Hi all. I’m not actually new here as I’ve been lurking and reading messages for a while now. I’m a complete novice but I’ve been fascinated with bees since I was very young. Now recently retired and considering starting beekeeping but so much to learn! My son bought me a Vevor hive (
VEVOR Bee Hive | VEVOR UK) for Christmas and that might be enough to kick start me into finding a course etc. I’m English but have lived in France for nearly 20 years on and off. 3 initial questions that come to mind -
1. Any experience, advice on the Vevor hive? Good, bad, burn it! Etc. Lol
2. I have a long narrow garden c. 90 metres long and 7 metres wide with neighbours on all sides. If I put up 2 metre high boundary fences around the bottom end of the garden say and area of 7 metres x 10 metres, with the hive facing the house, will that be enough to ensure I don’t cause a nuisance to my neighbours? Or should I be looking for an offsite location?
3. Keen to get onto a good practical training course. My French is good but I’d prefer to do a course in English so south coast/kent would work. Any recommendations gratefully received.
Also keen to connect with any beekeepers in nord / pas de Calais. I live just outside Lille.
You have received good advice - but I feel. I should comment. Remember, 2 bkprs = at least 3 opinions!
The Vevor hive was a generous gift but should not fix your entry into bkpg. It is usual - but not essential - to keep only one type of hive - and your will need at least 3 hives (2 active, one declining) to keep active as a hobby. Minimal interference will take only a few minutes most times, hardly worth travelling and suiting up for one hive.
However, the Vevor hive sold as a kit for home assembly with 2 deeps and one super at £152, solid floor, cap roof, plastic foundation, bottom bee space, is questionable as a good start for a beginner - or for any bkpr:
1. One super is insufficient in any reasonable area - nectar is 80% water, honey 20%, so more space is needed for nectar in a strong flow. You could try working the hive with one deep and one shallow brood box, ie using the super as the upper brood box, and then use the other deep box as the super - but that would not deal with all problems.
2. The Vevor uses Langstroth frames but is bottom bee space. Langstroths are top bee space which is much better when replacing top boxes without crushing bees. Converting the kit will require some woodworking - if you can do that, you could make a better hive entirely.
3. A solid floor does not enable a varroa tray, varroa are the main cause of colony deaths, and must be monitored. So you will need to make an eke with an entrance and varroa mesh floor, and then turn the given solid floor to face backwards.
4. The cap roof will leave rain water to dribble down the hive walls, chilling the hive and bees. You could lay on on a flat sheet of well painted ply, overhanging all sides by say 70mm, with edge battens to form drips, and a brick to resist wind.
5. As has been said, the observation windows are a gimmick - you only see the outer face of the outer comb, which is not much informative.
6. The frames are fitted with plastic foundation., with every cell of worker size, not provision for drone at all. A bee colony is a single super-organism and a constituent part is drones. So the hive forces a crippled colony - not much fun for a hobbyist! The better alternative, IMHO but no doubt opposed by many on this forum (!), is to do the opposite - but in wooden frames with only starter strip of wax foundation, so that the bees can build wax combs with just the numbers of cells they need, after you run in a swarm (much cheaper than buying a nuc).
This assumes you want to honour the gift of a hive, rather than research the options and choose a design best suited to your hopes and situation. For example, a popular hive in France/Spain is the Layens, a million or so in use. This is a horizontal hive, much easier to manage. Do look at
www.beeculture.com for a full introduction.
Such horizontal hives cannot be supered, which IMHO does not suit if you are in an area with a strong flow. So finally, if you really want to get immersed in a new hobby that you could enjoy for at least another 20 years following retirement, do have a look at my own solution, the Dartington hive. This is a ‘combination’ hive, storing honey both behind the brood and above in supers or ‘honeyboxes‘ (half length supers to provide flexibility and reduce weight by half, which I myself can still lift at age 85). There is no website, I am not commercial, the hive is designed to be made at home from ply pieces cut for you at a local builders merchant, no joints, very economical. The system is explained in the booklets below , available from Northern Bee Books (I get no royalty).
Do come back with any questions.
