Packages - 8 Weeks Old

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No-Nonsense Beekeeping. Today we're going to take a look at one of our packages 8 weeks on. So I think it's really, really kind of important to give you these updates to show you the status of nucs and packages as they move throughout the season. Gives you an idea of what to expect And what's possible. So it is completely and utterly weather dependent though, so don't think if you get a package at the same time of year as I've got it, it will end up like this colony. I've got other packages that aren't anywhere near as strong as this. This is definitely one of the best performers, but it's nice to give you an idea of what is possible with these packages. So I'm just going to give you a look inside. They're really nice gentle bees, really prolific, They're absolutely loving the weather that we're getting at the moment. Lots of moisture in the ground, but it's a really nice, calm, warm day, and the weather's set fair for the next couple of weeks. So I'm going to get inside and show you how these bees are doing. I do hope though that the audio is really, really improved in this video. We've got the Rode Wireless Go system now. It should help eliminate any of that kind of unnecessary bee noise. It should help eliminate the wind noise as well. Should just give you a better kind of all-round pleasurable audio experience. So I hope it is making a difference to these videos. So let's get inside and take a look. So looking in from the top, that is the second brood box above a 14x12 brood box. So the configuration of this hive is 14x12 brood box, queen excluder, brood box, brood box, and this is the top box. So they've already made it up into the top box, which is really good for this time of year. Let's have a look what's down in the second box. Lots of nectar coming in, really nice kind of nectar-filled frames. Bees working it very, very hard today. That top box has got probably about 2 or 3 frames like that, really nice amount of weight for them, and they'll start filling them up really well this time of year. So then the next box down, probably about 6 or 7 frames on there. You can see I like to kind of double up on the supers or the additional boxes above the queen excluder here. It gives them additional space and suppresses that urge to swarm. I don't like to wait until the box is full before I add the next one. Although they do a bit of tunneling upwards, I'll wait until these 2 boxes are full now before adding any further boxes. Just my method and the way that I like to work it. But these centre frames here, really, really heavy, full of nectar, full of bees as well. Like, you could argue you could probably squeeze all of these into one top brood box, and I know, I know people would do it that way around. It's just preference really. Like, I prefer to have the 2 boxes on. I know we're at the very, very start of a long flow up here if the weather stays. I mean, you could get another 6 weeks at the beginning of a 6-week flow, really. So I like to make sure that they've got the space and that I don't miss out on collecting that honey because I've not got enough boxes on. Just my method. That's the way I do it. You'll notice the spacing that I'm using here. So this is a Suyenti brood box, takes 10 frames and a bit. Really annoying internal spacing on a Suyenti brood box. But I've got 8 Hoffman DN4 frames in there and I've got them evenly spread, and then that way they'll draw out those frames nice and fat for my uncapping machine. I find that's the limit, 8 frames in a 10-frame box for me. Definitely can't go any lower than that. Some of them, some of the bees, I have to go to 9 frames because they're just intent on just sticking stuff in the middle, but these bees seem quite happy to work on this spacing. So just kind of let your bees judge what spacing you use. And then we're down to the brood box. Pretty much full in here. I've had to take out a couple of frames and go and boost some other colonies with this one because they've packed it out wall to wall, and I've just done that to help them not swarm. And I've got other colonies that could use the boost as well, so I've just taken, I think, 1 or 2 frames of full brood out of this one and going to boost it up some other colonies. So this is a frame that I put in here a week ago. They've nearly drawn out that backside, but this side here they've already started to fill that with stores. So sign of a really strong colony. And the same with that one, that was only added in a week ago, completely drawn it out already. And laid it up with eggs. Then we're into the brood. Really nice brood. No stores in this colony. They're really not keen on keeping the stores down below. They like to put it above. That's a trait that I like, but it can get you into trouble when they need feeding. can get you into trouble when there's a kind of— when the nectar flow stops and you've taken all their honey off. So you need to keep an eye on colonies like this. Some people prefer for them to keep a band around, others prefer for them to do exactly this, and they know when they take the honey off, they need to feed. Personally, I like them not putting the stores down in the brood box. I like to keep it above the queen excluder, and then I know where I stand and I can feed them accordingly. Another nice frame of brood. Again, really nice frame of brood. Very orange, these bees. Like I say, don't care whether they're orange or black. We just want nice, calm, gentle bees, not like the ones that were trying to sting me on the video the other day. These are nice, friendly bees. Really nice pattern. Missed a few cells out, but I mean, you're not going to get the perfect brood pattern every time. And to be honest, as long as they're kind of filling up the majority of the cells, that's fine. They've put a bit more nectar around the ring in this one, but no pollen stored down there. But like, there's so many things that you can look for in a colony. Perfect brood pattern's only one of them. This is a really nice, good, strong colony, and I think it's going to give me a good harvest at the end of the year. You can see on that really nice pattern on this frame here. This is, this is why I like 14 by 12 up in my kind of neck of the woods, is that they don't extend the brood all the way to the edge. And sure, kind of in the middle of the summer they will, but towards the end of the year they're going to kind of restrict or constrict that brood area down. And then the brood box gives them the space to do that as well. So where I was on 14 by 12, where I was on double brood before 14 by 12, I found they just kept too much honey in that box. And I was losing out on the honey that I wanted to extract. 14 by 12 for me works a lot better, especially in North Wales, so I'm really glad that I made the move. There's the queen, Ginger Ninja, 2020 mated Buckfast. From a very well-respected bee farmer. I'm really, really happy with the queens that I've got from him this year. As you can see, nice calm bees, no running on the frame, good brood pattern, really good at collecting honey. We'll see how they overwinter. 7 weeks ago this was a package, now it's over 8 frames of brood and about 9 or 10 brood frames of bees in the supers. Really strong colony. I estimate maybe 30 or 40 pounds worth of honey I'm kind of targeting with this colony, and then we'll see how well it does next year. But if we get this one through the winter, I can see it being a real kind of favourite. So that's it, we've come to the end of the video. As you can see, I'm in my BB Wear Ultra Wear suit, not a drip of sweat again, no stings. Really, really good suit, very happy with it. I'm happy with these packages as well. I think it's, I think it's pretty much exactly 8 weeks since I installed that package, and for it to be on 8 frames of 14x12 brood And to have bees up in the supers the way that it does and to have kind of, and to be so prolific is a really, really good sign. Like I say, I think it's important for me to show you the various stages of these packages just so you can kind of get an appreciation of what's possible with these bees. I see a lot of people say you want local mongrels, you want the kind of locally adapted bee, and I get that and I get the reasons for people wanting that locally adapted bee. But I don't think locally adapted bees could do what these bees do in terms of the honey foraging capacity. I'm yet to see it, and I think it is very much dependent on kind of where you are in the country as well. Round here, I catch swarms and I'm lucky if I get a super from them at the end of the year, whereas the Buckfast, much, much better at going out and gathering honey. The local swarms that I catch are definitely better at overwintering. So in terms of actually surviving, locally adapted bee every time. Probably a little bit better in terms of disease resistance as well, but I can treat my colonies for disease. I can treat them for the impacts of varroa. So I like to kind of do that, and a lot of bee farmers do that as well. Cool. So I hope you've enjoyed the video. Really love that colony. Like, it's a nice, gentle, chilled, calm colony covering loads of frames. Nice, good-looking bees. They're catching the honey for me, which is always good. So please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.