peak-hives.co.uk » beekeeping

Last Orders…

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:48:46 +0000

Holidays 2010!!!! Woohoo!!!!

Just finished for the 2 week hols. We’re taking the ankle biters to France camping. Euro Exchange rate could have been kinder but what the hell…this year has been about building up to this so we’re going no matter what.

Here’s a quick piccy of a 14 x 12 Nucleus Hive. The customer wanted a stand to suit so endeavouring to please I’ve made one up to the nuc size. The Nucleus was ordered flat pack but as a token compensation for her patience in waiting for the order I decided to build it up and throw in one of the small hive tools and frame lifters too. Must be the holiday season going to me ‘ead…

14x12 Nucleus Hive With Stand

All the best and here’s to bountiful honey crops for all. See you in 2 weeks or so…(and yes I do have work waiting for when we return but I’m going to put it well out of my head for the next fortnight)

Nick

Branding and Calendar Widget

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:22:25 +0000

A quick note before I head for the Cedar…news of some planned product improvements and workflow/customer service.

First of all I’m having a branding iron made for Peak Hives. It will allow me to brand all Peak Hives assembled products both inside and out with a unique serial number should the client request it. There’s been quite a few hive thefts in Derbyshire (see latest Beecraft) and as bees and hives come to the fore and increase more and more in value I think putting an indelible unique identifier on each hive is a good idea. The serial number will be the customers ‘PHXXXXXX’ order number which is unique to each customer and it can be burned into the timber as the hive is assembled so I can do it both inside and out in places that would make removal very difficult indeed whilst not affecting detrimentally the look of the hive.

Following on from that I’ve decided to implement a calendar widget on the Peak Hives web page where customers can check where their order is in the queue. We are a cottage industry striving for sustainability and mass production isn’t what Peak Hives is about. But we are a business and keeping customers happy is core to any business. The idea is that for every order received there will be a ‘PHXXXXXX’ serial number generated which would be sent to the customer. This would then be placed on a frequently updated calendar visible on the main page. The customer could then easily check where their order was in the queue and have peace of mind as to when it would be finished and despatched. There’s a bit of programming to do on the page so it won’t be done until this current busy period is over but it should be a helpful improvement in future.

Finally, I always like to put up some visuals so here’s a piccy of a couple of National Hives that recently left the workshop…

Standard National Hives from Peak Hives

Ashforth Feeders

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:50:48 +0000

The weather’s turned a bit unpleasant here in the Peak and due to my swarm control activities I have a new nucleus colony. I’ve decided to feed them up and made up a pair of Ashforth Feeders, one for a full size National Hive and one for my 5 frame Nucleus Hives. I tried the plastic contact feeders that most of the other suppliers sell and having been warned by experienced beeks that they were rubbish I can confirm from my own experience that they’re right. They are rubbish. I’ve decided to opt for the Ashforth as the best feeder. The other option would be the Miller but according to other beeks they are not as good as they require your hive to be perfectly level (and I know mine aren’t).

They are made of First Grade Cedar and have a bee space underneath to allow the bees maximum access to the syrup. The full size feeder can easily accomodate 10 litres of syrup and the nucleus size around 5 litres. I’ll be adding them as Peak Hives products as soon as the broadband arrives at the new house.

Ashforth Feeders

One BIG Order!

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:52:09 +0000

After dedicating myself to getting up at 5am and finishing in the workshop at 11pm for the last week I’ve finally finished Matthew’s 23 fully assembled Cedar National Hives. That’s 23 National Hive Stands, 23 Varroa Floors, 23 National Brood Boxes, 46 National Supers, 23 Framed and Wired Queen Excluders, 23 Crown Boards with Porter Bee Escapes, 23 National Hive Gabled Roofs and a partridge in a pear tree.

Here’s a piccy of Matthew (and Alexandra, one of mine) who runs Honey Bees At Home just about cramming it all in to a long wheel base Mercedes Sprinter Van. Many thanks to Matthew and all the best with Honey Bees At Home!

I am well and truly knackered but will be making up orders again tomorrow first thing…it’s a good job I love my workshop.

23 Assembled Hives!

An inspector calls…

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 07:35:57 +0000

Regional FERA Bee Inspector Tim Roper (of Ropers Honey) called round under the FERA free inspection offer (you need to register with Beebase in order to qualify for a free inspection and it’s definitely worth it. My opinion is that it in these times registration should be obligatory. Anyway, after looking at Peak Hives 2 colonies he pronounced them in good health. There was some evidence of chalk brood but not enough to cause too much concern.

The bees are now filling up the new super with drawn comb and there’s the ‘old socks’ smell of Dandelion honey. Tim says it’s quite nice to eat though.

Fera Inspecting Peak Hives Apiary

Monitoring Varroa

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:10:45 +0000

We’ve now got two strong looking colonies of British Black Bee (Apis Mellifera Mellifera) in the Peak Hives Apiary. On inspection the other day with our experienced beekeeping friend Carl we popped off a cap from a drone cell and there looking up at us was a fat and annoyingly healthy Varroa Destructor mite. Today I decided to start a monitoring process using the slide out trays on our Varroa floors which will be in the hives for the next seven days. When they are removed the mite drop will be counted and action taken if the mite drop is above certain suggested levels (see the Beebase page on Varroa and the very useful Varroa Calculator).

I read somewhere about putting oil onto the paper laid on the slide out trays to make sure the little buggers can’t get away or don’t blow away and in the photo you can see the two trays that went into the hives today at 4pm. On the right is just plain white paper and on the left the paper has been liberally coated with sunflower oil. I did wonder if the smell from the oil might cause fright to the bees. Perhaps someone with better knowledge could comment on that. Anyway in they went and now to wait for the results.

Varroa Mite Monitoring

Peak District Cedar National Hive

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:32:07 +0000

It’s taken up most of the afternoon but I’ve just been down to Rowsley Sawmill and picked up the latest batch of locally sourced Western Red Cedar. I’ve had a towbar fitted to the Peak Hives Berlingo this morning and then borrowed my brothers 3/4 tonne trailer to pick up the lumber. It will now join the Chatsworth Cedar to be seasoned ready for making up into National Hives. The Chatsworth Cedar is feeling lighter by the day now and I’ve started machining up some hive parts with it. Cedar is an incredibly good wood to work and it’s characteristics are so well suited for beehive construction. Many thanks to Adele and Dave at the Peak Park for helping me get to the trees before they were chopped up for firewood!

Peak District Cedar

Peak Hives Quality Control

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:00:27 +0000

There’s nothing worse than woodworking for leaving you with egg on your face. It happens in even the very best cabinet makers. Just as this standard National Hive floor was about to leave the workshop to be sent out to the customer I decided to lay the tape measure across it and lo and behold it was 8mm short in one dimension! The workshop air didn’t quite turn blue but I did sigh with relief that I wasn’t going to get a call in a couple of days asking why my National Hive floors were different sizes to everyone elses.

oops!

The only solution was to quickly make up another as the rest of the order was ready for delivery.

To err is human.

Peak Hives Apiary!

admin — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:57:37 +0000

The idea of turning the joinery workshop into a National Hives business originally arose out of my own desire to start beekeeping and a few months ago I was lucky enough to meet Richard H who offered a couple of colonies in exchange for equipment. Last week I travelled down (in the new Peak Hives livery) and picked up two hives bursting to the seams with British Black Bees. After a very nervous journey up the M1 I made it back to Tideswell and with some effort in the dark managed to get the hives in place. I was concerned that it might have been early in the year to bring colonies up here to the cold Peak but the bees were ready so delay was out of the question.

Yesterday I had a window of opportunity to do a first inspection and super the colonies.

First Bee Inspection

So far, to my untrained eye, everything looks good. Now to see if the combination of the often inclement (to say the least) Peak District weather and my inexperience as a beekeeper will not result in disaster. I will do my very best. Fortunately I’m with Chesterfield BKA who are known to be very supportive and also have a couple of aquaintances who are experienced beekeepers who might be able to lend a hand.

Stoneleigh Convention

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:23:29 +0000

I’ve had a few enquiries as to whether Peak Hives will be exhibiting at Stoneleigh. I won’t be able to attend even as a visitor this year as I’m busy with orders and can’t spare the time. Hopefully I’ll get chance to get ahead of the game for 2011 and have a stand next year. To all of you who can get to it this year have a great time!