The Russian 'Alpine Hive'

[Little John]

"There's no dreaming going on Finman/Finski etc - only inside your head."

The wood is already cut and planed to size.
LJ

Russia has different Langstroth dimension than USA or Europe.

Are we living on the same planet ? These hives have nothing whatsoever to do with Langstroth.

 

[Little John]

Hi little John. Just wondering how you are getting on with your project?

Hi Ely. Progress so far:

Custom made swarm box (with Delon 1/4 height wire frames) has been in place for some weeks now - but no takers yet !

12 boxes made, fettled, painted etc., 'ready to go'.

A hundred or more (I've lost count) Delon-style top bars have been made - only these are self-spacing.

Custom base made - with removable OMF (slides-out to enable 'inspections' to be made from underneath without disturbing the hive). Removable back - allows summer ventilation, as required). Usual entrance ramp with awning over.

Custom feeder box made - 4-hole inverted jar style, but with additional 4-slot 'pass-through' ventilation.

Slurry feeder made - replaces the inverted jars to supply sugar/pollen slurry when required.

All I need now is some bees ! Weather has been crap thus far - I had been hoping for a swarm, but looks like I'll have to supply my own bees, so have a Demaree running on a National at the moment which should give me a queen or two - so one of those will be going into the Russian job PDQ.

Regards,
LJ

 

[Little John]

I look forward to seeing the pictures Little John.

As far as I am concerned, the hopes and claims of those that say that their 'special techniques' (special hive, special comb size, special bees, special leave alone beekeeping, special crystals, special ley lines) have not been supported by science to kill varroa.

I strongly believe that if you do not control and kill varroa your bees will die after a few years.

I am interested in what you and they are doing though, and wish you well.

A bit of clarification ... I'm not some kind of 60's hippy who is making these hives exclusively with varroa in mind - varroa is just something which was mentioned 'in passing' earlier in the thread.


I'm primarily making the Russian-style Warre hive as an experimental 'test bed', as the Russian 1/4-height boxes promise to provide a very flexible format:

a) when the boxes are used singly with wire-framed Top Bars and run like a National (with supering etc), the hive can be used as the Russians intended.
b) when the boxes are used in pairs with wire-framed Top Bars the hive can be run as a Delon 'ClimateStable' hive.
c) when the boxes are used in pairs with plain (non-framed) Top Bars, the hive can be run as a standard Warre 'People's Hive'.
and finally,
d) when the boxes are used singly with the Top Bars replaced by horizontal spales, the hive can then be run as a traditional Japanese 'Nest of Boxes' beehive.


Thus, four very different methods of beekeeping using 'chimney-style' hives, and all based around one 'universal' size of box - think 'Lego' !

Regards
LJ

 

[Little John]

Ok - the bees are now installed. I had intended to plonk a National on top of the Russian Hive 'stack' and let them grow their combs downwards and into the R/H - but was advised by those who have tried this technique that it can take a very long time: sometimes a year or more.

So - I brushed ALL the bees from a National hive into the R/H via a hopper. The National brood box was then placed on top of the R/H, with a Q/X between them for a couple of hours so that the nurses could rejoin their brood. Then the split was made, leaving the Queen and some of the foragers behind in the R/H.

The donor hive was then moved some distance away, and the Russian Hive put in it's place to benefit from the returning foragers. 2 jars of 1:1 feed are currently in place to help with comb-building, as the hive only has bare top bars.

So far, so good, except that the 'dog-leg' entrance couldn't cope with the volume of returning foragers, so I pulled back the removable OMF half an inch to create a much bigger second entrance. That was 48hrs ago, and life seems to have settled down by this a.m.

LJ

[ BTW - there is another thread devoted to the construction of this hive (with photos etc) over in the DIY Hive Construction section. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23129 ]

 

[Homich]

Looks like there was lots of gray paint available after the cold war, or is the colour for some other reason

Gray paint is a serebryanka. The Alpine beehive suffers from an overheat from the sun for this purpose we use a serebryanka.