Bees

[PlainQB]

Hello,

We now have space to put our first hives (yeay, we're so excited). What hive do you have and why? Has anyone had any experience of those compressed polystyrene jobbies? I'm not that interested in skeps as I've made two myself and now don't know what to do with them as I don't actually want to use them to keep bees in (I might sell them as romantic garden ornaments!).

Any advise or experiences would be welcome, thank you,

QB

[southeast-isher]

Sounds great! Don't forget the BioBees forum :-)

[Big Al]

Without wishing to hijack the thread, I was thinking of doing a green roof / flower roof on the garage. Along with the mad plans was the idea of letting a local bee keeper put a hive up there as well. Does this sound remotly feasible before I look for a local bee keeper?

[oldjerry]

Why not keep a hive or two yourself? In the early 80's I met a bloke who kept hives on the roof of his flat in Birmingham,and they had plenty of foraging in local parks gardens etc.(ie your livestock are fed at other peoples expense!!).Keeping their fight path above head level makes sense too. nb keeping bees is probably the only thing I want to do that that I've never done,done the courses,met the people etc,it just never happened,....first thing to do in our new place..

[southeast-isher]

Famous beekeeper:

http://oi52.tinypic.com/350rtd0.jpg

[JillStephens7]

Famous beekeeper:

http://oi52.tinypic.com/350rtd0.jpg

Oh I love it! Lyndhurst is no fool when it comes to bees

I've seen bees kept on rooves on the telly and they seemed to be fine, didn't have a special roof or anything, they just went off to feed.

Have finally got myself booked in for an open afternoon at the local beekeepers association so am very excited!

Bearing in mind I have very little idea about anything we hope one day to build a top bar hive, think the plans are on this site somewhere.

Good luck!

Jill

[southeast-isher]

Jill... regarding Top Bar Hive plans there are some here:

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/how-t ... ve/6288193

[MKG]

Well - that was annoying SEIsher. I was actually quite interested in the subject, but following that link led me to a set of adverts that refused to be moved from my screen. Is there a better source for the plans?

Mike

[Davie Crockett]

What an interesting thread!

I found this link to a hive Mike (PDF) http://www.britishbee.org.uk/files/How_ ... r_hive.pdf

Cheers,
Davie

[MKG]

Brilliant!! - Thanks Davie.

Mike