I don't ever feel like you're taking up too much of my time. These videos are really informative, and I like the little details you go into, I would probably watch a video of you going through every single bearing on a combine/header combination.

Down here in Texas we run Macdon, everything we cut is short and the fields are always rocky. We’ve found Macdon being the best

Might be a bit late for this harvest season. In Western Australia, adjustable upper cross augers (the rotational speed and position of the auger can be adjusted by the operator from the combine cab) are made to upgrade headers to suit Western Australian conditions that can be hot and dry etc. "Feedstorm Adjustable Upper Cross Augers are designed to fit: Case 3152, Macdon D60, D65 and D1 and John Deere 600 and 700 series fronts. The Feedstorm Augers are beneficial in a wide variety of crops; direct-headed canola, pulses and cereals crops."

Mike I enjoy your jabbering keep jabbering as much as you want to I have learned a lot from you

I used to work at the Honey Bee plant in Frontier. Its nice to see a newer HB header, they sure changed since I was making them.

You could do 24hr vids I’d still watch 😂 You aren’t wasting time I ❤ Farming.🚜

Be careful about drought talk Mike, we have been in one including this year for 7 years. Ouch . Golden Prairie, Sask

If I was an ag supplier, I'd have someone watching these with summaries ( heck even chatgpt summary the transcript ). They are gold !.

Love these reviews always make points that are backed up with facts I wish more people where this honest

Macdon fd2 and triple reel is a beauty of a header..

Depending on the year of 600FD the 700FD will also have heavier slip clutches, a better belt tensioning system, improved cross augers, and a smaller front drum to better handle canola. Plus the extra height sensor.

We had a drought in june, and july and august have been constant rain, with august being horrible, we got 160 mm with rain in 22 hours lol. For us who run a custom business, we expect to bale 40-50k bales during summer, now we be lucky to get 10k.

Seems cheaper to keep the honeybees but upgrade to the Crary wind system to limit header loss on poor crops.

Hey Mike , we had that same problem as your head. With the header loss. Down here in Kansas until you harvesting in Kansas. Not fun you could be in a drought in the beginning of harvest. Five days later, you’re in a flood. So what we did. To help with some of the header loss. We took rubber mats. Bath with the two of them little prongs. Both of them on every so often now I didn’t minimize all of the hair loss. But it did help with that her loss and it worked for us so we did it. I understand it may not work for everybody. It worked for us so we used it. We do that all of our heaters. Now if we buy anyone new ones. So Mike you have a wonderful day and hopefully nothing goes bad in harvest.

That was a real good breakdown on Honey Bee vs John Deere headers.

Wonder what possessed the JD engineers to stop the pea augers 4 ft from the ends on the 645's..... makes no sense

That gap between belts on the Deere seems like it would lose most of the seed that shattered during the cut. Maybe only a problem for some crops but I can see it add up.

Hey Mike would you ever try a Mac don header

Love your videos, Mike. I have used some of your information in my farm equipment purchases. Thanks.

Why don’t you run macdon? We just got a new fd235 and love it. I think they are made pretty close too you.

Thats the problem with a lot of newer, bigger equipment is the complexity that it can gather... That JD header appears far more friendly to operate and own than that Honey. Macdon makes a good head too... Expensive like anything else but just the sheer simplicity of it makes up for it. The new FD2s are a little more to them now, but the older FD series is simple and, best part, is its own hyd system on it to keep it separate from the combine... Which greatly helped us whem had the 2 draper motors eat themselves, amd and thankfully the filter caught majority of it.

The convio flex headers seem to work wonders is downed and lodged corn here in the UK and there is very little transition from cutterbar to belt, hopefully the JD headers work much better this year for you and hopefully the yields are better than you expect this year 👍

Why don't you try the Crary wind system we put one on and it was amazing at keeping the grain on the head and not falling off the front

Take the honey bees to the north farm where you have the better crops but a crarry air reel seems like it would be cheaper to add on than buying new headers

Awesome video Mike, Have you guys thought about retrofitting the crary wind system on your headers. I’ve heard great things about them in bad crops, could be worth a shot.

Thank you Brother Mike I appreciate you explaining everything. I’ll need to know about all the stuff. I’ll have a big Ranch Farm here in Washington State North of Seattle someday. My Father has 300 Akers of Fields and a big shop and a home I’m going to have someday I’ll be Farming. I’m a Fisherman. I have been trying to learn. Thank you ❤️🖖🏼🇺🇸

Have you considered trying an air system like Crary on a couple of headers or is the investment simply not worth it at this time with current crop conditions

Need to take the handle off the jack handle on the Honey bee and just put a weld a bolt in its place. Then use Sally to raise and lower it.

😊Get all the crop in you hopper. Thank you.

I enjoyed watching your videos especially when you ask yourself questions, But the big one you missed on todays is what about the wind systems for headers

Thank you for your helpful comments.

Why not a crarry wind system to help with cutting bar loss?

You know manufacturers are losing their minds when an operation the size of Faith Hope Farms is buying old 645 headers because new Deere headers are nearly 4x the money.

They say this will be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives. Hopefully you get some more precipitation next year though!

Seems like an automatic grease pump would go a long ways on those bearings on the Honey Bee header

Ever tried those wind systems to help with cutter loss

Have some faith brother Mike. Things will turn around

Gotta get a macdon

Great video Mike

Get both is always a good strategy

🔥you rock mike.. glad to hear and see ya laughing 😂 again man, it’s you mike and don’t change it 🔥👊🔥🔨⚙️🏍🚜🌲

Mike have you ran a macdon?

Mike, thank you for the interesting header comparison. Two questions:- Why do you not use crop lifters for the low down pulse crops-? Do Honeybee make hinged draper headers in the 50 and 60 foot sizes-?

Have you guys ever tried macdon headers? We went to them from deere 4 years ago, 4000+ acres in and no real mechanical issues yet👍

Och, $1000 a pop is nuts!

I love when you go this specific about things, however there are a lot of different connotations between Canada and Europe, and also there are all the different series of combines that doesn´t always match with anything else. Could you be the one to clarify a few of these differences in your videos? I mean, since you´re trading big, and you´ve probably handled every piece of equipment available in North-America. Either way, I would love to hear more about your thoughts on any piece of equipment that you come across. Also, I´m sorry to see you running Deeres, as NH and Claas are always making the records ;) There´s one thing I don´t quite understand, though. How can you defend making these purchases, whilst also leaving headers worth several hundred thousands grounded for the season? If I understood this the right way, that is. Shouldn´t you sell off those excess headers as trade for the newer ones?

Honeybee is a durable piece of equipment but I have always thought they were a bit over engineered.

I would like to see a shop tour one day

Try a macdon I love running them never really have issues besides the shield in the middle on the bottom of the header

If the s series cant take the 50ft headers only the x swries can are you going to just keep the honey bees and use them anyway or sell of most of them? Just interesting to see 👍🏻

Sweet video and thanks for adding to the million reasons why I would never buy a honey bee header we had a NH 8060 windrower with HB head it was terrible and that air flex looks aweful we switched to MD never look back! For combine and windrows.

We should get you hooked up with a Headsight height control kit. 4 sensor hockey stick insight system.

Two questions, 1, have you tried Mac Don headers? We have them and love them, and 2, are air systems an idea that would help the shorter crops over the cutter bars?

Those u joints dont look to be on the greatest angle probably a lot of vibration taking out bearings. Wonder if a cv joint would be better.

Mike, why don't you try an Cary air system on one head to determine if it it helps. I seems that the other farmers on KZfaq swear by them.

Nothing like the good old days of using a scythe for harvesting, nowhere near $260k and you can moonlight with it as a grim reaper.

So Mike to keep it from bunching on the 645 do you over lap the auger on already cut ground? Thanks just wondering

WELL MIKE what about macdon? Im assuming you didnt go that route due to cost and being that your familiar with those jd heads it makes sense to go that route. How ever i wouldn't say macdon are overly expensive we bought a demo unit so basically a brand new fd140 last year for either 130 or 140 i can't remember but it also came with buddy wheels which id never run a header without them again after having them on our old and new head. Id highly recommend you try a macdon on one of your combines very very nice header to use and they seem much more simple than both heads your showing and ive done a lot of work on our old header i feel like a expert at this point HA.

5' is a small price to pay compared to unplugging the rotor discharge/replacing rotor shear pins 5-6 times a day...per combine though.

John Deere is not probably foolproof but what machine is. But as far as what I've seen when they build something it's longevity and durability is usually ahead of most.

Do you need a different adapter for the honey bee headers from the X9s the the JD? Knew that CaseIH was different from all the rest, just figured each brand had their own style feeder house connections.

Plz send some of that cool weather down south 🥵🥵🥵. Heat index is 125F here right now as I type. I’m sick of this heat

Mike, how come you don't like putting on a Carry wind system?

Magnifique coupe de blé est bien grand est bien équipés pour la moissonneuse batteuse 😊😮😂

Hey Mike I have a question? Will you eventually trade in some of the honeybee headers for more JD 645 or 745 in the near future or will you trade it for newer Honeybee headers because it has new upgrades compared to your current headers?

Qadtrac 715 next year as a demo?

Mike is there a brace or something that holds heads-up while combine is sitting so all that weight isn't on the hydraulic cylinders?

That cost of equipment, holy weed... 😬

We switched to Deere in 2015 and haven’t regretted it

Hi! mike you didn't talk air reel did you try some ?

Couldn't yall use the wind system to help with downed crops?

Have you guys ever tried MacDon? Just wondering, almost everyone in our area is running MacDon, some Deere and some auger headers as well. We run a macdon d50 and a case ih 1020 and don’t have too many issues really and aren’t crazy expensive to fix

Does insurance cover your losses from drought?

@mike Mitchell I’ve always wanted to ask you why you don’t camp fallow or summer

Can you do a crop update

I'm surprised Mike doesn't have a Macdon header yet

Mike how come u don’t use macdon headers?

I have a question you don't cover. Did you have to do anything to the feeder house going from a honey bee to a Deere?

Why not MacDons

Do you have problems with the street end of the header transport on the Honey Bee? They look very lightweight.

Sounds as tho there are metallurgy/tolerance problems with the Honeybee headers if the bearings are that hard to replace.

You know how you get stuck if you leave the strop at home. But make it yourself if you take it😂 Lets hope buying these 645’s ends the drought. 🤞

Mike question why don't you run the mother of all draper heads 😎

You think the team at Honey would see what’s they are competing with on the simplicity side before releasing the mechanical assembly for production!!

I’m sure you said it before, but what is your issue with MacDon that you don’t run them? The 45’ is lighter than the Deere counterpart, has it’s own transport system, and all your driveshaft does is power a hydraulic pump that runs the whole header.

Have you ever tried a crary wind reel on your honey bees

GOD DAYUM! 260K.......... i wouldn't pay that for half a dozen COMPLETE combines if they were green :D let alone just one trash header front :P meanwhile a 30 year old red or yellow combine will run circles around them anyway :O

👋😊

Yea i would not want to use that honey bee in a short crop

How much is the 745 then if the 645 is 65k

Why don’t u put the crary air system on

Mike i have a question;Ever thought about airreels ? It wil benefit you i think. 😊

Y not try a macdon header

Morning

Mike, wouldn’t it be beneficial to run an air bar system on jd heads to blow in the crop? I know cutting beans it pays for itself in the first year.

Mike , if Honeybee and JD have cons , why not go macdon which has just pros? 😮

$200K for a header ? That is friggin ridiculous. With the cost of equipment, seed, fertilizer and chemicals I don't see how farmers are making any money. Even with $10 wheat.

Mac Don or Geringhoff TrueFlex

Ask Ron at hartung family farms he’s a jd combine engineer

I'm not up-to-date, does Mike still have the Fendt IDEALs or did he switch completely to John Deere for the season?