What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Little John]

Yes, with just one colony now's the time to make boxes of one type.

Wise words - I decided to change-over an existing apiary (which was a hassle), having discovered that Long Hives (50% of the hives I currently use here) really do need to be Top Bee Space, in order to have flat Crown Boards that efficient use of their partition boards require.

I found the Michael Palmer YouTube videos and his sustainable apiary lecture. Some of his hives with massive populations for queen rearing look remarkable and pretty scary.

Those videos are probably the very best on Youtube - that guy really knows what he's doing.

Good luck with your queen rearing, I had to look up the Hopkins method.

Thanks - I've tried several of the other systems, with mixed results. This year I'm trying the Hopkins Method. As you will have discovered, it uses a frame of larva mounted horizontally. My plan is to punch out the Queen Cells within a day or two of them being started, and place them in racks so that they can be fully drawn there and protected with Nicot system cages when capped. Afaik, no-one has tried Queen Cell punching with the Hopkins Method - so it will be an interesting learning experience, and should be a pretty good method if it works ok.
LJ

 

[BMH]

Made 12 underfloor entrance floors to use when my 12 double brood hives need to be split/managed for swarming later in the year.

Really liked the simple design. Certainly wont ever be buying floors again. Very simple to make.

[/url]2017-03-25_04-50-52 by laurence edwards, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[bjosephd]

Can anyone work out what on earth I have made?!

A small project got bigger...

 

[madasafish]

Can anyone work out what on earth I have made?!

A small project got bigger...

A monstrosity?

 

[bjosephd]

A monstrosity?

How rude! Haha.

The top and bottom pieces were originally meant to be shallow. But then I found some different wood knocking about and got carried away.

Anyway... you guessed wrong...

 

[deanrpwaacs]

A new draw for the kitchen cupboard

 

[bjosephd]

A new draw for the kitchen cupboard

Ahh haha... a draw full of bees.

"Now where did I put those bees...? [emoji848]"

 

[drex]

Looks like you forgot, measure twice, cut once. No idea

 

[bjosephd]

Looks like you forgot, measure twice, cut once. No idea

Haha, maybe... I'm still very much doing diy style learning diy.

It's actually a box with an underfloor style entrance built in to the side of it. This leaves space for 7 frames, the bees of course enter, after going up and under (under and up) enter above the frames under the crown board.

The fun thing is that I can still put a full size box on top, and the bees will enter between frames below and frames above.

With the addition of a single bit of timber you could also have this at the top of a stack of boxes instead of the bottom. Or the middle!

Anyway. The floor and crown board are just fat because I accidentally inserted 50mm insulation.

 

[wightbees]

I may be wrong but to put this anywhere in the stack as you suggested, you might need to add wood/filler to fill in where the dove tail joint is? Be fun to see what happens though, well done

 

[victor meldrew]

I love my bees but I'll forego taking them to bed !


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[bjosephd]

I may be wrong but to put this anywhere in the stack as you suggested, you might need to add wood/filler to fill in where the dove tail joint is? Be fun to see what happens though, well done

Do you mean if a box was to go beneath it?

Yes. My plan was to just have it at the bottom. But have considered an infill to allow it to go anywhere.

It was meant to have a shallow crown board and floor and have them clipped in so it could just be a kind of nice portable 7 frame 'nuc'.... but it evolved!

 

[wightbees]

Yes, if box was to go under. Um yes, it sure did evolve: )

 

[Erichalfbee]

I painted a couple of bait hives inside with propolis

 

[user 6228]

The wood liners of all four "trees" are now done. The foam covers are next

 

[bjosephd]

The wood liners of all four "trees" are now done. The foam covers are next

What is the volume of your magic tree boxes? All the same?

Are you planning on putting bees in somehow? Or just waiting for them to be inhabited by swarms?

BJD

 

[user 6228]

What is the volume of your magic tree boxes? All the same?

Are you planning on putting bees in somehow? Or just waiting for them to be inhabited by swarms?

BJD

45.4 litres hoping to collect swarms and walk them in

 

[bjosephd]

45.4 litres hoping to collect swarms and walk them in

How did you choose that volume? Seeley research? Or just the size of the timber you had? or some other thought.

 

[Little John]

Now the experiment is over, the first of these Quad-Nuc Long Hives:

... has just been converted into a Quad-Nuc Long Hive having one entrance per side (each with a magnetically-attached anti-robbing screen), thusly:

... using this barbaric tool:

Effortless clean holes through 40mm timber - thanks to Chinese ingenuity.
LJ

 

[alldigging]

Him indoors has put this together for someone. It's to their specification

She wanted a top bar hive but with frames..