Details: Category: Bee Blog

Clarinda Community Garden

I now have around 12 hives at the Clarinda Community Garden site with the intention of holding bee classes there some time next year as well as starting a beekeepers club.

The old shed on the property is being upgraded to make it suitable for meetings with power and water and soon we might even get a toilet :)

The property is 5 acres which will allow for up to 100 hives on the property but i doubt we will ever have that many hives on the property.

Here are some pics of the hives currently situated on the property.

Bees in the new Blue Hive seem very happy. Hive timber is 50mm thick offering great insulation with ventilation built into the lid.

Antique Box hive has now been added to the Apiary

A small colony of Italian Ligurian bees was placed in the hive giving them plenty of room to grow. I actually spotted the queen when doing the transfer.

Details: Category: Bee Blog

Better Insulation for the bees

Hi everyone I have just started making a new hive using 50mm recycled timbers

Made to use Deep Langstroth Frames

Does having better insulation help your bees

I believe that having better insulated hives will go a long way towards allowing the bees to keep the hive at a steady temperature with less effort

Also the timbers were free so as an experiment its worth the effort to find out

Details: Category: Bee Blog

This hive is a Box hive using 22 Standard Langstroth Deep frames

Box hives have been used around the world as a standard design for centuries

The most common box hive designs at the moment are kenyan Top Bar hives.

I think this hive looks way better than most hives around and is made from recycled timbers both softwood and hardwoods.

Box hives often out perform langstroth hives and no queen excluder required.

Antique Hardwood Cladding used for the roof

Looking from the front of the hive

Looking at the back of the hive

Hive Entrance

Bass for the hive box

Hive box placed on the base

The hive box is made from Australian Hardwoods and is reasonably heavy

Hive Lid is attached with hinges and a chain is used to prevent lid over extending

Filled with standard deep langstroth frames makes for ease of management as this is the standard in Australia

Puddles the Cat just had to get in on the action

In the workshop almost finished

Details: Category: Bee Blog

I have been busy bulding a number of hives, here are some pictures of my first box hive. I has now been populated with bees and they are very happy and doing fine in there new box hive. Box hive management is similar to that for a top bar hive and makes for easy management and looks aesthetically very nice.