Two new videos. Hive activity and bait hive/frame construction.

06-08-11

Here's a short video of the activity at the front of our hive and the inside (seen through the observation window) after about one month after installation. They seem to be doing pretty well. They're fairly active today, thankfully, it's been one of the only nice days we've had all spring. It's been pretty rainy and wet here. As you can see they're brining in pollen, which is a very good sign that the queen is laying. You can also see the top box is pretty much 100% full. You can see in the bottom box that they have not yet started building comb in that box. The only thing there is the small bit of comb that I moved down to try and encourage them to start building there. Not sure what else to do to try to get them to move down. If you've got any ideas, leave a comment.

 

06-11-13

This second video is a little bit longer. In it, I explain how I built two more bait hives. This time the with the correct internal volume! One is made out of two empty Warre boxes that I put a base and lid on and attached together. I forgot to mention in the video that I drilled some holes in the bottom box for the bees to use as an entrance. If I ever need to use that particular box in a hive, I'll just plug the holes with some quark. The second bait hive is made out of scrap wood I got for free from craigslist. I made it with just a skill saw, jig saw, and hand drill to show how easy it can be to build a bee hive. I did use the lath we ripped to size on my dad's table saw, however. So there's still that part that's a bit harder to do. Need to figure out an easy way to make those top bars without any special tools. In this video, I also show how I made some frames and half-frames to fit in a standard, unmodified Warre hive. I made these to use with my widow-less boxes so we can do inspections in them. I also made them to see how they worked in case anyone ever need to have removable frames for a beehive permit or what not. I still like the idea of Warre's system, using minimal intrusion and to simply let the bees be bees and do their thing, but it's nice to experiment and come up with way to let the bees do their thing and still be able to check on them once in a while. If one were to truly do minimally invasing beeking, it might be more like the Japanese system, which is pretty much the same as a Warre hive, but with no top bars at all, just some cross braces to give the honey comb some support and then let the bees make the comb any which way they please. I'm rambling now, though, here's the video.

Our extra Warre box transformed into a bait hive

In preparation for beekeeping this spring, I read a number of books (you can read some of my reviews here) including McCartney Taylor's book Swarm Traps and Bait Hives. I thought it would be great fun to try and capture a swarm of feral bees. Ultimately, however, I decided to purchase package bees, at least this first year, to guarantee that we had bees instead of sitting around all summer twiddling our fingers. On of the upshots of deciding to build a Warre hive as opposed to a Kenyan Top Bar was that we have extra boxes sitting around and doing nothing right now. I decided to take an extra box (or two or three if I build more) and make them into bait hives.

According to McCartney Taylor, the ideal interior dimensions of a bait hive should equal 40 liters. I don't know about you, but I don't think in liters. Here's what it turns out to be in cubic inches:
- McCartney Taylor's interior dimensions are 19.25" x 13" x 10" = 2502.5 inches cubed.

Contrast that with the interior dimensions of one Warre hive box:
- Warre box interior dimensions are 11.8" x11.8" x 8" = 1113.92 inches cubed.

That ends up being about half of what Taylor recommended. What's the downside of a smaller box? Well, aside from the obvious (the bees might not like it as much and decide not to take up residence there), apparently smaller cavities are more easily accepted by Africanized honey bees (i.e. "killer" bees). Thankfully, we don't have Africanized honey bees in Minnesota, so, despite the smaller size I decided to go for it and build the bait trap. More likely I'll catch a swarm with a small box than if I don't put one out at all, right?

In the future, I may use two Warre boxes bungeed together to make a trap (that would be almost exactly the right size). Or if I decide to make specific bait traps, I could make one double long, but still fit my Warre top bars. Then, after the trapped bees have started building comb, I could move the correctly sized top bars to a waiting Warre hive. That's all in the future, however, so I'll just show you what I did for now.

First, I cut out a single piece of plywood and screwed it on as a cover. I chose a single piece here, to keep rain from dripping onto the bees.

Then I cut two pieces to use as the bottom of the trap. I didn't have a big enough piece of plywood left over to make a single pieced bottom. I figured it didn't matter as much on the bottom if there was a seam, no rain water would leak in there anyway. Then, near the edge of on of the bottom pieces I used a jig saw to cut a 2" hole, and I staples some straightened out paper clips across the hole to keep birds out.

And then I attached both these pieces to the bottom with screws. And that's really about it. Taylor adds a piece to the back that he uses to hang it from. I think I'm just going to set one out on a little deck we have that we never use, and if I make another, I'll bungee that to a tree (level of course) in my father-in-law's backyard.

It's nice that we made our boxes with windows. It will be easy to check on any swarms we happen to catch to see how their comb construction is coming a long.

Here's the last picture. You can see the 2" hole near the back of the box.

Constructing the Beehive

The lumber, three 1x10x12s, also a piece of plywood and a package of all purpose lath in the back. Note the snow in the background. This might be Minnesota, but we usually don't have snow in April. In fact, we had two winter storm warnings in May as well. Our spring arrived so late that our shipment of bees kept getting postponed.

Grandpa, cutting the plywood on the radial arm saw. We also used this saw to cut the 1x10s to length as well as the top bars.

Our surprise find. The all purpose lath. It was the perfect height for the top bars so we just had to cut it into narrower strips and then to length. We also used it for the toggles to keep the windows in place, as well as for the jar feeder.

The "help" (i.e. - junior beekeepers Noah and James), got very bored on day one. Luckily they brought some books to read.

This is proof that I did something. This is me using a jig saw to free hand the windows in the boxes.

Here's how they ended up. On the right is some felt that I had lying around that we used as a sort of insulation. We stapled it under the plexiglass on on the backside of the windows. Time will tell if that was a good idea or not.

A guide we made on the table saw to cut the lath to the right dimensions for the top bars. We alsu used this saw to cut all the boards to the correct width and the plexiglass too.

Here's the table saw again with grandpa cutting the plexiglass to size. Notices the bandages on his fingers. This is day two. On day one we had a little accident with the table saw and a trip to the ER. He wasn't doing anything wrong, in fact we had already given the boys the "safety talk" about power tools and were being extra careful. It just caught a knot or something and kicked back. Thankfully, one of the safety precautions grandpa was using was having the blad only set to an eight of an inch higher than the lumber he was cutting. This action literally saved his fingers! The worst that happened was a lost finger nail. Respect the tools! They can be dangerous even when used correctly. Take all appropriate safety measures!!

The "help" got bored on day two as well. They took to climbing trees to pass the time.

Although... there was a little more for them to help out with. This is Noah stapling the felt to the back side of the box, underneath where the plexiglass will be.

Here's the roof coming together. The top board is one of the places we used the plywood. This board, in Warre's plan, was thinner than the rest. I assume because it needs to breath to allow moisture to evaporate from the quilt. I hope the glue holding the plywood together can breath!

The roof. again. Almost done!

And here's what we got accomplished in two days at Grandpa's. The base, one box, the quilt, and the roof. The rest of the pieces are cut out and the holes drilled as well, so we'll finish those at home.

And, to thank the boys for their patients, we surprised them with some swords we made.