Black Mountain Honey: Let's Talk Bees with Laurence Edwards - Episode 51

This is a very impromptu live stream. I've got little girls running around the house, my daughters of course, and my wife, and we're getting ready to go out into the snow. But I thought I would just do a quick live stream because 2 things. One, I think I have fixed the camera issue. I have put it down to a faulty, uh, USB cable. I think that's what it was. But I've also upgraded the connection now, so now I've got Cam Link Pro. Connected to my FX3 with a new lens as well. But there we go. I think it's fixed. Famous last words. It's just going to cut out now. But hopefully you can all hear me. Hopefully you can see me. But the thing that I'm most excited about that I couldn't just wait to tell everyone is I have upgraded the whiteboard. So no longer have I got a separate camera for the whiteboard. I have now got this, which is really cool. So I can draw. electronically on here and say stuff like hello. I know it's like small things, isn't it, that keep us men like entertained and impressed, but I was really happy with that and I just thought that was a much cleaner kind of slicker solution. Doesn't make me draw any better, I still draw like a 6-year-old, but I can like color code stuff now a little bit better and like change the way I draw. What, what it does have, it has this really nice functionality over here, so I can go and put like a grid on and then zoom into the grid, get it all nice and squared up, and then I can go snap to grid, and then I can do stuff like this, which is super cool. I can draw like really nice neat beehives, which I just thought was quite cool when I'm doing like any instructions or something for talking about different beehives. I can now draw Draw them quite cool, and then turn the snap off and say, "Right, we can go over to here and maybe change the color up a little bit and put the snap back on." And then I don't know. I just thought I thought that was worthwhile doing a very, very quick stream on that because I'm just killing some time waiting to go out in the snow. But I was really, really impressed and quite happy and a little bit excited to share that with everyone. So let me let me take that off and. Let me see if anyone's there. I'll answer any questions I've got at the moment. I'll unplug that. Took me ages how to work out how to do that on the tablet. So that's if anyone's wondering what it was. It was just like my tablet that I connected and I had to put it in like some weird developer mode and then download all this stuff to get it to work. It wasn't, wasn't simple, but it does work. So going forward, when we go back to doing the fortnightly streams, I'll get my tablet involved and then we can do loads of drawings and squiggles and stuff like that. And hopefully the fact that it snaps to it as well will stop me drawing like a 6-year-old or a 7-year-old or whatever it was. Um, there's some, there's some questions there. I'll answer some questions, why not? Um, I never know how to pronounce your name, so I'm just going to call you Ian. Ian says, have you ever tried Buckfast queens from Denmark, Kjeld Brandstrup? So yes, I have, and they are very, very good. The only problem that I, that I've had with Kjeld is they basically do things right, which is if you're buying a breeder queen from them it's like a proper, proper breeder queen. It's like 2 or 3 years old, so it's been tested, the offspring's been tested, the genetics are obviously very, very good. But you only really get like a year, a year's use out of it. And I've had one before where I bought it in the summer and it didn't make it through the next year. And they are up there with the most expensive breeder queens that are out there. So I have, I have tried them, I've had a good experience with them, but then because of the age thing, which is the right thing to do, like breeder queens should be 2 or 3 years old, it— they were only really suitable I think for people who are doing like tens of thousands of queens each year, and then you can justify the expense of getting a new breeder queen from them each year. But the genetics, genetics, very, very good. There's no questions, this is brilliant. I'm going to do all my live streams at kind of like 11 o'clock in the morning because no one here can just dip in, dip out. From Australia says hello. Hello to you too, well done in the Test match. Everyone in Australia likes cricket, don't they? Alexandra says, do you ever struggle with condensation leading to fungus buildup during the winter period? If so, how do you deal with it? So yes, I think everyone, every single colony will have a significant amount of condensation in the hive, and then it's your job as a beekeeper to manage that and to dictate where that condensation will form. So I shouldn't have unplugged, I shouldn't have unplugged the tablet, should I? See if I can get the tablet back up because this is one of the instances where it's quite It's quite good to draw it. Let's see how quickly I can get that back up and I will draw you exactly what I mean. I think I've managed to do that there. So bear with me 2 seconds, let me just open up the tablet again. But it is working. There we go. Just going to add that onto the screen. Right, there you go. So you can see that, do a new drawing. You can see all my fantastic designs there, 6-year-old designs. So I need to zoom out a little bit. Right, so there we go. Let's draw, let's draw a standard hive. I've gone for too thick a font. All right, so let's say that is your, let's say that is your standard hive there, and you've got a roof on it, and then you've got your bees in the middle. So let's just change I've got to learn, I've got to learn on the job with this one as well. I don't know how to change color. Where do I change color? Okay, we will not change color, but let's pretend that in a normal hive here, this— ah, we're not doing very well here, need to practice. That's because it's on Snap, that's why. This is where the condensation is going to form, and obviously that's not where you want it to form. So if you If I take that away, if you ensure that the top of the hive up here is kind of like the most well insulated, then what will happen is the condensation will form on the walls there, and then it just tracks out the bottom of the hive. So it just kind of comes out the bottom there, and it doesn't cause any issue at all with your bees. So by kind of insulating this bit up here and making that the warmest, the most insulated part, you are effectively protecting the condensation from forming there. Now if the roof isn't insulated, that's where all the condensation will form and then it just drips directly onto your bees. So hopefully that makes sense. Insulate nice and well up at the top there and then your water will just condense on the sidewalls, the least insulated part, and then it just falls directly out of the hive, so it shouldn't cause you any issues whatsoever. That didn't, didn't go quite as well. Oh, can I do that? That is— oh wow, I've just realized that I can actually take control with my mouse. So that's even better. So we will play around, we will play around with that because I think— I thought that was pretty cool. So there we go, you can, you can control the condensation. It's, uh, it's quite easy to do. Polyashworth feed is really good. If not, just get a big piece of insulation board and put it in the top. You should be Good. JCCFB says, morning, watching while waiting to get into the Rangers game, and stands for John Stewart's Caledonian Foraging Bees. Okay, cool. What Rangers game? Rangers did well. Is it actual Rangers or some other Rangers? But they do well against Celtic if it's— if it's— I don't want to say the real Rangers because I'll offend you. The Rangers. Jay says, is this a random live? I'm busy working in Toulouse, France. It is, so it's very random, and I was just giving people an update on my new piece of tech. and the fact that I think I've got the camera sorted, so you can fear not that there won't be any more, uh, tech hiccups. Famous last words. I'm using a screened bottom board and double bubble on top, but I still have lots of condensation and fungus forming. Not sure how to get rid of it. So the other reason that condensation will form like a lot like that is if the colony is not strong enough, or the colony's failing, or the colony's become weak in some way, and then they can't seem to manage the moisture. very well. So if you've got a nice big strong colony, it should work. But if you've got a small dwindling colony in there, you will just see condensation. Double bubble, I've seen people putting that bubble on there. It's okay, that stuff, and it will give you incremental insulation benefits, but nowhere near as much as like a big thick piece of Kingspan or Celotex or any proper insulation board. So I would go with that one. I saw a video this week opening a 10-year-old hive. He said the honey was rotten, tasted like burnt lemons. Is that fermented honey taste? The honey looks okay in the frames of videos. Wasn't my video, was it? I did a video opening a 10-year-old hive this week as well, but the honey wasn't rotten. I tasted my honey and it was nice honey, even though there was old api guard in there, which you couldn't taste in the honey. Tasted like burnt lemon. So burnt lemons could be— whoa, what's going on there? Sorry, my tablet's just listening to me and doing random things. Yeah, I don't know, but I've never had honey taste like burnt lemons. Fermented honey is very clear, just tastes like fermented, um, like bubbly, a bit like cabbage. So I'm not sure, I've never heard of burnt lemon taste. Doesn't sound very nice though. Hi Lawrence, are you at the beekeeping show in February? I'm going for the first time. Um, not 100% sure yet. I'm hoping to go there. I'm not there in any sort of official capacity though this year, but I might come just to kind of Have a wander around and say hello. Brian Morgan says, "What an unexpected live stream! A little stuttery, but not a big issue. Happy New Year!" Oh, that's that's a bit of a worry. Is anyone else having a stuttery live stream? It's it's 1080p, so it is slightly slightly bumped up. Oh, someone else someone else is saying that as well. Right, so good morning, John. Alexandra says thank you, and then John says picture's good. Internet occasionally causing you to freeze in picture, but can still hear you. Maybe we need to tweak the settings on there then. I am in 1080p as opposed to 720p. Let's see how it goes, see if it gets any better. I can blame the poor internet for the fact that there's loads of snow outside. Let's go with that. Can I lift the back off my hive 1.5 inches without causing any problem to the bees? Can I lift the back off my hive? I don't understand that, sorry. Can I lift the back off my hive 1.5 inches without causing any problem to the bees? What's the back? You have to, you have to re-explain that one a little bit. I'm guessing you probably can, but if you can explain it again, that would be much appreciated. Uh, Mountaintop Beekeeping says hello from North India. Hello to you too. Hey Lawrence. Hello. Uh, Neil says hi from the Netherlands, and yeah, also have the stuttering. Audio is good. Hmm, right, that sounds very much like there is an issue there. I think I'm in too big a bitrate. So this is good, this is like a proper test. I don't know if I can change stuff halfway through. Let's try it. Oh yeah, we can, right? Okay, so that if I go down to 4K there as well, HD. There we go. Well, I've changed the bitrate and I've changed it down to 1080p on my camera, so maybe that's a little bit better. This is good, this is good to do the test before I actually do a proper live stream and then mess it all up, right? James Crouch— oh sorry, he says— oh no, that's another one— to tip the water out, to tip water out. That's all I've got from James. Is there any more there coming, James? I don't know, I don't know, we'll come back to that. Happy New Year! Happy New Year to you too, Vera. Hi Lawrence, I'm a newbie, just ordered a nuc from you ready for the spring. Great videos and updates, uh, healthy New Year to you and your family. Here's looking forward to a new bee life experience. Oh, thank you very much. Cheers, Bartiz Bay. Um, good, good luck with your starting, uh, your beekeeping journey, and if you've got any questions, just give me a shout. Um, John is saying freezing again, in and off. Very, very frustrating, that is. I, I was— I've come to this live stream all smug thinking that I'd fixed everything, and I clearly haven't fixed it, have I? The camera's not turning off, which is, which is a good thing. Ah, very frustrating. Um, Duncan saying the same. Hi Lawrence, happy New Year. Sound is okay, but image keeps freezing. Hmm, I wonder if I can change the settings. I can change the settings here, right? Let's go down to 720p on that and let's see if that's any better. So I've changed it now, we're on 720p. I don't think I can go any smaller on the camera. No, right, so let's, let's fingers crossed see if we're going good. Says tipping hive up on the back to tip water out. Uh, yep. Oh, you, you can do that. Sorry. Yeah, if you, if you've got a solid floor, you can tip the hive up. Oh, all All hives should be kind of like tilted, just to let all of the water track out anyway. So I didn't know what you were saying there, but yeah, that makes sense. Who is next? So JC, I can never say it. JSCFB. There we go. Says Glasgow Rangers playing Hibs today in Edinburgh, 12 o'clock. They love it, don't they? They always put an early kickoff in there. I wonder why they do that. I know full well why they do that. Right. Still freezing. Neil says also have a question since I'm in the Netherlands or EU for that. I think I've heard you mention you got your bike from Germany. Do you have any tips to get? Something like the same kind of bees from somewhere. So as I said before, we do get them from Germany, but we kind of like sworn to secrecy as to who we got them from, get them from. And yeah, he said if I tell, if I start putting the name out there, I can't have any more. So I can't do that, I'm afraid. But you can get our Buckfast from Melitta Bees if you go through them. They'll ship to Germany, I think. Richard Learning says, lift the hive bottom to put the hive on angle so the moisture to run towards the front of the hive. Yeah, you can definitely do that. That's fine. Sorry, when I thought— I thought you meant the back. You said lift the back. Lift the high bottom, that's fine. You can just like wedge a piece of wood underneath it on one side and then all the water will track out. It's no problem. Morning, Laurence. A little stuttery. Still stuttery. Oh dear. I'm hoping, I'm hoping someone's going to say it's better. We get there. On the insulation topic, have you ever tried sheep fleece on the top of your hives? I've used it on my hives without polyasphalte as an experiment this year. So I've used something similar before. The only problem with it is that it kind of like attracts the moisture as well, so it becomes less insulative if any moisture gets into it. So I found at the beginning of the year it was good, and then kind of later on throughout the season or throughout the winter it got very, very wet, and I don't think it was providing anywhere near— or I know it wasn't providing anywhere near as much insulation at that point. So I like Kingspan, or insulation boards, basically as cheap as wool, which is you just get it free from building sites for offcuts. Pretty good. John says, my internet connection gets poor for my Ring doorbell in colder weather. So I'm going to blame it, I'm going to blame it on the cold weather. There we go. James, thank you. I completely missed what he was asking for there, but I got it now. Thanks for your help. Vera says, farmers around me plowed in crops and reseeded with flowering crops. Bees still bringing in nectar in September, October. Help. So I don't think that's a problem. I think that's, I think that's good. really good, in fact, bees bringing in nectar and pollen that late on in the year. The only kind of negative that you might get is that you just need to be on top of feeding later on, kind of like now through to March and April, but everything else before that I think is really, really good, so I wouldn't be worried about that at all. It's looking up so far but hasn't got particularly cold yet in the Southeast. I saw like a weather map today showing like Southeast is 13, 14 degrees today and then it's I can't really show you, but it's just like it's completely white out outside. Not snowing anymore, but there's a good, good like 4 or 5 inches. Not as much as we had in November. We had loads in November, and I'm hoping we get a bit more, and we're just going out sledging a little bit, so that'd be good. Uh, JSCFB says all sound my end, no issues here. Excellent, that's good. Vera says, I wanted to take off supers and treat with Apivar, they just filled up the brood box. Um, so, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't have like an issue with that. That's, it's good. That's what you want the bees to do, is you take off all the supers, put the Apivar strips in, give them a feed if they need it, and then just let them bring back whatever they're going to collect back end of August, September, October whilst the Apivar strip's in there. And that's, that's all good. And, and if they're really, really struggling, you can double brood them at that point. Um, Aiden says the sound is good and the video is stuttering. That's still 11:02, so I'm hoping Not looking good, is it? I'm gonna have to watch it back, so we just— we'll strike this one off as a test and see what's happening. What are your thoughts on having Russian queens? You know me, I'm all for trying different queens and seeing how they get on. Important things for me are nice calm bees, that's number one. I like productive prolific colonies, good honey production, low swarming, and I just think everyone should able to try as many different bees as they want without any fear of persecution. So I, I've seen Russian bees, so some of the queens that we sell are closely related to Russian queens as well, Russian bees as well, and they've been, they've been very, very good. So I think I've got a visitor coming in now. Who's that coming in? Uh, who's that?

Hey, are you ready to go?

Am I ready to go? I'm just doing a live stream. Are you ready to go? Come and say hi.

To here anyway.

Come and say hi here, you have to stand here. Stand here, so you're on the camera and that's everyone out there. So you're gonna say hi?

Hello.

Where are we going today? Where are we going?

Sledging.

Sledging, and what are we going to bring sledging with us?

Snowboard. Snowboard?

What are we gonna— are we gonna film it? And what are we gonna film it on?

Cameras.

Cameras, what do we say that we might bring? That goes up in the air.

Drone?

We're gonna bring the drone, aren't we? That'd be fun. And when you go sledging, do you go super slow or very quick?

Very quick.

Very quick. You're just looking at yourself in the camera there. You wave to the camera then. Right, okay, I just gotta finish this off and then we'll go. Yeah, it's gonna be 5 minutes and I'll come.

We're already done.

Are you actually already? Because you often say you're already— no, you're not ready, are you? You're months away. You go out— It'll be in a second. Okay, let me finish this. I've just got to finish this and then we'll go. Do you want to help me answer some questions?

Yes.

Right, you stay there then. Right, so Thomas Blackwood says, hey Lawrence, when you say you bruise the wax cappings to get them, uh, to move the honey off the brood frames to the supers, could you go into more detail about what you mean? Do we break the wax cappings? So exactly that, yeah. If you imagine you've got like solid wax cappings and then if you imagine like— that's the microphone, that's the microphone that you've just hit. Excuse me, you can't— no, no, no, honestly.

I'm gonna stay here.

Because it will just make the sound go really badly. You stay there. So if you can imagine like just cutting it off completely, taking off all of the wax cappings, that's not what you want to do, but you want to bash and bruise them as much as you possibly can whilst leaving them in place, and if you take some of them off, it's not even the end of the world either. You just, you effectively want to uncap the frame, but if you uncap the frame, all the honey will come out, so you just want to like smash it and bruise it as best as you possibly can, and then the bees haven't got to uncap it and they can just go Straight in and take it up, and then it should work very, very well. I'm just checking that the audio is still working. It is still working. There we go. Wow, there's loads of questions. I didn't, I didn't expect that many people to be here, so we'll do— we'll answer some questions and then we will go out because we need to go sledging, don't we?

Very quick.

The snow is melting, but Mum's not ready. I'm not— let's just make it clear for everyone here, I'm not prioritizing doing a live stream over going sledging, am I? I'm just waiting for you to get ready.

I'm already done.

Are you actually ready?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think you are.

Yeah, we are.

Right, promise? No. Exactly right. There you go. Next question. Um, Neil says, could you mention that name again so I can get your bees? Would love to support you. Love what you're doing with the channel and of course the bees. No problem. It is Melita Bees. M-E-L-I-T-A. Tell them Lawrence sent you. Here we go. Julian Dickinson says, morning Lawrence, do you have trouble selling soft set compared to runny? Farmer planted oilseed rape again and I've And I've still got soft-set honey from last year. So it's interesting because on the website, the soft-set honey doesn't sell anywhere near as well, and then in the shops, the soft-set honey doesn't sell anywhere near as well, and then probably on a ratio of like 10 to 1, 8 to 1, something like that, in favour of runny, because people look at honey and they want, they want it to be runny. What's your favourite honey?

Honeycomb.

Honeycomb, oh nice, and what's your headteacher's favourite honey?

All of them.

All of them, yeah, we bribe Ivy's headteacher with honey often, don't we?

Basically every day.

Basically every day, and that is the way to get into your headteacher's good books. But with the soft-set honey, we find if we go to a market and then we do like tasters, it's the one that people always want to taste because it's something different, and then it sells pretty much like 50/50. So the trick with soft-set honey is you've got to get people to try and taste it somehow, which I know for most people is a little bit more difficult but it's a good way to shift it. It's a shame because in like European countries, I think soft set is, that's how people expect their honey to come, but in the UK people like it runny. You got any questions that you'd like to ask? You sure?

Sure.

You sure?

Sure.

Okay, right, Thomas Blackwood says, love your videos, it's really helped me through my first year of beekeeping, thanks for the effort you put in. My pleasure, Thomas, glad they're useful. Denby Honey says good morning. Good morning to you, Paul. Vera says, thanks, have fun sledging with the children. I certainly will. Mountaintop Beekeeping says, my bees are brooding in the middle of winter. Ivy is a massive schmig fairy. Hey, that's what it said on the question! It did, someone wrote that question down on there. Did it not say that? Oh, I didn't, I just made that up.

I didn't say it.

Oh, sorry, okay, right. Vera says, hi Ivy, come on then, let's go out. She's saying She's back in you. The weather has been strange. Yesterday it was -2, but today it's 11 degrees C and it's raining really hard. How are your bees doing in this weather? So for me, like, I love cold weather for the bees, just really low energy, low intensive nature, and they just cluster up and do nothing. I don't like— the worst one for me is like warm wet weather in winter, warm wet weather in winter, because it means that the bees are loads more active, but they can't get out and do anything. So you're getting all of the negatives of them being restricted and you're not getting any of the benefits of them being able to go out and forage on, because there'll be pollen, there'll be flowers available at the moment, like really early flowers coming through. Obviously not going to be any nectar coming in, but it's good just for the bees to get out and be able to kind of cleanse themselves. What do bees do in the winter? Do you remember? You don't remember? Do you see bees coming out in the winter? They fly around or they just stay in the beehive?

Stay in the beehive.

They stay in their beehive, don't they? And what do bees eat? Remember, what do bees eat? What do they, what do they do? What's their job? What's bees' job?

Make honey.

Make honey. And do they eat it? They do, don't they? Is it yum? It is yum, right, okay. Right, P, it's like Auntie P, right? P says, after treating for varroa and keeping up with fondant feeding, does anyone else just spend the entire winter with their fingers crossed? 100%. Cross your fingers, Ives. Brilliant crossing, and that's it's all you can do. I I used to fret about that for for like weeks on end, months on end, thinking I need to go and do something. I need to go and check on them, make sure they're okay, and do anything I can. And then just come to the realization there is nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do to help them or save them. The only thing that you can really do in the winter is just make sure that they've got enough food. And I did a video the other day channel members would have seen. it's just literally just been uploaded this morning about a colony that's failed. And if you've got 1 or 2 colonies, it's really difficult to take on that loss. But if you've managed it and you've got, you know, 6 to 8 or 10 colonies or whatever, then losing one— you like, you know you're going to lose the odd colony because it's generally just like a failed mating of the queen, or the queen runs out of kind of fertilized eggs and then starts going drone laying. So you get to the point where you realize that there's nothing you can do. And then once you get to that point, you, you know that you're in quite a peaceful place because you've done everything you can. Yeah, Richard says happy new year to you and your family. Say happy new year to Richard.

Happy new year.

Happy new year, Richard. Right, there we go. Alexandra said my apiary is in a farming— is in a farm surrounding, and I only have 2 flows. First is rapeseed, second is sunflower. There's about 150 to 200 colonies in a 1-kilometer radius. Other than having a mobile apiary, what can I do?

Hmm.

What, what are the yields like? Are you getting, are you getting decent yields there? Because rapeseed and sunflower can both support kind of like a relatively decent amount of colonies. 150 to 200 in a 1-kilometer radius is a, is a very, very large number. So it's not really a huge amount that you can do other than increase the number of colonies that you've got to try and like up your stake a little bit, or move them somewhere else. There's no, there's no real like tips or tricks that I can give you to kind of improve the yield in those conditions. James Crouch says those spiky rollers do a good job poking holes in cappings. That's a really good point actually, that would be a very good method for just the kind of like a quick bruise and a quick uncap without— without, sorry, without uncapping, but just some bruising.

I think we're ready now.

You go and check, you go and check, and then as soon as you're ready I'll come. Yeah, you have to come back up and say we're ready though. Yeah.

2 minutes.

Uh, Duncan, Duncan says have fun sledging. I certainly will. Danny's Raised Bees says, 50-year beekeeper with 27 laying hives and loving life. God bless my friend and have fun sledging. Thank you, Danny Raised Bees. Uh, JK Photography says, wow, good to see you. Good morning, Lawrence. Good morning, JK. Very kind, always very, very kind with your gifts. Thank you, JK. Uh, Costakis, I think, Christou says, check my bees yesterday for food. were all dead. Do you know what, I've had a few people say that to me recently, like they've gone in and either all the bees are dead and they've starved, or they've absconded. And I'm just going to unplug my tablet, there you go. And I think that the reason generally for the absconding is due to not treating, and when you speak to people, most of the time it's because they've not treated and then the varroa load's gone too high and they've left. But oh, checking them when they've starved, Is it's the worst feeling in the world. You know what? You only you only you only make that mistake a few times before you start erring on the side of caution. It's a really really easy mistake to make, so wouldn't get wouldn't be like too hard on yourself for for making that mistake. We've all been there, and as long as you've got some more bees, you can you can build your numbers back up quite quickly. David Channel Member says good morning. Hit the like button. Thank you, David. John Denham says I have loyalty points to use. Will I be able to use them later in the year, or will I use them if not used? They do expire quite quickly, the loyalty points. There's a ridiculous amount of loyalty points on there and we couldn't run the program if we left them kind of on there, but what we've always got at Black Mountain Honey is you can order your queens now, so you can order your queen for later on in the year and then you can adjust the dates on it, so you can always use your loyalty points, so I would suggest just kind of use them, maybe order a queen for June or something like that and then if you need it in April, you you just email me and say, can I change that one to an April date, then we can just change the dates over, it's no problem. Every year I have had to feed syrup without harvesting any honey at all. I don't want to give up beekeeping, but it's just a constant investment year after year without any rewards. I would definitely pack up my bees and go somewhere else, 100%. That's, that's not beekeeping, just feeding the bees syrup so they can exist. You could argue that they should be able to exist on their own. But I definitely, yeah, you need to, you need to take them somewhere else and get some good honey, be good. Happy New Year, I'm getting my first 2 nucs in May. After installing them in their hives, would you still feed at that time of year? So happy New Year to you too, Andy. So yeah, I always feed and always advise people to feed their bees when the nucs are installed. So the reason being, you could probably get away without feeding them, but I just think if you're, if you're buying nucs, it's a big investment, you want everything to go well. There's no real major risk of robbing at that point in the year, so you can feed without creating this kind of like robbing environment. And then feeding the bees will always give them a boost and a head start over not feeding them. But the absolute worst-case scenario is you put your nuc in and then you put the foundation around it and then you let them, let them crack on with it. And drawing out that foundation is very resource intensive, so the bees have got to go out, they've got to forage, they've got to bring that back and then convert that into wax, and it leaves the colony quite low on stores. So even if they start off with a couple of frames of stores, within a week or so they could be down to nothing because they've got to draw out all of that comb. So it's a very difficult, very risky period for the bees. I would always feed them 1:1 sugar syrup. Don't go crazy with it, little and often. 1 litre every 2 to 3 days should be plenty. And then just make sure you're not creating that robbing by spilling any syrup. You should be good. Are you doing discounts on 10 or more queens this year? So on the, on the Buckfast Queens, there's automatic discounts applied on the F1 Buckfast. And then we will do regular kind of email mail drops with discounts again. Thank you for your answers. Happy New Year and go and have fun with your daughter. So I'm gonna go and do exactly that now. I will watch this stream back and I will fix all of those issues, but hopefully the back end of that was a little bit better. They're definitely ready to go sledging now. So I hope you enjoyed that. I wish you all a very good day, and if it's sledging, if it's snowing where you are, get out and do some sledging. I am very excited for it, so see you later.