Monitoring for mites is so easy with soapy water. How we do mite washes and a few other thoughts Sourwood Farm 2025-03-27 | Washing Varroa mites is pretty darn easy. I really like using dishwashing detergent as its physically easier to gently swirl rather than the aggressive shaking with alcohol
Simple hack smooth unbalanced honey extractors Sourwood Farm 2025-09-04 | My extractor has never run smoother! A few more thoughts after filming this in the excitement of the moment. First i fear that ramping up the speed too fast could cause undue stress on extractor bearings. Thus I think its safest to run at lower speed just below the high wobble stage to get as much honey out as possible before ramping up to the high speed. I have run about 50 supers with the rubber dampers and it really speeds up the process and I am able to get much more honey out as well. I am planning on running strings through the tubes to attach them to the feet so they can't ever walk out. Due to the spring reaction time of the rubber the vibration seams to be the least at higher speeds
I left a queen outside for 5 1/2 weeks with no food and she survived! What will she do in a hive? Sourwood Farm 2025-08-29 | This is pure bee experimentation fun and not something I ever plan on doing again. It's pretty neat how her pheromones were strong enough to draw in caretakers for all that time.
Zombie Bee Stuck on a Queens Leg. My attempts to rectify a mistake and the aftermath Sourwood Farm 2025-08-13 | I absolutely love observing the strange things that can go on in honey bee colonies but feel bad when my actions cause them
Spotted Lantern Fly flow is incredible! Supers are filling up in July when I normally feed. Sourwood Farm 2025-08-05 | Normally July is a nectar dearth in Central Virginia and occasional colonies are starving but not this year. The spotted lantern flies caught me off guard
Honey harvest with a leaf blower in the shade and varroa mite checks. Sourwood Farm 2025-07-25 | Most of my bees are in full sun so typically I'm doing a dance with fume boards pulling and blowing the few residual bees rather than a fully populated supers like in this video.
How to quickly remove thousands of bees from a vehicle. I did it again again! Sourwood Farm 2025-07-18 | I accidentally left a door open on my van with sticky honey supers stored in it. Thankfully a leaf blower works wonders
Increase requeening odds and make more splits with low cost internal hive division techniques. Sourwood Farm 2025-07-12 | I like to increase the odds of requeening success by making quick vertical or horizontal divisions to introduce more than one. Not all queens are accepted or make it black from mating flights so why not play it safe using simple equipment?
Really strange propolis! What are the bees making it from? Sourwood Farm 2025-07-07 | This is the strangest dark gray propolis I've ever seen. The bees made it in the last two days. When I took the lid off the colony I thought I had caulk that had disintegrated and gone bad on the lid. Almost feels like they're gathering from a tar like substance. So far I haven't seen it in any other hives in the yard.
Introducing Virgin Queens. The slower less risky method. Sourwood Farm 2025-06-27 | Introducing queens can be tricky and virgins have a reputation for being the hardest. If we make the colony conditions favorable it can work out most of the time. it's always an adventure. If you would like to see written instructions this is a good overview:sbgmi.org/intro-vsh-virgin-queens-nqi.pdfI post virgins for sale when I have them available on this page:https://sourwoodfarm.square.site/queens
Adding mites to my colonies 😱 Checking back in to see the response to infested brood. Sourwood Farm 2025-06-18 | Last year I found some colonies needed more than 9 months without treatments for the mite pressure to build for proper resistance assessment. My thought is adding mites will speed up that time frame for clearer assessments. The initial results are encouraging but this still feels like the most foolish thing I have ever done.
Fixing chronic bee paralysis via requeening. Success and failures in the follow-up visits. Sourwood Farm 2025-06-15 | Over the years I've had pretty good success using re-queening as a fix for hives with bee paralysis problems. The worst case took two rounds along with mite treatmentsIn this situation I felt foolish as last year I marked the emergency queen in this hive for replacement but failed to do so. Her mite resistance harbo assay score of zero perhaps opened the colony up to more viral risks.This is a long form impromptu unedited video so my apologies for the poor audio as I didn't have my mics.
Pro Nuc tricks to avoid a creative comb mess during a heavy flow Sourwood Farm 2025-06-12 | I really like using pro nucs and find these tricks really helpful when raising nucs during the flow here in Virginia. The first fabric pictured is heat sealable tpu nylon that I bought 27 years ago to make backpacks and dry bags. Bees will chew regular fabric on the edges but this is more like vinyl without the off gassing smells. I purchased it from Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics
Making queen candy to cage and ship honey bee queens Sourwood Farm 2025-06-06 | In this batch I used: 18oz powered sugar5.3 oz light corn syrup~1/2tsp vegetable glycerinFor approx 150 cagesWhen storing queens I give them a drop of water twice a day. Although I have accidentally left a cage with no water for two weeks and the bees were alive with the moisture the candy absorbed from the room! To increase the introduction time I will use blue painters tape taped over the candy with a torn edge of the tape just barely showing the candy so the bees will start chewing the tape away. When I have virgin queens available to ship I post them on this page:https://sourwoodfarm.square.site/queens
Magic Mountain Queen Mating Experiment Sourwood Farm 2025-05-29 | I'm so curious to see if there will be noticeable differences in colony behavior and mite resistance using these isolated drones compared to what's around my own bee yards. For fun we took up 8 different lines of virgin queens so in retrospect that might complicate the comparison. I should also admit that while all 10 of the nucs I took up had brood I should have inspected them deeper despite the drizzle. one that was started with a cell had beautiful capped brood and a few supersedure cells but no queen and it would have been a perfect candidate for leaving up there and dropping a new virgin queen. The first weak nuc I inspected made it's own emergency queen and she appears to have been a drone layer. I'm still happy with 80%
Marking virgin queens and adding attendants for shipping Sourwood Farm 2025-05-24 | I typically raise and sell virgin queens from mid April through July. I try to post the weeks offerings on the weekend for Monday through Wednesday shipping https://sourwoodfarm.square.site/queens
Gentle giants! Working mite resistant breeders to raise more queens. Sourwood Farm 2025-05-21 | It's no fun removing so much honey to get grafting material but I feel a potential breeder really shows her colors if you let the colony grow to it's full potential. Here is a previous video I shot on #37. youtu.be/711yM2Grsnk
Banking and Emerging Virgin Queens in a Queenless Cell Builder Sourwood Farm 2025-05-18 | Note I would not emerge and bank queens in cold or very hot weather under the lid like this. This works as the cell builder is in the shade and I can put an insulated or vented box with lid above for extra shade in cool or hot weather. The queens are emerging in cages made by my friend Dan Long. https://ezpz.buzz/Every Sunday or Monday I post virgins from my proven mite resistant stock. They are available to ship or pickup at our farm in Earlysville Virginia.https://sourwoodfarm.square.site/queens
Requeening experiment. Will it work or fail? The bees will tell us. Update 100% failure! Sourwood Farm 2025-05-08 | I did this experiment on three colonies for the fun of it. I'm. so curious what the bees will think.
An amazing breeder queen that checks all the boxes including the bare leg test.... Sourwood Farm 2025-05-03 | This colony saw its last treatment in 2023 and is checking all the criteria for a breeder queen. They are gentle, appear to have mite resistance and are quite productive.
I missed the second rotation. Am I too late? Sourwood Farm 2025-05-01 | The Medium Double Flip helps bees go through a queen excluder. Will the bees readily go through a queen excluder without a second box rotation? I often question my management methods so its nice to come across a case where the bees confirm that doing a double rotation with the medium helps. I should also note when I was talking about the breeder #128 I did mistakenly give them one oxalic acid vapor during full fall brood rearing around September 1st. I don't think it could have had much impact on the mites due to all the brood at the time and other test colonies in the yard that also got that one single vaporizing showed large mite growth.
Eggs?? Young mated queens are such spazzes. Follow up on the huge nuc swarm Sourwood Farm 2025-04-26 | ...
The most pollen hoarding colony I have ever seen. Sourwood Farm 2025-04-24 | Just did a mite wash on the colony and it washed one mite and 300 bees and a Harbo assay today found 0 mites in 200 worker pupa and 1 non reproductive in the 20 drone pupa I pulled out. The last treatment was December 2023. I should have mentioned in the video that 2 days ago I spent a long time looking for good solid pollen frames in this yard to give to my cell builders. I have about 150 colonies in this spot and this is unlike any I've seen this year
The largest mating swarm I have ever seen and then they balled the queen! Queen rescue. What??? Sourwood Farm 2025-04-19 | update. I went back in the next day and started shaking off frames and found an emergency Queen cell. Indeed they had raised a second very young queen which I found and I believe the queen I found being balled was likely the original queen that I gave them. I believe that they decided to do a reproductive swarm (not a mating swarm like I originally thought) but for some odd reason the queen flew back home. I find this is most often a problem when I make up mating nucs too strong and clearly this one was on the larger size.
Standing on my van to catch the first swarm of the year Sourwood Farm 2025-04-19 | update. they drew out a deep box if foundation in two weeks and then a medium box. perfect brood pattern
A quick 5 min split. Sourwood Farm 2025-04-13 | this is my basic method for making spring splits during the flow.
Save $$$ with quick and easy queen cell cup cleaning for grafting honey bee queens. Sourwood Farm 2025-04-09 | I find the boiling process can be over an hour but most of that is unattended while I am working on other bee stuff. I just slip in every once and a while to change the water. I typically do about 1000 cell cups at a time and my total labor time is under 10 minutes. I have not noticed any difference in acceptance between new and cleaned JZBZ cups. But the cheap imported knockoffs have never worked as well as the JZBZ cups for me so I avoid them.
Will this alternative to double screen boards work? Experimenting with a double screen plug idea Sourwood Farm 2025-03-30 | I am hoping this simple double screen plug with let any inner cover or lid with a feeder hole turn into a double screen board for early spring splits.
An efficient way to wax foundation so bees will draw it out fast! Sourwood Farm 2025-03-20 | I coat over 2000 sheets a year using this simple method. The main trick that I have found to speed up the process is to shove toothpicks or rubber bands in to the foam roller so that it is pinned and can't roll. I just weighed a few batches of finished foundation and 100 medium sheets use approx 2.25lb of wax and 100 deeps uses around 3.5lb of wax
Spring reversal with a medium under the deep brood box is so easy. Sourwood Farm 2025-03-14 | I prefer running mediums under deep boxes for the ease of spring management. Here are two videos I shot inspecting the same colony last year. youtu.be/XnXVRo3lF-A?si=Skbm-X1zVDiHslfbyoutu.be/LZc73d2sET0?si=V7gkFGHCJRQzR_ef
Sky high mites in October. Did they survive and thrive? Sourwood Farm 2025-03-01 | Dealing with late summer mite issues is a challenge I occasionally deal with in experimental colonies. These are a few extreme case studies and some of the methods I used to save them. This is the video talking about the mite resistance testing I did in the summeryoutu.be/tvKqt1cvbyY?si=HKi4DYxzpPhLe66J
Bee feeding frenzy for dry pollen substitute Sourwood Farm 2025-02-25 | The bees are brooding up and hungry for pollen to feed their brood. Red Maples, which are the first major pollen source for the bees haven't opened up yet. When they do the bees will immediately ignore the dry pollen sub that I put out about two weeks before maple bloom. I'm expecting that to happen any day here in Central Virginia. This gives my yard of nucs an extra nutrition boost before maples as we move into spring
Nucs and Queen production plans and a bit of information on my breeding program behind the bees. Sourwood Farm 2025-02-15 | If you're interested in nucs or queens please visit:https://sourwoodfarm.square.site/beesHere is a direct link to the queen form.https://forms.gle/hkCaH5vfBT3uw92k9
A great technique to boost tiny winter colonies that wont survive on their own. Sourwood Farm 2025-02-12 | There's always a huge variation between colonies and a bee yard and occasionally we come across tiny dinks that might not survive long protracted cold periods on their own. This colony had issues in the summer and I re-queened it in the fall so I don't feel like the fault is the queen. Thus, I thought it was worth trying this combination technique to see if I could save her. Last year I used this technique on the number of small colonies early spring and had about a 90% success rate.
A better emergency winter feed than sugar sugar bricks or fondant? My bees are digging it. Sourwood Farm 2025-02-07 | I'm recovering from the flu so my apologies for the raspy voice and sniffles. Here is the basic mix I was doing 25lb sugar~3 cups safe honey or corn syrup ~1 cup hot water ~1 cup powered pollen sub~ 1/4 cup corn or flax oil.
Can you open feed in the winter? Cool weather open feeding sometimes works really well in Virginia Sourwood Farm 2025-02-05 | A number of people have reached out asking about feeding light colonies in the winter. We often talk about mountain camp sugar, bricks, fondant, etc. But I feel like strategic open feeding is an under utilized technique to rapidly feed colonies on warm days in the winter. I've had good luck with this technique for many years. It works best on sunny days above 55° and don't put out more than they can eat before 3pm. Plus it's absolutely awesome to stand in the mayhem of happy hungry bees tanking up.
How to make hundreds of beautiful beeswax taper candles. Sourwood Farm 2025-02-03 | I misspoke on the temperature. I normally dip at 175-178 degrees
New Experimental Insulated Beehive Lids. First Winter Observations Sourwood Farm 2025-01-28 | I run colony lids in all kinds of configurations from traditional vented inner covers, simple migratory lids, and the insulated condensing style. They all work but there is a growing body of evidence pointing to advantages with the insulated condensing style lid. This experiment is to try to solve some of the issues I have had with condensing lids that use fabric/reflectix inner covers. The tiny bit of condensation that I pointed out on the inside of the lid rim on the second colony was likely due to the hole in the reflex. In my experience it's a non issue as the bees will actually go up and drink it down.
Can wax moths be useful foundation cleaners? Sourwood Farm 2024-09-03 | This plastic foundation was completely covered with pupal casings and pollen and would have been really difficult to clean. Thankfully the waxmoth larva did most of the work. Pretty cool to let a "pest" help out
A mite and her son Sourwood Farm 2024-08-27 | Unfortunately I found that this booming gentle colony with an old queen was not mite resistant. So I'm requeening with a young queen who's mother showed great mite resistance to move my population in a better direction.
Extracting honey efficiently with simple equipment Sourwood Farm 2024-07-23 | An overview of my frugal manual small scale honey extraction workflow. I run about 300 colonies as a full time stationary bee farm. I wanted to edit in more details but accidentally uploaded the rough draft so please enjoy.
Affordable vented robbing screen entrance reducers Sourwood Farm 2024-06-28 | I use 1/8" hardware cloth. it's cut long so I can totally seal up a colony for transport or in an emergency during heavy robbing pressure. the biggest downside I have found is stepping on them when I drop them in the ground, OAV leakage and the difficulty to store given the pocky nature of the raw edges
A mini hot room for drying honey Sourwood Farm 2024-06-10 | Virginia is a humid environment which can lead to honey with borderline moisture content. The goal of the hot room is two fold. First to reduce the moisture content in uncapped honey and second to keep it warm for easier more efficient extracting.
direct release virgin queen introduction Sourwood Farm 2024-06-09 | please note this would likely not have gone as well with an older virgin queen who is more flighty and has stronger pheromones that can lead to her being balled if directly released
