Recombining brood box tripod camera (video) 3 year old helping :)

See if this video is better for everyone. I’ve bought an external mic since the cover for the go pro is the issue. I’ll try to get a tighter and closer shot on the brood box. Let me know how everything looks. I did go back and put the semi drawn frames in the top box in the middle instead of on the end. @Dee @Eva @Jstrano @Dawn_SD

I would put that first box to the side so that you are not leaning over the bees to get to the other box or else cover them.
Don’t bother chiselling off brace comb, waste of time they just make it again,
How many frames of brood have you? I could see three. Did you look for eggs?
I would have put that brood box underneath and the bees would move down when they are ready.
Maybe where you are it might be better to restrict the bees to the one brood box and have a regular super for wintering stores…I don’t know. What do other beekeepers in your area do?

Your little girl is gorgeous BTW

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Duly Noted on the leaning over the box and brace comb. I’ll do that next time.

You think i should put the empty box underneath? They seem to be mostly ignoring it now that its on top and no brood up there. The bottom brood box is now 90% drawn if not more. I did see eggs in a lot of the frames i put on the bottom. She’s chugging along for sure. there were only maybe two frames without eggs in the bottom box… probably less. She’s got a lot of eggs she just laid. I’m investing in an external mic for my go pro to make it easier to hear me. I usually comment on what i see. Going to try to get the camera over my shoulder more in the next video.

The entrance is seeing a lot more activity now, i reduced it to a few inches an they seem to like that more.

hehe thanks her name is Brielle. She is showing a lot of interest in it. She peeks in the hive and is extremely curious. I wonder if they make youth bee suits?

Hi @Beast9156, thank you for taking the time and effort to remake the video. That angle is a lot better to see what is going on in your hive. :blush:

That is what I would do too - keep the best frames together, and away from the walls. It is easier for the bees to keep the brood warm that way. I think your hive looks to have too sparse a bee population for 2 boxes at this point, but that is just my opinion.

Maybe I didn’t see things right, but it looked like a lot of those frames (look like plastic frames with plastic foundation?) may have a little drawn comb on them, but no way are they 80% full of brood and food stores. Like @Dee, I only saw 3 frames of good brood and bee coverage - you want to see that on at least 6 frames out of the 8 before you add second brood box.

If you want to leave the second brood box on, that is definitely what I would do. Much less work for the bees to keep the brood warm that way.

Another good decision, well done. They still look quite a small colony - I would guess 10,000 bees or less, and the reduced entrance will help them defend what they have.

Brielle is fabulous! They do make youth bee suits - @cfd2474 made a video showing his two young children all kitted out in suits!

Don’t be discouraged or lose confidence. I think you made some good decisions on this thread. Nobody is born knowing how to keep bees, it is a learning process. As long as you learn something and improve over time, that is all anyone could ask. Thank you again for your effort - by sharing your inspection, a lot more people get a chance to learn how to make decisions for their bees.

All the best,

Dawn

Here is where I got the suits for my kids. They are only $50

https://glorybee.com/beekeeping/suits-jackets/heavy-duty-youth-bee-suit-with-round-veil

And here are the gloves.

https://glorybee.com/beekeeping/hats-gloves/youth-bee-gloves

@Dawn_SD I peeked in real fast and you’re right. They probably have more like 50% drawn. I did put a foundationless in and that’s almost drawn, they seem to prefer that over plastic. I see fresh eggs everywhere, and larvae, saw some brood emerging. I would put them down to one box but every frame in the box with all the brood has brood in every frame and they have one SOLID frame of uncapped but full cells of nectar. I didn’t want to remove that as they dont have much for stores besides that. So i put that down in the bottom box with the broodless frames and moved the brood filled box on top. They ate half a pollen patty in a few days. I wonder if i should feed them more syrup? they seemed to backfill when i do.

Thanks i’ll definitely look into those. they will love them. What size for a 4 and 5 year old do you think? they are kinda smaller for their age but i want them to grow into them.

I did the 4x small and it fits my 3 and 4 year olds with room to grow. It has the measurements listed and I used a measuring tape to find the right size

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This seems to be one of the less expensive and higher quality options. My wife wants me to shop around, did you do any comparisons before purchasing?

These were the only ones I could find small enough for a 4 year old. The others from different sites were only small enough for an 8-10 year old. The quality is very nice and I feel that it is well made. The zippers all overlap and the elastic is tight enough for the hands and feet. There is also a thumb strap in the wristlet to keep the sleeve on place.

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bought two. can get usps shipping if you call them saved $15. thanks for the heads up.