Mike a
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2010
- Messages
- 1,785
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Hampshire
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- Between 17-20
I will be honest my opinion of the beehaus was pretty poor after seeing one at a local county show some time ago. So today within the space of 5 mins I wasn't surprised to see imho how bad the hive truly is close up when in use....
Roof: The roof was one of the few items which I didn't find fault with it. It seemed solid, light weight considering it size and functional.
Supers: They looked like they are made from moulded plastic and correx sheets. They are half supers which is a nice idea for those who would struggle with a full chamber but they looked really cheap and tatty and left sizeable gaps between them and beneath them when sat on the hive, as a result the bees had built up several layers of propolis to try to seal the gaps to keep heat in which just made things worse each time they were removed and replaced again.
Queen Excluders: shockingly poor, I could see a clear bee space gap between the top of the frames and QE and the bottom of the supers and as they don't cover the total hive space above the frames (side wall to side wall and front wall to divider) the bees could simply walk to the front of the hive up and over the QE and into the supers. This is partly to do with the fact the supers don't sit squarely on the hive due to walls being warped. I also saw how difficult it was for a worker to climb through the QE, it just about struggled to squeeze through. Despite the number of bees in both halves of the hive (see below) none of the supers were drawn out but in fairness this may have more to do with the strain of bees being in constant swarming mode and not the excluder's or the poorly fitting supers.
Hive Body: It looked to be reasonably solid but it was clearly sagging in the middle when looking along its length and bowed outwards, the inner walls were also warped when looking down from above. The bowing outwards was so bad the distance between each long side is far too wide which allows the hoffman frame spacing used to lose the proper bee space unless careful attention is taken to align the frames properly everytime, that coupled with the warped hive body walls meant there were several gaps larger than a bee space which the bees had started to build wild comb and in other places the gap was too narrow so when the frame was lifted out the bees on the side walls were rolled against the hive wall and frame. The frames sit on a flat plastic shoulder instead of being raised up one bee space which just encourages the bees to glue the frame lugs in place and it is very easy when replacing a frame to crush bees unless the two shoulders are smoked or wet smoked (see below) every time. Most bee keepers use their hive tool to shift all the frames on mass but in doing so with this design of frame rest the frames refuse to move then suddenly they slip over the propolis with a sudden jarring upsetting the whole colony. The only solution is scrap the shoulders to remove any build up of wax or propolis whilst you have a clear gap. I also thought this hive was meant to be bottom bee space but I'm sure the gap between the top of the frames and the top of the hive walls was at least a bee space. The hive also had what looked like two rubber seals where the side walls join to the long walls (what looked to be neoprene) both were visible bulging inside the hive. I can only assume these are meant to be seals to patch up any gaps between the two hive walls were they meet and shouldn't be visible.
Hive Legs: I've read one bee keeper say the legs on his legs were prone to bending plastic around where they attach to the hive so I gave the hive a gentle heft to test this, the legs didn't flex a great deal but I'm not sure how they would fair if the hive had 22 full frames and 80 Lbs worth of weight in the supers on top especially when this hive is already sagging in the middle. To test a hive stand I normally sit on top of a hive to check it doesn't wobble and the stand can take my weight, there was no way I would of risked sitting on this hive to test it... Only positive thing I can say is the height of the hive.. perfect for me as I have a bad back.
Colony: The colony provided for the hive must be carni's. They built up in spring so fast they swarmed in early April without being fed syrup. The owner took some pictures of a mass of bees hanging off several branches of an apple tree in his garden and its by far the biggest single swarm I've seen even on the net. They were collected and put into the other half of the beehaus. Within a few days they had drawn out all 11 14x12 frames and since then both halves have swarmed again at least twice each despite the best efforts of two bee keepers to knock down every queen cell and A/S as well. In total approximately 50 queen cells have been destroyed and they are still trying their best to build more queen cells and swarm almost weekly. From a new bee keepers perspective this must be daunting to deal with, each time the hive is opened both sides boil over with bees making inspections awkward to near on impossible as a result he has asked his mentor and myself to help A/S the colonies again and then requeen them both.
Liquid Smoke: I've heard nothing about this stuff. It has a very strange smell, to me it smells like a cross between BBQ sauce and salty meat. It worked a treat the bees couldn't get away from it quickly enough although it seemed to me those that could fly to avoid it did instead of simply going down between the frames.
So all in all I wouldn't buy one and I definitely wouldn't recommend them instead save yourself a fortune and buy Robin Dartingtons book if you can find it - New Bee Keeping in a Long Deep Hive and build your own from his original plans. The Dartington style hive is a truly a great hive, very simple to follow his advice to manage each year and a perfect sized hive if you have a prolific queen.
On a side note to finish on we A/S both halves, one split was given a marked queen and 2 additional frames of brood and an extra frames worth of bees. The other split was given the frame with 4 very nice looking charged queen cells of slightly different ages and two more frames of brood and 2 extra frames worth of bees. Another 7 queen cells were removed, the gaps were replaced with new undrawn frames and within a minute or two these frames were covered in bees which made me wonder how big the gap was beneath the frames. It almost seemed as if despite the number of frames taken out covered in bees and the extra frames worth of bees shaken out thousands more bees appeared from below.
Roof: The roof was one of the few items which I didn't find fault with it. It seemed solid, light weight considering it size and functional.
Supers: They looked like they are made from moulded plastic and correx sheets. They are half supers which is a nice idea for those who would struggle with a full chamber but they looked really cheap and tatty and left sizeable gaps between them and beneath them when sat on the hive, as a result the bees had built up several layers of propolis to try to seal the gaps to keep heat in which just made things worse each time they were removed and replaced again.
Queen Excluders: shockingly poor, I could see a clear bee space gap between the top of the frames and QE and the bottom of the supers and as they don't cover the total hive space above the frames (side wall to side wall and front wall to divider) the bees could simply walk to the front of the hive up and over the QE and into the supers. This is partly to do with the fact the supers don't sit squarely on the hive due to walls being warped. I also saw how difficult it was for a worker to climb through the QE, it just about struggled to squeeze through. Despite the number of bees in both halves of the hive (see below) none of the supers were drawn out but in fairness this may have more to do with the strain of bees being in constant swarming mode and not the excluder's or the poorly fitting supers.
Hive Body: It looked to be reasonably solid but it was clearly sagging in the middle when looking along its length and bowed outwards, the inner walls were also warped when looking down from above. The bowing outwards was so bad the distance between each long side is far too wide which allows the hoffman frame spacing used to lose the proper bee space unless careful attention is taken to align the frames properly everytime, that coupled with the warped hive body walls meant there were several gaps larger than a bee space which the bees had started to build wild comb and in other places the gap was too narrow so when the frame was lifted out the bees on the side walls were rolled against the hive wall and frame. The frames sit on a flat plastic shoulder instead of being raised up one bee space which just encourages the bees to glue the frame lugs in place and it is very easy when replacing a frame to crush bees unless the two shoulders are smoked or wet smoked (see below) every time. Most bee keepers use their hive tool to shift all the frames on mass but in doing so with this design of frame rest the frames refuse to move then suddenly they slip over the propolis with a sudden jarring upsetting the whole colony. The only solution is scrap the shoulders to remove any build up of wax or propolis whilst you have a clear gap. I also thought this hive was meant to be bottom bee space but I'm sure the gap between the top of the frames and the top of the hive walls was at least a bee space. The hive also had what looked like two rubber seals where the side walls join to the long walls (what looked to be neoprene) both were visible bulging inside the hive. I can only assume these are meant to be seals to patch up any gaps between the two hive walls were they meet and shouldn't be visible.
Hive Legs: I've read one bee keeper say the legs on his legs were prone to bending plastic around where they attach to the hive so I gave the hive a gentle heft to test this, the legs didn't flex a great deal but I'm not sure how they would fair if the hive had 22 full frames and 80 Lbs worth of weight in the supers on top especially when this hive is already sagging in the middle. To test a hive stand I normally sit on top of a hive to check it doesn't wobble and the stand can take my weight, there was no way I would of risked sitting on this hive to test it... Only positive thing I can say is the height of the hive.. perfect for me as I have a bad back.
Colony: The colony provided for the hive must be carni's. They built up in spring so fast they swarmed in early April without being fed syrup. The owner took some pictures of a mass of bees hanging off several branches of an apple tree in his garden and its by far the biggest single swarm I've seen even on the net. They were collected and put into the other half of the beehaus. Within a few days they had drawn out all 11 14x12 frames and since then both halves have swarmed again at least twice each despite the best efforts of two bee keepers to knock down every queen cell and A/S as well. In total approximately 50 queen cells have been destroyed and they are still trying their best to build more queen cells and swarm almost weekly. From a new bee keepers perspective this must be daunting to deal with, each time the hive is opened both sides boil over with bees making inspections awkward to near on impossible as a result he has asked his mentor and myself to help A/S the colonies again and then requeen them both.
Liquid Smoke: I've heard nothing about this stuff. It has a very strange smell, to me it smells like a cross between BBQ sauce and salty meat. It worked a treat the bees couldn't get away from it quickly enough although it seemed to me those that could fly to avoid it did instead of simply going down between the frames.
So all in all I wouldn't buy one and I definitely wouldn't recommend them instead save yourself a fortune and buy Robin Dartingtons book if you can find it - New Bee Keeping in a Long Deep Hive and build your own from his original plans. The Dartington style hive is a truly a great hive, very simple to follow his advice to manage each year and a perfect sized hive if you have a prolific queen.
On a side note to finish on we A/S both halves, one split was given a marked queen and 2 additional frames of brood and an extra frames worth of bees. The other split was given the frame with 4 very nice looking charged queen cells of slightly different ages and two more frames of brood and 2 extra frames worth of bees. Another 7 queen cells were removed, the gaps were replaced with new undrawn frames and within a minute or two these frames were covered in bees which made me wonder how big the gap was beneath the frames. It almost seemed as if despite the number of frames taken out covered in bees and the extra frames worth of bees shaken out thousands more bees appeared from below.
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