Hello from a non-beekeeper in Aberdeen, UK

[Frank E]

Hello, I'm Frank

I'm not a beekeeper, I came across this site from a uni link while I was looking at bee stuff.
Like most home gardeners I try to attract wildlife to my garden. There's a bombus hive in one of my sheds but I haven't seen many honeybees around despite all the different flowering plants I have planted out for them.

Maybe I'll do something about that someday but haven't found any hives in metric yet and don't know enough about bee hives, bee behaviour, bee sociology, bee pathogens, parasites and predators and the like to start beekeeping yet. It'll be interesting learning more.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hello, I'm Frank

I'm not a beekeeper, I came across this site from a uni link while I was looking at bee stuff.
Like most home gardeners I try to attract wildlife to my garden. There's a bombus hive in one of my sheds but I haven't seen many honeybees around despite all the different flowering plants I have planted out for them.

Maybe I'll do something about that someday but haven't found any hives in metric yet and don't know enough about bee hives, bee behaviour, bee sociology, bee pathogens, parasites and predators and the like to start beekeeping yet. It'll be interesting learning more.

Hope you do decide to become a beekeeper. Don't over-egg the hazards as the rewards are many.

 

[pargyle]

Hello, I'm Frank


Maybe I'll do something about that someday but haven't found any hives in metric .

If you can't work in old money and insist on using these new foreign measurements you can always make your own Top Bar Hive in metric sizes. An afternoon or two with some scrap timber and a foreign tape measure and you could have bees of your own next spring ...

Mind you, if you get British bees, you will find the comb is all built to imperial measurements.

 

[oliver90owner]

... but haven't found any hives in metric yet...

There are simple conversions for imperial to metric. I build all my National boxes in metric units. Nothing need be more precise than to the nearest mm for the boxes, although frames perhaps need a little more consideration.

 

[weebee]

Try here http://beekeeping.org.uk/is_national_hive.pdf for metric Modified National plans

 

[Frank E]

Thanks all.
The hazards don't bother me, much. I've had to deal with quite few wasps' nests recently. Working methodically, being cognizant of risks, maintaining situational awareness and working with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of bee behaviour should reduce risks ...to me and neighbours.

There's a significant risk of introducing problems into bee populations by becoming an unintentional but well-meaning facilitator of vectors of infection.
I'm therefore in no hurry to set up hive.

BS/EN/ISO Standards.
One would have thought one could find COTS hives designed in metric from the outset.

I've founds some designs in metric
http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/support-files/warre_hive_plans_metric.pdf
And an adaptation of the Warre, the Stable Climate Hive

... not an 'imperial equivalent' which is as bad as imperial but coherent, sensible metric dimensions (superfluous decimal point noted).

 

[pargyle]

Thanks all.
The hazards don't bother me, much. I've had to deal with quite few wasps' nests recently. Working methodically, being cognizant of risks, maintaining situational awareness and working with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of bee behaviour should reduce risks ...to me and neighbours.

There's a significant risk of introducing problems into bee populations by becoming an unintentional but well-meaning facilitator of vectors of infection.
I'm therefore in no hurry to set up hive.

BS/EN/ISO Standards.
One would have thought one could find COTS hives designed in metric from the outset.

I've founds some designs in metric
http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/support-files/warre_hive_plans_metric.pdf
And an adaptation of the Warre, the Stable Climate Hive

... not an 'imperial equivalent' which is as bad as imperial but coherent, sensible metric dimensions (superfluous decimal point noted).

Well ... call me a Luddite if you wish, but if it works - why fix it ? The only measurement the bees seem to care about is beespace ..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well ... call me a Luddite if you wish, but if it works - why fix it ? The only measurement the bees seem to care about is beespace ..

Why the insistence on not using a hive that was designed using imperial measurments? do you refuse to go on the train because the railway gauge is still taken from the standard 4ft 81/2 inches? (or 304.8mm if you prefer) The foot was around way before the millimetre

 

[Madge]

... Maybe I'll do something about that someday but haven't found any hives in metric yet and don't know enough about bee hives, bee behaviour, bee sociology, bee pathogens, parasites and predators and the like to start beekeeping yet. It'll be interesting learning more.

Thanks all.
... Working methodically, being cognizant of risks, maintaining situational awareness and working with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of bee behaviour should reduce risks ...to me and neighbours.

There's a significant risk of introducing problems into bee populations by becoming an unintentional but well-meaning facilitator of vectors of infection.
I'm therefore in no hurry to set up hive.

...

Frank, firstly, join the Aberdeen and District Beekeepers Association. They provide a series of beginners' evening classes - I think, usually in November. For some reason the site is down, but contact me and I'll send you the secretary's email address.

Secondly - go and visit the association apiary as well as other beekeepers and ask them about their hives, and why they've chosen that particular hive. You'll then have a better idea about the kind of hive you prefer.

Kitta

 

[pargyle]

Why the insistence on not using a hive that was designed using imperial measurments? do you refuse to go on the train because the railway gauge is still taken from the standard 4ft 81/2 inches? (or 304.8mm if you prefer) The foot was around way before the millimetre

"Working methodically, being cognizant of risks, maintaining situational awareness and working with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of bee behaviour should reduce risks"

I once had a colleague who insisted on lining his pens and pencils up in his drawer - all perfectly sharpened, with the Staetdler or Bic name on the uppermost surface, with caps in place and in descending size order .... one day, we glued them all in place !

We are all mad to some extent (I think it was Freud who said that) ... it's only the degree of madness that separates the ones inside the asylum from those outside. I'm stood outside the gates waiting for them to open I think ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We are all mad to some extent (I think it was Freud who said that) ... it's only the degree of madness that separates the ones inside the asylum from those outside. I'm stood outside the gates waiting for them to open I think ...

O.k. once I'll get dressed I'll pop down and let you in - now where did I put my lampshade?

 

[pargyle]

O.k. once I'll get dressed I'll pop down and let you in - now where did I put my lampshade?

It's on your head you lunatic !

 

[drstitson]

are you going to insist on having metric bees too?

 

[pargyle]

are you going to insist on having metric bees too?

Only if they will work methodically, be cognizant of risks, maintain situational awareness and work with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of human behaviour !

 

[madasafish]

Only if they will work methodically, be cognizant of risks, maintain situational awareness and work with the hazard control hierarchy with a knowledge of human behaviour !

My bees read the above and said that they conformed but the problem was the beekeepers...

 

[pargyle]

My bees read the above and said that they conformed but the problem was the beekeepers...

It just gets better and better ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's on your head you lunatic !

Don't be so silly why would I - by the grace of God and the constitution of the republic The First emperor of France be wearing a lampshade on my head!
Right I'm off to work out a strategy for Giving that hook nosed Irishman a good trouncing at Waterloo (hope my piles don't play up on the day)

 

[madasafish]

Don't be so silly why would I - by the grace of God and the constitution of the republic The First emperor of France be wearing a lampshade on my head!
Right I'm off to work out a strategy for Giving that hook nosed Irishman a good trouncing at Waterloo (hope my piles don't play up on the day)

Hmm paranoid delusions.. Next you will be telling us you won three prizes at a beekeeping competition...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hmm paranoid delusions.. Next you will be telling us you won three prizes at a beekeeping competition...

Four actually

 

[pargyle]

Four actually

There you are .... clearly dillusional - four prizes and more than four hives ? Sure there's no Finnish blood in you ?