Comments on: One Tall Bee Hive

By: Billy

Billy — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 21:36:29 +0000

Help! Veteran beekeepers, I need your input. In early spring of 2014, I bought & set my first box, which contained bees. I had the traditional stack of 3. Last week, I tried for the first time to harvest some honey. I took off the top, and it was full of tiny winged insects, possibly ant drones, as there also were tiny ants crawling up the posts to the hive. There also were many tiny bugs scurrying about that were round and black, and I would say looked like tiny roaches of some sort. I took the honey super off and it was still brand new. There were bees in it, but no honey and appears never was after about 16 months. I’m in the Southern forests of Deep East Texas. Can I sprinkle ant poison around the hive, or will the bees pick it up? Not only do I not want to kill the bees, I don’t want to kill us!

By: philip

philip — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 21:22:53 +0000

In reply to Marcia. Event for the brood box use shallow supers. When one gets full remove it and process the honey. Simple

By: Cécile Stelzer Johnson

Cécile Stelzer Johnson — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 16:00:23 +0000

First and foremost, save your back. I’d reconfigure the site or the hive stand if I were you. Mine stand in a heap of mulch which makes it easier to level. The mulch also makes it easier to drench the soil around the hive to prevent ants from gaining access. On top of this, I have stands built of 1-1/2″PVC. They are sturdy enough for me to jump on them without breaking. The legs stand in an inverted slotted shower drain (the green or black sturdy plastic ones are great because the rain drains right through, yet make a sturdier stand). I’ve had a hive that weighed 305 Lbs last year with no trouble. If you use cement blocks, lay them on the side: snow and melt and freeze may crack blocks).
Next, tackle the height issue: I went with all mediums to lower the weight. Some folks use 8 frame equipment. I’m not sure if combining the two would work because eventually, you deal with a space that is to small to be functional for the bees in winter.
My back is not what it used to be, so I have a plastic table (those fold-able things that you can stand on their side when you are done but that can stay outside). If I choose to remove an entire super of honey at one time, I never need to move it lower than waist high. I can put the super directly on the table (but you may squish some girls) or place a couple of 2 X 4 on the table and place the super on the 2 X 4s.
Finally, you may want to have a short (but *very sturdy* stool-make it big enough to stand comfortably) that you can place next to the hive to stand on it and the table with an empty box on it and remove frame by frame.
Otherwise, the Slovenian hives already mentioned might work quite well. (Unfortunately, you would have to completely remodel the whole thing). Same thing with the top-bar hive. Some folks have good success with the top bar hive, others find it too small for the hive to survive Wisconsin winters. also, I’m not sure how you keep the queen from laying all over the place, but I’m not familiar with that equipment. Good luck to you. Just remember that a few pounds of honey are not worth a slipped disk!

By: Cécile Stelzer Johnson

Cécile Stelzer Johnson — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 16:00:23 +0000

By: George

George — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 17:33:08 +0000

In reply to Dennis Cameron. Dennis, Too many variables to give you a cost. Depends on what you need? Whether or not you are going to purchase or build hives? What equipment you think you will need (many people don't wear any protective gear). Whether or not you will purchase your bees, try to find a swarm, or just bait the hive in the spring and see if you can entice a swarm to take up residence. Google beekeeping and look at sites to get information and costs. Purchase some books on beekeeping and figure out how deeply you want to get into this.

By: Dennis Cameron

Dennis Cameron — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:20:22 +0000

Thinking about getting to bees.And wondering the cost to get started.

By: Joyce

Joyce — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:02:29 +0000

I, too, am short (and shrinking every day it seems!). I have just had my husband cut down all my 10 frame boxes to 8’s to reduce weight. I am also moving to all shallow 8’s for my honey supers in order to reduce weight and size. As more women are getting involved in beekeeping, I see 8-frame equipment becoming more popular. I currently have one hive with 8 boxes on it! Hope you have a great year!

By: John Grigsby

John Grigsby — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:09:37 +0000

Since I am a new beek I wonder how hard it will be to get my shallows off the top? I am 6 supers high. I had no problem reaching the top with an empty hive, but getting it down will be much more difficult.

By: George

George — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 02:22:39 +0000

Google Slovenian bee hives and take a look at them. In Slovenia, the beekeepers are old and their design seems to make a lot of sense to me. You access the hive from the rear while the bees access the hive from the front. The comb frames slide out. They are designed this way to make it easier for the old timers in Slovenia to access the honey easily. I have one of these hives on order through ebay. Looking forward to experimenting with it.

By: Marcia

Marcia — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 01:50:20 +0000

Thank you for writing about setting up hive height. I’m a 5’2″ new Beek and am always wondering how I should take care of my hives down the road. I’m currently 51 years old and am very much looking forward to safely continue my hobby for many, many years! Any tips and tricks are always helpful.