Members Tips.

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BKF Admin

Queen Bee
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
Messages
6,344
Reaction score
12
Location
Hampshire uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
6
Anyone got any top tips?

Lets see how many we can add to the thread.

My first tip:

Go buy a ?3 sweatband from a sports shop,it stops your eyes stinging with salt if you do a midday inspection at 30c during the hight of summer.
 
Tie a length of string to your hive tool,easier to find if you drop it in the grass. carry a sharp pocket knife.
 
when moving hives have the lugs off the frames pointing to the front of the trailer/car or in my case pickup and this should minimize squashing bees when braking.
 
Hivemaker I added a penknife to my car keys last summer and am amazed just how many times I used it,I cant keep bees without one now.
 
Put a few drawing pins in a matchbox in your pocket, then when you want to mark a fame with a queen cell you don't have to look for one.
 
Gloves

dont waste your money on "beekeeping" leather gloves.

Just use Tesco value "marrigold" ones at 40p for 2 pairs.

When they are to sticky bin them
 
A toolbelt is also useful, in goes the hive tool with string, drawing pins, queen trapping device, queen marker pen, penknife, porter escapes, etc etc.

I also like to use a head torch sometimes, as my bees are sheltered, this helps me see right into the bottom of the cell without losing my grip on the frame.
 
Cut a sheet of ply to fit your hive, and cut out a hole to match the diss-similar super you can then put on top. also handy for uniting say a nat to a lang.

PH
 
Poly hive I was only thinking about this 10 minutes ago!

I have a new Lang that I want to use next year and was trying to think how to put them together(with a Nat)and get them to draw out the Lang foundation.
 
Cut the sheet of ply as described and put the Lang on top and if you have one put in a frame feeder to get them up and building. Once the Q is up, a day or two then pop in the excluder, job done.
 
i paint mine bright red ,tie a long bit of string to it and still lose them.
i usually find them just after i`ve bought another one
 
if you want natural cell comb in the brood nest and are using empty frame to achieve this , place empty frame between fully drawn frames and keep the hive level for best results.

Tony
 
Last edited:
Wear a baseball cap with a large peak under your veil
 

Latest posts

Back
Top