[Music]
Wow it tastes a little bit like Wow
woohoo
hi I'm David Burns and I'm passionate
I'm in timpz about beekeeping
I've been keeping these for a long time
and I've been making youtube videos on
beekeeping for well over a dozen years I
have a lot of videos on YouTube on
beekeeping but one thing I've never done
in all the years I've been putting
YouTube videos up for beekeeping I've
never done a basic how to keep bees
video and so that's what I want to do
today I want to offer you at video to
help those of you that are brand-new to
beekeeping or maybe those of you that
have been doing it a few years but you
still haven't figured out what in the
world you're supposed to do I want to go
through some basic things on beekeeping
so first of all this is considered a
hive here and where I live in Illinois
it requires me to have two deeps these
two deep bodies are called hive bodies
where the brood of the main part of the
colony lives they raise their young here
they store some honey some pollen to
actually raise all the brood and
normally a beekeeper does not take or
remove any kind of honey or any kind of
food sources from the two deep bodies
this is for the colony now this is a
honey super and typically this is it's
been practiced this way for well over a
hundred years you know and this is where
the bees put excess honey and it's
called a honey super a little smaller
because it makes it easier for us to
lift it off it's not so heavy this can
wait thirty or forty pounds fully loaded
with honey and next we have a top cover
like this is a top cover it kind of
hangs over the high to keep the water
from coming inside the hive and then
next we have the inner cover inner cover
is a cover that provides a little bit of
a barrier between the actual high
components and the outside of the box
the inner covers that we make here they
have a little notches here that increase
ventilation so your frames don't become
moldy in the in the weather and so this
is the honey superin as you can see it's
a box like this it fits on top of
another box and inside
though there are frames now these are
undrawn that means Abbie's haven't
worked this yet it's new material it's a
wood frame with a food-grade plastic
insert with beeswax added to it so the
bees draw that out and make it wider and
they'll make a comb on top of this
imprint the hexagon imprint already
that's there and it speeds it up so
there's ten of these in the box as you
can see here and next below that one we
have the same thing only since it's a
hive body this is where the bees are
gonna raise all their young similar
frame only three inches longer and so
you have to have two of these if you
live where I do in the North if you get
wait for yourself a lot of beekeepers
only use one deep but because we go
through winter here in Illinois and then
the Lord's where you have to have two of
these so the bees can have enough stored
resources to make it through the winter
eventually if we get down to the bottom
board and on the bottom board is
commonly referred to as a screen bottom
board now and this helps control varroa
mites a lot of mites can fall through
this and it also increases ventilation
so in the summertime when the bees are
trying to dry out the nectar to make
honey this will increase their
opportunity to get a lot of that
moisture out of hive but we really enjoy
it most to get rid of the varroa mites
the colony now this is a hive stand that
I pulled out of the yard it's a little
dirty but the bottom where it fits right
in here and then you just stack all your
boxes on top you want to keep your hive
about six to eight inches off the ground
six to eight inches off the ground will
keep your hive from getting too close
and get moisture on the ground so it's
important to have it up off the ground
now you can use cinder blocks you can
use pallets and you know things around
the house if you want to just make sure
you get it up off the ground other
things I want to show you because this
is a basic introduction since we do have
raw lights and
not aware of what those are a pest that
came into our country and the early 90s
and they've wreaked havoc most your
struggles as a beekeeper is going to be
combating the varroa destructor mite so
we recommend using a green drone comb
this is a comb that you put in your
brood nest area and they'll put brood in
here that's male drone larvae and the
varroa mite likes to go into the and lay
eggs on drones because they're in there
longer you simply take this out freeze
it and you kill a lot of mites at once
just a brief introduction this is called
a beetle blaster another problem that we
have in keeping bees is small hive
beetle especially those of you in the
south we've put a little vegetable oil
in this and then we put it in between
the frames like that and when we do that
the beetles are chased into this beetle
trap and drowned or essentially are
suffocated in the oil so it helps trap
small hive beetle beekeepers often use
other things like pollen patties you
just lay these on top of the brood nest
area to give the bees a little more
protein very common we also use pollen
powder this is pretty commonly used in
my operation and my customers enjoy
putting pollen powder in their sugar
water and then they feed that to the
bees to give them more protein bees live
off of carbohydrates and protein
carbohydrates is the vector of the honey
the bees consume and protein comes from
the pollen that bees gather from flowers
so they're down the same diet that we as
humans are we honor you we also use
other things such as honey be healthy
and you can see here this is a great way
to help the bees stay healthier and
clean their gut out a little bit but
mostly it's advertised as to help the
bees consume more sugar water and in
seasons when you're trying to feed your
bees you add a little bit this is very
concentrated add a little bit of this
smells like lemon and it attracts the
bees it's a feeding stimulant other cool
tricks some tools look at that
this is actually a refractometer if
you've ever made beer or wine I think
that's used in that as well but you put
a drop of honey on under the scope here
and close it and you look down through
this Inn and there's a scale in there it
will tell you that your honey it's at
the proper moisture you don't have to
use this it's not that expensive this
one is about 30 bucks but if you want to
you just wait until all the honey is
capped over and that's generally safe
and knowing that the honey is ready to
be harvested but this is called a
refractometer also you've noticed if
you've done any research and beekeeping
you'll see beekeepers using a smoker
like this this is a smoker that's been
around forever it hasn't changed much
you use this to calm your bees so before
you make your hive inspection you put a
little smoke at the entrance you smoke
under the hood and then you can work
your bees because the smoke actually
confuses the bees because they're not
able to communicate bees communicate
through the spread of pheromones and so
when they're trying to communicate and
their pheromones are received by the
antenna the antenna collects micro micro
particles of the smoke I guess and now
they can't really communicate by picking
up these pheromone odors through
communication they just kind of stopped
doing much and they calm down a lot
smoker is really important you can use
smoker fuel like pine needles sometimes
people use twine just make sure it's
kind of organic didn't have any
chemicals on it but your choice of
whatever smoke you want to dense smoke
you don't want flames coming up next we
have the hive tool this has been around
forward ever this is the traditional
looking hype tool we do have several
different models out today a j-hook and
so on but this is a good one is tempered
steel this is painted it comes to a real
wedged point here this allows you to get
in between your boxes and separate them
because once your hive is up and going
strong the bees are going to use a
propolis propolis as substance together
from trees and plants and they actually
bring it back into the hive and kind of
glue all their pieces together and
that's how these boxes can sit
each other and not blow away and you'll
have to use this to separate it you can
scrape so this would be your best friend
next to your smoker gotta have a high
tool
I'll show you a few other things about
you know just basically getting started
in beekeeping this is called a queen of
scooter and it can come in metal this
one's the plastic one I
I like plastic just fine like it does
these swats are small enough that the
Queen she can't pass through this she's
too large and her thorax is too large
but the worker bees can pass through so
the reason this sounds good is if you
want your queen to stay down in here in
the brood nest area and not lay eggs up
and your honey super then all you need
to do is slide this queen of scooter all
the way down place here and then that
will who is our queen down and allow the
workers to kind of screw it up like that
and now your queen is held in the brood
nest area here and all the workers can
take the honey and store it up above
it's a really neat way to do that also
some common things that you're going to
want to get probably starting out are
some gloves I don't use gloves but I've
kept these for a long time so I manage
them and work them in such a way to
avoid being stung and you'll learn that
but at first a new beekeeper you might
say who I gotta wear some gloves I
understand that you might want to get a
bee brush there are times you may want
to brush some bees off of some frames or
if they're stuck on here on a rainy day
whatever you might just find a be brush
to be real handy this is a feeding
system that I personally invented and in
certain times of the year we have to
feed our bees and this feeder allows us
to put it on top of the fruit boxes you
take this off you put this on top and
then you're able to put a shell around
it and put jars of food here and then
maybe a pomegranate to push through here
so this is just a feeder board to feed
your bees from the top especially in the
fall and in the spring well what about
the winter
well in the winter time this is
something else that I invented it's
called the winter
kind bored and as you can see it's
filled with carbohydrates and proteins
vitamins and minerals and so this
actually goes on top of the hive upside
down like just food is facing down so
you put it on top of your to brood nest
areas you take this off put it on top of
this and then put your top on and then
your bees can fly in and out in the
winter time if they need to go to the
potty beads never defecate inside their
colony so on warmer winter days they'll
take a little body break and fly back in
and then making you stay fed in the
wintertime and this is a good tool so
this is an extractor and many of you
have probably heard of an extractor but
you actually crank the handle like this
and as you turn it what happens it spins
the honey out of the honey comb that you
opened up with the knife used usually
use a cold knife like this to cut the
caps off of the honey comb out of these
supers and then you put it in here and
spin them in centrifugal force forces
the honey
against the wall and it runs down to the
bottom goes down here and then you open
the valve here call a honey gate and as
you open it like the honey flows out and
you can then strain it if you want to
you don't necessarily have to but if you
don't strain it you'll have a little bit
of wax that might flow to the top of the
honey and this is called your honey
extracted
okay so when you're starting beekeeping
most people are gonna buy a package of
bees which is ten thousand bees or about
three pounds and today we use a plastic
container like this some of them are
made out of wooden screen the queen is
in her own little cage she's made it
sometimes marked but she's not available
yet to walk around with all the other
bees and so when you take your package
apart you'll take the Queen cage out and
set it aside and I've got videos you can
watch on my channel to show you how to
install the packages but you simply
remove the candy shake all the bees in
the bottom single deep check them all
out of here and then you take your queen
cage and you'll open up the little candy
cap and then set it in there and let the
next day or two all these beads will eat
through the candy and release the Queen
and she'll be their new mom and the hive
will take off three pounds is a good
number to eat rolling in the season so
if you haven't already bought your
package you need to hustle because if
you're watching this during the winter
packages sell out really fast so be sure
to do that get your packages bought even
before you buy your equipment make sure
you're you've secured your bees from
someplace we recommend you find a good
reliable source for your honeybees
somebody that's done it for a while be
careful about buying bees from someone
you may not know their reputation of
course you know that but once you shake
them in here then you don't add these
boxes instead you wait until the hive
kind of gets pulling out some of these
frames adding wax to them and when they
get about five frames you have this box
five frames you can add your hunting
super at that point so how do you get
started in beekeeping we got talked
about the equipment and some basic
things that we use to feed bees and get
them rolling well first of all let me
say it is imperative that you do take a
class and it's important that you find
the class where it's taught by someone
who's well knowledgeable on beekeeping
there's a lot of certified beekeepers
now and they teach classes
you need to know all the nuances of
beekeeping particularly in dealing with
pests and diseases this can be a
challenge today
let me I'm just gonna be honest with you
beekeeping isn't magical you just don't
throw bees in a box and it all works out
it does require you to know what you're
doing it's just like if you bought a
brand new car and you didn't know how to
drive it it would be disasters first you
have to learn how to drive the car and
then you buy the car right so it's the
same way that beekeeping it's really
imperative that you know what you're
doing or else you're going to be very
disappointed
I really believe today that a lot of the
bees a majority of the beads that we see
perishing that we hear about that are
dying unfortunately are dying because of
poor management mismanaged hives by new
beekeepers who really fail to educate
themselves on beekeeping now I don't
have time in these videos to give you a
whole day or two obviously of
instructions on how to keep bees but
there's somebody in your area you don't
have to take one of my classes I'm not
trying to get you to do that although
I'm proud of the classes that I offer of
course but certainly find a place
someone is reputable that has classes we
have online classes and and educate
yourself during the winter months so in
the spring you'll be ready to roll so as
a certified master beekeeper my
responsibility and that I feel really
strong about is to help you be
successful and sometimes that's really
challenging with all the pests and
diseases that are facing colonies today
and some of you are probably wondering
too you know I may have my hive close to
a farmer's field
well chemicals affect my bees all and
those are things that you really need to
make sure your research in a hive like
this you need to inspect your colony
about every two to three weeks and what
you're looking for is to make sure they
have eggs make sure that everything
looks good and that's why you need to
know how to identify pests and diseases
because if you don't they can get a pest
some disease and you won't know it and
they'll collapse on you and die so there
is some basic information that you're
going to need to know it
rolling again I just can't take time
today I'm just giving you a basic
overview of what you need to plan for so
inspecting your hive about every two to
three weeks making sure the queen is
healthy she's laying a lot of eggs the
Queen there's only one Queen in here out
of when the hive gets full size is forty
to eighty thousand bees one queen now
one Queen lays approximately one to
three thousand eggs a day and I did not
misspeak one to three thousand eggs a
day and so you need to make sure she's
healthy these bees in the in the
summertime only bit of about 35 to 45
days then they die of being I guess
working themselves to death they're
quickly replaced by the eggs at the
Queen's Lane so in the summer time
you've got to be aware that you've got
to have a strong queen if you lose your
queen or if she isn't laying that many
eggs as she's supposed to your queen
will group your hive will go down in
population and then your hive will
eventually perish another be frustrating
you spend a lot of time money learning
beekeeping watch your queen so you're
gonna have to invest that much time in
inspecting your colony you can add as
many supers as you want once they fill
this one up you don't have to harvest it
you can add another one on top of it on
top of that once some people have really
tall hives with a lot of these honey
supers being filled up with honey
generally the first year the bees are
adding so much wax to the nest area that
they don't they're not able to make
enough wax to really turn all that
nectar into honey and the supers the
second year it's generally when you get
most of your honey from a honey but I've
had a lot of customers tell me on their
first year they've got one hundred two
hundred pounds of honey off of their
hives so you just never know depends on
where you live hey everybody thanks for
watching my video on how to become a
beekeeper I've given you the basic of
basic elements this is by no means a
beginners class or a basic class at all
those classes can take anywhere from
five to twenty hours or more to really
help a beekeeper know the basics of
becoming a beekeeper I do encourage you
to take a class it
is in my opinion essential for you to be
a successful beekeeper but my video
today hopefully has given you at least
enough information to whet your appetite
to pursue the beekeeping endeavor that
you know you want to do if you've liked
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