,These are still there after 5 years so we catch their swarms every year... but the "tree" is now almost completely obscured by the vegetation and the cinder block under the entrance is now brown with propolis.. Be warned you start with 4 and get one successful. In this garden we got two out of 4 but one was "relocated" as part of the experiment.
I will always recommend frame hives that can be checked for problems, and in which frames can be rotated out. In the wild colonies usually survive for just 6 or 7 years, then the nest comb cell walls have become too thick to use, and it's time to let wax moth, mice other beasties clear the space ready for another run. It's is at the declining state that the likelihood of disease rises.
Just outside Llandrindod Wells, five fields away to be precise. Began my beekeeping in, I think, 1983 and kept bees for nine years (that was a couple of miles outside Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire). I was in Langstroths back then and began with a swarm from Ceri Davies (bee-inspector) who took me around some of his apiaries for a time and a nuc from Buckfast Abbey which I’d ordered before I met Ceri. I soon saw the problem of breeding my own queens from Buckfasts (the old leather coloured ones literally signed off by Brother Adam) and, to Ceri’s delight, developed the local strain.
What is this…how does it work??Grow your own
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One of Derek’s beehives. I think it might even be made of Recticel. It’s made to resemble a hollow tree. You don’t look in it.
A step too far for even beesnaturally !
Its 35mm pine with 20mm PIR and 0.6mm Aluminium. The pine is new but reject scaffold boards (no preservative). It has a tunnel entrance sloping upwards underneath a hopper like floor. The combination gives about the same conductance as 150mm wood. The aluminium is there to protect the PIR. They are painted brown and the interior scorched and rubbed with beeswax, to get the bees to run in easily. They really really dont like new pine. Its held together by torx screws so it can be dismantled years later to investigate the comb structures.
Really?……..
I tried over 12 swarms... they just wouldnt go in. you had to remove the entrance and create extra "blackness" underneath. The final design they really really rushed in... Even got to see a queen running on top of the other bees to get in the tree. Its very different from dumping most in from the top or having scouts already inside...
Hi Mark, I did see your post just before dropping off to sleep last night and woke up remembering almost none of it! Age? Could be. The only downside of the Ralph Buchler approach I can see is you end up with three frames of brood in the freezer from each hive - or you could put them into one colony to emerge and then treat that one colony for Varroa but I’d think they’d be a poor lot with several / many Varroa feasting on pretty much each larvae (especially in the final comb). If anyone happens to keep tropical or pond fish though I’d guess you could say you’re breeding fish food.
Thanks for that Richard apologies I took down what I wrote but you saw I was asking about Ralph’s method .
would you like me to put it back?
No I don’t think so , I’m not sure what I wrote now probably nothing worth reading it was late .
You could consider putting it on another thread? It's wandered from the topic.
It seemed perfectly fine to me when I read it, though I’ve completely forgotten what it was (apart from mentioning Ralph Buchler) so it wasn’t contentious or crazy - you’re right though, it was late
Oh, I did post the photo of how I isolate the queen here once before using the green and yellow QXs. The colours obviously don’t matter, it’s just what I had. It works well though and is very easy to do whilst also keeping the queen in lay and helping to avoid triggering supersedure. The limiting of brood raised is said to increase surplus honey in the hive too.
I’m done now, and yes, sorry, did wander off topic and am enjoying the topic tbh.
That’s odd…. I suspect the vast majority of us use pine frames and indeed many hive bodies are made of pine. In fact in some countries Pine would be the norm for hive construction.
It is often reported that bees prefer older, used boxes, and that applying beeswax, smearing propolis, putting in used comb, and especially good quality pheromone all improve the attraction for bait hives. New bare pine has none of these attributes, and bees may not recognise a good home even when placed at its entrance.
