon if the bluegill don't eat all their eggs and how do i know that because they're doing some interesting things in the grass out there so buckwheat.

by the way that I frost seeded just tossed it around and it's growing but here's the interesting part it's about three inches high right now and some of it already has flowers on it this is my first year with buckwheat so I know it grows a lot bigger and taller than that but the fact that it's already flowering is very interesting to me not enough to get the interest of the bees and other pollinators yet Irish moss is something that I planted around my pond edges this year and the pond is still at flood stage it's staying right there because we've had lots rain. The honeybees like landing on the moss and using it to get their footing while they drink water. So very interesting. Self-heel is out. Dead nettle is everywhere, but by far the honeybees are on

dandelions first. Pair trees are flowering, but thanks to that freeze last night, we're probably going to lose most of the pear crop again this year, the way we do every single year. And coming up, of course, May 24. 25th and 26th just planning ahead because you might be unprepared if you're going to plant plants around here in our neck of the woods that's the time to do it so I often get asked when do I plant what do I plant how do I plant so we're gonna just start today with that I always do a little over an acre of sunflowers and it's not just all one variety of sunflowers we do lots of them so I get the sunflower mixes

from Eden brothers because it's another question Where do you get your sunflowers from? Eden Brothers and I wait till they're on sale and on payful price because their stuff is fairly expensive But the percentage of germination is really high My difficulty with sunflowers is not getting them to start growing but to get the deer to leave them alone The wood chucks to stop munching them and to keep rabbits from just chewing them up for no apparent reason So I have a plan this year. We're gonna see how it goes last year had very good results with liquid fence spraying that around about once a week. Clover's not blooming yet,

so we got nothing there. We did have hawthorn trees with blossoms all over them. The bees were there, and they definitely paid attention to those trees. Apple blossoms, for some varieties, were already out, but they had very little honeybee coverage, so that was interesting. And what else? A pear trees already talked about, planning for May. what are we going to plant so the sunflowers i'm also planting cosmos do that every year the bees get a little pollen out of the cosmos and stuff but it's not so much just for honeybees so why would i bother planting them because here's what i want to do i want to support all pollinators native pollinators are important honeybees get a lot of attention but i think as beekeepers it really

is good if we become good stewards of the land and resources under our control and improve it for all pollinators for all wildlife so that's what I do and don't forget that Sunflowers Cosmos things like that are great for photography so it's just nice to be out there marigolds this year we're planting a lot of marigolds and I've never done that before last year maybe we put out 40 marigold plants or something like that I was surprised to see in times of dearth that honeybees were on the marigolds as well as other pollinators there are moths and there are are butterflies that go toward the marigolds.

So I decided, hmm, since that could possibly help annoy the deer, that's a goal of mine this year, and maybe curb some rabbits, we're just going to plant them all around. There are differences in marigolds, by the way. They're not all the same. So the ones are the most valuable to your honeybees are the ones with single rows of petals on them.

So apparently when there are double rows and triple rows, they're taking the place of your pollenanthers. So it limits the resources that are available then to pollinators, but people do it because it looks good for people. So we're planning those. It's going to be interesting. We're going to take lots of pictures, of course. Morning glories.

This is the first year. We have morning glories already here, native morning glories. And some are annual, summer perennial, which is interesting. Now, because I have acres of woven wire fence, I decided that I will go along and disturb the soil just a little bit, not full till, and then I'm going to seed morning glories. When will I do that ahead of a series of rainstorms that are guaranteed to come? So our meteorologists are spot on, which is why they didn't tell us about the frost it was going to hit last night.

But when we have rain coming for sure, then that's when I'm going to plant the morning glories. I'm going to let them weave their way up all around the fence and see how that goes. Now that's not going to do dilly for the honeybees, but did you know there is a morning glory bee? So help your native pollinators. Add interest to your landscape. Don't let your yard be boring. And this is no-mow-may and that's okay. A lot of people are mowing.

I have a neighbor that mows three times a week. So anyway, we have let ours grow, not by choice, but because it rains a while. and that it's constantly wet and you could actually get out there with a scythe right about now instead of the regular mower hiss up planting that and i think that's pretty much the end of it so support your native pollinators do all that be ready everything is good if you want to know how to submit a question a topic for a friday q and a please go to my website which is the way to be.org click on the page mark the way to be it also says questions on it and that you can submit your topic and hopefully we'll talk about it.

So we're going to jump right in with Tina here from Honeygrove, Pennsylvania. So right here in my own state. We currently have about 23 hives in our apiary. Some of the girls are very aggressive just going near the yard. Is there any way to figure out which hive the mean bees are coming from? Yes. You go out and park yourself right in front of every landing board until you just get attacked. That's what I do. Now there are tests, of course. We're talking about

defensive levels of bees. So there are groups of students in entomology programs that study defensive levels of different bees so they can grade them along with a bunch of other traits that they have. And what you might be interested to know is what they do is they open the hive up and they use a piece of raw leather and they just pass it over the top of the bees and they see which ones react the most to it because we know what leather smells like. It smells like an animal to the bees, and they may attack it. So whichever colony delivers the most stings to their leather, and of course, once it's been stung, they use a different one so it doesn't have the alarm pheromones on it, and they test the defensive levels of the others, and that's how they find out.

This is why years ago I stopped using leather bee gloves, because leather bee gloves can also solicit a response from your bees. So one of the ways you tone that, that down. Goat skin. Goat skin seems to get no reaction from the bees at all. Nitro gloves offer almost no sting protection, but because the bees don't smell it or recognize it as part of your skin, it doesn't smell right, you don't seem to get stung with your nitrile gloves. So if you need dexterity and stuff like that. But the way I've, because I've helped people with defensive colonies before, and I just go and park myself right in front and see which ones the guard bees launch at me, which ones turn loose their defensive.

bees the quickest. So there's a couple of methods doing that. So then what are you going to do? Once you know you have mean bees, you might want to inspect the colony. It seems counterintuitive, but you need to look in there and see why they might be defensive. Maybe they're unsettled. Maybe they're desperate. Maybe they're queenless. Maybe they don't have enough resources. Bees that are low on resources that are in disarray for one reason or another may often become defensive. Here's another thing to look at. What's happening? at night around that colony. You need to sit out there with your red light and be dead silent. That's what I try to get my grandson to do. And watch. Look if there are signs of predators that are

coming around and harassing your bees at night while you're not there to protect them. You might have skunks. You might have raccoons clambering all over the top of the hive. You might have something that makes your bees unsettled. Bees that don't get sleep, much like people that don't get rest overnight, they're cranky the following day. So anything that disturbs your bees, and it doesn't have to come from an animal, it can be also human activity. So if you've got motors that kick on that cause vibrations and things like that. But if you had that going on, you would expect more than just one colony out of all these 23 colonies being defensive. So look at the grass around it. See if it's being packed down by a skunk.

Look at the overall condition of the hive. Look to see if it might have pesticides, not pesticides, but pests inside the hive. What kind of pest would you be looking for? Well, a road instructor mice, they don't intend to cause your bees to be defensive. Beetles moving in can stress them out. Mice that are bothering your hive can stress out your bees. So just look it over in general, I would say. Other people may have ideas down in the comments section,

reasons that they found their bees to be difficult. So you can also add resources to them. If they're way behind, maybe it's time to put some sugar syrup on there. Sweeten the deal, as it were. So we're going to move on to question number two, which comes from Diane. For more in New Jersey, seem to remember you saying something about updating your long, thanks for off plans.

Am I remembering correctly? Is there a time frame for making them available? So those of you don't know, if you go to the way to be.org, there's a page marked prints and plans. Now, we're not selling them. They're just there. They're PDFs. You can download them.

They have dates underneath of them. So the most recent one was in the 2024. We have the Long Lang. We have the standard Langstroth configuration that I like to use. Ross Millard is the one that formalizes those drawings, and we've been collaborating for years now. And we do have a new one that's in the works. I reached out to Ross when I got this message because I wanted to know,

can we upload that as it ready to go. The changes are minor, so I will describe them to you if you want to get going, because I realize some people are waiting to build their hives and they want the latest plan. Now, these plans are designed to give you a launching point because there are maybe things about it, materially, that you want to change. Someone else wrote over the past week that they scavenge for their wood and materials that they use to make their hives, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Look at construction sites. If you've got construction and renovations going on near where you live,

these contractors have these huge bins put out there. Sometimes they put a great big, what looks like it's going to be a bonfire. They have a scrap pile out there. Touch base with whoever's in charge of that construction site and find out if you can pick through their stuff because it is amazing to me the things they throw away. Stuff they cut off, they just toss.

Especially if it's demo. If they're demoing an old building, look at that. Around here, a lot of the dairy barns end up just falling down. Like a big storm comes through. Now, I realize that's an unsafe situation, but there's some very large timber in there, and they're old planks and things like that, more than 100 years in service in a structure. And if you talk to the farmers, you'll find out that they might let you go and pick through some stuff,

as long as you sign a waiver and won't sue them if you get hooked on a rusty nail or something. So there's lots of material out there for you to build your stuff with. The other thing is, when you build your long-length shroth hive, some people will modify them and made a lighter weight roof, for example and things like that. Here's the beauty of a long laying. Once it's in place, it can be as heavy as it wants to be because you don't move it, it stays right there.

It's not a migratory hive. It's designed to sit there and be a part of the landscape, so to speak. So one of the things that are different, the entrance size. We had a half inch by six inch or something like that entrance. A single entrance at one end. Now it's three eighths of an inch because we've learned through the years

that mice can't get through that. So, now. Now, I am recently studying mice and mice nests and things like that, so I had to leave some hives exposed with larger entrances so that mice would move in, so I could photograph them, so I could evaluate them. And for example, the layens hives that have those control dials and that rather large diameter hole on the side,

it looks like an area that a mouse couldn't get in. It's a flat front, way high off the ground. It is incredible, the gymnastic skills, that these deer mice in particular have. And so no time at all. A deer mouse moved in, gathered a whole bunch of plant material, old seeds and puffy pods and things like that

that it used for insulation. It was really interesting, but they can get right in there. So this 3 eighths of an inch by three inch entrance is the standard entrance, summer, winter, year-round, makes no difference. And that's one of the differences. Now, the other thing is,

I like the entrance to be under your frames. So for example, one of the long Langstroth hives has an extension underneath. And a lot of people are puzzled by that. Why do you have an extension? Well, it serves a lot of purposes. It's an additional space that your bees can use. If they choose to build their comb down near the bottom

and they respect bee space, they don't generally attach it to the bottom. So if you compare, for example, lands and long Langstroth hives, right the layens frames are not as long but they're deeper okay so we have the long the Langstroth frame which we start out with deep frames in our long Langstroth hives and if the bottom extends another two and a half or three inches down then the bees can add comb to it so what happens is it looks like now a continuous frame

in fact when I recently went through the long Langstroth hive just this past week I put even medium frames in just to see what the bees would do. So we checkerboarded them. So deep frame, medium frame, deep frame, and so on. And the bees did such a smooth transition because these are one piece acorn, triple-dipped, double-dipped, double-waxed frames. And the bees continued the cells right on down below that.

So what you end up with is a much larger frame overall. and you have IPM. What is that? It's integrated pest management. People like to gather beeswax to make projects with, and so this serves double duty. When the bees draw the wax out off the bottom of the frames, and you're going to get your drone comb out of that, you'll also get bees wax out of it, and the bees will draw it out again as they need it. It also leaves a nice corridor down there. They keep it very clean. I was very surprised at how clean the bottom of the hive is. And again, they're running it across the bottom or bringing it up and out that small entrance.

So very interesting. The other reason that it's nice to have a 3 eighths by three inch entrance at the bottom of the first 2x12, where it marries into what is just a 2x4 that extends below that. That's what the shim is. you'll never have dead bees piling up and blocking the entrance because we have now the height of a 2x4 below the entrance and the bees have no problem

when they get back up to speed in spring they haul these dead bees right out that entrance easy-peasy so it seems to work out for a lot of things how that's why it's that way that's the change so you have the option of course to just have 2x12s which is what the side walls are and they sit right on top of other 2x12s which compose the bottom 2 by 12s face to face it's 5 feet long anyway look at the plans you'll see what I'm talking about what other changes were made there may be some changes regarding how your lid is held open the hinges are the same the rabbit joints are the same 3 eighth inch B space is the same so that's pretty much it

A lot of people have said, hey Fred, why aren't you making more of those? Why don't you have the current version in your own B yard? Because for the past two years, I've been told that people are bringing me one based on my plans, and things don't work out and I don't get it. So rather than build my own and set that out there just in time for them to show up with a truck to deliver the one that is their version of my long lang, I'm just sitting here, and so I only have one long long long sloth hive I would like more. You may be wondering about the top ar hive that's sitting in my garage right now.

It's not out and in place yet. So I'm just behind, just doing what I can. We've had terrible weather. I hate to use that as an excuse, but it is. That's my excuse. Can't get out. Can't do things. But use the plans.

You cannot resell the plans. You cannot make them part of a book. You cannot redistribute them. People have to go to my website to get them. There is also a handy button right there that says you can donate if you like what you're getting out of them and you want to support what we do ross millard's not paid this is just a collaboration that's why i don't charge you for them i don't think that's right when we're just sharing information question number three comes from alvin

from yonkers new yorkers new york which by the way there's a i'm not catholic but there's a new pope right now that is from chicago so the first pope from the united states interesting everybody's all excited about it well a lot of people are excited so anyway it says i did a split last weekend dumped in a couple of extra frames of nurse bees along with the queen and five brood resource frames it looks like all the foragers went back to the original hive and there's barely any traffic at the nuke entrance should it boost their numbers with more bees this weekend or just let the current nurses age into foragers. Let them age into foragers.

Here's what happens. Whenever, because I just recently restocked a observation hive. It was a dead out through winter. And I also did a demonstration this week on how to clean up your observation hive plastic, acrylic glass, which I do not like in observation hives. Anyway, yeah, when you populate them primarily with nurse bees, just as described foragers, zip back to whatever colony they came from.

And hopefully you've got a pile of cat brood in there that eventually will replace what you have in there. And you'll have your queen and things will go right back as per their standard biarrhythm. And what happens is they're not flyers. They're not old enough. They haven't passed through all those wickets, all those qualifications of being interior workers, wax builders, guard bees, and of course, foragers. And so what you need to do when you've set up a complex. that way is provide them with some of the basics so for that for me personally and you don't have to but this is why they're not foraging they're just not

ready and hopefully you also put a frame of honey in there for them and honey is not always quick energy because they need water to process it so if you want to put on a jar of sugar syrup or something like that this time of year that's a great way to get them going give them some energy but when the the temperatures really get nice and warm, you're going to find out that they will start foraging. So they have to accelerate their jobs, though. So which end up with is bees that are foraging before their time. They're also not very good guards and things like that too.

So they have to mature a little bit. And so this is a time where we can boost them with some resources and see how they go. But that is very common. That's what the observation of high bees are doing. There's no activity at the entrance. But that's because what are the temperatures? it's in the 50s and they have the resources that they need right now and the brood that we put in there was capped brood with the exception of a little fringe of some open larvae and those they have to

feed but with all the nurse bees in there they can do that so they're not in jeopardy they have everything they need and i would not continue to add more bees to them you're going to find out they will take off on their own particularly when the weather gets warm after about three or four days in that hive question number four comes from be amazing hives that's the youtube channel name hi fred you mentioned you were taking b frames with pictures to the zoo are they pictures you took or purchased somewhere it's been a crazy bee week so just catching up on this q and a okay so yeah last uh was that last week anyway we went to the zoo it was terrible day it was only in the low what they did they said it was going to be in the 50s, it was in the 40s and it rained. They said a chance of rain,

rain the whole time. The entire zoo had 100 visitors. I'm not venting. I'm not complaining. It was no fun. Anyway, so what we did is I couldn't bring live bees. So normally I would bring an observation hive, the standard five-deep-deep-frame observation hive nucleus style with the one with the queen in it and the queen-exclitter below it in a riser panel so that visitors can look at it. Very happy I did not do that. We did have some good conversations, but instead of carrying live bees, what do we do? We brought a hive with all the bells and whistles, all the latest features that a beehive can have. So in fact, the hive that are brought with me was a propola hive that had the finish on it from Endora hive, which is Greg Burns from Nature's Image

Farm. So I had that hive with me. I had the Appamea bottom board, because because it had a pollen trap built into it and all the different entrance options. And then we had insulated top, we had feeders on top and all the other stuff. And then each frame inside that hive was an image of a frame of bees. So the question is, did I take those pictures? No, I did not. So the frames that have those pictures, these are generally pretty darn expensive. So when you go to get there are frames that should look like when you pull up a frame, that should look like what you would see inside the hive. So it's a frame of pollen and bee bread and it's got the nectar that's open and the honeybees working it and things like that. And there are some close-ups and things like that too. So that one years ago, I bought it a whole collection. So there's 10 frames, 20 images. So each frame has an image on each side. And then I just write on the top of the wooden frames exactly what's pictured there.

So as a photographer, once you take the pictures, you have to print them that size or cut them after printing them large. And then you have to put them back to bag and you have to laminate them. And so by the time I do all of that and get 20 large images together and laminate them, I'm into pretty good money already. And I'm not going to say that my pictures are so much better and the time and effort that it would take to set them up, that it would be better than spending $90, which is what it cost me to get them. I bought those from Man Lake, and they have educational equipment and tools. That's why I was thinking I will do a video coming up that will show different educational resources

when you have to go somewhere where you can't bring live bees. Now that said, I'm changing over, so there's a new collection, because those I've had for probably 12 years, so they've been around a while. And Hilary Kearney, the author of Queen Spotting and the Inside the Hive book that recently came out, she has educational posters and she also has those inserts that are laminated. So those are also what I'm going to be looking at coming up as far as educational resources, and those will come laminated, right size for deep, Langstroth frames, wooden frames, and you put them in yourself.

So right now, those would be my preferred ones. And I'll put a link down in the video description. They're less expensive than man lakes, and they're better images. But no great surprise. They're newer, and she's a great photographer. And so those are the ones. So those are the two sources that I know of right now.

If you know of other photography sources, where they've already laminated them and made them available for frames inside your deep brood box, Let me know which ones you prefer. But check out Hillary Kearney's website there in San Diego, California also. So she was less expensive than Man Lake. I was pretty impressed. Moving on to question number five.

This YouTube channel name is Tanks and Space. Thought that's interesting. Talking about pollen. Last month, they got a bag of pollen from Amazon. But until last week, it was too cold and no insect seemed interested. Will pollen attract bees and other insects if I just put some on my city balcony? Is it useful? Okay, the short answer to that is no, it's not useful.

When you buy pollen on Amazon, because the other thing is I got no link, I got no information about exactly what the pollen was. But usually it's been freeze-dried so it can be preserved. It's being sold to people so people can sprinkle it on their salads and things like that. because it's freeze-dried and you don't even know what the pollen sources are that's the other thing was it even gathered by bees I don't know so I don't know the details but I do know that once you're freeze-dried and we have these little pollen pollen pellets do the bees go after them or they attracted to them they're not actually and even when you see bees and I've done in fact I'll link a video

on pollen traps so you can look for that or you can just go to my web page or YouTube channel Frederick Dunn and up in the top right pollen trap review because I compare a few different pollen traps. So if you want to collect your own pollen and you take that right to the freezer after you collect it, you can preserve pollen that can be later amended into things like pollen patties and stuff so you can feed it to your bees. You make your own protein patties and stuff. But one of the observations I want to share with you is that when you're using a pollen trap, it causes the pollen to fall off of the hind legs, your bees. as they move into the hive. That's how it works. So I actually preferred a less efficient pollen

trap. And the reason is I want some pollen to get in there because I want the bees to benefit from it. They need the bee bread so they can raise the bee brood. And so the one that actually lets them through was my favorite pollen trap. Now when the pollen falls off and hits the bottom board of your hive, you would think, well, those bees are going to grab it, you dropped it, or she dropped it. She's going to take it right back up and stuff it in the, uh, the bottom board of your hive. the bee bread cells, right? They don't. What they do is you'll see I'm pushing it around, licking it a lot, bees will pause and lick it. And the reason is, because the reason that pollen is sticking together is because the bees have used honey or nectar to do that. So it is sweet,

and that part draws bees. However, if you just took, you know, a jar of pollen that you buy from Amazon or your local store and put it out on a dish or something and think that that's going to attract bees and other pollinators to come and get it, you will have probably wasted your time and money. So, because they won't even pick up their own. It just ends up on the bottom and then ultimately gets cleaned up by house cleaner bees, housekeepers. I'm not sure if Undertaker bees also pick up bits and pieces of things that don't belong, but it ultimately just gets cast out. And that's fresh pollen that's been brought in by the bees from plants that they actually use to create bee bread, which is the protein that they raise bee brewed with.

So that's that. And I'll put a link down if you want to see what good. There are people that collect pollen that sell pollen, that dry it, freeze it, whatever, and use it for other things. I don't. So that's about it. But if you want to do that, I recommend setting out your own pollen trap, getting it fresh, and use your most productive colonies to get that.

Some people argue that. if you're setting up a pollen trap and you slow down the amount of pollen coming in, it really does not hurt the bees. And the thing is, I don't leave those traps on for more than a few hours a day. So they don't sit there for days on end. Because then your bees will just ramp up pollen harvesting, and they will ultimately bring in what they need. So, and I don't know. I can't validate that, but it makes sense to me. Question number six comes from Mr. Woodcock here. and it's about 5G towers. Okay, so they put up a 5G network 200 foot tower right next to where his beehives are.

So the question was about whether or not this is a bad place than to have hives of bees. And then there are some studies and there are some concerns and so 5G networks come up all the time. And before that, it was any cell tower and then it's high voltage lines. And when you look for studies and things like that, here's what my advice was and what I want you to think about as critical thinkers. When someone says, your cell phones are killing your bees, these communication towers are killing your bees, 5G networks are killing your bees,

what often happens is there'll be a study published and you'll find out that radio waves and things like that. can be harmful or you can get a response from your bees. And here's the deal. You need to look at the studies in great detail. What were the levels of these frequencies and these energy levels that were necessary to get a reaction from your bees? And you'll find out that this happens under lab conditions. So if you and I are getting together and we've been tasked now, we have to figure out if this energy source is

causing our bees a problem. So what we do is we keep moving our Bs closer and closer to the source of energy. So it's a 5G frequency. You keep moving them closer and closer to the transducer, the transmitter, whatever it happens to be. Receivers don't do anything because they're getting the signal from far away. Transmitters are the ones that are generating the energy. So you have to get closer, closer, closer, closer,

until you get a reaction from your B. Then once you reaction, a distress, disoriented B. All right, how close is it? it have to be what did the energy level have to be for that to happen and when you find out that these are energy levels that almost don't exist unless it be landed on the face of the transmitter that 200 yards out or whatever the safe zone is for it you get no reaction so then what you do in research is you get as close to the source as possible where you get a reaction and you start from a full reaction to how far away until this reaction goes away and attenuates and there is no

reaction. Now I'll give you an example of, I'll tell you a sea story. We had a ship's radar, and we have, if you look at the top side of ships, they have circles, safety circles around all their transmission equipment. For good reason, sailors often don't pay attention, and they're big red circles and there's insulators connecting it and everything else. But what they did was they suspended a frozen turkey in front of a radar while they cycled the the radar. Now cycling the radar, they did one pass. That's 360 degrees. They cooked a turkey. So that is wicked dangerous. They cooked a frozen turkey in one cycle. That's why sailors should not climb up on the staff and get right in front of the radar at all. Now, you know, out and away from it,

away from its focal zone, right, where it's heading out or where it's focused at, then you're safe. But the advice I gave was that if I saw a 200-foot tower, and even though we know that there may not be a huge reaction from your bees on that, I wouldn't choose to put my bees there because now we're talking about time, distance, and shielding. So if there is an energy source there, and if the tests that you do in labs are a 24-hour cycle or a 7-day cycle, Now we've got bees that would be somewhere for months and years, right? So there could be sublethal impacts. We don't know.

The cell phone things were the same, super close, immediate proximity to the cell phone. And the original study that was done was a cell phone on vibrate. It wasn't about the energy that a cell phone is putting out. It was about having it vibrate and seeing what the V's reaction was. and those very close to the cell phone when it vibrated were disturbed. So just like any vibration in a hive, if you create a vibration, because you can do it with tuning forks too, and the bees will pause and stop. And you can see a queen that when she goes,

when she's sending out those signals through, you'll see those adjacent and near her on the same comb. They'll pause for a second and then move on. So vibrations cause a reaction from your bees, but then being people who may already have an agenda would say then cell phones disturb your bees and are damaging to your bees. So that was well and away from that study, okay, because you would not have a cell phone inside your hive. It would not be vibrating day and night. And only the bees that were in close proximity to the phone even had a reaction. So people seem to want to

really magnify what the results are and it's not a realistic thing. So when you're looking at the studies, look at the levels, look at the energy levels and then find out how close do you have to be. Do I have to be 60 feet up this tower to even get a response level energy, which again, that's a safe zone that you're not even going to be in there? And one of the studies I read about high voltage lines, high power lines. Because we have transformers that step down from high power so that, you know, electricity gets used by households, right? That's what transformers are for. But you have these high voltage, high power lines that are really tall, and then they have long runs through, you know, they've cleared woods and everything else, which seems like a nice

place to park your bees. So at worst, they noticed that the bees that were foraging in those areas spent less time foraging under those high power lines. So they couldn't prove and keep in mind, a forager is only going to live two weeks. So what are the opportunities for long-term injury to the bee, right? So it's not that it gets genetically altered and that work or honeybee goes back and does something to your hive, which then you can say is attributed to the fact that it was exposed to an energy field because that doesn't make biological sense. So this is part of critical thinking. So I'm not saying go out of your way to park one there. I'm just saying that if you, that happens to be your property and that's where you're keeping your bees and this tower goes

in, then be realistic, I think, about what you think those energy levels are going to do and what kind of energy that is. That's the best I can do on that. Question number seven comes from Pete from Somerset, Wisconsin. I was able to get all eight of my hives through winter. Four double deeps, one single deep, and three, five by five by five, nukes. My counts are very low and coming into spring, but I'm having an issue with chalk brood. This is my fifth year beekeeping. I've not had chalk brood up until this year. All hides are condensed down in an effort to have a large, healthy population, but the chalk brood is persisting. I have Apamehives and I'll have about 20 mummies on the bottom poured every few days. Hives appear to be growing and ready for expansion. Do you have any

recommendations or should I just see if the chalk brood takes care of itself? Okay so most commonly it's been many years since I've seen chalk brood here in my apiary. But it does clear up pretty darn fast and one of the things that happens when you start to see chalk brood is uh those little mummies show up they're dry crusty little things even black uh chunks you'll see often because that's the next stage they just are dead and dry out and so what happens is that's usually in the fringe so if you're looking at the frame and you see especially on the lower parts or corners of a frame you'll see white chalk brood kind of standing out there and it's white and chalky That's why it gets your attention.

But you notice that this is like what I described earlier today. What was happening last night? We had temps down to 31 degrees Fahrenheit. What do we have now? We have temps at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. So when we get these rapid temperature changes from cold to warm, then the area is not covered by the bees, not being worked by the bees are fringe areas

where a condensation can form and chalk brood can start to develop. So it develops in pupa that are capped already. And then they get discovered and sometimes your bees will uncap them and pull out the chalk brood and then so it goes. Now in extreme cases, like if you had a lot of it and the bees didn't seem to be getting a handle on it, even when things dry out because remember today I said the humidity levels are down to 45. What is it? 47% relative humidity, which is pretty good. So that's what we want is we want them to dry out air.

out and have your bees clean it out. If it's a consistent big problem because again it happens this time of year. You don't see it in fall. You don't see it midsummer. So it's because of these temperature fluctuations. And it's also sometimes genetic. So some people requeen if you have a big issue with it. So you can requeen the colony. But ventilation, requeening, waiting it out, spring is usually the issue. But based on this description, it's not too alarming. other than that it's something new that you may not realize has a problem. And then unrelated it says you have any recommendations for water-based spray paint for touch-ups on foam insulated covers. So any latex semi-gloss spray paint that's set for there are plastic spray paints, by the way,

you can touch up your insulated covers with those. I don't spray paint much so you can do if it's a little. If it's brushed on, I use VALSpar. Pretty standard and high-ranked. So it lasts a long time. So that's it. We're in the fluff section today already. So let's see for the fluff.

I do want to let you know that we have the smoker pellets back again. People are still asking, even though I say, and there's a link. You go to, if you just want to Google it, go to the Northwest Pennsylvania Beekeepers Association. you can type in NWPA beekeepers smoker pellets to a Google search, and you'll find it. This is a non-profit organization. The smoker pellets are switchgrass smoker pellets in conjunction with urn't seeds. And once you light them, they stay lit and they won't go out on you all afternoon. They're the best smoker fuel I've ever used.

And when you purchase those, you are supporting honeybee education and that program. So I get nothing for that. I'm just telling you and I wouldn't say that they're the best smoker pellets I've ever used if it weren't the case because they are cool white dense smoke. Once you light them, they don't go out on you. You put a cork in it, you get several days out of it. So a lot of people have said the same thing so it's not just me. Anyway, you're still in spring now and here in the northern United States, northeastern part, we are hot on the trail of swarming colony. I've been lucky I have not lost a swarm yet this year. Knock on wood. You're inspecting for swarm cells.

If you find swarm cells, queen cells along the periphery and they're three quarters done or they're almost done, you need to find your queen and save the queen somewhere. Take a frame of brood with you and put her in a nucleus hive as an insurance policy against the swarm that may happen. Then you can go through and try to take out all the queen cells if you think you can find them all if you're trying to avoid swarming most people do and then when you realize they are in fat queenless and you take it a handle in all the

queen cells and they don't have any more eggs to produce emergency queen cells from then you bring your queen back with her frame of brood and your reinstaller so you basically just relieve the swarm pressure and you've got your colony back so keep on top of it plan it if you get a swarm that lands in a tree on a branch, something like that. If you want to keep those bees, you don't want to start a new colony, right? You can actually find the queen in there. So I did a test, I put them all in a big plastic bucket,

a seven gallon plastic bucket, I put a queen excluder over the top of it, and eventually the bees get tired of trying to get the queen to go somewhere else, and before you knew it, there's nothing but a little tiny cluster with the queen in it on the queen excluder, and now I can take her and use her to start, my other colonies. So it helps you find the queen in a big swarm cluster. So queen excluder, open air, let them go back wherever they want to, and then you'll be able to find your queen and remove her and start a nuke. And you return those foragers, particularly if it's a big swarm,

those foragers go back to the colony they left from. So they reinforce that. Keep in mind, you have to do other things too. It means that they were congested probably. You need to add some super's on there, you need to change some other things to make sure that the swarm stimulus isn't still remaining because we are in a strong nectar flow. For those that are hunting for bees, I get frequent requests for swarm collections and things like that. B-swarmed.org. B-E-E-S-W-A-R-M-E-D-D-O-R-G. Register there if you want to be alerted. when swarms are in your area. The second tier of that is for beekeepers.

Let others know that beeswarned exists so that when somebody posts on Facebook says, it's swarm bees in my yard, and can anybody come and get them? You give them the link to be swarmed and let them report the swarm and then a beekeeper in their area, someone who is ready, willing, and able to go and collect them

will respond and they will get it. This is much faster than email chains and phones and posting things on social media and trying to get other people to check it out. The other thing, it prevents people from going to something that's already been collected. So register. Anyway, reduce your debt out. So a lot of people have cleaned out deadouts, but left their boxes exactly as they are. So three boxes with no bees in it is not appealing to bees that are looking for a place to live. The ideal size for them is 10 gallons. according to Dr. Thomas Seeley's research, a single deep brood box is all you need.

So you need to pull your supers off and put them in storage and have a single brood box with clean frames in it. No syrup, no capped honey, things like that that just cause robbing and then would look like a swarm is moving in when they're not. These are your best swarm magnets. And also when you go out and get a swarm and you bring it home, you've got a hive that's ready to go and you don't need to do a bunch of manipulation. Now, what if you want to leave them on there? You have no place to store anything and you just want to leave them out there and have a B go in and move into it. Well, one of the things you can do is create a solid bottom board, so to speak, that is nothing but a divider board. So this can be plywood. People don't sell them. So it's something

you're probably going to have to make yourself, you need to create a divider. Now, I don't know if just putting double bubble in there would work. What you're trying to do is isolate the bottom box so that it seems like the only space. Then your other boxes will sit on top of that. So if you've got a medium super above that or a deep above that or something, you need a partition that your bees will not chew through that sits on that and makes bees scouts and are inspecting the bottom box think that that is the complete space. So you can put, you can use plywood or something like that, you probably have to trim it. And by trim it I mean put wood trim on it so that it will last and you need to do something to preserve it. It's probably something that you'll use over and over because storage space is a big deal to beekeepers. Often especially new beekeepers, even when you have six or seven hives, if you're putting five of those in storage, it takes up a huge amount of space and they're in the way. So if you can keep them out in your bee yard, then you need to close them up so that pests don't get in. Small-eye beetles and wax moths can't get in.

So you need to close them up well and then partition them with a solid partition that makes bees. They're inspecting thing that the bottom box is the only box. And then once it's occupied and ones are expanding, guess what? Your supers are already there. And then you pull it out and up they go. So it's one way to deal with it. But please don't have, because I've seen it recently, three, four boxes altogether. It's a dead out, it's empty, and you're just hoping that bees will move into it.

Well, if you want to improve the chances that bees will move into that, we need to condense the space into something manageable for the bees. So, spray stored equipment. So if you are putting stuff in a shed or something like that, I found that spritzing it with bleach water. Now, the Department of Ag recommendation for poultry and things like that is a tentative. percent bleach solution you can do that that's a lot of bleach and a lot of water and it smells really strong you can spray your hive equipment in a storage area with that it's very benign

and it keeps wax mods from wanting to even go in there they smell bleach they stay out so if you want to dampen things with that plus you're disinfecting the surfaces so it's actually a pretty decent move it's one of the things we use to clean up after dead mice mouse dropping things like that something I've been into recently so dampening it down and having something that kills bacteria is a bonus and then the other thing is some companies sell bags for your hive equipment that's in storage you can just get industrial trash bags get the really thick ones and they will go around four or five medium supers at a time you can have all your frames in them and

everything else make sure that they're clean and dry first and then Don't by the way, I know I'm jumping all over a chart, but it just was a thought. Do not put plastic frames out in the sun to dry. If you have flow supers with those flow frames, do not clean those up and then set them out in the sun to dry. The UV rays break down the plastic, make it brittle, ruin it. They will ruin your stuff. Keep them in the shade, keep them in storage, dry them out with fans and things like that instead. That's my recommendation. And then close it up so the pests don't get in there. Also, if you like my channel, if you like what I'm listening, what you're listening to now, and if you like this kind of video

and you want to learn about bees and other things, once in a while, it's not always just bees all the time. I invite you to subscribe to my channel. So, and prepare for planting seeds, of course. We have the three-day weekend coming up down the road, but I want you to be ready. So May 24th, 25th, and 20s. is the long weekend Memorial Day weekend here.

That's when I do all of my planting. So I mow it down tight. I do some light tilling, and then we do that just ahead of rain. I broadcast the seats by hand, and then we roll it with a 700-pound roller, and that is it. We can't even water it because it's too big an area,

and that has worked really well year after year after year. And, of course, buckwheat is improving my soil. And so I hope that you benefited from today's video, and I hope that you have a fantastic weekend ahead. And definitely next week, all in the 70s, here in the northeastern part of the United States, the state of Pennsylvania. Thanks for joining me here today, and I look forward to seeing your comments down below. Thanks again.