Top Bar Hives

My new Top Bar hive arrived a little while ago and I had a lot of fun putting it together with the less-than-complete instructions, but there is not much to it and it is pretty obvious what you need to do. They are very cheap compared to the National hives I have used to date. £65 from Thornes and that includes a £10 donation to Bees for Development. I made a stand out of scrap wood (as I usually do for my hives) and it looks pretty good, even if it is made out of plywood. It will be interesting to see how it lasts through next winter. I will varnish it soon (on the outside only of course) and also give the roof a covering of felt or something similar. All I need now are some bees to put in it - but the days are getting warmer again now so there will be plenty of chances to catch a swarm soon.

The hive roof just sits on top of the top-bars which can be seen more clearly in my second picture which shows the inside of the hive, the mesh floor, the sliding cover for the mesh floor and a stack of top-bars. You can see that the bar on the top has been turned over so the line of wax is visible - I melted some old wax into grooves cut into each top-bar as a guide for the bees to build on. They don't always follow it though - one friend of mine told me his bees built combs at 90 degree angles to the top-bars which was pretty tricky for him to deal with. I shall post later on in the season as things progress with this hive, so I can share what I learn and how the bees get on...

...well, last week I picked up a swarm from a local village; it was a good size and so I decided to get it into the top bar hive to see if they would take to it. I got the swarm into the hive well and got the top bars back onto the hive. After a couple of hours they were all in there and seemed like they were happy enough. I checked on them today and they were taking in pollen, which is an indication that the Queen is laying brood. I opened up the far end of the hive to see if I could see them on the other end. As you can see from this photo, there are plenty of bees and although I could not see any comb, there seemed to be some in there; it was just covered in bees. They seem to be building the comb across the bars as I hoped they would. Now I have to give them the chance to build up the colony; it's going to be very interesting to see how they get on.

Apiary Security

More people wanting to keep bees, and the problem with bee numbers falling, has led to the price of bees rising; this has meant they have become of interest to thieves. This can be especially worrying for those of us who put our hives out in the forest where we are trying to take advantage of the flowering heather. Germany, Australia, Israel, Japan and America have all recently reported that hive theft is on the increase. So what can you do to help prevent this happening to you? Here are some tips:

• Make sure your hives are not visible from the road, footpaths or other public access routes.
• Branding or carving hive parts, or writing on them with indelible markers will help. Try to mark in areas that are less obvious or difficult for thieves to sand down, like in corners. Mark with your post code or surname, something you will be able to quote to the police. UV pens are available too at a low cost and this will add to the likelihood that your marking will survive if the police find your hive.
• Check Google Maps on the Internet to see if the satellite view of where you put your hives can be seen – thieves use this internet tool to spot where apiaries are and then go to the location to steal them.
• For a high tech solution, there are products like Smartwater; each batch is unique and the police can take samples found on property recovered and trace goods back to their owners through this product.
• Some apiarists are fitting small GPS locators, like buddi, to their hives (again – not the cheapest solution); typically professional apiarists are attaching these to a small number of their hives and then if they are stolen as a batch, they have a chance of quickly finding out where the hives and the thieves are.
• Don’t use ‘Beware of the Bees’ signs; it’s a big give away!
• If you screw your brood box and hive base together, and screw those into a concrete stand/base, thieves will be unable to take the brood box away.
• Another option is using ground anchors that have a loop of steel on the top (often used for tethering dogs or bikes). If you then attach a small padlock hook to the base of your brood box, you will be able to chain the brood box to the steel loop in the ground, making it immovable.
• Many people strap their hives to their stands where the stands have extra long legs buried into the ground. OK, but remember the hive straps can easily be cut; so screwing the hive into the buried stand would make it more secure.
• Reduce the number of people who know you have bees at a specific location; they could unwittingly pass on the information in conversation to thieves.
• Make sure gates providing access to your apiary are locked and high. Make sure fences are high and cannot be easily breached; it’s not easy to carry a hive over a high fence or gate.
• Thieves usually work at night, so a security light trained on your apiary would soon put them off, especially if the light would alert nearby houses.
• Your spare supplies are kept in the shed? Make sure the shed is locked, it’s well secured; I have a small burglar alarm fitted in my shed (£5!) and signs on the shed window warning thieves that it is protected.
• Contact alarms are very cheap now; these consist of two small (no bigger than a small matchbox) electronic (battery) devices that are connected to each other magnetically only. If they are separated a loud and piercing alarm is released until they are connected again. If one is fitted to your brood box/floor and the other to your stand (which should be heavy or tethered to the ground) then this makes an effective hive alarm!
• You can buy mock CCTV cameras that could be pointed at the apiary; it could be enough to worry thieves that they could be real. Or you could fit real CCTV triggered on a sensor that then records on its own storage that you can load on a computer if there is a theft. Don’t buy bee hives on eBay unless you are sure they are not stolen; this is how many stolen hives are sold. Ask questions about their history, why they are being sold. Also, eBay Sellers with very low feedback responses are often people that set up one account to sell something stolen, then close the account as soon as the sale is made.
• If you are unlucky – report the theft to the police and warn your local bee keeping association so other members can be on the lookout.

I read recently that in the USA a beehive ‘heist’ led to an apiarist thief being prosecuted on several accounts of grand theft, petty theft and trespassing. Hopefully similar harsh sentences will be handed out here in the UK.   

Encouragement from Fellow Bee Keepers

It's been a long time since I posted as it's been really busy with the pigs, the chickens, the garden, then the cold set in and I almost completely stopped checking on the bees as it would have disturbed them too much during the freezing temperatures. I made sure they had some feed before the cold set in, on top of the honey stores they had made for themselves. We had a slightly warmer day at the start of January and some of the bees were coming out, doing some housework, bringing out some of the dead bees, good normal stuff; then I noticed there was nothing from the larger colony (Alpha). I decided to check on them and sure enough, they were all dead. The varroa seemed low, there were stores and extra feed available which I had given them, the frames didn't smell like it was foul brood; it just seems that they didn't manage to keep themselves alive over the very cold nights through the end of 2010 (it got down to -12c at least on a couple of occasions). But attending the New Forest and District Bee Keepers Association today gave me a chance to talk to some of the other local bee keepers about it and encouraged me that this happens and if they had feed and the hive was in good condition and they were disease free/very low, then I did what I could. I am just pleased the other colony (Delta) is doing well and although it was a good deal smaller than the colony I lost, it should build well when the Spring kicks in. It's good to see the Bee Keeping Association folk on a regular basis to check your thinking on these things and get some encouragement when things go a bit awry.

Local Apiary Visit

Local beekeeping associations often run apiary visits for their beekeepers (especially new ones) to see the apiaries of other local beekeepers, old hands who have established colonies and are willing to go through their hive checks with 20 keen newbies asking lots of questions. It's such a great way to see how someone else does it, what kit they have, how they use it, what tips they have and make some new friends. Today we saw three different queens, how to mark a queen, saw some queen cells too and got to ask many questions. The weather was glorious too. Back home, my new queen arrived in the post and so I caged her and gave her a frame of brood and a frame of stores in a new hive. I shall give them some feed tomorrow too and see if they have time to develop a decent size colony. I shall let you know how that 'Beta' colony develops...

Alpha Hive growing Fast

Checked the hive today and great to see numbers growing again. They completely finished the Apifonda I gave them last week and hopefully are now building their stores themselves. I have added another super to the hive too, to make sure they have enough room to develop their stores even further. As this picture shows, there are brood cells (the ones with the convex, spherical tops) being hatched too. Haven't spotted the Queen, but I know she is there as she is laying so well. Trying to keep the grass down around the two hives, whilst not annoying the bees, can be tricky. They don't like the noise or the heat of the mower, so it's a good idea to get in and out quickly, so they don't have time to get too agitated.

Where is the warm Spring weather?

Two weeks of cold weather was unexpected; arctic winds apparently. This has meant that my Alpha colony has not been able to get out and build their supplies. Also, when they have been out, there have been fewer plants in flower compared to usual for this time of the year. When I checked them today, there were high numbers of bees in compared to two weeks ago, but their stores were very low. This means I need to give them some fondant to feed on otherwise some of them may starve before new supplies are available. However, I am delighted to see so many bees and brood in the hive. The queen has been laying well, although I have ordered a replacement queen as she is at least two years old now. There are delays on getting new queens right now as the Ash Cloud hit flights have affected supplies in the UK!

New Brood in the Hive

It was dry today for the first day this last week, but more notably, it was sunny and warm too. Lots of the bees were out just after lunch, so whilst the sun was out too, I had a look in the hive. My main concern was that last time I checked them, I could see no new brood and was worried the queen was not laying or worse had died over winter. However, after a quick look through the Super, I got into the brood box to see if I could find the Queen, or any brood. It was quickly apparent that there was brood, though, and so I knew the Queen was in there somewhere. As they were a bit agitated, I closed up the hive again, replaced the fondant I had been feeding them to get them going, put on the roof and left them to it. So now the thing is to let them get going over the next few weeks, then at the end of April I will have to keep and eye on them weekly to see if they start to make Queen Cells in the hive, as I think this Queen is due to be replaced. The new hive is ready to go out too, with the new stand made and the hive varnished. I shall keep my fingers crossed for a swarm soon!

Snow and Frost

Another frost today... and on Monday too. It's been such a consistently cold four months in a row. The snow in December and January (we didn't really get any worth bragging about in February) looked good, but was indicative of what the season was like, even down here in the south of England.

So what affect has this had on the bees? I didn't bother them very much at all through those months, for fear of robbing them of the little heat they had manage to retain in their hive. The colony was not too large, so their stores lasted them well. They seem to be fairly local bees too, which means they are probably better equipped to deal with the colder weather than their European cousins; although all bees in the UK are now hybrids of varying amounts of the European and original UK honey bee.

First Internal Inspection for 2010

On Saturday I made the first proper inspection of the Alpha hive this year as it has been way too cold before now. It was bright and sunny, quite warm, and the bees were coming in and out of the hive, so I went through the whole hive. There were no grubs, so I became a bit concerned. I couldn't find the queen, but nothing new there. I went to Thornes earlier in the week and ordered a new hive, but whilst I was there I bought some Apifonda too. So I gave them a pack of it to get them going and hopefully the queen is there and will start laying. Cleared out the dead bees from winter from the bottom of the hive. Also checked the inspection sheet under the hive (it's a open mesh floor); couldn't see a single mite, even under the microscope. Replaced the queen excluder. Two frames of honey still in the super, though. Made a new stand for the new hive, ready for when it arrives.

How it started...

On the 26th of May, 2009, at 19.00, I picked up a swarm of bees from a friend at the local Bee Keeping association. They were in a cardboard box at some local allotments. I put them in the car, with my bee suit on, and drove home. I took them down to the new hive I had recently bought and dropped them into the hive. I gave them a small amount of sugar solution to get them started. I couldn't see the queen, but there were plenty of bees in there looking happy enough. I put the hive back together and crossed my fingers that they would stay there and do well.

I was lucky. They took to the hive very happily and soon started drawing the frames out and soon they were making honey and the queen, who had indeed survived the trip, started laying eggs. The colony was successfully housed and began to grow from there...