Deadsville

[DaveJNeal]

wowsers - no posts to here since Sept last year ?

am going Beehaus this year - am I going dead end or just you Omlet users posting to other forums ?

Hows the roof been holding up to the snow, hows the plastic sides to the supers holding up, any leakage due to the 'unique' way it all seems to hold together ?

I can use the spare national I've got, honest ..... ;-)

cheers

D

 

[Easy Beesy]

Nothing wrong with the beehaus - just that more questions arise due to bees rather than hive type. Worth a go if you don't plan on moving your bees much. It's a bit unwieldy to shift around.
Eb

 

[Hombre]

It's an expensive way to go and has a few limitations. You would probably be better advised to have two 14x12 hives or poly hives, as you will possibly need a spare to cope with swarming unless your bees arrive as a nuc.

Take advice before making up your mind. Jim Beekeeper and Oliver90Owner have both dabbled, as have others.

 

[Poly Hive]

I looked at it at Stoneleigh two years ago and was not impressed to put it mildly, nor was I very taken with the advice that the everr so friendly person was handing out along the lines that keeping bees was no more difficult than hens..................

A hen might peck your ankle, a bee can kill you.

A subtle difference.

If you are going to keep bees and are keen to spend that amount of money buy your charges a decent hive please. They if not you deserve it.

PH

 

[irobson]

Seen a few less than encouraging posts, however I have just bought my second BH... so infer as appropriate.

Sure I am a hobbyist, from a commercial production perspective it is probably too expensive (if you wait until the first week of January to order, Omlet have discounted for both the past two years), but I have no real quibbles..except for the crappy queen excluders...

It is nice to work in the horizontal plane with half supers, the bees seem to like it..based on the fact that they haven't decided to move elsewhere...err ...yet, and are very busy now collecting pollen and eating fondant.

We appear to have no plasticpeckers in the neighbourhood, so maintenance is easy..as in really almost non existant, mice cannot get in if you remember to use the wasp guards when necessary.

It was a bit of a pain the get them to expand onto the full frames from the nationals the Nuc came on...PH provided some effective and valuable advice..ta PH.

Make your own choices, sure the BH is not traditional ..but the hobby is fulfilling..( dont start me on my wife's chickens..they drive me nuts..poo and holes everywhere)..however I find the bees somewhat soperific and more interesting..and remember you are only husbanding them.

Feel free to Pm me if you want any further details

 

[irobson]

...oh ..you will need to buy a second set of supers and coverboards.

 

[RoofTops]

am I going dead end or just you Omlet users posting to other forums ?

Dead end? Probably not but you are certainly, in my view, going down a route which is never going to be popular outside a small number of people who have the money to pay for them. The hive on which it is based only ever had a small cadre of supporters. Our BK Assoc had one (a Dartington) but sold it as it was a complete pain to manage compared to other hives.

There will always be a market for specialist products - vinyl LPs are still being produced would you believe - but in hundreds these days, not milllions.

The BH is about 4 times the price of more or less any other type of conventional hive and in terms of Kgs of honey per £ of investment is never going to compete with say a poly Langstroth.

But if you just want a few jars of honey for yourself. Fill your boots as they say.

This is not to say the BH does not have good qualities and if I were wheel chair bound or physically disabled in some other way and wanted to keep bees it would probably be at the top of my shopping list.

 

[drstitson]

"Sure I am a hobbyist, from a commercial production perspective it is probably too expensive"

"The BH is about 4 times the price of more or less any other type of conventional hive and in terms of Kgs of honey per £ of investment is never going to compete with say a poly Langstroth."



may look pretty (?) but way far too expensive. if you like the idea then better to build (or get built) a wooden dartington.

as far as kgs honey per £? you're never going to get a "commercial" operation using BHs. i would imagine that those buying in significant bulk direct from manufacturers can source 10 hives for the cost of 1 BH. Our european semi-pro competitors can even manage to get flat packed pine full hives for €40 without ordering massive numbers.

IMHO plastic (recycled) has a role in livestock housing where regular cleaning is an issue eg poultry and pigs etc BUT for bees it's just a gimmick. wood or proper poly is the way to go.

if you want a long deep hive and don't fancy the woodworking for a dartington then a double LS jumbo is much easier to build.

 

[Brosville]

For the physically disabled, a Kenyan Top Bar hive is unbeatable, and is at the opposite end for costs to the superannuated plastic beer coolers as they can be built incredibly cheaply from free plans!

 

[The Cumbrian]

double LS jumbo

I assume the LS stands for Langstroth. I am not sure a total newcomer to bee keeping would be able to translate the abbreviation.

 

[Black Comb]

Yes it does.

 

[DaveJNeal]

cool, thanks for all the input, very much appreciated.

so far, the cost isn't a problem, was given as a present for my 40th, but I can see that being a problem if you're gonna do it large scale.

for me I guess, as it was 'free' and I'm not looking at supplying Tescos, I'll give it a bash and see where we get to. TBH, I'd have expected to see a few of these for sale on EBay, etc, if they weren't all that good - only seen one so far.

thanks for all the useful info ladies and gents, much appreciated.

DaveN

 

[RoofTops]

For the physically disabled, a Kenyan Top Bar hive is unbeatable, and is at the opposite end for costs to the superannuated plastic beer coolers as they can be built incredibly cheaply from free plans!

Good point. I am helping a new beekeeper with a TBH and his bad back was the deciding factor in his choice of hive.

 

[lesley245]

Hi,

I have had a Beehaus for a year, so this is my first full year bee keeping. I find those who don't like the idea of a plastic hive, really don't like the idea!

I did a lot of research before buying it and felt the cost for two hives was reasonable.

It is very easy to work, being at a good height and the bees produced a fair amount of honey in the supers considering it was the first year, and I had them from a small nucleus.

They appear to have over wintered well. The plastic hive stood up to the snow well and the heat was maintained inside.

The only real problem I had was the transfer from nucleus standard frame to the deep frame. They kept making drone comb to fill the gap. I am transfering another nuc I have overwintered into the second hive this spring and will make a wooden block at the bottom of the hive to stop this happening again.

I wish you enjoyment with your Beehaus, I'm sure you will not regret buying one.

 

[victor meldrew]

I would leave one of the national frames without the block, this would allow the culling of the resultant drone brood (Once sealed) to become part of your IPM.
(integrated pest management) system
VM

 

[DaveJNeal]

For the transfer, my local nuc supplier is going with 3/4 national brood frames and supplying a slab of fondant, and we're gonna stick the nuc in the middle of the deep frams in there - which sounds like the way for me. Any thoughts ?

Lesley - did you find that they build to bridge comb under the frames ? maybe a block is the way to go there. whats your plan for replacing the nationals from the brood box, a frame per year or move them out towards the edge over the course of a couple of seasons and retire the national frames once they're out of circulation ?

many thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

A three, or maybe four, frame nuc on deeps into the middle of a 14 x 12 box filled with foundation?

Not a good idea, IMO.

Put it to one side (or end) and use a divider to give them a good chance of moving without a severe check.

A strong well looked-after earlly nuc on five frames (deeps) should be on the full complement of 14 x 12s (extra deeps) by the end of the season - unless you want extra service from the deeps, in which case, let them draw wild comb!

A frame per year changed? Most beeks change it all, every three years, and some every second year!

RAB

 

[DaveJNeal]

wowsers, change all brood box frames every two or three years ? that seems kinda a rapid turnover isn't it ?

cheers

D

 

[drstitson]

"wowsers, change all brood box frames every two or three years ? that seems kinda a rapid turnover isn't it ?"

NO. leave your old frames in and them come back in a year or two when all your colonies die of nosema.

you have a choice - Shook swarm/bailey comb change, 3-4 oldest frames swapped out per year OR take chances and do nothing.

remember Fumadil is no longer licensed (proven to be no better or even worse than simple hygiene through frame changes). how are you going to keep on top of nosema?

what is your problem BTW? - frames and wax can be reclaimed.

GOOD HUSBANDRY; pure and simple. just like any other livestock - you are meant to be a beekeeper not just keeping some bees!

 

[DaveJNeal]

easy tiger - not the face ! at the local beek assoc beginners meetings, the impression was given that a frame or two a year was the plan, I'll get clarification on that tonight.

my 'problem' ( as you can probably see from my profile I'm a beginner - no colonies, low post number, hardly a trouble maker ) is that I'm now trying to work out how/when you transfer 60-70% of the frames over without massive disruption to the colony - do it early in the year and surely they'll spend energy drawing comb rather than building brood and stores. late in the year and you're gonna be removing stores no ? middle of year - brood and stores ? if asking the questions offends people let me know.

Rgds

D