LaPoule Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Yesterday, at my local beekeeping branch's apiary visit, I was allowed to check over nearly all the frames in one of the hives . They are National hives, and even thought this one was on breeze blocks AND an empty brood box to give it extra height, it was still a bit short for me (I am nearly 6 ft tall) and my back was quite sore from leaning over lifting the heavy frames. Does anyone know how tall the Beehaus is? I reckon I would need the top of the brood box to be at least 1m off the ground to be a comfortable working height. Alternatively, short of bunging piles of breeze blocks underneath a National or similar, can anyone recommend some way of heightening these to make them 1m tall (+supers)? Cheers m'dears! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OXFORDBEE Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Be careful on this one as if you get the broodbox to a comfortable working hight you might find that by the time you've put supers on the hive you might have to lift some heavy weights up to a height of 4 feet + I have my hives on breeze blocks. The breeze blocks are positioned so that the hive rests on two thin sides so the hive is about 10 inches above the ground. Anatomically I wasn't given the best body shape for beekeeping (short legs, long spine, long neck and a rather heavy head) so if I'm not careful with my posture I can really feel the aches and pains of life after short time working the hives. So, I've found the easiest way to manage the bees is for me to kneel on the grass. This seems to work for me. Other people have milking stools or other things to sit on that enable them to work thier hives comfortably. Don't know if this will help but it's a thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaPoule Posted August 9, 2009 Author Share Posted August 9, 2009 A stool! Ah - it's never even occurred to me that I could sit! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 We had to raise ours as I can't kneel down - they are about 2 breeze blocks high with 3"x3" wood bearers across. As we started keeping bees in just about the worse year possible weatherwise, followed by another rubbish year.........and then this year hasn't been much better... we've never got the the heady heights of more than 2 supers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OXFORDBEE Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Some areas are better for honey than others. However, the weather can play a major role. For me, the season finished in the second week in July so I've missed the rain. Others have not been so lucky. The two years before this one were quite bad. This year has been a lot better but I've had bees in fields of oilseed rape so it's not really fair to say how many supers I've had on hives... Lesley, other than the weather (which I can't do anything about!) I've found the key thing is to have strong colonies of bees early in the year. When do you get a strong nectar flow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 We have fruit trees, clover and lavender on our own land, lots of blackberry and are surrounded by field beans. so I would say best around May/June ? Our first bees were bought as a nuc, we built up a good colony, got them through to Feb. and then they all appeared to starve even though we still had fondant directly above them. Started again with a swarm last June 1st, built that up well, got them through the winter. These bees were doing really well and were lovely natured, dark native bees. We were hoping to split the hive but had some serious problems to cope with through May/June (not bee related but documented in Bee Chat) We knew something wasn't right, added another super to create more room and hoped for the best. We must have lost the queen to swarming. Of course, at that busy time, it was difficult/impossible to get anyone to come and go through the hive with us A weak , queenless, colony at a time when we had a lot of wasp nests on our land dealt the final blow. We did all that we could to keep the wasps away but we failed We're very disappointed that we failed but we couldn't have handled it any other way. Sorry LaPoule - hijacked your thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdcambs Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 We have fruit trees, clover and lavender on our own land, lots of blackberry and are surrounded by field beans. so I would say best around May/June ? Our first bees were bought as a nuc, we built up a good colony, got them through to Feb. and then they all appeared to starve even though we still had fondant directly above them. Started again with a swarm last June 1st, built that up well, got them through the winter. These bees were doing really well and were lovely natured, dark native bees. We were hoping to split the hive but had some serious problems to cope with through May/June (not bee related but documented in Bee Chat) We knew something wasn't right, added another super to create more room and hoped for the best. We must have lost the queen to swarming. Of course, at that busy time, it was difficult/impossible to get anyone to come and go through the hive with us A weak , queenless, colony at a time when we had a lot of wasp nests on our land dealt the final blow. We did all that we could to keep the wasps away but we failed We're very disappointed that we failed but we couldn't have handled it any other way. Sorry LaPoule - hijacked your thread Starvation when there is candy above a crown board is fairly common during the winter, especially mild winters when the bees are more active. I use a small eke about 40mm (screwed onto one of the two crown boards I permanently keep on each hive) these are sold by Thornes as "Apiguard Eke's" but you can make your own. They are useful if treating with Apiguard, but I use them during the winter to create a small gap above the cluster into which I place a 1/4 sheet of plastic queen excluder directly on the frame tops, onto which I can put the candy. This means that even in the coldest weather when the cluster can not reach up over the crown board thy can still get to my candy. There is a trade off here. Ventilation/insulation of hives during the winter is something that beekeepers will have differing opinions on (like so many things in beekeeping) but I find I loose less during a bad winter doing this. Queenless colonies are one of the reasons why it is a very good idea to have three hives and a minimum of two colonies going into the winter. The empty hive being put into use for spring swarms then in the autumn you combine the two weakest colonies so you have two strong ones going into winter. That way if you loose one, you’ll still have some bees come the spring. Also, when you suspect a colony is queenless (often it will have a virgin queen) having the second or third hive means you can drop a frame of eggs into the troublesome colony so that they can draw new queen cells if they want/need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Thank you for the advice - I didn't want to post about our failings at first but I think it's important - especially at the moment. We do have three hives.........just no bees now We'll make it one day......we thought we'd have three hives full by now and be looking to buy the, spare , 4th hive Edited to add: we do get very good email advice from the local Assoc. but sometimes it would be good to have a real person here. I get an almost immediate response to my email queries (at the right time of day of course) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
