Testing Honey Moisture Content
Here is the link to where I purchased the refractometer, it is pricey but very convenient:
https://www.itm.com/product/atago-pal-22s-digital-handheld-honey-refractometer?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpuC-s9Hf4wIVjpOzCh1zZwOyEAYYAiABEgKfS_D_BwE
I have had a bear of a time getting the Styrofoam mating nucs going in early spring with the cool weather, cut and assembled these mini nucs so I can multi level them, they are half length medium frames.
The plan is that with brood already in them, I can split them back to single depth to get a head start on early queen rearing.
I think there are about 75 of them, the plan is to sell local queen in larger numbers than we have been, with more consistency next season.
In this video I identify a double nuc where one queen has failed, and show/discuss how we deal with the remaining colony.
We run our double nucs through the honey season to maximize growth and honey production in our beekeeping operation. I love this method, and for the past 7 years have run 85-90% of my colonies in similar configuration, over time identifying ways to maximize growth and honey profits at the same time, while building my awareness on how these units grow and react to our climate, and location.
I would love to hear your ways of maximizing sideliner operation growth and profits at the same time!
Comb replacement increases the immunity of your honey bee colony, by reducing treatment residues absorbed by beeswax, and reducing the risk of harboring viruses in aged equipment. This is our replacement strategy, what’s yours?
In this video I check for successful mating on some new nucs, and prepare them for the canola flow. I describe what I am doing and why, feel free to ask any questions for future videos of our sideliner operation.
Checking on my 2 day old larva grafts for graft acceptance, and reintroducing the queen to finish the cells in a queen-right finisher.
I talk a short bit on the benefits to the beekeeper of a staggered planting of the canola crop in our area, and super up one of our bee yards.
Have you ever found a hive with 2 queens in it at once?
I identified this colony about 5 weeks for queen replacement later in the season due to the age of the queen, she was still laying strong and let her live to harvest resources and brood for nucs, when I came back to harvest more brood today, I found mother and daughter on the same frame. It appears the hive went ahead and superseded the old queen, and either the were OK with ruling the hive together for a short time, or the young queen just had not yet found the old queen.
what are your thoughts or expert and amateur opinions?
Honey Bee Nucs are made up in Spring or early summer to expand ones apiary. These are small nests, which will grow into full colonies throughout the season. This video describes how we put them together the way we would expect to receive them.
We put our nucs together with 3 frames of bees and brood and 1 frame with feed in it. These colonies are set to explode approximately 12 days after the customer receives them. There is really no set standard when making up nucs, but a good rule of thumb would be to sell products only that you would be excited to receive regardless if it is livestock, honey or any other equipment. Reputation is everything when selling livestock, and producers should take pride in their operation and the name behind it.