advise on a beeshed

[hedgerow pete]

your ideas are spot on and totaly do able, so go for it and keep showing us the pictures

 

[JamezF]

As a beginner one of the things I was told about setting up an apiary (and ISTR it can come up in the BBKA module 1 exam, too) was that the hives should not all face the same direction to minimise drifting of bees between hives to help prevent spread of pests and diseases. I can't think of a single apiary I've been in where the hives weren't arranged with the entrances facing different ways.

Obviously this thread contains a few counter-examples. If you have your hives all lined up with the entrances facing the same way, would you care to offer your thoughts on why you're happy to ignore the issue of drifting bees? I'm not offering judgement here; I'm just interested in hearing the views of people who do things differently from the way I've been taught.

James

 

[newportbuzz]

As a beginner one of the things I was told about setting up an apiary (and ISTR it can come up in the BBKA module 1 exam, too) was that the hives should not all face the same direction to minimise drifting of bees between hives to help prevent spread of pests and diseases. I can't think of a single apiary I've been in where the hives weren't arranged with the entrances facing different ways.

Obviously this thread contains a few counter-examples. If you have your hives all lined up with the entrances facing the same way, would you care to offer your thoughts on why you're happy to ignore the issue of drifting bees? I'm not offering judgement here; I'm just interested in hearing the views of people who do things differently from the way I've been taught.

James

hi james
well as a fellow beginer with two years under my belt here are my thoughts on why i am happy to deal with drifting.

no 1 i treat my bees as an apiary rather than as individual hives so if one has varroa i treat all if one has nosema i treat all. if one is swarming i check all.
so the problem of cross contamination is not going to be as bad as what i do myself by swaping hives around , stealing brood from one to strengthen another etc. so to sumerise i think if anything is going to spread disease through my bees its proberly going to be me.

no 2 in " the buzz about bees" and other titles there is proof that bees can see striking patterns and certain colours so i am going to try to use this to stop drifting as each hive will look for a bee very different.

no 3 if drifting becomes a problem then one of the centre hives will be weak and one of the end ones will be strong and can just be swaped to equalise the problem.

no 4 i will only have 6 full hives and 6 nucs in my shed so its not going to be a huge population that can drift as could be possible with an apiary of 20 or more hives.

no 5 its to easy to work the bees when they are in a line and with the shed it would be very hard to avoid using lines.

hope this explains the thoughts behind my decision to use lines of bee houses altho i dont intend to ignore the possible problem that might arise from this choice. ps take my words with a pinch of salt i have not tried out all of them myself YET.
yours tim

 

[VEG]

Can I ask why you want them in a shed if vandalism isn't a problem?

 

[newportbuzz]

mainly weather.
if you look in the last photo the blue is the sea.
also i think its a nice idea.
and a man can never have to many sheds.

 

[hedgerow pete]

another thread and someone else drags up blindly the drifting bbka dribble. sorry jamefz to be rude. even the ancient ones still go one about it.

its no of those pieces of dribble that has worked its way up from apiary dribble to god like quotation.

drifting is only a concern if the hive next to yours is not owned by you, in which case your bees are collecting for someone elses hive.

and as for the roof cover it does make a difference to the beek doing inspections, because it frees up when you can do them.

it dont help with the way the wind whizzess up the channel either

 

[susbees]

drifting is only a concern if the hive next to yours is not owned by you, in which case your bees are collecting for someone elses hive.

AFB is real although I believe it takes quite a lot of infective material to take hold in a hive. Varroa is real and I'd rather OA just the worst affected and would rather they kept their mites to themselves. I use patterns on the fronts and don't putting the hives too close together. And some bee varieties are worse drifters than others.

One thing I've always wondered with deep bee sheds, do the bees know it's raining heavily and stay home or is it a case of flying out. And back again sharpish

 

[newportbuzz]

One thing I've always wondered with deep bee sheds, do the bees know it's raining heavily and stay home or is it a case of flying out. And back again sharpish

from what i have seen in person i saw the bees beard and wait for the rain to stop. i will tell you next year how they go but my bees arnt the best at rain anyway they dont seem to care if it is or not.

 

[Spadaman]

Personally I don't like beesheds. My local association has a beeshed and I find when inspecting the hive I have difficulty in seeing into the cells. I have enough trouble seeing eggs in the daylight never mind inside a dark shed !

Our local bee inspector when he came to check the hives also had to keep going outside ( of the shed) with each frame in order to check for disease etc. Not ideal.

I agree there are advantages of being able to inspect during windy or wet weather but for me these are outweighed by the disadantages. It is very hot working in there during the summer and I can tell you the bees don't like sweat dripping into the frames and I am glad when I can close up and get out of there!

 

[newportbuzz]

Personally I don't like beesheds. My local association has a beeshed and I find when inspecting the hive I have difficulty in seeing into the cells. I have enough trouble seeing eggs in the daylight never mind inside a dark shed !

Our local bee inspector when he came to check the hives also had to keep going outside ( of the shed) with each frame in order to check for disease etc. Not ideal.

I agree there are advantages of being able to inspect during windy or wet weather but for me these are outweighed by the disadantages. It is very hot working in there during the summer and I can tell you the bees don't like sweat dripping into the frames and I am glad when I can close up and get out of there!

sounds like a good reason for a strong light over each hive for inspections.

 

[newportbuzz]

bees stop work for today. nice to see them flying after a week of them being very quiet.

 

[jakethedog]

in making a short reply to a recent thread started by Tim1606 with regards to his question about setting up drone supply colonies I found myself flicking through John Atkinson's book 'background to bee breeding' in which he wrote the following

"...I have been playing with the idea of making a rain proof shelter from lined live willow to do duty as a bee house, a shelter outside the reach of the planning laws..."

 

[newportbuzz]

hi jake theres a very nice willow teepee in the eden project i was actually thinking about copying it for shelter for our hens. not sure it would be workable for bees as its actually quite thick at the base.

 

[ron]

How about this in Gloucester

Winter quarters

 

[BeeJayBee]

hi jake theres a very nice willow teepee in the eden project i was actually thinking about copying it for shelter for our hens. not sure it would be workable for bees as its actually quite thick at the base.

Do you think willow screening would be enough to use as a screen, or for walls of a semi-permanent bee shed?

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Ron

that seems a very large bee shed for 3 colonies.

 

[Poly Hive]

I rather think he won't be replying.

He has tech probs.

PH

 

[newportbuzz]

heres a few new photos the bees and time have been kind to me and allowed me to get a bit more done with the bee shed

 

[newportbuzz]

and a few more.

 

[keith pierce]

looks like a whole rain forest that has gone into your shed