Beekeeping

[ning]

Separating boxes, you mean supers?

If so, we don't have supers... We have one box. No supers. No lifting. No separating

View attachment 3168940View attachment 3168941

What is this style of hive called?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

What is this style of hive called?

This is a Layens hive

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. CloverKnollFarms, have your hives survived the storms?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Mr. CloverKnollFarms, have your hives survived the storms?

Yessir. They are all still standing. Looks like the swarm traps should have survived too. It was a gnarly night. Had this trim stuck 1" into a tree in my front lawn

 

[drumminj]

Nucs are supposed to be ready in early May, so getting things prepped. Built the stand and finalized (hopefully?) the placement for the hives back in the woods a bit but close to the garden. We'll see how it all goes.




@CloverKnollFarms thanks for the recommedation in this thread for "Keeping Bees With a Smile." Been reading that and it makes me think Layens/horizontal hives are the way to go. Had already bought woodenware so will see how things go with the Langsroth, but reading the book makes it feel like it's obvious to do a horizontal hive with deep frames vs the "industrialized" approach. Curious to see how it works for someone who doesn't really care to harvest much honey nor prevent swarming.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Anytime. I just sold two more Layens hives this week In the coming weeks we to should start to see swarms in action!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I've looked in on 4 hives thus far. Three have a lot of brood, maybe 7 frames... So in a couple weeks they will be booming. Two had capped honey from last year left.

One is struggling. They weren't awesome last year. The queen is giving up the ghost. Spotty laying pattern, low bee count. They have 4 queen cells with uncapped larvae, so I marked those frames. They are probably 5-6 days old now. So in about 12 days we will have some virgin queens.

I see an opportunity. They have lots of honey and pollen, so are well fed. I'll look for capped queen cells in 5-6 days... If I have plenty, I'm stealing a frame with queen cells, and a few frames of brood and eggs from the larger hives and making a split.

Oddly, even the colonies that were strong, are WEEKS behind last year.

 

[drumminj]

Anytime. I just sold two more Layens hives this week In the coming weeks we to should start to see swarms in action!

Are the buyers of your hives generally new beekeepers, or more experience folks understanding the decision they are making (horizontal vs langsroth)?

 

[BackRoad]

On the splits, how do you get worker bees moved to the new hive? What keeps them from returning to the original hive?

Amazing bees!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Are the buyers of your hives generally new beekeepers, or more experience folks understanding the decision they are making (horizontal vs langsroth)?

They are both.