advice on bee demonstrations

[tonybloke]

I've been offered a stand at a local Folk Festival next year (Folkeast) and asked if I could do some hive inspection demo's, as well as having an observation hive.

already thought of-----
need a mesh screened enclosure
2 hives, so I can 'rotate' the inspections through the weekend
hives onto site 3 days before the festival, to let the bees settle in after the move
empty hive to show folk what one looks like!

any other tips?

 

[itma]

Its a great use of a 'virtual hive' if your association has one.

A live hive inspection is rather ... ambitious!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Swansea BKA have a bee tent for shows - they actually take the public (in bee suits) through an airlock to a mesh tent so they can take part in the inspection so it is all quite involved. maybe you should contact them for advice?

 

[alankh]

Many years ago I gave a couple of demos. The bee colony used was drained of flying bees the day before by moving the hive a few yards causing the flying bees to return to an adjacent hive. The netted enclosure used was about 2 metres high. The success could be dependent on temperature and time of year, mine was a sunny day in August (those were the days). The only other point was to mke sure that I was covered by 3rd party insurance.

Good luck

 

[tonybloke]

Its a great use of a 'virtual hive' if your association has one.

A live hive inspection is rather ... ambitious!

yes, I'll be borrowing the local associations 'virtual hive'

and I've seen several 'live inspections' at the Norfolk Show, done by the chap who taught me beekeeping (Paul Metcalf, NDB) one person doing the manipulations, another person talking through what's going on.
seems easy enough, after all, it's just another inspection of a hive, with an audience!!

 

[Poly Hive]

You will need someone to man the ob hive continuously and it needs to be VERY firmly secured as kids get very excited around one.

PH

 

[tonybloke]

You will need someone to man the ob hive continuously and it needs to be VERY firmly secured as kids get very excited around one.

PH

I've got to build one as yet!!
I'm going to make one with the section that you lift a frame up into, on top of a 5 frame nuc.

 

[psafloyd]

I've been offered a stand at a local Folk Festival next year (Folkeast) and asked if I could do some hive inspection demo's, as well as having an observation hive.

already thought of-----
need a mesh screened enclosure
2 hives, so I can 'rotate' the inspections through the weekend
hives onto site 3 days before the festival, to let the bees settle in after the move
empty hive to show folk what one looks like!

any other tips?

Tony,

I very much doubt you will get onto the site three days before the event starts. You'll be lucky to get on the day before.

One of our committee has reduced the number of colonies used for these events as they get very stressed and is not prepared to jeopardise them this year.

 

[tonybloke]

I know the folk who organise the event, it takes over a week to set up the site, and I have already been told it's OK to move a couple of hives to the site well in advance, so the bees can orientate themselves to their temporary 'home apiary'

 

[Lois]

This sounds great Tony and if you need a hand, even if it's just to go and fetch the tea, don't forget to give me the heads up.

 

[village girl]

sound interesting, good luck

 

[beebreeder]

Hi Tony
Have a look at this site http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gandboss/OldSite/BeeStuff/BeeShow/BeeShow.htm

 

[tonybloke]

thanks for the link, interesting stuff for a one day event.

 

[Luminos]

Take snifter or two of that mead to keep you going...good luck!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I might come and heckle from the back!

I'm sure Paul will give you some tips.

By all accounts repeated inspections IS stressfull for the bees. On bee husbandry point of view, it will be interesting to learn of your assessment of the colony afterwards.

Any St Johns Ambulance people there should know about reactions to bee stings - just in case. At least the (JP) Hospital is only about 5 minutes away!

 

[tonybloke]

I might come and heckle from the back!

I'm sure Paul will give you some tips.

By all accounts repeated inspections IS stressfull for the bees. On bee husbandry point of view, it will be interesting to learn of your assessment of the colony afterwards.

Any St Johns Ambulance people there should know about reactions to bee stings - just in case. At least the (JP) Hospital is only about 5 minutes away!

Hi Adam, I'm planning on taking 2 hives, and inspect each one once per day, to keep the stress levels down on the bees. if you wanted to bring over a wbc as well, that'd be great for the public!
I was planning on asking you to come over and assist, and also to sell some of your honey on the stall. they expect a crowd of over 5,000 next year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I believe the Swansea boys use the same hive all day (continuously being opened up) and seem fine with this (whether they change the hives on 2 day events I don't know) one of the people running it is an SBI (a good one BTW) so I doubt he'd allow the bees to be upset too much. PM me if you like and I'll put you in touch

 

[Outlander]

Sounds as though your going to have a great day, hard work though Tony.

Just a thought Tony, what about if you had your two hives and some nuc colonies. You could do your demonstration with main hives at peak times and then use the nucs when not so many people about. Don't know if the would work just to keep stress to minimum. OK may be a silly idea.

 

[tonybloke]

Sounds as though your going to have a great day, hard work though Tony.

Just a thought Tony, what about if you had your two hives and some nuc colonies. You could do your demonstration with main hives at peak times and then use the nucs when not so many people about. Don't know if the would work just to keep stress to minimum. OK may be a silly idea.

what if I had 1/2 dozen colonies? only inspect each one once, then!

 

[Outlander]

what if I had 1/2 dozen colonies? only inspect each one once, then!

I'm sure with some notice that we could loan you one for that weekend just let's us know. You know your more than welcome.