Blog Comments

  1. Neils's Avatar
    Good plan with the tyres, been some fly tipping nearby, might just grab a couple as quick and easy hive stands.
  2. Jon's Avatar
    >wouldn't like to try and run it though
    He just lets it swarm!
  3. chris's Avatar
    love that log hive, wouldn't like to try and run it though,
  4. Jon's Avatar
    My mate lives in the next street and he has work down there. He travels down nearly every week so I should be able to manage an isolated site. 1 hr 15 min. travel time.
  5. busybeephilip's Avatar
    I'd say thats a bit far away for a strole on a bike. I've been getting my glass/wood single frame nuc boxes out of storage, and guess what - one has mouse damage where the wee critter tried to get in via the queen cell hole by chewing the wooden top
  6. Jon's Avatar
    Not a great site for mating. Too many mongrel colonies in the area. I have another one sussed out in the fivemiletown mountains where a friend has 10 acres at 600 feet. That site is remote.
  7. busybeephilip's Avatar
    Looks like away out in the country, should make a great location with loads of space for all those mating nucs you have, and I like you hive stands !
  8. Jon's Avatar
    The tyres might be heavy but at least the roof is light to lift off!
    Those correx roofs last for years. The plastic does not seem to degrade much or get brittle.
  9. mbc's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jon
    Luckily there was a heap of types right beside the apiary.
    I'll probably replace them with a strategic brick the next time.
    The set up was relatively cheap.
    I made the floors from scrap wood and the roofs are correx.
    The crown boards are about £3 each from a sheet of B&Q plywood.
    The Swienty brood boxes are about £20 each from C Wynn Jones.
    These are the old style ones embossed with Murray's Denrosa logo.
    This is an apiary set up just for honey production and I will try not to tinker taking bees for filling apideas.
    It's 40 miles away from where I live so that should act as a deterrent.
    A couple of the nucs had brood over the 6 frames so a second brood box will be needed within a couple of weeks.
    The forage in the area looks pretty good so I would hope to get 2 or 3 supers of honey from these, weather permitting.
    I'm liking the thriftyness, especially the cortex roofs, given of work Jon!
  10. Jon's Avatar
    Luckily there was a heap of types right beside the apiary.
    I'll probably replace them with a strategic brick the next time.
    The set up was relatively cheap.
    I made the floors from scrap wood and the roofs are correx.
    The crown boards are about £3 each from a sheet of B&Q plywood.
    The Swienty brood boxes are about £20 each from C Wynn Jones.
    These are the old style ones embossed with Murray's Denrosa logo.
    This is an apiary set up just for honey production and I will try not to tinker taking bees for filling apideas.
    It's 40 miles away from where I live so that should act as a deterrent.
    A couple of the nucs had brood over the 6 frames so a second brood box will be needed within a couple of weeks.
    The forage in the area looks pretty good so I would hope to get 2 or 3 supers of honey from these, weather permitting.
  11. gavin's Avatar
    I've seen him lance axles straight through those double-tyre hives, flip 'em over, and with one command get Luna the labrador to jump into a harness and pull him home on the impromptu chariot! Some guy that Jon.

    Looks like the ability to use cast-offs to fashion new styles of hive was inherited after all. I think I prefer da's Bucket Hive to Jon's correx ones.
    Updated 26-04-2015 at 07:48 AM by gavin
  12. fatshark's Avatar
    Blimey Jon, you must be built like Charles Atlas moving those tyres every time
  13. Jon's Avatar
    Ended up the carriage was about 240 euro as vat was added and the order was 10 cases of 18 in the end.
    Still ended up at just under £18 per apidea.
  14. drumgerry's Avatar
    Under £18 is a cracking price Jon. I hope your fellow Ulster-ites appreciate it!!
  15. Jon's Avatar
    got a 3rd apidea queen started in a nuc via an introduction cage.
    The first one has 3 frames of brood and the second one has two. Both going well.
  16. Jon's Avatar
    checked this combined colony and the queen was in the top box laying.
  17. Jon's Avatar
    both laying well now
  18. Jon's Avatar
    checked these the afternoon and both queens are out on the comb. Saw a few eggs in one of them.
  19. Jon's Avatar
    My main problem is the drones in the mix which are produced by other colonies in the vicinity. The biggest problem is avoiding hybridisation. I need to start some II even if it is only to produce a few breeder queens every season.
  20. prakel's Avatar
    Gavin, I'd tend to agree -it was suggested to me a while back by a rather famous continental bee breeder that in the early years of build up I'd get far better results by rearing queens from (all of) the best 50% of my colonies and using their daughters to requeen the bottom 50% of colonies. Each year, reselecting the best half and raising daughters from all of them.
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