It is currently 28 Mar 2024, 17:35
greeno wrote:Looks like fun, not sure you'll be able to get it, but there's a program here "river cottage", he was building a "natural" beehive which was essentially a hollow log on end, about 2m off the ground, allegedly makes for a happier bee.
greeno wrote:Not sure i can answer that question, but this is the guy who supplied it:
https://beekindhives.uk/
Phil Pascoe wrote:It's the problem with more "natural" types of hives - it's difficult to harvest the honey without a lot of damage. Bees apparently use 7lb of honey to produce 1lb of beeswax, so anything that helps preserve the beeswax is good - decent comb is repaired and thus recycled. I kept bees until a sting nearly killed me, and got a third prize for comb at Royal Cornwall Show (the fifth biggest honey show in the Country) at my first attempt at showing before I had to stop.
Malc2098 wrote:Nice job.
mjdewet wrote:Nicely done there Phil. So good to see that you did not allow the bees to get under the bonnet...
Though, as you stated: 20mm wood SA style can be anything from 18mm to 21 mm...
And if you query it: Ja-well that's just the way we get from the supplier.. GRRRR * 10
Robert wrote:Never knew there was so much involved in a bee hive. Skimmed through that wiki link. Seems bees like certain dimensions and don't build into smaller spaces like the gap between frame and case sides.
So you must be researching as well as copying a sample. Tempted to make another one for yourself?
AJB Temple wrote:A practical tip.
One of the big disadvantages of the Langstroth design, especially for older female beekeepers, is the impractical hand hold design. These boxes are a good deal bigger than nationals and a super full of honey, or a brood box that is full, is seriously heavy.
Don't bother cutting the finger lifts - they are hopeless. Screw on metal handholds instead (available from Thorne bee supplies or Amazon). These are MUCH better.
My bee mentor is Judy, like many bee keepers she is getting on, and she has 15 Langstroth hives and has already harvested 240kg of honey this year with about half that still to harvest and 25kg of honey per hive left for winter feed. She cannot lift a super with a finger slot.
I am in the process of switching from National to Langstroth as the latter supports larger bee colonies much better than Nationals and the boxes are dead easy to make.
Box thickness is irrelevant as long as your queen excluder fits without gaps and the crown boards etc fit well. Queen excluders bought commercially are a standard size and assume a 20mm thickness but are easily altered to make a bit bigger if necessary. The internal dimensions for frames, and of course the bee space, are more critical. If the bee space above frames is too big the bees will fill it with comb in about 3 days.
Nice job on the boxes. Keeping bees is fun but challenging. We collected a late open swarm yesterday morning into a poly nuc, and they had all b*ggered off by 8pm (we left the nuc open to collect the flying bees before relocating to our garden).
Malc2098 wrote:Nice job!
AJB Temple wrote:Nice work Phil
Over here we always use metal rails for the frames to drop on to. Makes them easier to unstick, especially this time of year when the bees are producing propolis like it's going out of fashion.
Interesting that your wax frames are cross wired. I only really see them with V shaped wiring so you can catch the wires in the frames on assembly. I made up another 20 frames yesterday. Today was just getting a hive ready to move and was stung six times on each hand, through gloves. I never get stung - lo and behold the queen had been replaced, so just marked her as well as she is nice and dark and laying well.
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