Cob/cork hives

[niquya]

Hi all,

I'm new here, thought I would get on a few forums to get your feedback on 2 cob/cork hives I recently built, cob being a mix of clay dirt, straw and sand. It's a good insulation material, natural, easy to build, and cheap (well, free).

I made a video showing the hives and how I built them, but this is my first post so i can't copy the link. I attach a picture, but on youtube it's the first video if you search for "Building cob beehives niquya".

Bees came in 1-2 months ago and seem to be doing well.

Any comments/suggestions welcome !
Thanks a lot !
Yannick

 

[Anduril]

Nice work, the hives are close together for drifting, but the different colours should help. Are you putting wooden supers on top for honey?

 

[niquya]

Thanks for your reply ! Yes hopefully the color helps for drifting, as well as the entrances with different design, I wasn't aware of that potential issue when I started building !

And indeed the plan is to put wooden supers on top, as the hives are exactly the same size as commercial ones. I'm kind of hoping they will have the warm cob base for brood, and will use the less insulated wooden supers mostly for honey.

Thanks !
Yannick

 

[SwarmCap]

Is this in Italy?

May I ask how you made the inner?
I imagine it to be the shape of a frame plus 5mm either side/all around, but ...

Thank you

 

[Anduril]

No! Portugal.

 

[Herbalist]

Thanks for your reply ! Yes hopefully the color helps for drifting, as well as the entrances with different design, I wasn't aware of that potential issue when I started building !

And indeed the plan is to put wooden supers on top, as the hives are exactly the same size as commercial ones. I'm kind of hoping they will have the warm cob base for brood, and will use the less insulated wooden supers mostly for honey.

Thanks !
Yannick

I don't think that "hope" is a good strategy with bees. They do nothing routinely. I think that you will need to put a Queen Excluder between the cob brood-box and the super to make sure that you do not end up with a mixture of honey and brood in both boxes. It is an interesting story. Please come back and tell us know how it works out. I would love to know.