How would you experts do it?

[PaleoPerson]

KAZMCC

Lovely site, I just wish mine was as neat.

SHMBO's home bees are in a similar (but not as neat) corral and the only comments I would make are:

1/ Put the entrance to the bee garden behind the hives i.e. away from the entrances as this then ensures you do not have to walk through the flight path to do anything with the colonies. Three colonies at full tilt will have a lot of bees flying in and out of the hives. I estimate our home bees are at 20-30 per second plus on flying days at the moment. As nice tempered as they are, you do not want to walk in to them.

2/ The tree overhanging the site may cause problems later when you have a shed load of supers on the top and you want to work with them.

3/ If you have a spare empty hive available c/w supers, set it up somewhere and practice doing an inspection in an area that has been marked out to the same dimensions as your bee garden. You need space to be able to work on the hives and this will enable you to see if you have enough room.

Ref Swarms - He (she) who hives it, owns it.

Ref additional colonies, just put them in place. If they are from you own stock, no problems. If they are from elsewhere, just ensure they are from more than 3 miles away. This does not apply to swarms. I collected a swarm 500 yards from my house and they housed Ok as they 'forget' the original home once they swarm.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[drstitson]

spacing

Looks like you have plenty of space for a few hives there -

italian hives tend to be strung out along hillsides with only 1-2ft between them.

My dadants are currently immediately (<1 inch!!) adjacent but with one sat raised on a spare hive so it is higher (& facing in different direction).

Perhaps the little "porches" help somewhat to "channel" the bees to the correct entrance!!!

 

[Dishmop]

It belongs to whoever catchs it.

I know that but the person who they did belong to might think/say they are entitled to them back,

 

[Dishmop]

you could decorate the front of each hive differently. The bees might not notice,

They will the first time they come home, but quickly reorientate. They just fly about for a short time, probably thinking "whoa... where am I? have I had a senior moment?...The council have fitted a new door when I was out"

 

[drstitson]

"gold plated" apiary

BTW love the housing for other arthropods!

 

[Mike a]

I know that but the person who they did belong to might think/say they are entitled to them back,

If I'm called out to collect a swarm I always ask how long ago did the swarm arrive and I arrange to collect no sooner than an hour afterwards. IMHO this is more than enough time for "Owner" to make arrangements to collect them if he/she has followed them to where they landed. On the one occasion I was in the middle of collecting a medium sized swarm the "Owner" turned up but obviously didn't have the his gear with him as he was dressed in a suit, I said if you are here to collect them now I'll give you a hand if not then I'll will as I've been called out.

I'll then monitor the colony for disease and temperament and varroa count and if they are reasonably good decide to keep them or give them away to a new beek.

 

[psafloyd]

A swarm belongs to whoever gets it in a box.

I was reading about this recently (may have been in the Essex BK's newsletter, but apparently it was established some decades ago that unless the owner saw their bees swarm, followed them and immediately laid claim to them (by telling the owner of the land they alighted on), then its finders keepers.

 

[Dishmop]

followed them and immediately laid claim to them (by telling the owner of the land they alighted on), then its finders keepers.

If they landed on my land... they would be..... mine.......

 

[Dishmop]

Kazz.

Beautiful location.


Now...........Please dont show us any more photos.......

 

[psafloyd]

Hi

Here is one of my allotment apiaries yesterday.

Just stick them in. It doesn't really matter and you can still A/S them.

Good luck.

Are these wood or GRP?

 

[kazmcc]

We had an event there this weekend with food cooked on there.

PLEASE, PLEASE, please Karen - If I'm good can I come next time??

I would love for you to come and see it all I am so proud of it. The tree has been cut right back now......it really did get in the way.

Thanks for all the advice. I will take it with me to the next meeting.

 

[Onge]

Onge, what hives are they?

1x wood, 3x poly all Langstroth mediums.

 

[richardbees]

Kaz, thanks for the open invitation but my bus pass only goes as far as Watford!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

If you get a swarm I'd keep your mouth shut about it, because somebody might say it was thiers even if it wasnt....

Its mine! Plus I'd like to lay claim to the longest distance swarm

 

[kazmcc]

Its mine! Plus I'd like to lay claim to the longest distance swarm

lol I think, to keep the peace, if the other beeks have bees missing and we find a swarm, will would probably return it. Only if the favour is returned mind.

 

[Silly Bee]

Kaz, thanks for the open invitation but my bus pass only goes as far as Watford!

Mine is Nationwide.

 

[kazmcc]

Mine is Nationwide.

The event at the weekend, although really good, didn't feel like it had anything to do with us really. We wanted to have a grand opening after all the work we put into the site. Wouldn't it be great if beeks from all over came and celebrated our little bee garden

We finally have a shed, which we planned as somewhere to store all our equipment. We had 10 raised beds built, kept 4 for the school, and gave the rest to the allotment society for people who were waiting on plots and wanted to have a go at growing stuff. I was saying how happy I am that the shed has arrived and was told that 3 people would be storing their tools in there and I wasn't to fill it with bee keeping things! I was speechless!

 

[Rosti]

Kaz, why not pop a spare box in there to stake a claim, if you 'forgot' to evict all the bees before storage you may find you have all the storage room that you'd like.

So just to make sure I understand this, what day have you kindly decided to hold an open day and free bbq plus as much as you can drink for all forum members ? It could be the first ever 'bring and buy sale for swarms'.

 

[kazmcc]

Kaz, why not pop a spare box in there to stake a claim, if you 'forgot' to evict all the bees before storage you may find you have all the storage room that you'd like.

So just to make sure I understand this, what day have you kindly decided to hold an open day and free bbq plus as much as you can drink for all forum members ? It could be the first ever 'bring and buy sale for swarms'.

Lol Rosti....good idea, A darkened box in the corner, a nosey gardener having a look inside.....then what happened when we opened our box of bees, but inside a tiny shed I am so tempted, if it wouldn't harm some bees I'd do it

With regards to the open day, I will keep you all posted. We will def be having some kind of do.......might be in spring thought now as we only have £23 left out of the £5110 we were given. The grant co-ordinator is very impressed with the project so we are going to pop in another grant app and see how it goes.....that's if the condem gov haven't put a stop to schemes like that

 

[Silly Bee]

I'd love to come up and see.

BBQ don't need to be expensive, its a matter of organisation.

Everybody brings a little,

You just need a bbq to cook on. I prefer my gas one. (hint there. )