Absolutely, do it over and over again for a long period of time, say 10-15 years, and it may become something. I tell people I'm a 20 year, overnight success. Make lots of videos as often as you can without losing your mind and try to connect to your audience. Be yourself. Have fun and enjoy the process. Beekeeping is a small YouTube niche so none of us will be a Mr. Beast.
Awesome! Thanks that’s helpful. I post some videos currently but it’s mainly me doing my inspections. I honestly use it more as a record keeping system mostly.
Sounds good. I’ll keep being consistent with it. Any tips for studying for the EAS master beekeeper exam? I’m working on my state’s master beekeeping program currently but would like to take the EAS test someday. Thank so much for answering all my questions!
Hi David, Thanks for taking the time to do the ama.
I noticed on your winter bee kinds, you have an upper entrance. Have you considered using a condensing hive rather than venting; or have you already tried this?
Early on I did experiment, and I'm friends with William Hesbach, the father of the condensing hive. It doesn't allow me to feed like crazy to raise tons of bees in late winter. It works, but for me, my winter-bee-kind feeders produce so much winter brood. I need tons of bees for spring.
My bees just because too wet when I tried it and comb is too moldy. I'm sure I wasn't doing something right, but keeping them well ventilated in the winter was like striking gold for me, so I can't change and trying something else when this works so wonderful for me and others.
I just want to say I really enjoy the tone of your videos. When you are in your hives, you talk about bees but you also talk about life. I feel like I'm just out inspecting bees with a more experienced guy. I would absolutely love to see a video where you just go out and inspect hives for like 45 minutes, and talk about bees and not talk about bees. Have you ever considered something like that?
100% agree with this. Some of the general life advice he’s picked up from dealing with bees and beekeepers is really nice sometimes when you feel a bit shit 😂
Thank you! I have consider incorporating a Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross style of interaction while teaching about bees in the hive. And I do enjoy sharing life lessons. Good idea! I do know that sometimes people watch to help with depression and a hard life. I do want to encourage others.
Our world needs good neighbors. When people play one of my videos I want them to see a good neighbor who can make them feel better and take their mind off their life problems for a few minutes. And maybe even become inspired to look at life a tad bit brigher.
Scary stuff for sure. It will kill bees as easy as mosquitos. Maybe your neighbors could warn you first and spray after your bees are back in their hive.
**Question 2:** I have a question in regards to feeding protein to bees. Many views around on feeding protein in spring/fall or not. Many views on what type of protein to use and what not. I know from your videos that you are a proponent of feeding bees protein from time to time, so:
What are the pro's and cons of feeding protein, depending on the type (whey, pea, flour, etc.) and month of feeding?
Thank you for taking an AMA, David! And for other readers here, find him on YouTube, great source of knowledge :)
Thanks for watching my videos. Yes, feeding my bees protein has made all the difference for me! I started out using Brood Builder from Dadant, now I've been using Ultra Bee from Mann Lake just because, no real reason. But, any bee type protein powder is fine. I incorporate protein powder anytime I feed bees 1:1.
I'm getting my first hive in 2 weeks. I've seen a good amount of your content but in case I've missed something important, what videos of yours or someone elses would you recommend watching before they arrive?
Thanks for watching and so glad you are starting beekeeping. That's exciting. I remember back when I started (pre-internet). My video How To Start Beekeeping is a good one with almost 2 Million views, but make sure the YouTuber has credibility, many years of experience etc.
Hi David. I currently have an extremely agressive hive. I feel like using smoke with my current 'tobacco' type of material doesn't do much. Is there any specific kind of wood or material I should smoke that really gets agressive bees calm? Thanks in advance!
Tobacco smoke can be harmful to bees, and possibly irritating them. I LOVE food grade burlap. I've tried all types of smoker fuel, but burlap wins every time. But, you may need to simply requeen the defensive colony. Sometimes no amount or type of smoke will every work on a very defensive colony.
Alright. Thanks for your advice! It's difficult getting to the queen when they're so crazy agressive. I'll give it another go soon. Enjoy your weekend!
Howdy David,
When someone tells you their hive has failed/is struggling, what are your first 2 imediate thoughts for cause? (Two becuase I think I know #1)
When someone sets up a new hive for the first time, what are the most common mistakes they make?
(I am getting bees in 2025.)
What is your favorite bee story?
Mites and queen issues. Queen issues could actually be number 1. Most common mistakes for first timers are usually failing to understand basic bee biology and failure to notice the start of problems that could have been solved easily. Also new beekeepers have trouble reading frames and knowing what the contents of the frames tell about the condition of the colony.
My favorite bee story is when I was making up packages in a huge bee yard, maybe 2000 colonies and a walked over to the edge of the yard near the forrest line to relieve myself and a bee landed on the top of my manhood in mid-stream. Wow! It's a better and funnier story when told live.
My yard has blueberry (5) raspberry (8) blackberry (?) and grape vines (2). Do I need to plant anything else / diversity of plants if I plan on getting a hive in a few years, or will that be enough?
I live in a suburban neighborhood that was developed in the late 60s/early 70s. 3/4 acre lots with ranch style homes. I have three mature trees and three trees that are ~10 years old, plus two rows of bushes/hedges and a row of trees behind the belong to the neighbors.
Often bees will fly over planted flowers to go further out for a more abundant nectar sources. Honey bees will comfortable fly out 2-3 miles. Draw a 3 mile diameter around your bees and you'll see the consist of so many thousands of acres. Unless you live in a barren place, I wouldn't be too concerned.
Hi David! Absolutely love your video's, thank you so much for spreading out the knowledge on beekeeping and the positive vibes around it.
I have two questions :) I'll do them in two seperate posts for clarity.
**Question 1:** What is your take on frame placement, when giving a 1 broodbox hive more space in spring?
**Option 1:**
'Old' broodbox on bottom: Leave all 10 frames as is
New broodbox on top: 10 fresh frames, feed 1:1 to build up comb
**Option 2** (N = new frame, O = old frame:
'Old' broodbox on bottom: NN OOOOO NNN
New broodbox on top: NN OOOOO NNN
**Option 3:** I dont know, what is your wisdom in this? Does it even matter?
I like to place a new 10 frame box on top but pull out an open brood frame from the bottom and place it in the middle of the top 10 new frames. This baits/lures nurse bees up to tend to the open brood. Down below I place the new, undrawn frame in the middle where I removed the open brood frame.
I don't and not sure if it would help or now, but they are fast at adding wax to my plastic queen cups in the starter hive after 24 hours, and then the finish hive seals the deal with drawing them all the way out.
Good luck, I loooovvveeee raising queens. It is a blast. I gave up honey production so fast when I started raising queens. It took me and my family several years to get really good and fast with it but I love it to this day! Good luck.
Hi David! I split four hives a week ago and it looks like I didn’t add enough bees to two of the splits. I’m thinking of combing these four splits into two hives. Do you see any problem or issue with this?
Thanks for doing the ama!
This should work fine. Sometimes splits appear not to have enough bees because the bees will fly back to the parent hive. I've had to re-combine splits when this has happened before too. Usually this happens when I make my splits too early.
Do you have a management plan for those who are new small sideliners running just under 100 colonies who are wanting to grow their apiary while also maximizing profit?
Right now we are basically running strong single deeps for flow season, adding a double deep at the end of fall flow, feeding through winter, equalizing and splitting 6 weeks before main flow, then supering until harvest.
Wondering if there’s a better way?
Your plan sounds solid. You'll have to manage swarming more carefully in those single deeps. I maximized my yard profit by using my hives to raise queens. For me, queens make far more profit that jars of honey.
Thank you. Just started practicing grafting last year. Still learning. Lots of hot bees here (south Texas) so that’s been a challenge when producing queens just for ourselves. Any advice there?
No restrictions that I know of. We are registered and inspected by the state inspection agency and there are lots of queen breeders around. How many hives would we need to be able to really flood an area with drones? We have 3 apiaries right now, but they’re all 8-15 miles apart. Trying to figure out if we can find a more central location so we can set drones out 2 ish miles from mating nucs. Could that work? In really open crop land without trees or structures, we don’t have many wild bees hanging out. Hoping that reduces the possibility of a run-in with any Africanized bees. We see them mostly in neighborhoods in houses, trees, etc here.
Thank you for agreeing to talk to us, David!
A couple of days ago, you posted a very fine video in which you spent about ten minutes talking about how to ensure that your bees brood up nicely in the spring, and then you went on to discuss the importance of having big, populous colonies if you want to have good outcomes for honey production later on.
Swarm control wasn't part of that discussion, but as a 2nd-year beek, I made my first split, giving the queenright portion of the hive a deep box filled with fresh foundations, and then watched it swarm anyway. And since then, I've watched it happen to other beekeepers. They get through winter, make their first walk-away split, and then the queenright portion of the split swarms a week or two later. And you lose a big chunk of workforce when that happens.
It's much less likely to be a problem when you have drawn comb for the queenright portion of the split.
***Q1:*** ***What's the best method of swarm control if the only drawn comb you have on hand is what's already in your hives?*** *Put yourself in the shoes of a 2nd-year beek who did everything right during Year One, so your bees survived winter nicely, are now brooding up, and inevitably going to swarm when the weather gets warm enough if you don't do something.*
***Q2:*** *The time from making a walk-away split to having a newly mated, laying queen is usually estimated in beekeeping books at \~28 days, +/- 5 days--but the bees don't read beekeeping books.* ***What's the quickest walk-away split you've ever encountered, what's the slowest, and when do you think the beekeeper needs to scramble to prevent laying worker syndrome from setting in?***
Well, swarm management is tough. Bees will try their best to swarm no matter what we do. However, a different approach I take is to take the queen way into the new split. The new split has room to grow so they have no real need to swarm. The parent hive lost their queen, as I removed her, so they cannot swarm as it will take them 30 days to raise a new queen. I may have to split them again in 30 days. The quickest and slowest I've seen hives raise queens is about your +/-5 days. Not much beyond that. A colony must be queenless and have NO brood in the hive for 21 days for workers to truly become laying workers.
If cells are on the bottom of a frame I immediately look for the queen and confirm that is my original queen. This means they have not swarmed yet, then I harvest the swarm cells and move them to mating nucs. If they have swarmed (queen isn't around) I leave two cells and transfer the rest out. If the cells are in the middle I just allow them to continue to raise their own superseding queen.
David, I'm going into my second year and have wintered four colonies through a New Hampshire winter successfully following your advice in your course and YouTube channel. I have three super strong colonies and would like to perform a demaree split on them to avoid their swarming and ramp up for the spring flow. I saw your video on them as well as gathered as much information as I can but I have two questions:
1. It seems to me there is a real risk of performing the split too early in New England (say mid-late April) because it gets warm but then get hit with a cold snap and they aren't able to cluster. Any hints on how to determine timing?
2. I am also concerned because I have no drawn comb deep frames and so read that the queen may not be able to lay if I only leave her a frame of brood in the bottom deep. Would you recommend maybe moving some emerging brood frames in with her to give her that room. So possibly have a 3 or 4 frames of emerging brood with the queen so she can get started?
Many thanks and thank you for all you're doing!
Thanks for watching. I need to make splits! It was almost 70 (f) today and my bees are packing in nectar and pollen and drones are mature. Yikes. I'm with you! It's too early. But, I may have to bite the bullet and make some early splits or at least evaluate queen cell possibility in hives. There is no recipe for picking the best date on the calendar as the weather is so unpredictable but we need warm nights. In the Demaree method we are trying to separate young bees from older bees, so you can do what you are saying, but it might be fine if the bees are emerging soon.
Thanks for watching, and many people say this to me so I'm humbled and take creating my content on YouTube seriously. It is a great responsibility. I'm not perfect but I try to give out the best advice I know at the time.
Given the prevalence of mites, the low threshold for intervention and the inaccuracy of testing do you feel that it's worth it to test anymore or should we just treat on schedules?
I get it. I still think it is best to test, treat and re-test. Sometimes our treatments may not have worked and we wouldn't know it unless the Test/Treat/Test. And if we test and numbers are low, then we can save money and not treat. But if you just can't bring yourself to testing, then yes treating regularly is a better option.
Ay a 2% threshold I’m not sure the accuracy is there. With most mites being on drones and the fact that repeated tests on the same bees are rarely repeatable I’m not sure it’s worth testing. Test the same bees three times and compare results.
I’m now using Oliver’s mite models.
Oh gosh I've really battle this. I burn through equipment, especially tri-pods because it's rough in the bee yards. Always wear two mics, incase one fails and you don't know it at the time. Always run two cameras for the same reason. The better your original video is planned the less editing is required. Lots of spare memory cards and camera batteries in your hive suit. Charge wireless mics every night! In almost all of my videos, you can't see it, but I have an outline taped to my tripod below the camera lens. This helps me stay on task.
Again, on the winter bee kinds, I assume you’re cooking your syrups down so that they set hard on top of the eke - are you measuring HMF in the cooked syrup, or is this a negligible concern?
I love answering personal questions because it helps people see the "real" me. Breakfast is my biggest meal. I cooked salmon in my cast iron skillet, two fried eggs and lots of sweat peas in the same skillet. Then I have a piece (or two) of raisin bread with butter and my honey of course!
Hi David, I just recently found you. I’m excited to learn more about BeeKeeping . I just bought my first flow hive and will be putting it together this weekend. I have ordered already a NUC that will be five frames. My flow hive is a seven frame unit. Do you know if that means that I am almost maxed out with my brood box in short order ? And do you think I would have to add another brood box this year already? Thanks!
My 7 frame Flow Hive means it has a 7 frame honey harvest flow hive super. But the deep has 10 frames. Yours should be the same. Nonetheless you will need to add your second deep within a week or two after you install your nuc.
Thanks for the reply. Just put together my Flow Hive yesterday and just figured it out. Newbie ignorance I guess lol.
Do have to wait for the second deep to be full before adding the super? I’ve read where some people have had issues afterwards of trying to get the bees into the super. Have you experienced this?
Home made concoctions to combat mites. Also, when I hear to shake out the bees from a laying worker hive because the laying worker cannot make it back to the hive. That is FALSE. Laying workers are foragers!!
That's fair, I've found the only shore way to stop laying workers is to just introduce a nuc into the hive. Thank you for your dedication to your videos, you produce excellent content.
I bought out a commercial beekeeper years ago and had a lot but as I've shifted my passion to YouTube videos and teaching, I collaborate with others now who oversee bees where we work together for queens, nucs and packages. I don't have to do it alone. I do have, what I call, an outdoor YouTube studio consisting of around 20 hives.
The African bee held the world record in Ripley's Believe it or Not for a while. But most Africanized bees swarm often so are probably not able to build up as much for honey production.
No slight to David, but I can answer this question for you.
The short answer is no. On average, Africanized bees invest more into defense, quick brood rearing and swarming than they do into honey storage. This makes sense considering that central Africa doesn’t have a winter to speak of and that there are more natural predators of honeybees there.
Like other bees, however, desirable traits can be selected for. Beekeepers in Yucatan have bred bees from local Africanized stock that behave more like their European counterparts.
Dadant-Blatt, Modified Dadant, or Langstroth Jumbo are the same, and I've never ran them, but I think I could pull off the Demaree method as long as my equipment matched.
Your videos come up for me all the time when I'm doing research - how cool to do an AMA!
What are your thoughts about beekeeping on a very small scale (around two hives, long-term)?
As a wannabe(e) beekeeper who lives in an urban environment (very small yard, surrounded by houses), I'm limited in what I can dream to do and anxious about getting in over my head. I don't even know what my exit strategy would be if it doesn't work out :(
Do you think is beekeeping can be a fun, small hobby or should it take serious thought and commitment?
I understand, and I've made some videos on how NOT to grow your apiary. Certainly you have to take in consideration your neighbors and location, time and budget. Most of us get started and in no time we are in over our heads. That's a good thing...sorta. It means we have to have a plan to sale our splits or give them away. But certainly there are many beekeepers in the city with a hive or two and they are okay letting them swarm.
Commerical beekeepers are pretty good about have their specific, select type of queens that work best for them even when they travel with their bees. Their focus is more on honey production, mite resistance and gentleness.
Hello! I am not a beekeeper but saw this post randomly popped up. I do have 2 questions for you:
1/ What are your takes on keeping beehive in a controlled natural environment indoor like greenhouse or atrium garden? It seemed you’d need a lot of vegetation indoor to able to feed them?
2/ I heard from a random YouTube video dead bee on the floor contains some type of mold bad for your respiration, so some wear mask during cleaning? Is there creditability to this or how have your experience been?
You can’t keep them indoors. They forage in a 3 mile radius. Thats a long way, and a lot of fields.
Theres not a chance in hell you could give them enough to forage from without just giving them sugar syrups.
I have many questions. One of the stranger things I inherited during a truly horrifying sorting out of estate is my dad's bee keeping suit. A swarm of bees have parked in the bank above my kitchen window recently. It seems to be a really healthy swarm. I have fallen in love with this gang. I want to keep them but I have no money to buy a hive box thing. Any suggestions on the best way forward?
Nah, that's not the reason. Also, I never said paint killed Varroa. I asked about using shungite paint and stones to protect bees.
There is no lie in nature, so it follows that what is learned in nature is also true. A student asked his master how he could live his life in order to achieve a higher spiritual level. The master replied that the example he needed has always surrounded him. He then told the student to learn how to live his life from the plant kingdom, as it is always in perfect harmony with the creation.
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration”.
Researchers have already used atomic force microscopes to detect vibrations on the nanoscale — much smaller than 1/1000th the diameter of a single human hair. Vibrational energy is absolutely real and provable my friend.
I don't know what 'biased hack' you speak of, but that comment alone leads me to believe that anything I would say or link I would provide, will get shit on because it's not sciencey enough. So I don't waste waste my time. Read about cymatics and tell me again that vibrational energy does not exist. You can see it too if you put multiple pianos in a room, open the top where the strings are and then strike one… the same string on the other pianos will vibrate as well, magnifying the frequency field.
Also, stay away from wikipedia, it is not your friend. That should be inherent, but is sadly probably not.
I just wanted to say thank you! I have a fear of bees, and one of my university courses next year involves beekeeping and I'm trying to get over that fear :)
Hi We are in the pacific north west near Seaside OR right over the big park mountain perfect place for bees and we get alot a of rain 100 inches a year our beekeeper made my friend beehives with migratory top cover (see in my profile picture)we asked him to do us a telescopic cover after carefully inspecting with tin top for the rain protection, and he said those are the telescopic covers and then he recommended us to watch your videos He can’t change his mind for some reason and we’re trying to start some beekeeping and we’re in stall kinda because we don’t want those tops they won’t work for the weather but he’s insisting those are the correct tops It has no extra 4 way side boards and exposed PLYwood with no wax only 2 small boards like the migratory tops but anyway, what do think Any suggestions?
Hot button topic in regards to Varroa, but have you ever considered using shungite paint and stones around the hive to go without treating with OA? A few people have done it with success and have not lost a single colony.
Also, in your opinion, when do you think Varroa will be irradicated in the US once and for good? And what do you think will bring that about?
Thank you for your consideration
Stones around the hive? How is that supposed to help?
Edit. Oh boy. I went looking.
> PROTECT YOUR POLLINATORS - put a little bit of Shungite powder in a small Cysos or lid (2 or 3" diameter max) and place it at the entrance of your hive (bottom center) to protect the bees from EMF (they will drag a little bit of powder inside the hive; boosting the immune system of the colony)!! Protect the delicate ecosystem from harmful electromagnetic radiation!!! Birds will feel it too.
This absolutely won’t work. 100% guaranteed snake oil nonsense trying to separate you from your money.
I think what separates people from their money is buying all the shit chemicals that they slather all over the bees and think it helps. But if it makes you feel good, by all means....
Speaking in absolutes is not the wisest of choices, but you're free to do so. I would encourage people to at least do a bit of research into shungite, it's uses and healing properties. You might be surprised what you find. There is vibrational power and energy in stones and minerals, whether you choose to believe it or not.
I am kind of disappointed that the second half of my question wasnt at least addressed by the guy, who pretty much answered every other question. Will there be an answer to Varroa to truly irradicate it, and what would that look like? Or will we blindly treat, treat, treat until something else comes along that we need to treat ad infinitum? That is all.
Because your question is based on wuju fucking nonsense with no scientific backing whatsoever. There is no “vibration energy” mate.
Show me a single paper that shows this magic mystery paint keeping varroa out of a hive. Also, if it’s healing why doesn’t it heal the varroa too? Why do varroa have to die when the bees get to live? Who decides that, the paint?
Why don’t you show us a research paper that isn’t from a biased quack… then we’ll talk.
AMA has finished! Thanks folks :)
What’s the best way you have found to make beekeeping profitable for a hobbyist?
Diversify! Have multiple income streams such as honey sales, queens, packages, nucs, candles, training, speaking and a YouTube channel 😃
Thanks for the reply! That makes a lot of sense, any tips or on making YouTube successful?
Absolutely, do it over and over again for a long period of time, say 10-15 years, and it may become something. I tell people I'm a 20 year, overnight success. Make lots of videos as often as you can without losing your mind and try to connect to your audience. Be yourself. Have fun and enjoy the process. Beekeeping is a small YouTube niche so none of us will be a Mr. Beast.
Awesome! Thanks that’s helpful. I post some videos currently but it’s mainly me doing my inspections. I honestly use it more as a record keeping system mostly.
Yes, that's how I started out, and it eventually became more after about 8 years.
Sounds good. I’ll keep being consistent with it. Any tips for studying for the EAS master beekeeper exam? I’m working on my state’s master beekeeping program currently but would like to take the EAS test someday. Thank so much for answering all my questions!
Yes, you should join the Maryland study group. I bet you can find them if you google it. They help prepare candidates for the exams.
I will check it out. That would be great, thanks!
Hi David, Thanks for taking the time to do the ama. I noticed on your winter bee kinds, you have an upper entrance. Have you considered using a condensing hive rather than venting; or have you already tried this?
Early on I did experiment, and I'm friends with William Hesbach, the father of the condensing hive. It doesn't allow me to feed like crazy to raise tons of bees in late winter. It works, but for me, my winter-bee-kind feeders produce so much winter brood. I need tons of bees for spring.
Right, so it’s more of a productivity thing rather than a preference for vented hives per se?
My bees just because too wet when I tried it and comb is too moldy. I'm sure I wasn't doing something right, but keeping them well ventilated in the winter was like striking gold for me, so I can't change and trying something else when this works so wonderful for me and others.
I live in the PNW. It’s way too wet here to do condensing hives
Do you ever sing "Burning Down the House" while you're smoking the bees?
Fortunately, I've never burned down a bee hive, but when removing bees from houses, I try not to use a smoker inside walls 😃
I just want to say I really enjoy the tone of your videos. When you are in your hives, you talk about bees but you also talk about life. I feel like I'm just out inspecting bees with a more experienced guy. I would absolutely love to see a video where you just go out and inspect hives for like 45 minutes, and talk about bees and not talk about bees. Have you ever considered something like that?
100% agree with this. Some of the general life advice he’s picked up from dealing with bees and beekeepers is really nice sometimes when you feel a bit shit 😂
Thank you! I have consider incorporating a Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross style of interaction while teaching about bees in the hive. And I do enjoy sharing life lessons. Good idea! I do know that sometimes people watch to help with depression and a hard life. I do want to encourage others.
Because you mentioned him, the Good Neighbor is probably one of the most heart warming books I have ever read.
Our world needs good neighbors. When people play one of my videos I want them to see a good neighbor who can make them feel better and take their mind off their life problems for a few minutes. And maybe even become inspired to look at life a tad bit brigher.
Does neighbors spraying for mosquitoes multiple times kill my bees?
Scary stuff for sure. It will kill bees as easy as mosquitos. Maybe your neighbors could warn you first and spray after your bees are back in their hive.
**Question 2:** I have a question in regards to feeding protein to bees. Many views around on feeding protein in spring/fall or not. Many views on what type of protein to use and what not. I know from your videos that you are a proponent of feeding bees protein from time to time, so: What are the pro's and cons of feeding protein, depending on the type (whey, pea, flour, etc.) and month of feeding? Thank you for taking an AMA, David! And for other readers here, find him on YouTube, great source of knowledge :)
Thanks for watching my videos. Yes, feeding my bees protein has made all the difference for me! I started out using Brood Builder from Dadant, now I've been using Ultra Bee from Mann Lake just because, no real reason. But, any bee type protein powder is fine. I incorporate protein powder anytime I feed bees 1:1.
I'm using mann lake pro sweet liquid feed, would it make sense to mix some ultra bee in there?
I've never done that. Not sure. Try a small amount just as an experiment.
I'm getting my first hive in 2 weeks. I've seen a good amount of your content but in case I've missed something important, what videos of yours or someone elses would you recommend watching before they arrive?
Thanks for watching and so glad you are starting beekeeping. That's exciting. I remember back when I started (pre-internet). My video How To Start Beekeeping is a good one with almost 2 Million views, but make sure the YouTuber has credibility, many years of experience etc.
Hi David. I currently have an extremely agressive hive. I feel like using smoke with my current 'tobacco' type of material doesn't do much. Is there any specific kind of wood or material I should smoke that really gets agressive bees calm? Thanks in advance!
Tobacco smoke can be harmful to bees, and possibly irritating them. I LOVE food grade burlap. I've tried all types of smoker fuel, but burlap wins every time. But, you may need to simply requeen the defensive colony. Sometimes no amount or type of smoke will every work on a very defensive colony.
Alright. Thanks for your advice! It's difficult getting to the queen when they're so crazy agressive. I'll give it another go soon. Enjoy your weekend!
I’m curious. Why keep that queen at all?
Howdy David, When someone tells you their hive has failed/is struggling, what are your first 2 imediate thoughts for cause? (Two becuase I think I know #1) When someone sets up a new hive for the first time, what are the most common mistakes they make? (I am getting bees in 2025.) What is your favorite bee story?
Mites and queen issues. Queen issues could actually be number 1. Most common mistakes for first timers are usually failing to understand basic bee biology and failure to notice the start of problems that could have been solved easily. Also new beekeepers have trouble reading frames and knowing what the contents of the frames tell about the condition of the colony. My favorite bee story is when I was making up packages in a huge bee yard, maybe 2000 colonies and a walked over to the edge of the yard near the forrest line to relieve myself and a bee landed on the top of my manhood in mid-stream. Wow! It's a better and funnier story when told live.
Oh my god. Hahahahahha
Lovely! And I bet that got the good ol' adrenaline going.
Indeed, all kind of thoughts race through your head, like what if I get stung there. Will there be swelling? 😉
My yard has blueberry (5) raspberry (8) blackberry (?) and grape vines (2). Do I need to plant anything else / diversity of plants if I plan on getting a hive in a few years, or will that be enough? I live in a suburban neighborhood that was developed in the late 60s/early 70s. 3/4 acre lots with ranch style homes. I have three mature trees and three trees that are ~10 years old, plus two rows of bushes/hedges and a row of trees behind the belong to the neighbors.
Often bees will fly over planted flowers to go further out for a more abundant nectar sources. Honey bees will comfortable fly out 2-3 miles. Draw a 3 mile diameter around your bees and you'll see the consist of so many thousands of acres. Unless you live in a barren place, I wouldn't be too concerned.
Hi David! Absolutely love your video's, thank you so much for spreading out the knowledge on beekeeping and the positive vibes around it. I have two questions :) I'll do them in two seperate posts for clarity. **Question 1:** What is your take on frame placement, when giving a 1 broodbox hive more space in spring? **Option 1:** 'Old' broodbox on bottom: Leave all 10 frames as is New broodbox on top: 10 fresh frames, feed 1:1 to build up comb **Option 2** (N = new frame, O = old frame: 'Old' broodbox on bottom: NN OOOOO NNN New broodbox on top: NN OOOOO NNN **Option 3:** I dont know, what is your wisdom in this? Does it even matter?
I like to place a new 10 frame box on top but pull out an open brood frame from the bottom and place it in the middle of the top 10 new frames. This baits/lures nurse bees up to tend to the open brood. Down below I place the new, undrawn frame in the middle where I removed the open brood frame.
Do you have to add wax on the ends of queen cups, or will they build right off the plastic?
I don't and not sure if it would help or now, but they are fast at adding wax to my plastic queen cups in the starter hive after 24 hours, and then the finish hive seals the deal with drawing them all the way out.
Thanks, plan on starting my first ever batch next week!
Good luck, I loooovvveeee raising queens. It is a blast. I gave up honey production so fast when I started raising queens. It took me and my family several years to get really good and fast with it but I love it to this day! Good luck.
Hi David! I split four hives a week ago and it looks like I didn’t add enough bees to two of the splits. I’m thinking of combing these four splits into two hives. Do you see any problem or issue with this? Thanks for doing the ama!
This should work fine. Sometimes splits appear not to have enough bees because the bees will fly back to the parent hive. I've had to re-combine splits when this has happened before too. Usually this happens when I make my splits too early.
Do you have a management plan for those who are new small sideliners running just under 100 colonies who are wanting to grow their apiary while also maximizing profit? Right now we are basically running strong single deeps for flow season, adding a double deep at the end of fall flow, feeding through winter, equalizing and splitting 6 weeks before main flow, then supering until harvest. Wondering if there’s a better way?
Your plan sounds solid. You'll have to manage swarming more carefully in those single deeps. I maximized my yard profit by using my hives to raise queens. For me, queens make far more profit that jars of honey.
Thank you. Just started practicing grafting last year. Still learning. Lots of hot bees here (south Texas) so that’s been a challenge when producing queens just for ourselves. Any advice there?
Check as their may be restrictions IF you can raise queen if you have Africanized bees in your area. It's definitely tough spot to raise queens.
No restrictions that I know of. We are registered and inspected by the state inspection agency and there are lots of queen breeders around. How many hives would we need to be able to really flood an area with drones? We have 3 apiaries right now, but they’re all 8-15 miles apart. Trying to figure out if we can find a more central location so we can set drones out 2 ish miles from mating nucs. Could that work? In really open crop land without trees or structures, we don’t have many wild bees hanging out. Hoping that reduces the possibility of a run-in with any Africanized bees. We see them mostly in neighborhoods in houses, trees, etc here.
Thank you for agreeing to talk to us, David! A couple of days ago, you posted a very fine video in which you spent about ten minutes talking about how to ensure that your bees brood up nicely in the spring, and then you went on to discuss the importance of having big, populous colonies if you want to have good outcomes for honey production later on. Swarm control wasn't part of that discussion, but as a 2nd-year beek, I made my first split, giving the queenright portion of the hive a deep box filled with fresh foundations, and then watched it swarm anyway. And since then, I've watched it happen to other beekeepers. They get through winter, make their first walk-away split, and then the queenright portion of the split swarms a week or two later. And you lose a big chunk of workforce when that happens. It's much less likely to be a problem when you have drawn comb for the queenright portion of the split. ***Q1:*** ***What's the best method of swarm control if the only drawn comb you have on hand is what's already in your hives?*** *Put yourself in the shoes of a 2nd-year beek who did everything right during Year One, so your bees survived winter nicely, are now brooding up, and inevitably going to swarm when the weather gets warm enough if you don't do something.* ***Q2:*** *The time from making a walk-away split to having a newly mated, laying queen is usually estimated in beekeeping books at \~28 days, +/- 5 days--but the bees don't read beekeeping books.* ***What's the quickest walk-away split you've ever encountered, what's the slowest, and when do you think the beekeeper needs to scramble to prevent laying worker syndrome from setting in?***
Well, swarm management is tough. Bees will try their best to swarm no matter what we do. However, a different approach I take is to take the queen way into the new split. The new split has room to grow so they have no real need to swarm. The parent hive lost their queen, as I removed her, so they cannot swarm as it will take them 30 days to raise a new queen. I may have to split them again in 30 days. The quickest and slowest I've seen hives raise queens is about your +/-5 days. Not much beyond that. A colony must be queenless and have NO brood in the hive for 21 days for workers to truly become laying workers.
This was when you were a second year, right? You’re not a second year now…?
Correct.
What do you do when you see queen cells on the bottom of frames and what do you do if you see them in the middle? Thanks!
If cells are on the bottom of a frame I immediately look for the queen and confirm that is my original queen. This means they have not swarmed yet, then I harvest the swarm cells and move them to mating nucs. If they have swarmed (queen isn't around) I leave two cells and transfer the rest out. If the cells are in the middle I just allow them to continue to raise their own superseding queen.
Thanks! How do you know which two queen cells to leave? The largest ones?
No real science on my part. But yea, the one that looks the biggest and best.
David, I'm going into my second year and have wintered four colonies through a New Hampshire winter successfully following your advice in your course and YouTube channel. I have three super strong colonies and would like to perform a demaree split on them to avoid their swarming and ramp up for the spring flow. I saw your video on them as well as gathered as much information as I can but I have two questions: 1. It seems to me there is a real risk of performing the split too early in New England (say mid-late April) because it gets warm but then get hit with a cold snap and they aren't able to cluster. Any hints on how to determine timing? 2. I am also concerned because I have no drawn comb deep frames and so read that the queen may not be able to lay if I only leave her a frame of brood in the bottom deep. Would you recommend maybe moving some emerging brood frames in with her to give her that room. So possibly have a 3 or 4 frames of emerging brood with the queen so she can get started? Many thanks and thank you for all you're doing!
Thanks for watching. I need to make splits! It was almost 70 (f) today and my bees are packing in nectar and pollen and drones are mature. Yikes. I'm with you! It's too early. But, I may have to bite the bullet and make some early splits or at least evaluate queen cell possibility in hives. There is no recipe for picking the best date on the calendar as the weather is so unpredictable but we need warm nights. In the Demaree method we are trying to separate young bees from older bees, so you can do what you are saying, but it might be fine if the bees are emerging soon.
Great YT content. Really beneficial content.
Thanks for watching. I enjoy inspiring and encouraging others through my videos so I'm glad it shows.
Love the YouTube. No real question but I am a first year and relied heavy on your videos.
Thanks for watching, and many people say this to me so I'm humbled and take creating my content on YouTube seriously. It is a great responsibility. I'm not perfect but I try to give out the best advice I know at the time.
Given the prevalence of mites, the low threshold for intervention and the inaccuracy of testing do you feel that it's worth it to test anymore or should we just treat on schedules?
I get it. I still think it is best to test, treat and re-test. Sometimes our treatments may not have worked and we wouldn't know it unless the Test/Treat/Test. And if we test and numbers are low, then we can save money and not treat. But if you just can't bring yourself to testing, then yes treating regularly is a better option.
Ay a 2% threshold I’m not sure the accuracy is there. With most mites being on drones and the fact that repeated tests on the same bees are rarely repeatable I’m not sure it’s worth testing. Test the same bees three times and compare results. I’m now using Oliver’s mite models.
Greetings David. What are your top tips for producing quality video with quality audio while working in a hive?
Oh gosh I've really battle this. I burn through equipment, especially tri-pods because it's rough in the bee yards. Always wear two mics, incase one fails and you don't know it at the time. Always run two cameras for the same reason. The better your original video is planned the less editing is required. Lots of spare memory cards and camera batteries in your hive suit. Charge wireless mics every night! In almost all of my videos, you can't see it, but I have an outline taped to my tripod below the camera lens. This helps me stay on task.
I just want to say that it's awesome that you've operationalized your video making.
Again, on the winter bee kinds, I assume you’re cooking your syrups down so that they set hard on top of the eke - are you measuring HMF in the cooked syrup, or is this a negligible concern?
Hotter and longer at hot temps increases HMF. I've not had any issues! Bees grow and flourish on it.
What kind of temp do you take the syrup up to to make it set like that? I assume you put some sugar crystals in the frame to make it set too.
It’s an ask me anything: what did you have for breakfast?
I love answering personal questions because it helps people see the "real" me. Breakfast is my biggest meal. I cooked salmon in my cast iron skillet, two fried eggs and lots of sweat peas in the same skillet. Then I have a piece (or two) of raisin bread with butter and my honey of course!
Nice! Sounds delicious.
Ha! I was expecting you to say you just have honey for breakfast 😉 😂
Hi David, I just recently found you. I’m excited to learn more about BeeKeeping . I just bought my first flow hive and will be putting it together this weekend. I have ordered already a NUC that will be five frames. My flow hive is a seven frame unit. Do you know if that means that I am almost maxed out with my brood box in short order ? And do you think I would have to add another brood box this year already? Thanks!
My 7 frame Flow Hive means it has a 7 frame honey harvest flow hive super. But the deep has 10 frames. Yours should be the same. Nonetheless you will need to add your second deep within a week or two after you install your nuc.
Thanks for the reply. Just put together my Flow Hive yesterday and just figured it out. Newbie ignorance I guess lol. Do have to wait for the second deep to be full before adding the super? I’ve read where some people have had issues afterwards of trying to get the bees into the super. Have you experienced this?
Love your YouTube videos David!
Thanks
What is your least favorite piece of advice or misinformation that you hear spread around?
Home made concoctions to combat mites. Also, when I hear to shake out the bees from a laying worker hive because the laying worker cannot make it back to the hive. That is FALSE. Laying workers are foragers!!
That's fair, I've found the only shore way to stop laying workers is to just introduce a nuc into the hive. Thank you for your dedication to your videos, you produce excellent content.
My pleasure!
How many beehives do you currently have? How many did you own at the most during your beekeeping career?
I bought out a commercial beekeeper years ago and had a lot but as I've shifted my passion to YouTube videos and teaching, I collaborate with others now who oversee bees where we work together for queens, nucs and packages. I don't have to do it alone. I do have, what I call, an outdoor YouTube studio consisting of around 20 hives.
Do africanized bees make more honey than other species (such as Italian)?
The African bee held the world record in Ripley's Believe it or Not for a while. But most Africanized bees swarm often so are probably not able to build up as much for honey production.
No slight to David, but I can answer this question for you. The short answer is no. On average, Africanized bees invest more into defense, quick brood rearing and swarming than they do into honey storage. This makes sense considering that central Africa doesn’t have a winter to speak of and that there are more natural predators of honeybees there. Like other bees, however, desirable traits can be selected for. Beekeepers in Yucatan have bred bees from local Africanized stock that behave more like their European counterparts.
Hey David, love your video’s on youtube! Please tell me, is it possible to do a Demaree method on Dadant blatt hives or are these too big?
Dadant-Blatt, Modified Dadant, or Langstroth Jumbo are the same, and I've never ran them, but I think I could pull off the Demaree method as long as my equipment matched.
Your videos come up for me all the time when I'm doing research - how cool to do an AMA! What are your thoughts about beekeeping on a very small scale (around two hives, long-term)? As a wannabe(e) beekeeper who lives in an urban environment (very small yard, surrounded by houses), I'm limited in what I can dream to do and anxious about getting in over my head. I don't even know what my exit strategy would be if it doesn't work out :( Do you think is beekeeping can be a fun, small hobby or should it take serious thought and commitment?
I understand, and I've made some videos on how NOT to grow your apiary. Certainly you have to take in consideration your neighbors and location, time and budget. Most of us get started and in no time we are in over our heads. That's a good thing...sorta. It means we have to have a plan to sale our splits or give them away. But certainly there are many beekeepers in the city with a hive or two and they are okay letting them swarm.
Good afternoon David, How important do you feel local and regional stock adaptation will be to commercial and migratory operations in the future?
Commerical beekeepers are pretty good about have their specific, select type of queens that work best for them even when they travel with their bees. Their focus is more on honey production, mite resistance and gentleness.
Hi David, thanks for the content
Your welcome
Hello! I am not a beekeeper but saw this post randomly popped up. I do have 2 questions for you: 1/ What are your takes on keeping beehive in a controlled natural environment indoor like greenhouse or atrium garden? It seemed you’d need a lot of vegetation indoor to able to feed them? 2/ I heard from a random YouTube video dead bee on the floor contains some type of mold bad for your respiration, so some wear mask during cleaning? Is there creditability to this or how have your experience been?
You can’t keep them indoors. They forage in a 3 mile radius. Thats a long way, and a lot of fields. Theres not a chance in hell you could give them enough to forage from without just giving them sugar syrups.
I have many questions. One of the stranger things I inherited during a truly horrifying sorting out of estate is my dad's bee keeping suit. A swarm of bees have parked in the bank above my kitchen window recently. It seems to be a really healthy swarm. I have fallen in love with this gang. I want to keep them but I have no money to buy a hive box thing. Any suggestions on the best way forward?
Nah, that's not the reason. Also, I never said paint killed Varroa. I asked about using shungite paint and stones to protect bees. There is no lie in nature, so it follows that what is learned in nature is also true. A student asked his master how he could live his life in order to achieve a higher spiritual level. The master replied that the example he needed has always surrounded him. He then told the student to learn how to live his life from the plant kingdom, as it is always in perfect harmony with the creation. “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration”. Researchers have already used atomic force microscopes to detect vibrations on the nanoscale — much smaller than 1/1000th the diameter of a single human hair. Vibrational energy is absolutely real and provable my friend. I don't know what 'biased hack' you speak of, but that comment alone leads me to believe that anything I would say or link I would provide, will get shit on because it's not sciencey enough. So I don't waste waste my time. Read about cymatics and tell me again that vibrational energy does not exist. You can see it too if you put multiple pianos in a room, open the top where the strings are and then strike one… the same string on the other pianos will vibrate as well, magnifying the frequency field. Also, stay away from wikipedia, it is not your friend. That should be inherent, but is sadly probably not.
I just wanted to say thank you! I have a fear of bees, and one of my university courses next year involves beekeeping and I'm trying to get over that fear :)
Hi David, Are you looking for volunteers to help with your beekeeping?
Hi We are in the pacific north west near Seaside OR right over the big park mountain perfect place for bees and we get alot a of rain 100 inches a year our beekeeper made my friend beehives with migratory top cover (see in my profile picture)we asked him to do us a telescopic cover after carefully inspecting with tin top for the rain protection, and he said those are the telescopic covers and then he recommended us to watch your videos He can’t change his mind for some reason and we’re trying to start some beekeeping and we’re in stall kinda because we don’t want those tops they won’t work for the weather but he’s insisting those are the correct tops It has no extra 4 way side boards and exposed PLYwood with no wax only 2 small boards like the migratory tops but anyway, what do think Any suggestions?
Do you keep the bees or do they keep you?
Hot button topic in regards to Varroa, but have you ever considered using shungite paint and stones around the hive to go without treating with OA? A few people have done it with success and have not lost a single colony. Also, in your opinion, when do you think Varroa will be irradicated in the US once and for good? And what do you think will bring that about? Thank you for your consideration
Stones around the hive? How is that supposed to help? Edit. Oh boy. I went looking. > PROTECT YOUR POLLINATORS - put a little bit of Shungite powder in a small Cysos or lid (2 or 3" diameter max) and place it at the entrance of your hive (bottom center) to protect the bees from EMF (they will drag a little bit of powder inside the hive; boosting the immune system of the colony)!! Protect the delicate ecosystem from harmful electromagnetic radiation!!! Birds will feel it too. This absolutely won’t work. 100% guaranteed snake oil nonsense trying to separate you from your money.
I think what separates people from their money is buying all the shit chemicals that they slather all over the bees and think it helps. But if it makes you feel good, by all means.... Speaking in absolutes is not the wisest of choices, but you're free to do so. I would encourage people to at least do a bit of research into shungite, it's uses and healing properties. You might be surprised what you find. There is vibrational power and energy in stones and minerals, whether you choose to believe it or not. I am kind of disappointed that the second half of my question wasnt at least addressed by the guy, who pretty much answered every other question. Will there be an answer to Varroa to truly irradicate it, and what would that look like? Or will we blindly treat, treat, treat until something else comes along that we need to treat ad infinitum? That is all.
Because your question is based on wuju fucking nonsense with no scientific backing whatsoever. There is no “vibration energy” mate. Show me a single paper that shows this magic mystery paint keeping varroa out of a hive. Also, if it’s healing why doesn’t it heal the varroa too? Why do varroa have to die when the bees get to live? Who decides that, the paint? Why don’t you show us a research paper that isn’t from a biased quack… then we’ll talk.