beehives

[splodger]

anybody know anything about beekeeping?

i picked up a load of hive components today - enough to set up a couple of hives i think - all needs a damn good clean and a fair bit of patching up - but worth the effort. so if anybody is a font of beekeeping knowledge - imay need your help in the future

also got some nursery hives/boxes - which are really quite attractive - just wondered whether they would be ok for bumbles instead of honey bees - as we get loads in the woods - but badger usually finds them - would they use a small hive do you think? (the bees not the badgers)

[Dexter's Shed]

Hi splodger, wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I am a beekeeper, get some pictures up of what you have an I'll give it my best shot at identifying, I am currently cleaning up four commercial hives and clearing an area in our woods to site an out apiary,

[splodger]

it's all pretty old stuff - not actually sure if any of it will be any good - but i'll have a good go at trying to revamp them
there are loads of trays - but i'll have to get fresh foundation sheets (i think that's what it's called)
i know there are a couple of bases, falling to bits - so i might need to make new ones - there are a couple of supers (think that's what they're called - in reasonable nick, plenty of brood chambers and trays, a few mesh sheets plus at least one wired bit (to block the queen) roof sections (felted) there's also a section that carries alternative to trays (small boxes for honeycomb)

it all might be a bit too far gone to use - i'll take some pics when i unload it all

but it's the dinky nursery boxes that i love most of all - and they are mostly up together - just need a damn good clean /sterilise

[Dexter's Shed]

depending how far you want to go with it, our how much money you want to shell out, wax foundation is the item that costs, my cheapskateness is simple, rather than put a sheet of foundation in each frame, I cut the wax into 50mm strips, and then just insert a strip into each frame, that way one pkt of wax (10 sheets) will normally do a whole hive, most commercial keepers are into keeping purely for the honey production, and use full sheets as it'll get everything moving quicker, but Im more into keeping for the bees benefit, and if honey comes along then thumbs up for me, also this way when the supers are full, I can cut sealed honey straight out, leaving the top 50mm for the bees to repair and start again, this means no expensive honey extractors are needed, and eating sealed honey/wax is the best way, also commands a good price if you sell it

[splodger]

i'm not really interested in the honey - it's protection for bees that i am more interested in - although i am sure a bit of honey might be good for my winemaking - or maybe mead

i'll not be throwing much in the way of money at this particular venture - so i'd only be prepared to spend a small amount on absolute essentials - you haven't seen the state of this kit - it might all end up as kindling

[Dexter's Shed]

this is a very good forum, that look more to caring for the bee, rather than the honey

http://www.biobees.com/forum/index.php

have a read and let me know if you join, Im a moderator there, I'll make sure you don't get banned for anything silly

seriously, last year I started two hives with a total cost of £14 doing it the way I do with strips

it was with homemade top bar hives, but you can see what I mean about the wax strip

http://youtu.be/li9obrnaRZE

I no longer use top bar hives as they can be a pain in the a*** but I still carry on with the 50mm wax in normal frames idea, as it works well

I rarely interfere with my girls, they know what they are doing, so I leave them bee (pun intended)
but I do check for queen cells and swarm indicators, as although its the norm, not catching your swarm and re housing, will end up with you having a very small cluster of bees to overwinter which normally die in the colder months, I catch the swarm, house them in another hive, keep a check on which has the best queen, then unite them back together

[splodger]

i took a load of pics yesterday (finally got to unload it all)
will try and post a few pics in next day or two - as i'm busy bottling my wine today

[splodger]

only justed uploaded pics of hive bits off my phone

heres a few - be interested to know what you think (is it any good) because now that the tree which was housing a swarm of bees has blown down, i'm keen to set a hive up - to protect bees (assuming they are ok and will go in it)

[splodger]

i put one of the nursery boxes by tree - in vain hope that bees might venture in - got 3 or 4 of these - but they all need a refurb

these bits are intact but very mucky

heres the mass of kit - all jumbled there's plenty of bits to choose from - so hopefully enough for a complete hive

[Dexter's Shed]

only justed uploaded pics of hive bits off my phone

heres a few - be interested to know what you think (is it any good) because now that the tree which was housing a swarm of bees has blown down, i'm keen to set a hive up - to protect bees (assuming they are ok and will go in it)

IMAG0224.jpg

this first picture, the bottom brood box seems to big, so Im wondering if you have a mixture of hives, nationals and commercials