Advice on setting up a bee shed?

[Suzi]

I am in the very fortunate position of having found a landowner who thoroughly supports having my bees there.

Recently, I mentioned that I had thought about getting some sheds in which to house the bees, meaning we could inspect even when the weather was less kind and the hives would have some additional insulation over winter.

Before I could turn around he had scoped out an area on his land for one to go, started digging out for foundations and bought a load of wood!!

We now have a shed which is about 12'x8', with an insulated and corrugated roof, and a properly locking front door!!

The plan is to move the hives (3 nationals and a poly nuc) in during the depths of winter when they'll be less likely to be flying. No issues there, we've moved them before.

My post is to ask those of you who have your bees in sheds if there's any 'lessons learned ' that I could benefit from. Did you do something and then wish you hadn't?

Do the bees eat more? less? than if they were more exposed to colder temperatures?

Thanks in advance,

Suzi

 

[Murox]

Have you managed to work out how the escapees are going to get out of the shed when you lift the top of the national hives for inspections etc.??
Edit....... you may glean some useful information from this link about AZ hives

And this from Richard Noel is fun Hawaiian style Slovenian AZ hives.

 

[Apple]

You will need natural daylight!
Bees will head for the windows and fly / crawl up
Leave a gap at the top of the window for the bees to escape,
Make sure you have zipped up your suit before entering said bee house.
A friend over in Devon has been using one for about 3 years now... has 4 colonies in it.
Chons da

 

[Boston Bees]

https://www.theapiarist.org/bee-shed-musings/

 

[Bee Bumble]

Sheds are dark inside so you will need a lot of light (especially to see eggs), either a clear roof / lots of windows or electric light from mains or a generator outside or solar cells on the roof with battery storage. Having mains electricity is by far the best option.

You cannot use a smoker (lung disease) unless you have a powerful extractor fan, or use a water spray.
If you do not believe me try puffing the smoker to imaginary hives in your kitchen for half an hour! Then you will be glad ofto have the extractor fan.

You will need a means for the bees to escape the shed - the best way is to fit windows hinged at the bottom with no frame at the top. The bees will fly to the light of the open window and move up to the top of the glass and out of the shed. Otherwise just open the door and hope they leave.

Give the your national hives a tunnel entrance to exit the shed and paint around the exit hole / landing board a different colour for each.

Just for fun you could get some of these:

https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/az-hives/az-hive

 

[Suzi]

Have you managed to work out how the escapees are going to get out of the shed when you lift the top of the national hives for inspections etc.??
Edit....... you may glean some useful information from this link about AZ hives

And this from Richard Noel is fun Hawaiian style Slovenian AZ hives.

Yes, they will have an extended entrance from the outside to the hive Entrance, made from plywood, and a couple of holes on the outside of the shed onto which I will screw some rotating reducers, the kind normally used on polynucs.

Inside the shed there is a ventilation gap so they can get out when released into the shed during the inspection.

Thank you for the links, I'll check them out

 

[Suzi]

You will need natural daylight!
Bees will head for the windows and fly / crawl up
Leave a gap at the top of the window for the bees to escape,
Make sure you have zipped up your suit before entering said bee house.
A friend over in Devon has been using one for about 3 years now... has 4 colonies in it.
Chons da

Yep, got that.

There's electricity in the new shed so when we're in there we'll have lights to work by, but when we're not they have a large gap to fly out through at the top

 

[Suzi]

https://www.theapiarist.org/bee-shed-musings/

Thank you, I'll take a look at that

 

[Suzi]

Sheds are dark inside so you will need a lot of light (especially to see eggs), either a clear roof / lots of windows or electric light from mains or a generator outside or solar cells on the roof with battery storage. Having mains electricity is by far the best option.

Yep, got that covered

You cannot use a smoker (lung disease) unless you have a powerful extractor fan, or use a water spray.
If you do not believe me try puffing the smoker to imaginary hives in your kitchen for half an hour! Then you will be glad ofto have the extractor fan.

Good point, I'll get a new water sprayer

You will need a means for the bees to escape the shed - the best way is to fit windows hinged at the bottom with no frame at the top. The bees will fly to the light of the open window and move up to the top of the glass and out of the shed. Otherwise just open the door and hope they leave.

Give the your national hives a tunnel entrance to exit the shed and paint around the exit hole / landing board a different colour for each.

Yes, these are also already in place

Just for fun you could get some of these:

https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/az-hives/az-hive

I'll check that out too, thank you

 

[Suzi]

Thank you guys.

I'll post some pics of it when it's in full swing.

Oh, and I measured it yesterday... it's actually 16x8

 

[Murox]

Look forwards to seeing some pics and an update somewhere in the future. Good luck.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thank you guys.

I'll post some pics of it when it's in full swing.

Oh, and I measured it yesterday... it's actually 16x8

Yes please. I’d love to see how things go.

 

[Worldsend]

lessons learnt you always need a bigger shed

 

[janetbee]

I'd love to see your photos. Will you be dressing like Alicia is on the video in one of the links?????

 

[Hachi]

Where's Hedgerow Pete when you need him?

 

[Bee Bumble]

Where's Hedgerow Pete when you need him?

Need him for what? - to dress like Alicia?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Where's Hedgerow Pete when you need him?

Do you remember his varroa catcher in his shed?

 

[Bee Bumble]

Inside the shed there is a ventilation gap so they can get out when released into the shed during the inspection.

Swarms may move in too!

 

[Hachi]

Need him for what? - to dress like Alicia?

Hedge Row Pete was a member of this site and had a Bee shed, lived in Birmingham. He would have helped. I don't know anyone called Alicia sorry

 

[Hachi]

Do you remember his varroa catcher in his shed?

No Dani, I liked his video's I wonder if they're still on the "Tube"