What's the best hive for a beginer?

[Chris Ibbo]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this and I'm wanting some advice on my first hive. What hive shall I get? I've looked at a national, a NUC and a polystyrene NUC. Is it worth having a polystyrene or wooden NUC? When I could get a national hive and add to it? Where is the best place to get a secound hand hive? Thanks for any advice people. Chris.

 

[drex]

Suggest you join your local association and see what they use. You will get experience handling different hive types ( hopefully) to see what suits you best. If you decide to go with the hive that is the most popular, then you can easily swap equipment ( or bees). They are also a good source of second hand equipment, but if buying second hand take an experienced beek you trust with you.

There is no set answer, depends on your preference, where you live, style of beekeeping, your fitness and ability to lift ( full hives - especially the bigger ones are very heavy).

It is late in season to be thinking about setting up now. Might be better to read up over the winter, go on a course ( local assoc), and get to handle some one else's bees first - main suppliers have good sales over the Xmas period too.

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Suggest you join your local association and see what they use. You will get experience handling different hive types ( hopefully) to see what suits you best. If you decide to go with the hive that is the most popular, then you can easily swap equipment ( or bees). They are also a good source of second hand equipment, but if buying second hand take an experienced beek you trust with you.

There is no set answer, depends on your preference, where you live, style of beekeeping, your fitness and ability to lift ( full hives - especially the bigger ones are very heavy)

lots of variables, remember you need to think where you are going to get your bees from etc. Most associations will put you down the national route but when you do the beginners courses often they'll say commercial is the best of both worlds etc. You need to look at the options, I myself went for Langstroth as the brood chamber is bigger and hopefully means a single brood (no grantee though).

Also I went for poly over wood, dont be afraid to challenge what people have around you as I was shot down for my choices but i know for a fact most of the association members are starting to get poly hives now just not advertising the fact.

I found the best thing was to goto local area network meetings (LANs) from the association you get an idea of what people's kit is like and can then make an informed decision. Dont be surprised if you start somewhere and end back full circle, I did keep changing my mind but once decided have stayed with one option not mixing and matching.

 

[Pete D]

Have a look in the 'sticky post' section as there is a great write up on starting bee keeping by Monsieur Abeille.

link below

Pete D

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14770

 

[ratcatcher]

lets start with where you'll be keeping the hive

 

[Luminos]

Bear in mind that it's unlikely to remain at "one hive"....
I got WBC mostly because it's smaller and easier to lift; but if I'd known it would turn into five WBC's in a matter of months, I'd most likely have gone for poly!

 

[Brosville]

I'd suggest that you have bags of time to decide on type of hive before next season, and that it would be wise to do a lot of reading before making a choice - as others have said, a lot is down to your physical capabilities, and it is wise to consider the sort of management style that will most suit you, then go for the appropriate hive.

You can even build your own hives for a few quid, and with no particular woodworking skills - there are free downloadable plans available for Kenyan Top Bar and Warre hives - I'd personally avoid secondhand hives unless I knew the provenance. I went the (more) natural beekeping route, and ended up with 3 colonies and hives, and all the equipment I needed for a total outlay of under £150

 

[Poly Hive]

Deep breath here as some love their choice so much they go to war... this comment has nothing to do with post 7 which went up as I wrote this.

The first thing is to establish whether beekeeping is really for you or not, all the theory in the world is one thing and being in a cloud of bees quite another.

If you have "fluffy" ideas about bees as quite a few do, as in they will do so much good to the world, make everything wonderful in general and so on just remember they have a serious down side too, from spotting the washing to killing other creatures.

With that bucket of reality the big problem in the UK is too much choice.

Even in the poly available now there is arguably a silly choice with compatibility issues arising which could have been easily avoided. However that is how it is.

From a cost point of view poly will give you the lower cost start up, and will certainly last you out have no fear of that.

I run Poly Nat as it suits my system which in turn is tuned to my activities. If I were to truly suit myself I would be running Langstroth poly.

There is no rush to get going esp now, so why not read, question the forum and attend a course over winter, but if you can ask someone to let you see their bees to find out if it suits you.

Good luck

PH

 

[E1M]

Don't rush into it.
Patience is a virtue and it also will help you long term, especially if you join your local association. I recommend that you do the beginners course and go along to their sessions during year.
We decided nearly two years ago that we wanted to become beekeepers, we have had our hives and bees since May and we certainly are pleased to have experienced beekeepers to help us out, and they all do.
Take care choosing a hive type, we have nationals, and they are in our front garden (we re in the country so it isn't an issue).
Good luck, welcome to beekeeping.

 

[Chris Ibbo]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I assure you all that I'm only searching for advice on the hive at the min and I have no intention of buying one until I've been up to the beekeepers association in Northampton. I'm hoping it'll intrigue me even more when im there and I'll keep going through the Christmas period.

 

[Andy Duff]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I assure you all that I'm only searching for advice on the hive at the min and I have no intention of buying one until I've been up to the beekeepers association in Northampton. I'm hoping it'll intrigue me even more when im there and I'll keep going through the Christmas period.

nice to see you are going about things the right way. good luck

 

[Lorenz]

Nice. I honestly think the best hive for a beginner is somebody elses.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Nice. I honestly think the best hive for a beginner is somebody elses.

 

[Chris Ibbo]

Hey Rat, I can't keep the hives at mine as I don't have the land but there are allotments and farms all around my area so I'm going to be asking about. My dad and brother are both interested in keeping bees so I think for a start we'll have 2-3 hives.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

I honestly think the best hive for a beginner is somebody elses.

Preferably the local BKA, IMHO.


Dusty

 

[psafloyd]

Don't rush into it.
Patience is a virtue and it also will help you long term, especially if you join your local association.

You will also save yourself a fortune from buying a load of kit you do not need.

 

[herefordshirehoney]

You will also save yourself a fortune from buying a load of kit you do not need.

Dunno about that! The urge to buy stuff from the th***e sales is hard already got myself a uncapping roller in the last sale that I dont think i'll ever use! I seem to have an urge to buy hive tools too .

 

[ratcatcher]

Hey Rat, I can't keep the hives at mine as I don't have the land but there are allotments and farms all around my area so I'm going to be asking about. My dad and brother are both interested in keeping bees so I think for a start we'll have 2-3 hives.

so, hows the security around these areas, plagued by little toe rags that steal anything that ain't nailed down, or pretty decent areas??

 

[itma]

... Where is the best place to get a secound hand hive? ...

There isn't really.

Generally, established beekeepers are reluctant to part with anything "that might come in useful".
The flip side of that is that they generally only try and get shot of stuff that is NOT (even possibly) useful.

One route is to get stuff from someone retiring. But then its generally REALLY old because they have avoided renewing things because they are soon to give up.
Another is to buy stuff from a disenchanted beginner. But then, he probably only has a very vague idea of what he is selling, and often an absurd idea of its second-hand value.

The cheapest time to buy new kit is during the winter sales.
Not in spring, when people realise that they need stuff ...

Be aware that you will need spare kit - at an absolute minimum one spare hive that takes the same frames as your other hives. (Standardisation is important!)
And that two colonies is a sustainable minimum - so you have on hand a full set of 'spare part' bees, brood and stores. With one colony, a single mistake can put your beekeeping in jeopardy!

 

[BeeJayBee]

What's the best hive for a beginer?

The best hive for a beginner is one that they've chosen for themself after doing their own research - which could include trawling the internet, reading books, doing a course, listening to other people's ideas and looking at their hives and seeing how each type of hive is slightly different to 'handle'.

That's the hive that will be best for you, it doesn't, in the end, really matter if it's a top bar hive, a WBC, Langstroth, National, Warre, Rose, Smith or any of the others designs.

If you feel pressured into getting something because it 'conforms', or because somebody else tells you it's best, or because somebody has belittled your first decision, then you'll probably never be happy with it.

You may find that you make a 'firm' decision, and then change your mind several times before actually parting with any money. That's normal.

We use polystyrene Langstroths and also have a couple of wooden ones as spares. The wooden ones came with the bees when we bought them. The polys (brood and supers) are a mix of new and second hand, came either from a local bee farmer who also sells kit, or suppliers in Devon or Sussex. We have also experimented with making temporary boxes using corrugated board - it worked, surprisingly, after a bit of experimenting.

Almost all of the rest of our 'kit' has been bought online, some from the bigger online retailers and some from smaller beekeeping equipment shops.