Lots of comments here about saving the bees. Bees do just fine without us. They built those hives the way they wanted them. If those boxes weren’t adequate, they’d find a new home on their own. The things we do with boxes and frames is for our convenience as beekeepers. We aren’t saving the bees, we’re making their honey easier to harvest. I’m not being negative about what he’s doing. I’m a beekeeper and I’d do the same. I just don’t look at it like I’m saving them unless their lives are threatened in their current location

@shezyam460

Ай бұрын

totally agree, bees have been around and doing well for themselves many times longer than we've been here lol. beekeepers just optimize honey extraction, when it comes down to it.

@utvc3687

Ай бұрын

Exactly

@NoBody-xx6ii

Ай бұрын

💯

@spooh75

Ай бұрын

I think you are exactly right but I do look at all beekeepers as saviors without the bees gardeners like me would not have the Bounty that we have I feel if they'er going to put them in a box, might as well take care of them. Leaving them as an unwanted house guest to a new home owner could have resulted in a far worse outcome. Thank you all for your hard work.

@stevenbell1888

25 күн бұрын

True, however you could say that a beekeeper that breeds strong queens IS helping to save the bees. any swarms that release back into the wild from well kept and bred queens will have better genetics in the wild.

Looks to me that someone intended to come back to put more frames in and straighten everything but something disastrous happened in their lives where the bees weren't the priority. I think they got interrupted by life, it has all the hallmarks. They just didn't ever make it back to put frames in. I'm thinking the people you got them from inherited them, probably with the property. You just never know so I try not to criticize anyone, esp in a situation like this.

@richardstutler3058

Ай бұрын

Nothing ever really free,but looks like you got some good stock to work with. And won't take long to get them up to par!

The bees were so well tempered, you could say they were.... as sweet as honey.

@aussiebeekeeping

21 күн бұрын

Haha

There is nothing wrong with these bees, they are just living and building how they want and survive

@lauralake7430

13 күн бұрын

My neighbors abandoned beehives, the people who bought the derelict house to renovate it killed all the bees. First i saw was the hives going into a dumpster. I was able to get them to call local beekeepers to rescue a swarm that had gone into an attic, but only because i am an extremely nosy old woman and looked over the back fence when i heard the builders shouting about the bees. So, yeah, its good he rescued these bees.

Far left hive is PROTECTIVE and will be the best of the bunch. They probably are raising some drones, because bees are very protective of drone brood during build up before mating season. Protective bees are a perfect source of capped brood that can be added to a weak hive and build the defense.

On box #3, if you put an empty medium box with frames and no comb, and an excluder, most of the bees will go to whichever box has queen. Wait a day or two and come back. Hopefully they are closest to brood & you can take the box without a bunch of bees and put it about 10 yards away at night. The foragers will leave by mid day. They will return to the spot they orientated to. Then all you have in the box is a fraction of the bees. Get your rubber bands and a window screen. Any comb you salvage can be placed on the piece of screen, lay frame over it, slide rubber bands. I’m sure you know this. Posting for someone reading this that doesn’t. I enjoyed this video way too much. Like treasure hunting. That defensive hive is going to be the best of all 3 in terms of production. Better make queens out of their eggs.

Looks like you're going to have a lot of fun renovating these boxes.

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

I am

Now that's what I call a beautiful mess 🐝💜 glad to see the colonies look good and are all queen right. What a save 👍😁 Cheers!

Bring a bucket and lid or 2 with you when you visit your bees, if the lids got honey and they are putting fresh stuff in clean it out. Leave the lid full if there is nothing around, they are getting nasty because they are short of food or coming into winter. Never throw your wax on the ground around the hive unless you like having stuff stuck to your foot wear or inviting pests and diseases. Every bit of comb can be melted down and cleaned or burnt as fuel for other beekeeping activites (fire boiling water for uncapping or melting out other dirty old frames... 🎉 😮 😅

Those frames look like there was at one time a bad wax moth invasion by the holes in the wood. I have saw hives this bad before but thank goodness I did not have to clean them up. Good luck. Thanks

Those poor ladies, stoked you're going to give them a good home and the proper beekeeping they need.

@orangevw36

2 ай бұрын

Gotta remember… bees are wild insects even though we try to do our best. They know what to do without us intervening. Those 3 hives were doing quite well without human intervention. I’m sure they populated the area by swarming. The only bad side of not tending to them is box rot. If it rots too much they’ll move to a better home. We beekeep for ourselves…. Not the bees. They thrive in the wild…. Would do much better if we’d stop spraying chemicals and mowing or killing important weeds and trees in the US. Big farming is the cause of 50% loss in the US every year.

I saw the boring in the top bars from wax moth larvae , destructive lil buggers !

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

I didn’t realize they did that until later

Make this the bottom box of two brood boxes, come late winter / early spring time to reverse boxes but the bees will all be up in the upper box, and you can safely remove the bottom box, it will be unlikely that there is any brood in it, because they move upward to conserve heat in the hive over winter.

Im just glad those people called you so you could help those bees out

@lennartjuhh

7 күн бұрын

The bees are fine

I think I would bite the bullet, and start swapping out some of the frames for wired foundation. Taking out all the honey you can, and moving the brood into the top super. Over a few inspections, you would remove all the chaos and restore order ( for the human that is). I wish my bees were as calm as those 'Neglected' hives. Thank you.

@aussiebeekeeping

2 ай бұрын

That’s the plan in the brood boxes. In the upper boxes I’ll just take them off in one hit.

@davidhorsley4657

2 ай бұрын

I won't offer my 2 pence worth because Aussie Beekeeper seems to know what he's doing.

@aussiebeekeeping

2 ай бұрын

@davidhorsley4657 that’s debatable

@lynnehrhart5789

2 ай бұрын

Sweet bees indeed.

@edmartin875

Ай бұрын

They are likely calm because no one has been opening their hive every week for several years.

Nice to see Australians displaying things love it

With that first super with wonky comb. What I do is scrape the top off turn it upside down on a table and cut around the frames inside the box and then lift the box off the frames. You can then separate them out a lot easier.

I guess you've not seen a slatted rack before. There are several reasons for these, the main one being to prevent comb being built right to the base of the hive. Personally, I think the bees know what to do and I don't use them. As regards cross combing. When I started beekeeping, I was encouraged to use foundationless frames with just a thin strip of wood at the top of each frame for the bees to start from. However, this turned out to be a complete nightmare, as the bees filled the entire hive with cross comb worse than seen here. I made several attempst to ge the hives into some sort of order, but they kept cross combing every time. Hence, where I live, in Tasmania, I'd recommend using foundation unless you want to trash your hives every time you need to inspect.

@aussiebeekeeping

2 ай бұрын

I thought a slatted rack was to reduce congestion and help with keeping brood cool in the summer.

@rachelstone4967

Ай бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping & I thought they were supposed to be in line with the frames not perpendicular.... but I've never used them either.

@Huntnlady7

Ай бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping that's not a typical slatted rack. Sooner or later, you'll have to rip that off and put it on a standard bottom. They're too low to the ground anyway.

I haven't sighted ant SHB. That's gotta be a bonus.

Never watched before, watched from start to end, wow well done and why do I suddenly want to have my own hive... Oh no!

@aussiebeekeeping

19 сағат бұрын

Do it! :)

I would clean off tops and bottoms of frames load them into new boxes in the same order with new bottom boards and covers and fill the boxes with foundation frames leaving only bee space so they can't cross link.

What an awesome informative video, really enjoyed this

@rebekahtaylor4830

3 күн бұрын

What is a swarm sell though?

Wow what a gift you had mate!

Those holes in the timber frames are from wax moth cocoons, anything timber gets trashed from them, usually they just burrow into comb and make a mess. But if the box is stored unattended or there are big lumps of that dark properlis or wax say between you bottom box and your queen excluder they get in where the bees can't see or chase them lay grubs/maggots they cocoon themselves there and chew/bore holes into the timber as they wrap the cocoons up ! 🎉 😮 😊

these hives looks like they can use some renovations asap!

Good or bad I would have started with fresh hives and transplanted them. Awesome job taking care of them once getting them.

It is pretty cool that bees can be neighbors and not go to war against eachother

I was told old frames with that dirty old black comb makes bees progressivly smaller as the cells get smaller from old cocoons and they get less and less wax like and more like wax cardboard, and was told to put at least 3 fresh in the brood box yearly to keep them fit and healthy. My got to methodis after i put and empty box on is to take the 2 outer most frames in the brood box if possible they are usually full of pollen and some honey and maybe a tiny bit of brood, and put them in the box above until its full or the brood has hatched out and keep an eye out if they start a queen up in warmer weather. They get new frames down the bottom regulary, keeps them fit strong and healthy, the old frames get steamed melted, rewired and waxed if savable otherwise brand new frames replace condemned frame keeping a constant fresh supply of frames to replace old and worn out frames! 🎉 😮 😅

What a mess! I hope you can bring these hives back to some semblance of order. Would you consider just transferring the frames to new boxes, I think you said in the previous video that it looked like at least one box had rot or something? That last hive was a real state - were there really only two frames in it?! You might be able to salvage the comb that's not in frames; Texas Beeworks uses elastic bands to secure comb into frames when saving hives - check out the Texas Beeworks youtube channel. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the journey as you go through with sorting the mess out - at least you've got a load of honey to start off with!

@apveening

2 ай бұрын

I've seen those elastic bands used by a lot of other beekeepers when saving/removing hives.

Great video lots to do but, that’s what we do. Awesome job 👍🐝🍯

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

Yes we do

I just stumbled across your channel I love watching beekeepers to me these videos that I've just seen the last three of yours posted are like an ASMR beekeeping savior I love the way you take us on the journey I love the way you love your bees thank you so much for sharing this I can't wait to delve back and watch more of your videos God bless keep doing what you do

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

Hey thanks!

New to all this, fascinating, thank you :)

Lovely your get eggs and a lot of every thing

Thank you so much Aussie Apiary Culture Association. God bless Australia Continent

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

No worries!

Have a little bit of a allergy to bee sting but I LOVE honey 🍯

So I'm still fairly new to this, when you got into the lower part of the first hive, there was a lot of comb that appeared to have a flat grey covering on it. It looked distinctly different from the brood. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Whats going on there?

While this hive hasn't been abandoned and not inspected and doesn't fit the norm of left, right, left, straight and perfect. I think we forget that bees in the wild. As when they live in homes or trees or anywhere else don't build straight framed. C** headline hives. Probably don't look the best. However, what I find amazing is without all the inspections. The virumite treatment the win reservation, the feeding. The constant observation that these bees have made it and continue to survive, not to mention the fact that they probably had swarms where they contributed to the local environment. Thank you.

Personally I would have added a box on under the messed up box of honey on the first hive. It will give them room to add honey in a correctly oriented box. It will make pulling the messed up box off without hurting the hive.

@aussiebeekeeping

8 күн бұрын

1 month out from winter you would do this?

Omg. That last box.

@aussiebeekeeping

2 ай бұрын

Yep

@brendawydeven2934

2 ай бұрын

@aussiebeekeeping you did great job going through them.

Clean that bottom super. Place a new second super with extra new frames to fill in. Transfer best frames. Rejuvenated hive

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

2 month out from winter?

theyre rather quite cute actually, when you get a close look at them.

@aussiebeekeeping

10 күн бұрын

100%

Thanks for sharing I learnt somthing I didn’t no

Surprised how easy it came part

I would bring new boxes and put the queen in the new with new foundation and put a queen excluder on and put the old hive on top until the brood is born and then remove the old boxes

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

A month out from winter?

@jasonjohnson1984

Ай бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping o ok didn't know that

Your doing great mate and so cram mine was higeldy pigaldy as well no stability and every thing fell out but all ok now

I'll take that amount of honey any time. Nothing beats honey straight from the comb! Especially smeared out as it's still in the comb. That is so so delicious, although I'll rather pass on ingesting the comb when it's this insanely aged haha

@lennartjuhh

7 күн бұрын

That third lid though... I'll take that 🥵🤤

Im surprised you didnt say "house keeping!" When you first knocked on them lol. Id have to say it.

Not a beekeeper so it strikes me that because of the congestion there is little room in the hives and a deeper box to host more frames would be the obvious thing to do. Also obvious it's not the thing to do because you are not suggesting it, so what are the things to consider about size of the boxes and number of frames?

Mine didn’t have any thing they were left to own devices but now fixed

They could very well be Ligurian Bees.

@aussiebeekeeping

10 күн бұрын

I don’t think they are. I purchase some Ligurian bees this year and they look a lot different. kzread.info3j7bRQP5CxE?si=pyOAULcY68HGQYpK

I would argue these are not the worst conditons. The hive was alive.

30:00 A job that will take a day. Wow

@aussiebeekeeping

11 күн бұрын

I believe I said “a job for another day”

5:08 did that bee have 4 wings? look on the bottom left as he pans over the top of the hive... i always thought they had 2

Omg what a mess

Can you split that last bottom hive?

@aussiebeekeeping

4 күн бұрын

I can do anything. It’s just too close to winter for us here. About three days away

@zamis21

3 күн бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping ya summer here.. We lost our first hive in a cold snap. I am still trying to talk myself into getting another one lol

@aussiebeekeeping

3 күн бұрын

@zamis21 it’s all a learning experience with bees. Keep going.

I think the cross comb was because of more space as one frame was missing, 7 instead of 8 frames

Odd question but would you be willing to sell the honeycomb and honey to America? Im just on my own little homestead research adventure and they say honey tastes differently depending on the areas theyre in and what plants are native there.

@aussiebeekeeping

6 күн бұрын

100% I have honey available but no comb until after winter.

When I read "abandoned" I thought there would be no bees!!! 😅

What are those area where the combs are sealed off?? The ones the look like the texture from the alien movie?? Are those filled with honey or just sealed off with just wax??

@aussiebeekeeping

2 күн бұрын

That would be the wax caps sealing in the honey.

Thank you!

@lennartjuhh

7 күн бұрын

For what?

Personally i wouldn't leave that much space between frames in the brood area.

@aussiebeekeeping

8 күн бұрын

Would you just squeeze the frames together so the brood cappings touch each other and the brood dies?

Anyone thinking the bees would do just fine without us should remember one thing. It wasn't bees that first alerted us about colony collapse. It was bee keepers. Whether or not it's are fault is a pointless debate. It may not have caused a bee apocalypse this time but we may not be as lucky the next time. It will be bee keepers that will see it first.

The bee exists to provide the human with honey.

Interesting I didn’t notice a single frame have comb all the way across a frame.

@ridingvenus

2 күн бұрын

I wonder why..either not very old comb or issues in the past I guess. Comb looks possibly at most 2 years if not months old.

I thought they were your 🐝

bar hives are much better

Wath is the mess!!!!

Looks like wax moth damage on the tops of the frames in the middle hive to me.

All that stuff is SWARM trap stuff worth gold.

I was dissapointed to see no queens inspected from these 3 hives.

Does less collecting create better tempered bees?

@aussiebeekeeping

10 күн бұрын

I don’t believe so. I think these bees just have gentle genetics

If me,cut box away then deal with frame

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

Not you

Are they eating the honey … I don’t know anything about beekeeping or hives

People need to realize the bees built it how they wanted an could leave if they chose. We use man made hives to gather honey easier. Not because it's optimal for bees lol

Nice video. I think I’d Bailey comb change them - put Queen in a new brood box above Old brood box with fresh foundation, an eke with entrance. Let the old brood down below hatch out and then remove it for repair with all that old comb.

@aussiebeekeeping

10 күн бұрын

Problem is it was only a month away from winter.

@GrahamRead101

10 күн бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping ah yes, good point! Sorry forgot you were on the other side of the planet.

Why didn't you put supper on them before they built all that comb

@aussiebeekeeping

2 ай бұрын

Eye roll

@threadie

2 ай бұрын

@@aussiebeekeeping You're too polite .. lol 👍🏻

@edmartin875

Ай бұрын

The hives were abandoned by the previous owner. He got them, this was an inspection. He plans to work with them and get them back into good shape.

He? I thought all worker bees were female?

poor guy thinks people make bees better... those bees are fine

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

Theresa is very judgy.

If you want youtube to push your stuff just include the word "abandoned" in the title. I'm so fed up with all the abandoned shit that I have begun to block channels just for using it.

@aussiebeekeeping

5 күн бұрын

Abandoned verb past tense: abandoned; past participle: abandoned 1. cease to support or look after (someone); desert. "her natural mother had abandoned her at an early age" Similar: desert leave

Getting a bit over excited with that smoking aren't you??

@aussiebeekeeping

9 күн бұрын

The other option was that I didn’t smoke every bee down and all the comments would have been about bee murder. So yeah. Can’t win. Always some stupid commenters.

No problem with Africanization??? Must be nice...*(all) of the feral bee colonies in Arizona are Africanized. Mean af..

You where asked to retrieve theses hives, there is no need to keep reminding your viewers how bad the other keepers where. Truly distasteful.

@aussiebeekeeping

Ай бұрын

What’s distasteful is you judging without having any information. The beekeeper that advertised these hives to the general public said that were in good condition. They also struggled to adhere to the legal requirements to transfer the ownership of the hives to me and to perform regular inspections as well as ensure all frames of honey and brood remain on single frames so they are removable. As per Australian agricultural regulations. They remain terrible beekeepers.

It's sad to look at.