Going large!

[Duncan]

Eve'nin' all.

As a relative newbie, and forum virgin... Just wondered the opinions on how to go from 4 to 20 hives...

Any advice on how to 'go large' or should I just 'go home'?

They'll be all be nationals, and I have a helper to aid lifting...

 

[Generalbelgrano]

I have a few hives you could buy.......

 

[sandysman]

I would say take your time. How long have you been keeping for?
Welcome to the forum.
Andy

 

[Duncan]

About 6 years, swinging between 4 and 8, depending on the weather and general inability!

 

[tomtit]

Why 20 hives?

 

[o.stjohn]

Take a trailer and some friends to the forthcoming Thornes' sales and stock up on roofs, floors, supers etc that you'll need...

 

[enrico]

Just keep splitting and growing!

 

[Duncan]

20 just being a nice round number to average out over 2 sites, convenient mathematics.

Just trying a theory really...

My concerns are more over splitting and casting, whilst retaining good animal husbandry.

 

[VEG]

You have 2 options to increase either buy in or split

Welcome by the way


Craig

 

[Tim.S]

Split and produce your own. You will learn a lot in the process. The way I am going I will end up with 20 hives without really trying - the bees just seem to grow in number each year so I think the key is not how many you want but rather where to stop before it gets out of hand!

 

[REDWOOD]

It really depends on you and what you want out of beekeeping, Do you have the extra time and money to start it up, If all is fine then go for it

 

[dpearce4]

have a read of the book 'honey by the ton'. it maybe of help to you.

 

[jp19sqn]

Welcome, great to see folks willing to commit to the craft. It is easier to keep 20 than 4 in my opinion. For a start you don't have so much interest in any one hive and it is then easier to make the hard decisions, like culling a rubbish queen. The bees can only win from more larger scale beekeepers getting the skills. Great idea.

In terms of how....

Don't waste time with bad stock.... make an investment in good quality genetics. Whatever strain you decide on get the best queens you can find/be recommended.

It will save you so much time and money..... The kit seems to grow around you....Good queens don't come easily.


Then breed from the very best.... You really need a queen rearing programme to keep 20 colonies going in a productive way.

 

[beekeeping4you]

have a read of the book 'honey by the ton'. it maybe of help to you.

Helped me to get up to 114 colonies in my best year, those were the days...

Regards
Reiner

 

[MuswellMetro]

Eve'nin' all.

As a relative newbie, and forum virgin... Just wondered the opinions on how to go from 4 to 20 hives...

Any advice on how to 'go large' or should I just 'go home'?

They'll be all be nationals, and I have a helper to aid lifting...

Think you need to start to change your approach to bee keeping at about 20 hives, either pre emptive re queening or premptive splits or pagdens AS with a queen rearing program

other beekeepers i know at 50 hives are of the tilt and look brigade(though could be a Age thing) and go in only if swarm QC seen on bottom bars with one of two disease shake downs per year

And 1000lbs of honey would be my bete noir, i'll need a either a special extraction room or a divorce

having helped do winter oxalic with a back pack spray, it was easier doing 40 with the back pack than 10 without and we had time for a pint

 

[mbc]

Eve'nin' all.

As a relative newbie, and forum virgin... Just wondered the opinions on how to go from 4 to 20 hives...

Any advice on how to 'go large' or should I just 'go home'?

They'll be all be nationals, and I have a helper to aid lifting...

Get the kit you need - for 20 hives you'll need at least 50 supers - and the rest will follow. Build it and they will come.
Some good base genetics and a continuous queen rearing program or a reliable supplier of queens are a good idea.

 

[Finman]

.
Hive number is easy to douple. It happens itself. Queens you get as much as you wish. Normnally beekeepers destroy every summer some 15 queen cells/ hive.

The most difficult, I think is storehouses. They are needed much "bee and mouse and wasp protected space under roof, and moisture protected.

If they are allready, then OK, if not, it is a big bang.


I have my summer cottage and furniture 40 hives. What a huge amount of stuff. Bees find any 4mm holes and go into boxes. It is not only a douple compared to for 20 hives.

40 hives = 400 boxes, frames, roofs, bottoms, nucs, feeding boxes, boards, mesh frames, raw materials ....working rooms for honey handling and making and repairin hives.

Storehouses need loose space. Otherwise you are one part of huge mesh and you spend your time wondering the mesh. Where is that and where is that, yes, behind this and lowest in this heap

Dimensions should be so that you do not carry them in hands but you use some wheelbarrow to save your back.


.

 

[Finman]

- for 20 hives you'll need at least 50 supers -.

I use 5-7 supers/ hive. For 20 hives it is 120-150 supers.
I have kept 20 hives 40 years.

All are not in the hive in summer. There are allways some stuff in storerooms.

Boxes for used frames, and for new frames and foundations.

 

[oliver90owner]

Sorry to say it, but if you have been keeping bees for six years and have had 4 -8 colonies, yet still have no ldea of how to get to twenty stay as you are.

 

[Tom Bick]

I think he probably knows that rab and perhaps just wanted to mull it over on the forum and you never know realise something he has not taken into account.

When I look at all the kit I have amassed for eight hives I think 20 would cause a few storage problems although I do fancy breaking double figures next year.