Here are some pictures of the hives I am talking about, none of these hives have frames or foundation they also do not use suppers, they are based on a more natural way of bee keeping letting the bees decide how they want to build their comb.
Kenyan top bar hive
Warée Hive although this may look like a standard hive again there are no frames in the hive the bees are allowed to build their comb as they would in nature from the top down. Instead of suppering the hive when it fills with honey they are naried a box is put underneath and the bees carry on down. This is a tall one and you would normally start off with a couple of boxes first.
This is our Hive again in side is a wooden box with just top bars, we have chained ours slightly and ours is also designed to accept frames as well but it is recommended for top bars.
The design of the first two hives is such that they can be built with very little money and expense, they can be made of old pallets or any other wood that is available. For instance I am going to YABeeP at the end of the month to build Warée hives the cost of these complete will be less than £45.00 with new wood. The only other things needed apart from bees is a suit, hive tool and water sprayer ( we don't use smoke) hope you have found this interesting
Similar Topics
March 31, 2013, 15:07