Bleurrrgh! Can you imagine what the honey would taste like, made inside a stinky minke?
Bleurrrgh! Can you imagine what the honey would taste like, made inside a stinky minke?
Well obviously I would fumigate beforehand with 80% acetic acid and take a blow torch to the rib cage to avoid any health and safety issues.Originally Posted by Trog
Doris - I don't know whether you are still there but it seems that at the words 'TBH' 'natural' 'what bees like as opposed to man(man being generic of course!!!)' and anything else that might inpinge on traditional ideas, all collapse into a heap of blethering whatnots.
I have re-assembled my TBH today on the strength of all this and will process it out to the apiary in the very near future. So there! Hope you join me up your way?
Hi POPZ
As I said before: unfortunately I'll have to restrain myself at the moment and concentrate on producing nucs in standard equipment. The TBH will be set up as a bait hive and if a swarm moves in I'll be delighted.
If I find time I'll try to construct a Warre, too, again to be used as a bait hive.
I hear that there is an alternative beekeeper on Mull, maybe we can get him/her to share experiences with us on this forum?
Will keep you posted should a swarm decide to go alternative.
Doris
Popz.
Didn't mean to be critical. I have to hold my hand up to being a blethering whatnot.
...But Doris started it!
I do intend to build my own TBH this year, out of curiosity more than anything else.
Ok Jon, so Doris is to blame for all this?? I have obviously got the wrong end of the stick here. Doris is the one person who appeared to me to be entirely sane and willing to discuss all things TBHachly. However, seeing as you intend to go down the righteous path, then great, and all is forgiven!!!
Doris, regarding the alternative beekeeper here on Mull, yes I am keeping in touch with him and her. They have some really very interesting ideas. They are using the Warre system and appear to be successful with it, if success is measured by getting two out of two colonies through the winter this winter.
I shall also be looking for 'alternative ' swarms.
Popz.
I am interested in all aspects of beekeeping irrespective of the shape of the box they are housed in.
I think it is important to avoid a them and us attitude as there are things 'conventional/traditional' beekeepers can learn from TBH ers and vice versa.
I am categorically not in the anti TBH camp.
I have my colonies on an allotment 3 miles from my house but I quite fancy the idea of having a TBH in the garden which I could cut a honeycomb from on occasion.
The plan would be to move the most docile colony I have to a TBH in order to minimise conflict with neighbours. I live in a semi in a built up area.
I think it is a good way to go for anyone interested in beekeeping on a low budget.
I do share Gavin's concerns re. checking for foulbrood diseases, as a lot of the alternative beekeeping movement seems to be based around minimal inspections per season rather than 8-10 day checks as I would do.
Mike - welcome to the forum and hope you keep posting awkward questions such as this one. TBH's are a hot (dare I say potatoe?) on this forum at the moment. If no-one comes back with an answer, I will get back to you myself.
So you are on edge of the moors - is that Helmsley/Thirsk way. From there myself.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy forum and get some good advice, and keep in touch with how you are getting on.
POPZ
You can if you like, but you might be accused of being Dan Quayle-like in your spelling ability!
Mike, it sounds like your garden would provide a useful source of pollen nearby, but the bees will need to forage over a wide area. Woodland could be good, and pasture if it has wild plants in it and especially clover. Bees would fly to the moor in late summer, no problem.
Hi Mike - I followed a pretty standard method of getting the bees to build comb on to top bars. I table sawed a slot in the top bar, melted some wax in and attached a starter strip of foundation of about an inch in depth.
Cross combing - you might get it, you might not. But it's no fun if that's the way the bees prefer to have their nest.
If it were me starting up with bees I wouldn't be looking at TBHs. I'd be doing some heavy research into what type hive I'd prefer and leave TBH experiments for when I've got a multitude of stocks. But that's just me - everyone will have their own take on it.
Whatever you choose to do I wish you luck. Life will never be the same once you have bees and you'll wish you'd done it years ago!
Gerry
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