BeeKeeping Tips and Ideas

[BeeNice]

Does anyone else have some cost saving ideas to do with beekeeping: to kick off, over the winter I have been saving the loo roll and kitchen towel tubes, and stuffing them inside one of the tube centers to make smoker fuel (as sold by some larger beekeeping outlets) I put as many in as I can until the tube is full. Go...
regards
Steven

 

[meetballuk]

i use shredded paper from office. and recycled wood for many hive parts:
pallets into roofs
scrape wood from work WBC base
scrape crates to nuc's
off cuts of caravan roof for top bar roofs.
no shame in skip/bin diving. just ask they can only say no, just remember they have to pay to bin it so your doing them a favor.

 

[scuttlefish]

My local Diy store has piles of scrap 2" timber from pallets, perfect for ekes.

I dry grass cuttings for smoker fuel, works well mixed with hay or straw.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Find a building site and when they're insulating the walls ask for offcuts of kingspan to insulate beneath hive roofs, timber for hive stands and tiles to stop hive stands sinking into the ground.

Ask local estate agents etc if they have any old corrugated plastic (correx?) signs, they can be made into nucs or temporary brood boxes, clearer boards etc.. I haven't yet seen a top bar hive made of correx.

Development sites often have old signs too, just lying around somewhere at the back of a portacabin.

The boxes don't have to be as complicated as these http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17316&highlight=correx can be gaffer taped together and can be externally insulated with kingspan

 

[RoofTops]

The best cost saving advice for the small scale beekeeper is: Don't keep bees.

The above said only very slightly tongue in cheek!

 

[meetballuk]

we had a load of Man U and avertizing banners dumped very usefull

 

[Beeline]

Ask local estate agents etc if they have any old corrugated plastic (correx?) signs, they can be made into nucs or temporary brood boxes, clearer boards etc.. I haven't yet seen a top bar hive made of correx.

BJ, they make correx TBH in Southern Africa. My brother has one and it seems to work fine although he does live in an area that doesn't suffer cold winters.

BL