Keeping bees amongst the trees

[MrPaul]

I love bee keeping, very sad! Been doing it for around 5 years, though this year was the first time we tried to harvest our wax, very easy in the end and a lot of fun!

 

Roll on the lip balm, candles and a bit of home grown honey too!!

 

Awesome, this is something I've always wanted to try :3

[TGB]

Out of interest, what is the melt temp. of bees' wax? Melting some yesterday in a barrel stove, to coat the top bars of two warre hives and it took ages.

[New Boy]

Hi sorry, I am not sure of the temp (even though at the time i was interested to see, hence the picture) I just melted slowly in the end and just used common sense, which seemed to work, basically when it was a liquid I poured it into my mould. All I would say that even though I was careful and protected the kitchen surface it still needed a good clean!!!

 

Good luck

[TGB]

... I would say that even though I was careful and protected the kitchen surface it still needed a good clean!!!

 

Good luck

No problem there, as we were out in the woods prepping the hives before siting.

[Inoff the Red]

Out of interest, what is the melt temp. of bees' wax? Melting some yesterday in a barrel stove, to coat the top bars of two warre hives and it took ages.

 

Beeswax melts at about 62/64c (144f)

An easy way to melt wax is to put the wax in a big jar and stand the jar in pan of boiling water, you can see the wax melt and then pour it into your moulds. If you leave it for a few mins before pouring any honey in the wax will separate and any bits fall to the bottom of the jar.

[Tim Stobart Tree Surgery]

If it is a colony of bumble bees, unless they are causing a nuisance or can be moved easily I'd leave them where they are, they will be gone in autumn/winter.

 

Unless the bumbles have nested in a box (they are often attracted to bird boxes) I think you will find it difficult to move them. Although bumbles are not aggressive, if you start destroying the nest while trying to move them they will get agitated.

 

If you want to keep bumbles do a search on Amazon for bumble bee nests and you will get an idea of what to build to house them.

 

If however, they are honey bees and not bumbles then I suggest you enlist the help of a beekeeper to move them because the consequences of getting it wrong could be quite dramatic. A bumble bee nest may comprise 30 or 40 bees, a honey bee swarm could have 20,000.

 

It was a bumble bee nest, in a shed used as a chicken coup which was full of sawdust. It had already been disturbed. I built a rough box, lifted the nest in, and left it with the lid off till midnight. I then put the lid on, covered the entrance hole, and carried them home. They're now at the foot of a hedge, I've left them bee since!

[SteveA]

Out of interest, what is the melt temp. of bees' wax? Melting some yesterday in a barrel stove, to coat the top bars of two warre hives and it took ages.

 

Pre-heating the bars to 80 degrees Celsius in the oven works pretty well for me, then run the melted wax down a piece of damp balsa-wood held at a right angle to the groove in the top bar. Trim any flimsy bits of wax off with a hot knife (vintage Sheffield steel knife is good for this).

 

Use a silver spoon to pour the wax along the balsa & into the groove, (preheat the spoon in the hot water so the wax doesn't start to set on the spoon!).

 

Seems people are also having success using wooden lollipop handles waxed into the groove... and also triangular shaped top bars (more surface area for the comb to attach).

 

Cheers, Steve

[breffni]

Does anyone use horizontal top bar hives? I'm planning to build one. I think from what I've been reading they are better for the bees as the comb is constructed more naturally.

[SteveA]

Does anyone use horizontal top bar hives? I'm planning to build one. I think from what I've been reading they are better for the bees as the comb is constructed more naturally.

 

I'll probably make one of those one day, but also happy to stick with Warre hives (which also have top bars).

I'd also like to make a log hive.... which is probably as close to any natural bee habitat as you are likely to get (a hollowed out tree trunk).

cheers, steve

[K66 LOG]

hi i have being keep bees 4 15 years. i keep my bees in national hives it is a lot easier to inspect the hives in summer ,you will find the comb will drop off the the top bar when you inspect the hive