# need help commercial people



## gregstahlman (Oct 7, 2009)

of course this is strictly my opinion but throw the excluders in the trash lol. we never check for swarm cells unless the hive is ridiculously giant. when flow starts it is far more important to get boxes on than worry about the condition of the hives. less hives worked in a day mean you get farther behind, bees get crowded and then you will really see swarm cells then. we finished our first round of supering friday and with two crews of 5 people we were supering 1000-1100 hives per day. but this may not work for everyone and is merely an opinion so take it lightly


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## Ted Kretschmann (Feb 2, 2011)

Greg, can I borrow your crew. They can knock out my 2400 colonies in two days! Really Honeyshack, you had best listen to Greg, he is a good beekeeper. TED


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

gregs right the most important thing is to get your boxs on dont muck about doing anything else.
You can tell when you take the lid off how strong your hive is and you make a decision then about how many boxs it needs.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

One question is why does most wait to the last min. to super. Ofcourse I only run my bees in a single and super when I shake the bees in in the spring. Does it really hurt to super early. Just think of all those bee trees with big cavities. I find by running the bees in single I have less swarming, and only have to check half the frames for queen cells.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

It is quicker to check 10 frames than 20. 

How long did it take you per hive? The "Bull of the Woods" gave you 4 minutes to open the hive, check, move frames, and be done. Empty supers are safer on a beehive than back in the shop. It gets in the way for inspections, but better safe than sorry.

Crazy Roland


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

average time per hive was if my math was right, 10 minutes 6.5 hours and 39 hives.

Honey householder, I just finished my school bus route on Wednesday. I do everything by hand and the gooseneck and truck were being used to haul seed. The flowers had not really started untill the last three or so days. I still had feed out last week because there was nothing. But with this heat, the flowers came like mad. I was also still pushing to get the packages to a good size. The last of them were hived May 15th. 
Not to mention, we have been fighting overland flooding since April.
Normally the supers are on already but it has been a crazy behind the eightball year. As well, since hubby is busy trying to get greenfeed in, I am on my own.

Greg....will try it tomorrow but still with excluders. hate brood in the honey boxes


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

Get the supers on all of them before the flow starts. When all hives are supered go back around and check the heaviest and the lightest for Queen troubles. The recent QL hives will make the most honey first and the light colonies were probally already queenless a few weeks before the supers were put on. Now since all hives have been supered about a week earlier the boomers can have the extra supers from the poor ones you find didn't need them. When ya find a hive that had been queenless to long and dwindled down to nothing ya through it on the truck. You don't waste time during the big flow piddling with poor colonies. You are losing money that way. Those poor colonies ya find and take out will have already have replacements you made with early splits from swarm control. Yearly records will tell you how many replacement splits to already have made up before the others are deadouts. Early splits can be tripled in count by splitting the splits every 5-6 weeks. Much easier micromanaging hives that aren't stacked like towers. Sorry for the babbling.........lol


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

I can super a 40 hive yard in about 40 minutes by myself and thats if I stop and check out the weak hives. Pop the lids...if the second body is full of bees, super...if its boiling with bees throw on two. At this point in the season you shouldn't have to be digging into your hives. The only hives I check are those that are showing less activity at the entrace. Usually these are either dying or weak. At this point I pull the queen, and put those bodies on other hives...no time to save those that aren't going to produce or even build up enough to make it for the winter cut. Better to strengthen other hives...strong hives more honey. Oh and like Greg says...dump the excluders...those are for making splits. If you come back and there is brood in a super, shake the bees down, throw on the excluder at that point...bees will hatch out and they will back fill with honey. This happens maybe in one hive per yard...in other words, not worth the hastle of putting on excluders for supering.


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

Thanks for all replies. I am worried about swarming because we have not been there yet. A hive or two per yard have had a cell or two, nothing major. This has been a wild year, and i have to admit i am behind the eightball. In all honesty, I can not afford to loose to swarms...buying packages hiveing late to make up the losses has set us back
As for the excluder, I tried it one year without. 50% of the hives has brood all the way to the top. Drove me almost to drink. How do you stop that? How do you keep the queen down?
I will be out tomorrow, and i will seriously try not to micro manage them. I will let you know how i make out. keep the ideas coming if you have time...Thanks so much

Final question....some beekeepers claim that the bees will move honey up out of the nest...is this true?


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

IMHO.......Fresh nectar and open honey they will move up. Capped honey they don't like to open it up. If your nights are cool they will be more hesitant to move it up. They need warm/hot nights to readily move honey up.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

For ages I have almost only run double deep hives. You guys telling honeyshack to toss excluders, is that what you are running too? Dbl deeps?

If you are running a deep plus medium for the brood nest, you pretty much have to run w/ excluders, no? I am doing more of that this year, in an attempt to get more on the semi in the fall. Least that's what I'm telling myself.


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

It's funny how things go. Last Sunday the hives were very light and needed feed. I bulk fed 5 gallons of syrup to each yard (20-32 hives per yard) Monday and Tuesday the sky was cloudy, a few flowers but not much happening due to heavy cool winds...temps still hot. Wednesday the temps soared, home yard still robbing from the shop. Thursday the blooms are starting and going strong fast. The home yard was heavy. Off to try and do a yard of 20 in less than an hour...an improvement over yesterday if i can get that done....


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

I run in all singles and excluders are a must! Even with excluders I get a queen up every once in a while. If it is late I lose the honey all to feeding the bees. Which is OK if you are overwintering bees and not needing to have every pound you can produce.
Honeyshack I run 800+ hive with a 1/2 ton pickup, and have for the last 11 years. Back in the days we had bigger trucks and more equipment to haul around. Now I storge all my honey supers in the yards. Saves trip to the shop when you need to be working the bees. Takes me about 10 days to check and super my hives.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> For ages I have almost only run double deep hives. You guys telling honeyshack to toss excluders, is that what you are running too? Dbl deeps?.


I go double deep brood boxes. Then add another deep for start of flow. With a strong hive I find she will go up and lay in middle 2-3 frames and the rest will fill with honey. Then add supers (Westerns) after that. When season is over remove 3rd deep add those honey frames to weaker hives for winter extract the rest. Or extract those and feed feed feed. You can also use that third deep if it has brood in it for a split. Oh yea no excluders. She will never go up 4 boxes to lay. So at worst you get brood in the 3rd deep and that you use for a split.


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

So i took what y'all said to heart. Cut my time down. Not as much as i wanted but here is the play by play
left home at 8:40 back at 10:40...a little late for church...20 hives, travel time 15 minutes each way
-got to the yard...backed up...that takes time since i am not that great at it, however i got the cattle trailer between the gate posts, no fence down 
-pulled out the 100+ pound ramp hubby made for me
-used the wheeler to unload some supers as i went, started at the back..i like to start there.
-now i know i was just suppose to super, however habits are hard to break. I did not go into the hives, but, I cracked all the boxes first looking for swarm cells (found 2). Some hives got excluders and some did not. If they started on the block to keep the queen down, I did not use an excluder. I went into 2 lighter hives and check the swarm hives for more cells and opend the brood box. Rest of the hives were quick and painless
-cleaned up the yard...my mess, put entrance reducers away, piled the extra empty supers in the corner, put away feed pails, removed bulk feeder (15 minutes of time) I still had feed pails out there incase they needed feed. they were empty, but with all the flooding we had no idea when the blooms would happer or if it would happen. As for the entrance reducers, still had them on to prevent robbing and because we were still getting cool winds off the lake. I toyed with the idea of removing them earlier and maybe i should have. In the spring and fall, we keep and empty super above the inner cover to cover the feed pails. Gets pretty windy around here and it has taken feed pails and shoved them to the bush....hate to have to lift 200 rocks to place on pail, :lol
- loaded ramp and wheeler
-shut gate and turned on fencer
comparing hive time to yesterday, not including travel time both days....yesterday was 10 minutes per hive, today, 4.5 minutes per hive.

A start.

There is something to be said for storing everything at the yard site, and eventuallly that might be a good way to go.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

honeyshack said:


> There is something to be said for storing everything at the yard site, and eventually that might be a good way to go.


Until you start pollinating and then everything becomes mobile. 

Also moving your hives between yards makes them work harder. Bee's that move produce more then those that have plenty of time and stay in one spot. I figure they think they can always get to it tomorrow.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Beeslave said:


> Capped honey they don't like to open it up. If your nights are cool they will be more hesitant to move it up. They need warm/hot nights to readily move honey up.


 Scratch it for them and they will move it.


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