Great beekeeping year! Bees happy, healthy and growing.

Many reports back from beekeeping friends is that this year for them was very poor with bee disease of all kinds. The latest bee health problem that stuck out was Paralysis Virus.  Beekeepers finding dead bees all over the ground of their apiaries and bees clustering on the hive front ‘shivering’ hardly moving. 

We did not experience any problems this year, in facts the hives were exploding in population and honey gathering was at an all time high. Between you and I, we felt kind of guilty when beekeepers asked us how we were doing. We played in down to avoid upsetting anyone. 

Now the bees show no sign of stopping. The populations are still growing. At this time of year all beekeepers will have removed any unnecessary supers (honey boxes) and reduced the size of the beehive to a minimum to prepare the bees for winter. Yet our beehives are so strong the bees are packing themselves into the roof space above (see photos) 

It’s all good news of course because the more young bees going into the winter the better. You need new fresh young bees because they will be the ones able to survive the long six months of winter ahead. Remember normally spring/summer bees only live for six weeks, so these young winter bees are really stretching their life span to be there in the spring to make it happen for the next generation.

If you have any questions or advice please let us know.

Beehive Stands- The Good, Bad & Ugly

Here are a few tips we believe work and we want to share them with you.

Hive stands are not just a way to keep your beehive off the wet ground but much more. We have given a lot of thought to this over the years and yet few books or beekeeping article address this. So here it is- our list of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

The Good

Single, individual beehive stands!. Their cost is the highest, but we believe it's worth it for these reasons:

A single stand gives your beehive great centralised support as the honey starts coming in. The average overall weight of a beehive in the height of the season will be 70-100 kilos. If you have constructed a shared hive stand than you need to take this into account, otherwise you will find the enormous combined weight buckles your stand and breaks over time. Beekeepers use a number of stand designs, mostly only taking into account cost and convenience. A single wooden beehive stand, just smaller than the size of the floor, will allow rain water to run off the hive walls and fall clear of the stand, keeping it far dryer and extending it usable life.

The base of each leg of your beehive stand should be raised off the ground slightly so it is not in contact with the damp ground. This will extend the life of the wood, reducing damp rot. We found years ago that audio speaker rubber vibration foot pads work really well. They come with an incorporated metal washer in the centre of each rubber surround. You can screw this to the bottom of each leg, which raises it off the ground by 5cm. The rubber does not rot and it helps to stabilise the stand while absorbing a bit of the vibration externally and some of the vibration you cause while carrying out your routine inspections. See the photos below.

The Bad

Shared stands. The most common being two metal rails supported on blocks. Hives are placed side by side on the rails. The problem with this design is vibration. As you open and inspect your first hive of say three or four on the same stand, all is well. By the time you have closed up your first hive, the second hive is well aware of your presence and are on guard. You have calmer bee activity for approximately the first 5-10 minutes when first opening up a beehive. Your bees are more concerned about the smoke you puffed in then you poking around. After approximately 10 minutes and many puffs of smoke later, your bees will begin to realise the hive is not on fire, and that person in the big white suit is annoying us.

So given you just worked the first beehive for around 10-15 minutes or more, the next hive is slightly more aware of you and on alert as the vibration travels down the shared stand rails. By the time you get to the forth hive on the same shared hive stand you might think these bees are just very bad tempered and need sorting out. This is not the case. They have just been feeling all the bumps and knocks from you inspecting the other three hive over the last 45 minutes.

Palletised beehives, four to a pallet is for speed only. This method is used in pollination contacts where farmers need a 'bee drop' of many hives for a short period. The idea for the beekeeper is easy off loading and quick loading. Most farms just want the bees there for a few weeks so this method works. Little beekeeping management goes on until they are back at the home apiary.

The Ugly

Milk crates, trash bins, rubble pile. Boy we have seen some pretty bad make shift stands in our time. We feel the bees and the over all look of the apiary deserves more. Milk crates will, and do, buckle under the growing weight of the honey coming in. If it is a warm day buckling can happen quite quickly as with any plastic construction super heated. 

Conclusion:

The main reason for the beehive stand is to raise it off the ground to improve air flow around the hive. It is important to reduce condensation within your beehive as much as possible. A beehive raised off the ground achieves this and helps to maintain a healthy living environment for your bees. Keeping grass short and plants well away from the beehive entrance will improve air flow. The height is a personal choice, but around 30cm off the ground is good. When making or buying your beehive stands consider what is a good working height for you. Work out when bending over where will the top of the brood box be. This is where you will be spending most of your time, inspecting each frame and placing them back in. If the stand is too heigh or too low this will create back problems for you over time. Remember you will only be lifting the supers off the hive and placing them to one side, not inspecting them in great detail. So the important height level to consider is where your brood box finished height is.

All text and photos copyright protected The Hive Honey Shop Ltd- 2015©

Do your honeybees have a water source near by?

It's important that you have a good water source for your bees set up within your apiary. At this time of year your bees will need to eat their winter stored honey which is likely to have crystallised over the winter months. They need water to dilute it back to a base that they can consume easily. 

That is where you come in! Set up a nice water source near your hives in full sun. This is important as bees are cold blooded insects and need external heat to keep going. Bees have two stomachs. One is used for carrying honey and water, the other is used to digest food. So it they fill up on water and have to travel back very far to their hive, they could become so chilled that they drop due to hypothermia.

How to make a mini pond:

We recycle discarded old water storage tanks for our sites. They can be dug into the ground as in the photo or balanced ground level. We provide foam and artificial flowers for our bees to land on. If they fall into the water they can crawl up the foam and out to dry off before flying back to their hive.

Once the foam or floating flowers have a bit of moss growing on them your bees will love it. Put a few handfuls of soil and dead wood in the water to enrich it with natural minerals. Of course pond plants in gravel baskets look great and the bees will enjoy them too. Bees do not like water that is too clean. Rain water is better than tap water and once the water source gets well seasoned your bees will flock there.

All photos copyright protected The Hive Honey Shop Ltd- 2015©

Bees are waking up. Bee ready!

Sorry for the gap in these blogs, wow time does fly when your a beekeeper!

So the weather is on the change and a few sunny days have brought out some flowers, The trees are now budding and our bees are bringing in the first pollen on 2015. Our advise is to BEE PREPARED!

Now is the time to make a concise list of all the equipment you need to either replace or upgrade. Get all your frames nailed and waxed. We suggest making far more than you think you will need this year. Its better to have too much, than not enough. We see so many panicked beekeepers coming in the shop desperate for a super, brood box, queen excluder, because their bees have over developed beyond what they imagined or prepared for. 

By taking note now and getting as much done early, will really make your beekeeping hobby much more enjoyable. So what to consider:

1 Hive stands in good shape? Need a paint up or repair.

2 Extra supers and brood boxes in reserve and ready.

3 Ample smoker fuel ready for the season.

4 2015 Action Plan. Consider what you wish to achieve this beekeeping year and make it happen.

5 Review your 2014 beekeeping notes ands learn from your mistakes or achievements.

6 Clean, clean, clean.. Make sure all your equipment is clean and ready.

7 Make sure your bees have plenty of stored food and step in to help if they don't

8 Keep them protected from woodpeckers, mice, winds, falling branches and vandals.

9 Check all your honey extraction equipment is in good working order before it is needed.

10 Check your protective cloths to make sure they are still bee proof.

We have begun our 2015 prep for the year ahead and have been making hundreds of wooden beehive stands over the last weeks. We all enjoy crafting hand-made bespoke beehive parts for our apiary sites. There is nothing as enjoyable as working with fresh sweet smelling wood and cutting, shaping and finishing off the part in the great open outdoors. 

All photos copyright protected The Hive Honey Shop Ltd- 2015©