BEEKEEPERS, AHOY!
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Hi Beekeepers!
This subject has raised its honeyed head in other forum posts, so I thought I’d start a beekeeping thread. I have six hives – no, make that five, I lost a cast over December in that very cold snap (I was keeping them in a home-made TBH nuc that I made, and although I kept intending to swaddle it in fleece and bubblewrap, the fledgling colony died. I had been supplementing their feed with sugar cake, but they did not make it. ) You know how devastating it was :(.
On a brighter note, I am now making up boxes along the Rose OSB design. I am tempted to make my own frames, but at the moment I am using Thorne’s kits. Has anyone tried making their own frames? I put a starter strip of wax in the top of the frame, with mixed results, it has to be said.
Anyhoo, I wonder how many other beekeepers are here? This is what I want to find out 🙂
Jonathan
(currently with one national, three top bar hives, and one Rose hive).
From Warrington, UK. Making stuff in my front room.
Jonathan,
I am new to beekeeping. I only have a single Langstroth style hive that looks quite still in our back field right now. There’s a foot or so of snow here in Maine currently, so I hope they are still warm and cozy inside their hive. I have not built additional hive bodies yet, but that is on the list for winter projects. The box joints don’t have to be perfect, the bees will seal any gaps!
Mike
Im running about 20 hives and planning 20 splits this spring.
Mike, I hope you have two boxes on if your in Maine. I bet your bees need a lot of food stores.
Brent
Meridianville, Alabama, USA
@ Mike
Hi Mike, yes, I know that feeling – have a look on a clear warmish day and see if you see any bees flying, and you’ll know they’re ok. If you have to open to feed, then choose a warm day and do so early in the day, to keep the heat in as much as possible.
I have been following this chap in Texas: http://learningbeekeeping.com/
you might want to have a look, his videos are good.
@ Brent
Nice to meet you 🙂
Jonathan
From Warrington, UK. Making stuff in my front room.
Nice to meet you Jonathan..
Meridianville, Alabama, USA
Thanks to Mike I spent a pleasant time during my lunch break watching McCartney’s videos!
From Warrington, UK. Making stuff in my front room.
Jonathan,
We’re just getting started and ordered our bees for spring delivery.
I’m building two Warre’ hives but haven’t decided on the frames yet.
Craig
SW Pennsylvania
Brent, yes, I have two deep boxes and one super left for the bees. I didn’t take ant honey thIs year, hopefully I can next year.
Jonathan, thanks for he web site, looks like a good place to learn a thing or two!
Brent, thanks, I bookmarked it for winter time reading!
Beehive update,
I finally got these done.
We picked up two packages of Italians on Mothers day.
We set up the hives in readiness, but it was too cold to install them and waited til Tuesday to put them in.
The feeder boxes seem to be working well and they’re quite busy building comb.
Here’s some pics.
The wood is Cypress.
Photos by http://www.boxwoodphotography.com, My daughter Abies business.
CraigSW Pennsylvania
Hi Craig
Lovely hives – did you make them?I have had a disastrous winter – I lost all my hives (5 colonies) and tomorrow am picking up a nuc to repopulate my Mother Hive.
Are those Warre hives? I have parts to make up several boxes for Rose OSB boxes, in plywood unfortunately. Once done, I think I’ll follow your example and make them from solid wood.
Did you make the frames, too?
Jonathan
From Warrington, UK. Making stuff in my front room.
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