We Are Running Out Of Time FAST

[00:00:00]We've genuinely not been in [music] or looked, we have no idea what we're doing. And it is a warning to everyone, very easy to cause fires [music] with your smoke gun.

[00:00:06]>> Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[00:00:08]>> Bad thing. So, I never like it if you're opening up a colony like that. Wow, yeah, jeez. There was no chance they were getting up into that top box.

[00:00:20]Zayne's first nuke, episode 14. Let's jump straight in. No smoker this week because it is way too hot to be lighting a smoker. I do get a bit worried about smokers.

[00:00:27]>> Yeah, it is very hot. Luckily, that's a nice little spot for it there, isn't it?

[00:00:31]>> Instead of lighting the smokers, I've been like spray painting them and getting some getting some branding on them.

[00:00:35]>> Using them for something.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah.

[00:00:37]>> Now, they're just props.

[00:00:39]>> They're just props. What do you reckon, Zayne? What do you reckon is going to happen inside your hive today? Have we genuinely not been in or looked? We have no idea what we're doing.

[00:00:44]>> Surely decent progress with a good weather.

[00:00:47]Um Yeah, I'd like I'd like to maybe see if we can get another super on today.

[00:00:53]>> Okay. Ambitious.

[00:00:55]>> no, because the queen is still only just been re-introduced.

[00:01:00]So, we're going to couple of weeks off her, I suppose, aren't we?

[00:01:02]>> Okay. I'm going to put my veil up though cuz I've not got a smoker on and they're just a bit touchy at the moment, the bees. So, I'm going to go veil up straight away, Zayne. I think you should do the same. Yeah.

[00:01:11]It's difficult with it being so dry. And it is a warning to everyone who's out bee keeping at the moment. Don't be the cause of like big forest fires or any fires. It's very easy to cause fires with your smoke gun. So, I'm doing my best to not have any smokers at the moment, Zayne.

[00:01:32]What are we seeing, Zayne?

[00:01:34]>> Why do they seem very buzzy?

[00:01:36]>> Seem very buzzy.

[00:01:37]>> Yeah, is that is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[00:01:40]>> Bad thing.

[00:01:41]>> Yeah.

[00:01:42]Great.

[00:01:43]>> So, I never like it if you're opening up a colony like that and they're kind of coming out like angry, but also just, yeah, not coordinated. I would say I wouldn't worry too much though because we still got an empty super.

[00:01:54]>> Okay.

[00:01:54]>> And that is probably what it was. Few bees up in the empty super and we disturbed them.

[00:01:58]>> Right.

[00:01:59]>> But the top box is still empty, Zane.

[00:02:01]>> Yeah.

[00:02:01]>> And remember we said that last week?

[00:02:03]Like there was no chance they were getting up into that top box, but let's have a look.

[00:02:08]So you just want to get it in a couple of inches.

[00:02:10]That's it, and then you lever up, and then you just want to make sure that none of the frames are getting stuck.

[00:02:14]That's it, perfect.

[00:02:15]>> Okay.

[00:02:16]>> So this top box here still completely empty, few bees buzzing around but no work and just foundation in there.

[00:02:23]And then what have we got here, Zane?

[00:02:26]>> See, they've definitely filled out more of these frames.

[00:02:29]>> Well, you can see from the top there there's lots of honey in those ones there. So you pull a couple out and have a look, yeah?

[00:02:33]>> Yeah. It's a really heavy frame, that.

[00:02:37]>> Wow. Yeah, jeez, look at that.

[00:02:39]So what are you thinking, Zane?

[00:02:40]>> Yeah, that's really heavy. And that's just full of honey there, isn't it?

[00:02:44]>> Yeah, full of honey, completely capped over. Like that is ripe.

[00:02:48]>> Yeah.

[00:02:48]>> And you know those jars we had before, the little white ants jars? There's eight of those jars there in one frame, about.

[00:02:53]>> No way.

[00:02:53]>> Yeah.

[00:02:53]>> That's crazy.

[00:02:54]>> Yeah, there's a lot of honey in it.

[00:02:55]>> See, if I didn't know, I would have said maybe one or two.

[00:02:58]>> Yeah.

[00:02:59]>> Okay, that's a good sign.

[00:03:00]>> Cool.

[00:03:01]>> Let's move this over.

[00:03:03]>> And there's quite a lot like that, isn't there? If you pull a couple of the other ones out.

[00:03:08]>> Yeah, same again.

[00:03:11]>> Looking good, aren't they?

[00:03:12]>> Yeah.

[00:03:13]This one's uh this one's not the best. I just Oh, hold on. No, there's a bit of honey there.

[00:03:20]>> Yeah, like >> capped.

[00:03:22]>> There's not many frames in here that are not looking good. And as a heavy frame, there's not much space, they'll finish capping all of that over.

[00:03:30]Yeah, and then some of the outer ones like that you can see, Zane. A bit of nectar in it.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:35]>> So outer frame is still empty on one side, but they're working the other side, which means that once they fill this box up, then they will start working on the one above it.

[00:03:44]>> See, that's weird though, there's there's three frames here.

[00:03:48]>> Yeah.

[00:03:48]>> Middle one is full of nectar, like rampacked, but these two are just just kind of only just being worked.

[00:03:56]>> So, pull them out. Let's have a look.

[00:03:57]See what they're coming out like.

[00:03:58]>> That one, not much going on there.

[00:04:01]Just starting to put a bit of nectar in that one.

[00:04:02]>> Yep.

[00:04:03]>> And then this one is basically ready to be capped over.

[00:04:08]>> Know what the difference is between the two?

[00:04:10]>> Go on.

[00:04:10]>> So, see this one here, yeah? See how dark it is?

[00:04:12]>> Ah, yeah.

[00:04:13]>> comb where, like, they would have had honeycomb directly to go into.

[00:04:16]>> Got you.

[00:04:17]>> Whereas that one's foundation, so they've had to do some work to get it to a point where they can keep the honey in it.

[00:04:21]>> That makes sense.

[00:04:21]>> It is great observation though, Anna, and useful for anyone at home to realize that that if you've got drawn comb, you're going to end up with much quicker results, much more honey. Whereas if you've got foundation, the extraction is going to be a little bit more wobbly cuz the frames can blow as well, but it will be a bit slower. Takes the bees kind of a bit of energy to even get them to this point here where they can start to store that honey because they have to draw all of that wax comb out.

[00:04:46]But, anything like that, you can take these ones, the ones that you're not happy with, Anna. If you put them closer towards the middle, >> Mhm.

[00:04:51]>> they should work them a little bit quicker. This one.

[00:04:54]>> Mhm.

[00:04:54]>> Move it over there.

[00:04:58]So, there we go. So, that one's got the space maintained, and then we've got plenty of space over here. Yeah, so that's the one that's going to be the one to look for next week, which is the 1 2 3, the fourth one in. It's got tons of space above it that can draw the frames out that way. And there's really, like, not that much going on at all.

[00:05:14]>> Yeah. So, the fourth and fifth there, if we see those filling up, that'll be nice, wouldn't it?

[00:05:19]>> Yeah. Okay, let's go to the brood box.

[00:05:20]>> Same.

[00:05:20]>> Mhm.

[00:05:21]>> So, this is hopefully where we're going to see some real action. We want to see the queen. We want to see eggs. We definitely want to see some nice capped brood. And we don't want any swarm cells, Anna. So, come on. Let's cross our fingers.

[00:05:33]>> Okay, yeah.

[00:05:33]>> Good.

[00:05:34]>> Yeah, it's got some good weight to it.

[00:05:35]>> Happy with that. Okay, nice. So, if you put that on there, Zane.

[00:05:38]And then we can get the queen excluder off.

[00:05:44]It's getting late on in the year now, yeah? The wasps are around. There's robbing bees around. Do you want me to show you how I would do an inspection on this colony if we weren't doing it on a video, yeah?

[00:05:51]>> Yeah.

[00:05:52]>> I'm liking what I'm seeing here already though, which is lots and lots of capped brood.

[00:05:58]And then I'm just looking for one thing really, I'm looking for eggs. I want to go in there and I want to see eggs.

[00:06:03]Right, eggs found.

[00:06:07]Yeah.

[00:06:08]Also, perfect capped brood from the eggs. That means the queen that we put in is perfectly mated. We knew she was going to be. This is where people get it wrong. They think now they need to go and find the queen. You definitely don't need to see her. We've got eggs, so we know the queen is there.

[00:06:22]And she is there.

[00:06:24]>> She's by there.

[00:06:28]That's good news, mate.

[00:06:29]>> Yep. So, we've seen eggs, we've seen the queen, we've seen capped brood. The only thing that I'm looking for now is swarm cells. And this is kind of how quick I would do the inspection to look for swarm cells.

[00:07:00]>> Right, so as easy as that.

[00:07:01]>> No swarm cells.

[00:07:03]Like as easy as that.

[00:07:05]And this is where people spend too much time doing their inspections and adding risk in there. We know where the queen is. I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

[00:07:12]Just going to put this in a bit of a safer space.

[00:07:16]I knew the queen was somewhere around there. I didn't want to shake the bees near her or squish her.

[00:07:21]But this is a really safe way of putting the bees back in to not roll any queen.

[00:07:24]So, you shake the bees off and then put the frame back in.

[00:07:28]So, as simple as that, Zane. We'll get everything back on.

[00:07:35]Your brain's not working right. Zane's brain is not working. I'll fill it in.

[00:07:37]That is good news, Zane. We are back on track.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah.

[00:07:39]>> No, it's properly back on track. That next super might get filled next week, but I wouldn't think we're going to get any more than that.

[00:07:44]>> Okay.

[00:07:45]And how long have we got left in the season then?

[00:07:48]>> Don't know cuz the the rain is really like compressing it down. Not going to have that long left, but we are quite high up here and the season's quite late up here. So, I think we still got maybe 3 weeks left for me for this one.

[00:07:59]>> Is that it?

[00:07:59]>> Yeah, three or four maybe. It's heather, so you can go quite late here, but we need to we need to treat the bees and get them nice and healthy going into winter.

[00:08:06]>> Right.

[00:08:06]>> We can't do that with honey on.

[00:08:07]>> Okay.

[00:08:08]So, you just have to So, you have to you've got to you've got to call it and say, "Right, let's take the honey. Now it's time to treat them."

[00:08:13]>> Yeah.

[00:08:14]>> Okay.

[00:08:14]>> And I think that's two or three weeks away.

[00:08:17]>> Right. I will be happy >> Yeah.

[00:08:19]>> if we could even if we just get the third super on at some point >> Okay.

[00:08:25]>> and we get a couple of frames in there.

[00:08:26]>> Yeah.

[00:08:26]>> Although, right, I say that. I'd be happy with two supers.

[00:08:29]>> Two supers is good.

[00:08:30]>> I am happy. If we can get a third on there, get a couple of frames in, job done.

[00:08:33]>> That's the that's the high end of the mission.

[00:08:34]>> Okay.

[00:08:35]>> Bottom end is we've got to have two full supers.

[00:08:36]>> Okay, Zane has set the parameters for success there, yeah.

[00:08:39]>> Yeah.

[00:08:39]>> And we have to achieve that.

[00:08:40]>> You need a goal. You got to you got to aim for something, aren't you?

[00:08:42]>> So, enough talking. It's time to get out of this very hot bee suit. We will see you all next week.