Buying first hives

[Penninetrader]

I am using a number of Trevor frames, I curse them every time I work the hives. My dear departed pal bequethed them to me, he custom made them but thought random sizing and not using a tape measure was a cool method. Not being one to waste I have modified to a sort of Hoffman style. We are talking of 100 plus new wax foundation brood and super. Fortunately my girls don't know any better and tolerate the idiot who cares for them

 

[pargyle]

I am using a number of Trevor frames, I curse them every time I work the hives. My dear departed pal bequethed them to me, he custom made them but thought random sizing and not using a tape measure was a cool method. Not being one to waste I have modified to a sort of Hoffman style. We are talking of 100 plus new wax foundation brood and super. Fortunately my girls don't know any better and tolerate the idiot who cares for them

I have some of my original home made frames still in my supers ... they are not that random fortunately as I set up a jig when I made them ... but ... they don't sit well in my extractor and I was cursing them this week as I tried to squish them into the Lega. In the end they got propped at an angle and it was fine but I had visions of them finding their way into orbit when I turned the speed up (fortunately centrifugal force was strong enough to hold them in place).

 

[rossbyjove]

Manleys are the devils invention.

I bought the wrong frames by mistake and had to use spacers on them.
Complete rubbish, useless.
NEVER AGAIN.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I bought the wrong frames by mistake and had to use spacers on them.
Complete rubbish, useless.
NEVER AGAIN.

Manleys don't need spacers - they are self spacing, they were based on a modification Manley made to Hoffman frames

 

[ericbeaumont]

had to use spacers on them

Why?
Edit: which frames did you buy?

 

[enrico]

Why?

I don't think he bought Manley's by mistake.....probably DN1.

 

[Buzby]

Nothing; comment is entertaining but justification & explanation is more useful.

Manley ran 1000 colonies before the war and must have had good reason to design a frame with parallel sides. That design difference results in an ideal frame for comb honey production.

I find that the bees propolise them so they become one entity. Trying to pryse them out of a super is frustrating at best destructive at worst. SN1's with proper catelations IMO.

 

[ericbeaumont]

the bees propolise them

Agree, but as I said earlier, that sells well at market. It's another job but another revenue opportunity.

they become one entity

Nice! No shifting of frames and leaky cappings when barrowing boxes over bumpy ground.

pryse them out of a super is frustrating at best destructive

Yes, that can be trouble, but they come out easily if you bang the whole box onto two blocks of wood the width of a box of bottom bars.

 

[Penninetrader]

I bought the wrong frames by mistake and had to use spacers on them.
Complete rubbish, useless.
NEVER AGAIN.

Those Manleys look very similar to my Trevor frames

 

[lukenuc'em]

For the bees or the beekeeper? Not for the bees, because wood is a far inferior hive material to poly, which gives significantly greater thermal efficiency all year round, reducing bee labour & stores consumption and increasing yields.


In the short term, maybe, but beekeeping is a long game and a few pounds more at the beginning is neither here nor there, so don't be seduced down that dark alley. Efficiency of equipment for the bees and commonality of it for the beekeeper are paramount, but they don't include those factors in an online catalogue.


Although you have read a lot, your practical inexperience with equipment will lead you to buy too little and run out of management options early in the season.

Have you any poly nuc boxes? A couple will enable you to nuc the queen and make increase. Split boards are cost-effective tools to make vertical splits for swarm management, and extra broods, frames and foundation will enable that to work. QX? Plastic are a practical mess; buy wood framed stainless steel. Feeders? Abelo poly box feeders are best value in my experience because they can do five jobs and you won't need to pay for a flimsy ply crownboard.


If you were to buy the boxes and roofs but make floors to JBM's plans you could dispense with the fiddle and expense of mouse guards forever.




If that is your whole list, you're underbuying. Colony expansion will hit you like a tsunami in spring and although you have planned for more than the standard static catalogue spec. of a brood & 2 supers, you have a way to go.


How about this to chew over, per hive:
1 x UFE floor (make)
3 x brood boxes
4 x supers (English cedar)
1 x poly feeder
1 x poly roof
1 x poly nuc box
100 x DN4 (seconds) frames
50 x SN4 or Manley (seconds) frames
100 x DN foundation
50 x SN foundation
1 x wood framed QX
1 x split board (make)
1 x 500g Challenge 20mm gimp pins
1 x big shed (no, no, much bigger than that)

Thank you taking the time to provide such a detailed response. I am making a second order, although not quite everything you have suggested I am adding a lot more, especially supers and a poly feeder!