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I came across this method yesterday, whilst researching something completely different. It's from the pen of C.C.Miller, and you'll find it within his book 'A Thousand Answers'. What suprises me is that I've never heard anyone mention this method ... ever. It's intended to be used when you've...

Some time before Xmas I set about converting some unused Warre boxes into a form which would take standard National DNx frames - maintaining exactly the same hive volume and comb area as the framed-hive championed by Emile Warre in the 5th Edition of his book 'Beekeeping for All' - the only...

By any chance does anyone have a copy of the book "Beekeeper's Guide to Rearing Queen Bees" (a compilation of various articles by numerous authors) ? I'm trying to identify who wrote the article relating to the use of a Long Hive to raise queen cells in a queenright colony by progressively...

Here's a truly brilliant idea for storing frames - from the Ukraine ... (and she has the most delightful voice, too) :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-f92J67AU Until now, all my wood ash has either been going to landfill or spread around the land ... but not any longer. LJ

Just came across this talk - nothing particularly new, but a comprehensive 'lecture' on the subject, with some very useful slides. LJ

Yesterday I found myself cutting an insane quantity of 11mm wide battens from 22mm thick pallet planks - so that a single pass over a table router set at 10mm will provide the wood from which to make some foundationless 14x12 frames, smooth on the outside but with a rough(ish) surface on the...

Just noticed - we don't seem to have a sub-forum for experimentation - so I guess this is the nearest appropriate place. Trust mods will move it if not ... This is one of several 'back-of-a-fag-packet' experiments I'll be running during the coming season. This one is intended to indicate...

If you checkout the Dave Cushman site for BS frame dimensions, the 14x12 frame drawing gives the 14x12 frame height as being 304mm - which sounds right to me. (even though, strictly speaking, 12" = 304.8 ~ 305mm) However, in http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/nat1412.html the height of the 14x12...

Spare a thought for our Aussie cousins - they've been enduring temperatures well above 35 deg C for some time now, and are now looking at seven consecutive days at 40 deg C. Now that's a tad on the warm side, mate. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38805402 LJ

I don't even know how to introduce this 'thing' to the forum, so I'll just post the link: http://ecape1820.tripod.com/alternativebeehive/shop-donate.html £185 - email for delivery costs to UK and Europe .... Maybe I'm just having a bad dream ... ? LJ

In his book 'Proper Studies' (1927), Aldous Huxley wrote: "For most people, nothing which is contrary to any system of ideas with which they have been brought up since childhood can possibly be reasonable." And as an example of this, it was as a schoolboy that I started beekeeping in WBC hives...

There are now quite a few Ebay sellers flogging 'Cupkit-style' kit - I'm talking about the cup holders and cages, NOT the laying matrix - for silly money. They are extremely good value for money - only two comments to make about this stuff: The first being that the components are a looser fit...

I see there's been some interest here in the quality of Mann-Lake's boxes - so here's my input on this .... Last year I took delivery of a hundred quid's worth of 'standard' (i.e. seconds) cedar brood boxes. This shows some examples of the knots in them: Now knots in the sides or front/back...

On the off-chance that anybody else might be vaguely interested in ways of getting OA vapour into a hive - here's a 'proof of concept' I've just finished working on - which you may possibly find of interest, or then again, maybe not ... :) From next year onwards I'll be running banks of nucs...

For anyone planning on over-wintering nucs, Mike Palmer gave a very good talk on this subject during the 2013 National Honey Show, a video of which has been uploaded to YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nznzpiWEI8A As Mike points out in his talk, the over-wintering of nucs has a very long...

Anyone on here interested in Rocket Stove technology ? I started one last year, but didn't get it finished before winter set in. Have just conducted the first run - absolutely bloody amazing. A few small bits of wood, and it's away ... chucking out heat like a good 'un. And zero smoke (it...

The Mk.II All-Weather Long-Hive Key features: # maximum flexibility in use # uses top bars, standard size frames, or both # economical to build # no plans required The All-Weather Long Hive described here is intended for 'stand-alone' use, but could equally be housed or stacked. It could...

If anyone should discover after making a Kenyan Top Bar Hive that it really isn't suitable for their style of beekeeping, here is one possible alternative to either selling it or resorting to the use of a box of matches: a simple conversion of a KTBH into a Deep Long Hive, dimensioned for...

It seemed to me that the solid crown board versus upper ventilation argument would continue to run and run without agreement: the fashion with some on this forum seeming to lean towards the former, whilst those who keep Warre hives favouring the latter with the installation of porous quilts -...

I recently visited a site where the old idea of an open syrup feeder with floats was still being promoted. That is such an outdated method. I tried this ages ago and, floats or no floats, somehow a few bees still managed to drown themselves. I then switched to using overhead inverted-jar...