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Thread: Teaching beginners: Beehives.

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    Default Teaching beginners: Beehives.

    I've agreed to help out on the Beginner's course again this year. Last year I did Honey from hive to jar, this year I'm covering the section on beehives.

    I was intending to do a brief history of beehives before looking in some detail at today's hives (I've got an hour and a half to fill and strict instructions not to go off topic, especially into other areas being covered by the course). Despite my own preference for 14x12s it is my intention to use a National hive for most of the demonstrations whilst still going over the general differences and varieties available. I'll even try to say some nice things about Top Bar Hives.

    I don't think that it's going to be anything revolutionary in terms of content but just wondering whether folks, thinking back to when they started out, have anything that makes them think "You know, I really wish someone had told me [stuff] when I was starting out".

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    Hi Nellie. I did an excellent beginners course with Kate which I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a huge amount about the complex life of the honeybee. A lot of emphasis was given to Varroa, which at the moment here, in Lochaber, we are fortunate to be without. So when I discovered a little red beastie on one of my bees, shortly after getting them, my heart was racing and doom and gloom filled my mind, along with panic ! Luckily [ if you can call it that ] it turned out to be Braula, which as I now know, looks very very similar to Varroa - so yes - " I wish someone had told me that " certainly fits the bill.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    I'll even try to say some nice things about Top Bar Hives.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    I don't think that it's going to be anything revolutionary in terms of content
    Now that sounds like a contradiction.

    To be serious though, I wish someone had pointed out to me the possibility and potential of *one size box* hives.

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    Nellie,

    Will you be covering spacer designs? If so it's worth covering the differences and advantages of them all because, just like choosing a hive, it's difficult to change your spacer system once you have invested in a load of kit.

    The other thing I advise is to look at the bees that will be kept before anything else and then choose a hive that suits them.

    Rosie

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rosie View Post
    Nellie,
    The other thing I advise is to look at the bees that will be kept before anything else and then choose a hive that suits them.
    Rosie
    I couldn't agree more (the learner saying the master is right). That is why I didn't mention the word Warré as the type of OSB hive.

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    Just to give a bit more context, this is very much an introductory course for people interested in taking up beekeeping.

    I had intended to try and cover all hives to some degree, even the ones I don't like! So despite my reservations over its suitability for urban beekeeping I was going to mention the Warre. I think when it comes to discussing various hives it's very hard to keep your own personal opinion out of it. I totally get why commercial guys tend to take the one size fits all approach and why the rose hive might seem attractive as a result but I personally think it's a compromise when aimed at the hobbyist. The boxes acting as supers have to be light enough for one person to lift and remove which, in my opinion makes them too small to be decent brood boxes, around here I think you'd end up with triple brood chambers using them.

    As for spacing, I'm wary about going into too much detail, it needs to be mentioned but I recall my experience when we did hives and had a guy wax lyrical about umpteen different spacing options for half an hour to a room full of people only just introduced to the concept of bee space with a net result that everyone was utterly confused rather than engaged and a few people at lunch opined that maybe this beekeeping malarky was far too complicated for them. That is something I really want to avoid.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rosie View Post
    Will you be covering spacer designs? If so it's worth covering the differences and advantages of them all because, just like choosing a hive, it's difficult to change your spacer system once you have invested in a load of kit.
    Just like to second that. Maybe at the end you need to commit to a recommended configuration. Perhaps Hoffman BS frames in the brood box, whatever super frame type you think is desireable in the supers ('Plastic metal ends' for flexibility in spacing and inexpensive purchase? Surely not the ghastly castellated runners supplied these days.). I've tended to try different types over the years and I wish that I hadn't.

    Folk might like a comparison between wood and polystyrene (which seems to win out in terms of cost and winter colony health and survival) and again a recommendation for the better types (Swienty for example, and others).

    Don't forget a mention of the Correx King of Ulster, and point your tutees to his guide to making the 50p nuc on this site. You just can't find these things in books, nor even on lesser beekeeping online fora. A copy of his Jim Nicolson MEP video wouldn't go amiss either.

    G.

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    Fear not, I have no intention of recommending castellated spacers.

    Personally I like Hoffman frames in the brood box as they're pretty much idiot proof but acknowledge that they're not without their shortcomings too. I think the trick will be to try and cover it in sufficient depth without bamboozling people with meaningless, at that point, stats and numbers.

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    In any hobby you get the Anoraks who prefer to talk about the equipment rather than the end result and I think that it is well worth avoiding that trap.
    It is definitely possible to become too evangelical about polystyrene hives, frame types, routers, jigs, rigs and all the rest of it.
    The top bar beekeepers are probably the worst offenders but good luck to those who squeeze bees into long containers.
    There are guys who listen to music who spend all their time talking about the speakers they use.
    And I haven't mentioned Mac users yet!!

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    Cough.

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