34 : Hangout with Bee Craft
Join us at the monthly Bee Craft webinars, informal online discussions by members of the Bee Craft team. Listen in to the live conversation on scheduled dates from 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm at
www.bee-craft.com/beekeeping/ hangouts/ Ask questions beforehand or as we go along, via the website. Videos of the sessions can be viewed later on the website.
many fl owers! Kerry O’Keeffe
Q A
Q A
Can anyone keep bees? I would love them in our garden but it’s not huge and we have lots of neighbours! Oh, and not
Bees will live in any situation, urban or rural, where they can fi nd a suitable nest cavity (a hive) and have access to
suffi cient nectar, pollen and water for their survival. I suggest that you get in touch with your local beekeepers’ association (there is a list at
www.bbka.org.uk/about/local_ associations/fi
nd_an_association.php) and talk to them. They can advise about your particular situation. They are also likely to run beginners’ courses. You are best to attend one of these before you actually get your bees. As a beekeeper, you are taking responsibility for the health and welfare of a living colony but you also have to take account of your neighbours and their right to enjoy their own gardens! Bees are fascinating and they also give you a lot of pleasure – and maybe some honey too!
Swarms have been absconding. I lost three a few days after putting them into nucleus boxes. Kev Gilbert
Try hiving over a queen excluder or pinning some excluder over the
entrance until they settle. With a cast, remove it a
few days later to allow a virgin to mate!
www.bee-craft.com
Hangout wit
Q A
I collect swarms and am collecting one a day at this time of year. Where do they all come from if bees are dying out? Can
someone work that out? Christopher Welch
The swarms you are collecting are either coming from managed hives where the
beekeeper has failed to
control swarming or they are from feral colonies. These feral colonies are probably the result of previous swarms that were not caught and hived. Such colonies are likely to be able to survive for a number of years without treatment for varroa. The exponential increase in the number of mites and the effect of the associated viruses in the colony generally mean that wild colonies will eventually die out.
Q A
If I made a hive out of ordinary pallet wood would that be OK? Have you heard of anybody using this wood either for
hives or anywhere wood comes into contact with bees? The wood looks untreated, as it is usually used once, then skipped or burnt. It is rough sawn. Chris Burnett
There is no reason why you should not use pallet wood to make a beehive but you are likely to end up with a very heavy
box. I don’t know if your pallet wood is thin or thick. If it is thin, then you will have to ‘laminate’ it so that you produce a plank of the right thickness for the hive and large enough to be used to cut out the walls. The hive walls can, in fact, be as thick as you like but you do need to be able to accommodate the rebates for the frame lugs. What is the most important thing
is that you get the INTERNAL dimensions correct. If the bee space is correct, then the bees really don’t care what their hive is made from. I have seen one in Nepal made from clay bricks. The bees were fi ne although the hive did have the drawback that you couldn’t move it round the apiary! For a top-bar hive, the vital measurement is the width of the top bars if you want the bees to build straight comb on them. I don’t know what hive design you are thinking about but I assume you have some plans. I would suggest the best way forward is to fi nd some way of making up planks of a suitable size and thickness. It would be an idea to sand or plane them smooth so that you are confi dent that the bee space
Apimondia Gold Medal for Popular Beekeeping Journals, 2007, 2013 and 2015 September 2016 Vol 98 No 9
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