# Sam comfort 2018 video



## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

There hasn't been much new form him in a bit so I thought maybe it was time for a positive video 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YBy31StyWA
more or less his same talk
but at the 1hr mark or so he goes in to his use of shallow warre mateing nucs and his cell builders.
I wonder why we don't see more people runing set ups like this(not just TF fokes) it seems like a cost and resource effecent way to grow or learn grafting. Sure its non standard equipment, but lots of people run miny nucs that don't fit in to langs (and pay a prity penny), and these can be stacked up to over winter, or zip tied to a lang top bar to grow out
Math on his combs works out to about 0.45 of a deep, so his nucs = about 3.5 deep frames, cell builders 7 

I cut the parts for a dozen or so about this time last year but with the massive influx of nearly free lang gear I had I never got around to stapling them up... Maby this year...


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

I don´t watch much of these videos, mostly they are not worth it, but 

THIS VIDEO IS SURELY WORTH WATCHING if you are a beginner or interested in beekeeping in general

great talent is explaining his life with bees
sound is clear
jokes in between
heaps of information (actually truckloads of it)

Thanks for posting the link!


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

I just watched it while I was driving from place to place. Definitely worth the time. I had not heard his entire story so that was fun. Really enjoyed seeing the mini mating nucs. I forgot that he used bamboo skewers for the bars and had never heard about using the foil bubble wrap, which I have a lot of. Guess I found the top for my medium long Lang this year


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Listening to SC is addictive.
I can even understand his machine gun English.
I have heard the song about the Varroa mite before and I and my co-workers will sing it together when we drive to the conference of treatment free beekeeping.
( Perhaps I can take my guitar and find a german version  )


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

msl
I watched it also. I did not hear it in the vidio but may have missed it, do you know if sam uses crush and strain for his honey harvest? I did hear the , he got a couple of tons and I did get his comment on modern bee keeping using centrifical force to extract but did not hear what he does to get his couple of ton.
Thanks for posting.
gww


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

gww said:


> msl
> I watched it also. I did not hear it in the vidio but may have missed it, do you know if sam uses crush and strain for his honey harvest? I did hear the , he got a couple of tons and I did get his comment on modern bee keeping using centrifical force to extract but did not hear what he does to get his couple of ton.
> Thanks for posting.
> gww


If I remember correctly, I think he said it was all comb honey. So no extraction at all. Just cut and sell.


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

ruthiesbees said:


> I just watched it while I was driving from place to place.


I did not just read what I thought I read, did I? Ruth!

:-D

we love you anyways... despite your dangerous ways....


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

msl, thanks for this. I love Sam, but there's a dearth of good videos of him. It is very nice to get a new one.

Mike


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

ruthiesbees


> If I remember correctly, I think he said it was all comb honey. So no extraction at all. Just cut and sell.


Now that you mention it, I do remember him saying he made a lot of comb honey. My mind says it can't all be pretty white but it says crush and strain to me if it is not good enough for comb honey.
Thank you
gww


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

I one point he waives a stick and says "this is my extractor"(or maby it was another video).... there is a reason for that 7' solar wax melter


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

AvatarDad said:


> I did not just read what I thought I read, did I? Ruth!
> 
> :-D
> 
> we love you anyways... despite your dangerous ways....


Ok, let's pretend it more of a podcast than a youtube video playing on my laptop while I drove. I don't think the slides in his talk changed all that much


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## Marcin (Jun 15, 2011)

msl said:


> I wonder why we don't see more people runing set ups like this(not just TF fokes) it seems like a cost and resource effecent way to grow or learn grafting.


Sam was in Chicago a few years back and he talked about his mating nucs. I've been using them since. Made them out of discarded cedar fence panels. In the last year I started using incorporating the "frames" from those mating nucs into standard langstroth hives. I have a friend who runs these mating nucs as a hive. He gets about 12-17 lbs of honey from a single box.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

love to here more about your use of them... stocking, splitting, overwintering etc

Edit GWW look at 1:14:15 for crush and strain


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

msl
I listened again at that point of the vidio. It would be easy to miss but I got it. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Cheers
gww


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

Sam was an early inspiration when we went TF back in 2007. 

He's wrong about TF outside of south Florida though. As the pages on this forum clearly show, TF Beeks are everywhere. I invite him to northern Wisconsin to see for himself what we contend with (7 plus months of freezing/dearth). 

At this time Last year we had Swans on the pond in front of our house. This year the Sand Hill Cranes showed up before ice out, then we got 10 more inches of snow 2 days ago.

Otherwise, the presentation is great, his wisdom is certainly needed and would be more than welcomed.


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

I was under the impression that Sam had NY apiaries still. Chose his breeders up here sent them to FL to raise earlier queens.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

another 4 hours or so of new Sam content was resentily posted on Sol's TFB youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC_Yb2d_9M09hcaWlghVZDg/videos
some same old same old, but some gems and good info as well.


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## Marcin (Jun 15, 2011)

msl said:


> love to here more about your use of them... stocking, splitting, overwintering etc
> 
> Edit GWW look at 1:14:15 for crush and strain


I haven't personally tried overwintering them. What I do is, after the last round of queens, I take the whole Comfort mating nuc ( bees/brood/stores ) and put them on top of inner cover in my 10 frame hives ( they fit just right ). In most cases the 10 frame boxes have brood nests well below the inner covers. The bees from the mating nuc get integrated into the 10 frame colony and remaining brood draws up nurse bees. 3-5 days after this combine I'll discard any queens cells that might have been started in the mating nuc and in ~3 weeks I'll remove the mating nuc. I'll put the mating frames in a freezer for 2 days and then store them for next year.
As for stocking them, I've shaken bees into them and it works. Sometimes it'll require more shaking as bees fly away ( not all, but enough to make it weak ), especially if the mating nucs are in the same yard that nurse bees came from. The past 2 years I've been putting the mating frames into overwintered colonies in spring as they expand to get the queen to lay in them. Then it's just a matter of transferring the brood, shaking extra nurse bees in ( often from other colonies ) and dropping in a ripe queen cell or a virgin to establish the nucs. After a while these become almost self sufficient and provide brood/bees for other mating nucs. My biggest problem with them is ants. In early spring, ants just love these. I've been using a product called Cedarcide and spraying 4x4 the mating nucs sit on to keep ants off. It works, but needs to be reapplied on a regular basis, and rain will wash it away.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

2 new just landed 
great look at his mating nuc mangment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfZpLUNEEZ8&list=PLq48EWEvcb4SpIKlv9xKsCtI0e-IK9kbB&index=4&t=0s

a lot of what we have hurd form hime before with some new stuff on his "bees choice" method and results for the tarpy lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hisnSeLN9zk&list=PLq48EWEvcb4SpIKlv9xKsCtI0e-IK9kbB&index=6&t=0s


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## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

msl said:


> 2 new just landed


Thank you for posting these videos, MSL. I certainly appreciate how approachable his management style is- I mean, he's using a butter knife for his hive tool!

I found his extemporaneous comments starting at about the 30 minute mark of the first video the most revealing of his TF breeding approach and goals- talking about the juxtaposition between 'Bee Sanctuary' and 'Commercial' management.

Interesting stuff- thanks again for posting.

Russ


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Hanging up a new one from/about Sam, dated Aug 30, 2019.
Posted on the Solomon P. youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hisnSeLN9zk


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

GregV said:


> Hanging up a new one from/about Sam, dated Aug 30, 2019.
> Posted on the Solomon P. youtube channel.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hisnSeLN9zk


A quote from Sam:


> Bees strive on diversity.


Exactly.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

I suppose everybody has seen this:
https://www.beeculture.com/sam-comfort/

The 13x13x6 "shallow warre" is actually quite interesting set-up. There is probably no hive easier/cheaper to make.


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## LAlldredge (Aug 16, 2018)

msl said:


> There hasn't been much new form him in a bit so I thought maybe it was time for a positive video
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YBy31StyWA
> more or less his same talk
> ..


Turned it off after about 1 minute. Although I want to keep an open mind about TF options I’m tired of the galvanizing dialogue.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Juhani Lunden said:


> I suppose everybody has seen this:
> https://www.beeculture.com/sam-comfort/
> 
> The 13x13x6 "shallow warre" is actually quite interesting set-up. There is probably no hive easier/cheaper to make.


I have been ranting about this "shallow warre" forever.
Quickly growing and popular trend in Russia/Ukraine.
I see it becoming one of the standards soon.

Juhany, of all people on BS, you can just order yourself ready-to-go setups from Ukraine/Russia.
Today.
Probably cheaply too.
Probably can just go and get the hives yourself even (if there are manufacturers in St. Petersburg area - I did not bother looking).
I am almost surprised with you still NOT having it done.


https://www.google.com/search?q=уле...h-XlAhUKbawKHbwjChsQ_AUIEigC&biw=1920&bih=938


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

I think Sam's shallow warre type hive is a great alternative to langstroth. The shallow boxes are good for his queen rearing. Personally I'd use a 1x8 or 1x10 depth box if honey production was my goal. Although nuc sales would be lost package sales could be done. Going this route for a newer beekeeper would save $100 if not $1000's of dollars in equipment. With a way quicker return on investment. Unfortunately for me I've been doing langstroth for so long unloading all my equipment and converting over would be difficult. But if I was starting fresh I'd give it serious thought....


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Clayton Huestis said:


> I think Sam's shallow warre type hive is a great alternative to langstroth. ...... I'd give it serious thought....


Never too late to look around and see what you have been missing out.


I just hate copy/pasting; here is a relevant discussion (just ended up in a Long hive area somehow; oops on me):
https://www.beesource.com/forums/sh...nan-hives-English-audio&p=1765971#post1765971


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

Seriously if I were to try them I'd probably go for it. I would require probably 100 boxes straight off. With at least another 100- 200 after. That's what I'd be looking at for initial conversion.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Clayton Huestis said:


> Seriously if I were to try them I'd probably go for it. I would require probably 100 boxes straight off. With at least another 100- 200 after. That's what I'd be looking at for initial conversion.


If you run 10-frame Langs - those convert easily - you basically switch them to run the frames the short way.
Cut/re-nail the boxes square - done.
Nail inside the frame supports - done.
I have done something similar here with the 10-frame boxes.
Of course, I have a small scale to play with; also would rather build the proper boxes from the start (not Lang-retrofits).

The real issue - the frames of the new format - have to cut them yourself for now.

Now, if you into 8-frame Langs - that's different.


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## Clayton Huestis (Jan 6, 2013)

Just chatted with Tucka Saville ( she works at French hill apiaries for M. Palmer as a queen catcher). She uses the modified warre hives already. Lives 30 minutes north of me and has sourced me rough 1x6 or 1x8 lumber. No need to chop lang boxes. I have no plans to use frames just bars possibly bamboo skewers as sam does if they can hold the extra 2 inches of weight.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

GregV said:


> you can just order yourself ready-to-go setups from Ukraine/Russia.
> Today.
> Probably cheaply too.


Made two to test.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

From Sam's Instagram


> Mysteries of the #Comforthive Explained
> A box hive inspired by Warre, Quinby, and Bevan. From the top down:
> - 18" x 18" tile, or plywood, roofing, etc.
> - Top feeder- quart deli containers with 6 holes, can fit 4 qts in empty box above
> ...


Not sure were one buys 4' of 1x6 for $0.80.....

notes from other places 
The boxs are put together with a single screw per side to alow them to settle in to each outer and form a good seal 
pay atention to your grain and set it so when it warps, it warps so the the board top/bottom ends bend in to the box so your bars stay on the rests 







the divider goes in threw a break in the bar rests


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

It Finland it goes this way.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

"Mysteries of the #Comforthive Explained
A box hive inspired by Warre, Quinby, and Bevan. From the top down:
- 18" x 18" tile, or plywood, roofing, etc.
- Top feeder- quart deli containers with 6 holes, can fit 4 qts in empty box above
- Reflectix (x3 for winter) $0.36 -
Internal dimensions 11" x 11" x 6", made of rough cut pine 1" x 6"."


Why make it just slightly different than Warre, which has 300 mm inside dimensions (12 ") ?


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

msl said:


> pay atention to your grain and set it so when it warps, it warps so the the board top/bottom ends bend in to the box so your bars stay on the rests
> View attachment 52395


Side note...In this drawing, the board is cupping toward the center of the tree. See the growth rings. Boards always cup away from the center of the tree. Alwayc construct the boxes with center of the tree on the outside.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Michael Palmer said:


> Side note...In this drawing, the board is cupping toward the center of the tree. See the growth rings. Boards always cup away from the center of the tree. Alwayc construct the boxes with center of the tree on the outside.


Good catch Michael: Msl's advice is correct but the photo is wrong. To remember how it goes, think this: _"Don't put your heart inside a box of pine"_

Really important too when doing "board and batten siding".


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

This way of construction prevents many issues discussed here.
Importantly - the screws almost ALWAYS hold, don't get pulled out with the "meat" (thus preventing the wood from warping) - guess why.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

> Why make it just slightly different than Warre, which has 300 mm inside dimensions (12 ") ?


going to guess it was to eliminate waist, the boards are cut at 12" 



> Msl's advice is correct but the photo is wrong


HA! it was late and I grabbed the 1st picture that popped on google, woops inch:


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