your hives + hopefully some hive/bee porn

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Are those hives level?

Do the bees mind?

 

[SteveJ]

Some of my 14x12's
View attachment 9443

SteveJ

 

[beeboybee]

Do the bees mind?

keeping the hives level, keeps the wax comb vertical and also if your using a rapid or miller feeder then it can stop suryp being left in the bottom where the bees can't reach.

 

[Ely]

Are those hives level?

Also allows any water build up to run forward

 

[Ely]

keeping the hives level, keeps the wax comb vertical and also if your using a rapid or miller feeder then it can stop suryp being left in the bottom where the bees can't reach.

Wax comb - That is true for top bar beekeepers whos bees are building all natural comb. I'm on wax foundation. All they do is draw it out so not so important to be perfectly level. I don't feed my bees any more as I found it wasn't necessary. I leave them the ivy honey

 

[bee crazy]

I use plastic Langstorth hives there cheap and come with a 6 year guarantee. The rest of the world use Langstroth hives so you can find better deals on equipment.

James

 

[user 6228]

PIR hives all of these use national frames

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

all hives Nationals - thought about changing before I expanded the apiary but decided to stick with them. broods, supers and frames are all second quality cedar but i make my own roofs from plywood (sheet metal supplied to measure by an associate) and build my own OM floors with under floor entrances.
all nucs are plywood (mostly 12mm) that i make myself.
I have a large hedged garden behind my large garden! where most of the hives are and I have an out apiary in an orchard about five miles away and one planned a bit further away again in balsam country.
You may get photos when I get home next week.

 

[beeboybee]

14 x 12 timber mostly seconds, started making my own floor and crown boards.
pic from last year, hive on right is half way through bailey change so 6 standard frames in bottom brood rest of space blocked off, then 14 x12 above with fresh frames and foundation.
Poly Nuc was a lovely swarm that built up well over the summer and is now in hive below.

 

[hedgerow pete]

nationals , because they are easy to sell the frames as nuks

 

[psafloyd]

Are those hives level?

Level with the ground, perhaps. But it looks a bit like a hill...

 

[Ely]

The bees do not mind

 

[Graham40]

6 Glen Hives made by Aberdeen Beehive works in 1910 (Stamps in the Roof of each one) were my Great Grandfathers, Built to with stand the climate in the frozen north. They sport modern poly inserts between the outside world and the inner box (made up in the 70's by my dad), 15 Bar BS frame brood boxs. Continuous occupation can't remember any of them suffering a loss of inhabitants, supercedure is the norm. PA reconed he could get 5 years plus out of a queen in them.. though i do remember truly awsum swarms leaving from them..the noise and the ability to blot out the sun.
Nothing short of a Hurricane is going to knock them over. If I could get my hands on more I would.
Spent a long long time working with them, ideal for a static. Got loads of specilised feeders experimental parts for them.

As for the rest well I've got or experimented with most frame sizes everything adapted to run BS shallow frames.

4 x Commercial
10 x Langstroth - poor record up here, fed up loosing bees in this monstrosity they're for the axe
15 x 14x12 National I like these as part of a hive
25 x Wooden National - 6 in WBC outer shells
3 x Wormit Commercial - a real pain in the a** to separate - more firewood
6 x Paynes Poly National both 14x12 and BS and one on a 14x12 plus the BS..dont ask
1 x Polynuc...why didnt think it was going to make it..so far I'm wrong

I run four sites with Langstroths on 2 sites
So far I've lost 1 langstroth due to isolation starvation again grrrrr

 

[Arfermo]

keeping the hives level, keeps the wax comb vertical and also if your using a rapid or miller feeder then it can stop suryp being left in the bottom where the bees can't reach.

My Millers have gaps under the cover over where the bees come up. Then the bees can get out from under when the syrup level drops enough and they mop any residues and lick the whole thing clean. Being slightly out of level then doesn't matter. Is this not normal?Ashforths might be a tad more tricky?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I just remembered I'd promised photos. the first one is the old apiary in the process of the move (now a chicken run at the top of the garden) the rest are from the apiary in the plot behind the garden last winter and the summer just gone

 

[Ely]

Looks like a nice apiary

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you're seeing the best of it - the untended bit was behind me when I took the photo!