bees in a shed!

[beeboybee]

hedgerow pete i am thinking of putting my hive in the allotment shed, its a national hive, can you give any advice on hive fitting and the hive opening on the outside of the shed?

thanks

 

[hedgerow pete]

the first question has to be are you any good with the hammer and screws and nails ?
all we have to do is build a tunnel that starts either under the brood box or at the side of it, my lot sit on a frame then there is a normal floor the normal floor touches the inside skin of the shed and there is a tunnel to the outside skin, i have a landing board for the girls to use and a bit of a cover so i can push some strips of ply along to cover the entrance hole, if you just have a single skin shed will the national fit between the upright timbers holding the shed up. i would say that if you have one just for now try using your normal stand inside the shed with the entrance going out, you forgot to ask the one question and thats how to move the hive in the first place, i worked mine around from 5 metres away at the rate of 1 metre per week if you have one it will work keep going until the bee hive is in front of the wall you want as the entrance and leave it there for a few weeks wait untill there is a load of bad weather coming then move them inside and when they next get out they will be ok. have a look at these and i will also do one at the weekend of a close up of the hive base for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSw5JW_xMY&feature=channel_page

 

[beeboybee]

hammer and wood no problems.....
i was unsure of the tunnel and also hive ventilation really.
i am also thinking about building a leanto on the back of the shed with good roof and sides but making the front into to opening doors made of metal mesh maybe with 4" squares for the bees to fly through.

sort of like this drawing (not to scale !)

 

[VEG]

If you made them like that how are you going to inspect the hives as you will need to stand behind or to the side of the hive.

 

[beeboybee]

Er you mean i cant stand in front of the entrance to the hive?

 

[VEG]

Well you can but you will be in the bees flight path and will get covered in bees.

 

[Jenxy]

Ouch!

 

[beeboybee]

i see what your saying...... i need the bees ideally to fly in that direction away from the allotment site! maybe i should rotate the hives through 90deg.
originally i was going to put the hive about 3 mtrs away from the shed but some greenhouses where vandalised on the allotment so now i thing its best to disguise the hive's as much as possible and make them as theft proof as possible.....

 

[VEG]

Put them in the shed as pete has done

 

[Finno]

Old country lore .....never stand behind a horse or in front of a beehive!

 

[hedgerow pete]

sorry bee boy i love the drawings,
i would have to chain my son and beat him with hot dogs for at least an hour to produce them. the main flaws are yes you can stand in front of a hive entrance but you dont want to, i laughed my socks off when someone has posted a picture of a bee club apiary with all the hives back to back, any one who does that should not be teaching others ever,
try this idea turn the two bee hive to face there side of the shed rather than the gable end and then move them more towards the side in that way you can stand behind them to work them to cover the front the two i would use is chicken wire or something mesh panels, bees fly through but any thing chucked at them will bounce off and you just have to make a false front on the end to hide the ladies,
the other option is to just make the shed three foot longer than planned and have them inside, just one question on my bee shed the flight path is designed to be the length of the allotment , some people have them set up to fly over a dead area like though the fence and over the railway line ect, if you cant do that with yours what you will have to do is like me now and that is to build a fence 6 foot high around 6 foot in front to force the ladies up wards

 

[planbee]

"behind a horse or in front of a beehive"

You can have quite a surprise if you stand behind a cow, too!

John

 

[hedgerow pete]

flippin townies its not behind a cow its below a cow , have you never seen a milk parlour you not only have to fit the teets but keep a close eye on the tail swinging around. and as for behind i horse i have seen what they can do she needed 200 stitches and still has one hell of a scar, but then that what they do she should have seen the red bandage on its tail and kept away , it was marked for that reason