Bees Into Ivy's Beehive

Today we're gonna get Ivy's first ever colony of bees to put in her new beehive. You excited?

Yeah.

Need some stretching?

Yes.

Come on, let's do it.

Wait, I'm not stretching, I'm just— wait, Dad, look!

Oh yeah?

Why are they there?

They're just people. Right, take your other welly off. You comfy?

Yeah.

Right, you tell me what we're gonna do today.

Put bees in the beehive.

Put bees in your beehive. And you are using that beehive at the moment as As a chair. As a chair. Is it a good chair?

Yeah.

And are you happy with how you painted it?

Yeah.

So we're going to put some bees in your beehive.

Yeah.

And then we're going to find a nice queen for them, and we're going to take them to their new site, aren't we? So they're going to have a new home to go to. Should we start doing it?

Yeah.

Go on then, you pick up your beehive.

That's not gonna get its lid back on.

That's it, good picking up. Now walk over around there towards the bees. That's it. Oh, whoa, look at that, straight through.

And the blackberries!

And the blackberries. Right, let's do it. Over the fence, and you pop it down anywhere around there. So today I am with Ivy, and we are gonna put bees in her very first beehive. We've got some beehives behind us. We're going to go inside 6 of them because we need 6 frames to go in your beehive. We're looking for some brood, which means capped-over baby bees. What else are we looking to go in there?

The feeding thing.

The feeding thing. What else do bees need in their—

Pollen.

Pollen, nice one. What else do they need?

Nectar.

Nectar. Anything else?

Bees.

Baby bees. So we're going to do baby bees, pollen, nectar, and then—

Queen.

I was gonna say, what's missing? And you just said it, it's the queen. So what we're going to do today, me and Ivy, we're going to take a split from some of the colonies that we've got behind us. We're not going to take any of the queens. We're going to move them to their new home, which is one of our home apiaries, and then when our next batch of queens arrives, Ivy is going to choose her very own queen to go into the colony. Sound like a good idea?

Yeah.

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Excellent, you heard it there. Please subscribe if you like watching the videos. Should we get on with it?

Yes.

Let's do it. Right, so this is the beehive that we're going to put the bees in. It's got a roof, it's got a feeder, and then it has got a place inside for the bees to live. We've got 6 frames of bees in here. It's got a nice mesh bottom, which means that the bees aren't going to overheat as we take them to their new home. And this one here is as light as a feather. Even Ivy can hold it. She is super strong anyway.

It could even be a hat if you put it on your head.

It could be a what?

Hat.

Right, you show me. What a beautiful hat! I've never ever thought of that before. Wow!

Oh, it could be like Google Hello!

Brilliant! Right, should we get some bees in the box?

Yeah!

Let's do it! Right, so you ready to get inside?

Yep.

So in all of these colonies here, we have got some bees and a queen. So what we need to do first is open them up, and we're going to need to find the queen. So what happens when you open up colonies of bees?

Lots of bees are going to fly out.

Lots of bees are going to fly out. And are we going to be scared?

No.

No, because we've got our—

Bee suits.

Bee suits, right. So, do you want to help open this roof?

Yeah.

Right, so I'll loosen it a bit for you. So that's loosened now. Uh, sorry, sorry, Ives, it's this one underneath here. Go a bit lower down. Remember, there's 2 of them, isn't there? You help me lift it up. Oh, nice. Right, so we've got some bees in here. Do they look happy?

Yeah.

They look pretty happy, don't they?

And active.

Right, so there's some bees down there as well now, which is really, really good. So what we're gonna need to do is find ourselves a really nice frame of bees. So can you count how many frames of bees are in there?

6.

6. And can you choose one of the frames that you'd like to pick out first? Which one was that? Number 2. Right, let's get number 2 out first. And if you see anything that you know about, then you have to tell everyone at home, okay?

Good choice. Wow, quite a good choice because look at that and look on the other side more.

So what are we seeing here?

Bees.

Bees. And then what's all of this stuff?

Daddy, look how many ants there is.

There's a few little holes, but what we've got here is a wonderful frame of brood. So do you think this would be a good frame to use?

Yeah.

Right, it will be a good frame to use, but the first thing we need to do is we need to make sure that we can find the queen. Yeah, we don't want to take the queen out of this colony. So we just flick through, and I want you to help me. So what? What is that? What's all this stuff?

Nectar and pollen.

That is all pollen. So it's a thing there called bee bread. Do you know what bee bread is?

Wait, so it's a bread for bees?

It is bread for baby bees, and that is pollen. and nectar all mixed up together, and it's like baby food for bees. How cool is that?

Daddy, if you could look under there, I could see some more frames.

There are a couple more frames. Right, let's see if we can find that queen, because what's the first thing you always need to do?

Look for the queen.

I know. Look for the queen, you know. Can you see her?

No.

I still can't see her.

Are we playing hide and seek with the queen?

It's kind of like hide and seek with the queen, isn't it? That is a brilliant way of describing it.

Do I hold it?

Yeah, you hold that one. Right, how's that one looking?

Good. Can't really see the queen though.

Can't really see the queen. And what does the queen look like? She's smaller than all the rest of them.

Bigger.

She is bigger than all the rest of them. And what's the queen's job?

Laying all the eggs.

Laying all the eggs. Is that a bit sticky?

Yeah.

It's a bit sticky. Do you know what the stickiness is?

What?

It is something that's called propolis. So up on the corner of the frames here, you might be able to see, it's called propolis. And do you know where the bees— the bees go out and get that? Do you know where they get it from? They get it from trees. How cool is that?

That's a good way. There's lots of trees around here and plants.

Right, hmm, I can't see that queen anywhere. You see it?

There's a number on it.

What number is it?

42 or 24.

42! That's excellent work, Ives. Right, so what we do now is we have the queen, so I'm going to give you a really important job. You're going to hold that and just not drop it.

It's heavy.

It's heavy? Okay, that's really good to tell me that it's heavy. So what we'll do—

And there's a black bee there too.

So what we're going to do is we will take, and we'll do this in like a double fashion. So look, I'll take the 2 frames out, but I know the queen is over here. So then what we'll do is we'll take these 2 frames over to the new beehive. And do you want to put them in?

Yeah.

We'll put them in together. So what we've got here is some frames of eggs and some pollen and some nectar and some bees. And what we have to do is just quickly put that lid back on, not with the glass on it, and they're the first 2 frames that we're going to put in. So then we're going to put these frames back in here.

Um, Daddy?

Yeah?

Look.

What? Uh, right, Ivy has just spotted that there are a few straggler bees here. So for anyone watching at home, we're going to come back, we're going to fill all of those frames in at the end. I just want to get this nuc Completely populated first. Right, should we come and do this one?

Yeah.

So maybe for you, come and stand in front of this one so you're on the camera still.

Oh, Dad, I've found the queen!

Oh, you're saving the bees! Good job. Right, so this one, we're going to lift the box off again, and we've got a number of bees again. Right, so do we need to find that queen again?

Yeah.

Is she also going to have a dot on her back, do you think?

Definitely.

Definitely.

Maybe not a number though.

Maybe not a number. So we've got another frame of bees there.

Try that one.

We'll get you on the set. So another frame of bees there. Do you want to hold this one, Ives? You hold that one. Oh, bee! What kind of bee?

Queen. And he does kind of have a number on it. 34.

34, uh, 34 or 43. So the queen is on that frame there. So this makes this very easy. You've got a really important job now, Ives. Make sure that queen doesn't run away anywhere.

Yeah. I got a bee.

Oh yeah.

Hey, what's he doing?

Right, the bee has just tried to sting Ivy on the fingers. Okay, that's what your gloves are for.

Yeah. If you're trying this at home, you definitely want to wear a bee suit.

If you're doing this at home, you definitely want to wear a bee suit and gloves.

Like us.

Right, you seeing the queen on there?

Yep.

Right, Ivy, I've got another job for you. Can you go over to your new beehive over there? And I want you to take the lid off and take the feeder off, both of them.

Hey!

That's it, that's it, perfect. Right, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take 2 frames.

Not that frame, Daddy!

Do you know what? I'm— I kind of want that frame because it's a really good frame with lots of brood on. Let's have a look if we can find another one like that. We found one, right, excellent. So We found another nice frame with brood on and some more stores. We're going to come over here and we're going to put them in this colony here.

Why does—

Can you put the lids back on?

Yeah.

You put those lids back on. Then we're going to take our frame with our queen on and we're going to place that back safely in the colony here.

Because then if we take that one out and put it in there, There'd be no queen for that one.

Ivy's right. If we took that away, there wouldn't be a queen for this colony here, so we need to make sure there's a queen for this one too. Always have to remember to strap your hives back up. Super— what would happen if you didn't strap them back up?

Bees would fly away and escape.

Bees could fly away. And what would happen if the wind came?

Blow the hives away.

It would blow them over, wouldn't it? Right, so Ivy's sitting on the beehive, keeping it nice and warm like it's an egg. Are you a chicken? No. Right, you're sitting on the hive keeping it nice and warm. Let's finish it off and find a nice colony that's got 2 more spare frames to complete your bee nuc. I think this one over here is going to be the one. Right, so should Dad find the queen first?

Yes. Okay, I'm going to help.

Oh, you're going to come?

Yes.

Are you coming to stand at the front on this one?

Yes, I can find them. Can I hold it?

Yeah, if we find her. What's in that one?

I don't know.

Honey. Lots and lots of honey.

Honey. Can I hold that one?

Yeah.

It's gonna be heavy, I think.

Not too heavy.

Um, see more honey and nectar in there, Dad.

Right, you stand, you stand there with that one. Are you sure, Dad, what you've got? So in that one there, we've got lots of eggs in the middle. Ivy's doing a fantastic job of holding it. Right, hold it down and tell me what's on that frame, Ives.

Honey and nectar.

Honey and nectar. And are there any eggs in the middle?

Yeah, I see some clinging out here too, and some honey and nectar in there.

Some honey and nectar and some eggs. Right, you doing okay holding that one?

Yeah, yeah.

So Ivy has got some stickiness on her glove, and that is what we said before, it's called propolis, and bees go and collect that from trees. Right, so we need to find the queen in here first, guys, before we take any bees out. Because if we take the queen and go and put it in there, do you know what the other bees might do to her?

Kill her?

They might bully her a little bit, and you never know, they might actually do something a little bit mean to her. So before we take bees out—

I got bees on my veil!

That's okay.

Look!

Bees on your veil? Oh, okay, so what you must never do is push your face to the veil like that, okay? Because if you— the veil's out there, the bees can't get in.

Are you gonna zip your veil up?

Oh, I can see the queen! So the queen is down there. Can you see her? Let's see if I can show it on here.

Now they're attacking me.

It's okay, they won't get you. So there we go, we just see the queen down there. So we know that the queen is downstairs in that box. So we can take bees from the upstairs box safely.

Daddy, they're attacking me.

They're not attacking you. What it is, is you're standing in front of their entrance. So what we'll do is we'll just do it nice and quick. And what's really important with beekeeping is that you're always super, super calm. So here we go. We've got some more frames. We've not got the queen in there. Do you want to take the box, the lid off that one, Ives?

Well—

You take the lid off for me. Uh-oh, that was the roof. Close one.

And they're still on that one a lot.

Yeah, that's fine. So what we'll do is we will just fix this by shaking a few of them off. We'll put that back on, we'll put the lids back on like this, and what we'll do when we get there is we will fix that to make sure that all of the bees are safe in their new home. Good idea? Right, so there we go. Ivy has made up her first nuc. We're going to put the lid on now. Do you want to put the lid on?

Yeah.

And we're going to take—

With the bees on it?

With the bees on it, yeah. And we're going to take this nuc to a new apiary, which is just a place for bees where they live. If we try to open this nuc up here, all the bees will just fly back to their original homes. But we want all of the bees to stay in this very jazzy beehive that me and Ivy painted. Right, so you ready to go back to the new apiary and see where these bees are gonna live?

Yeah.

Let's do it. Right, so we're at the new apiary site. This is where I keep a lot of my nucs that I'm gonna overwinter, and this is where your bees are gonna live. Excited?

Yeah.

So here's Ivy's nuc of bees. Now you get to choose whether they're gonna live with a red entrance or the blue entrance. Which one would you like? Blue. Blue. Okay, cool. Right, so what we need to do, we need to pick up the nuc. We're going to take it over here. I'm going to place it on the floor. Ivy's going to do what? Tie it under the truck? I don't think so. Right, so what we need to do now is open up the entrance. Would you like to do it, or should I? Now look around, we have got some beautiful flowers for the bees. We've got some rosebay willowherb, we've got some buddleia that is particularly good for butterflies because they've got long tongues, we've got some ragwort, I think that is, we've got some thistle. It is wonderful here for the bees. Do you think it's nice, Ives?

Yeah.

You like it, yeah? So what we need to do now is let the bees out, and what we're going to do is turn this disc round so So that hole lets all of the bees out. Now, there we go, a little one's come out to say hello. They will work out, they'll work out how to use that entrance. And here we go, we can see them coming out. Can you see them?

Yeah.

So last thing we need to do is just remove this roof and make sure that there are no bees that have escaped. And what's happened there is the divider has let some bees escape. Whoops, that was a mistake. So easiest way to fix that is I'm just going to remove that divider there, we'll place that one down, and I'm going to take this plug out as well so that the bees can get in and out. So these bees are at their new home now. They're going to fly out, they're going to work out where they are, and they're going to enjoy their new home at this lovely apiary.