Bee House

[Calum]

yup. just like you imagine. But there are some colonies that have not seemed to notice they'd been dropped. Others - well just opening the hive during changeable weather can be enough.
I only wear a straw hat when I work so (in a shed with poor light and a hood you really need a led torch with at least 8 leds) is up close and personal.

[Trog]

Surely when the hives are opened bees end up inside the beehouse. How do they get back into their hives if the entrances are outside the house? (Doesn't apply with the open ones - though I can't see the advantage of the last couple of types in your photos; not much extra shelter - but the big one with the lovely scythe looked like a proper shed.)

[Neils]

There's a guy on one of the other forums who's built himself a beehouse on his allotment, I seem to recall he stuck some vids up on you tube, I'll try and track them down. As for bees inside the thing, leave the window open

[Calum]

Hi
normally 'windows' are installed with a build in gap in the glass/plastic/corrugated sheet of about 10mm at the bottom so the bees can escape. Otherwise you have to hang around to close the window once they have all left..
Yes Trog the last two offer no real protection from the weather. Third to last offers little security, and has very poor lighting. But it is 94 years old.

[Mellifera Crofter]

On our windswept hill I often wish for a bee house or bee shelter as in some of Calum's photos. Surely a shelter might give some protection?

I often wonder how flying bees in a bee house could find their way back into their hives without having to first find their way out of the bee house and then back through the pouring rain. Would it help if the hives had two entrances - one open to the outside, and a smaller one at the back?

There is a little diagram in Ted Hooper's 'The Beekeepers' Garden' (1988) on how to position a hive inside the bee house. I've made a pdf copy of that page, but I don't know how to attach it to this post - so if anybody wants a copy, just send me a private message.

You can also Google for 'An Introduction to Bee-houses' by David F Bates. It's a help, but still leaves me with a lot of questions.

Here is a link to the Finsbury Park bee house: http://www.honeyshop.co.uk/Bee.html.

Kitta

[Calum]

hi Kitta,
the problem with a small entrance on the inside is that it increases the chances of 'silent' robbing, 10 mm window gap is fine (also helps keeping smoke levels down), I'll take more pictures the next time I am in my new bee house.

[SueBee]

I made a (removable) bee shelter out of some scrap timber which I use during winter (and again this MAY!). It keeps the worst of the weather off the hive, has an open front, the slatted sides allow ventilation, and the clear corrugated top allows the sunshine to warm the hive. Only problem I have with it is that I feel the need to tie it down with guy ropes just in case of a huge gust of wind.
Just took it off last week, but will put it back on this evening to take a photo and show you.
However, looking at the open bee houses, I am getting grander ideas...

[Troutnabout]

I got the idea for a bee house from a book my dad gave me "How to Keep Bees Without Finding the Queen" by Paul Mann, ISBN 978-1-904846-30-7, published by Northern Bee Books. The bee house is basically a shed with a gap in the roof that allows the bees out. The Bee House Chapter is short - 2 pages of text, 6 small B&W pics and a small line sketch of the house. The auther does say he has plans available for houses that take 8, 12 and 16 colonies, £5 per set.

Looking at the set up, I reckon the only form of swarm control that would be practicable would be a shook swarm.

[Mellifera Crofter]

hi Kitta,
the problem with a small entrance on the inside is that it increases the chances of 'silent' robbing, 10 mm window gap is fine (also helps keeping smoke levels down) ...

Thanks Calum - so would a bee house with a large roof overhang help to keep the bees dry on their way back to the hive - in other words, not like the Finsbury bee house I mentioned earlier? (Or am I being silly?)

Kitta

[Alvearium]

I remember in our association years ago there were two elderly beekeepers who had a beehouse and seemed quite successful. When I kept bees up north I came across 3 abandoned beehouses in the hills near Tomintoul. One still had bees in it. They were in a very isolated spot. They were probably built by David Emslie from Elgin in the years before the last war. I have attached an old Scottish Beekeeper advert. There is also a picture of these beehouses built on wheels in the Cummings & Logan bee book. They had little skylights at the top of the roof space to allow flying bees out. Our association apiary manager is dead keen on one of these for the future. Hope the attachments are there! By the way the beehouses I found were on metal runners so they could be winched on to a truck for moving.
Alvearium