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British National BeehivesBased in a small workshop in Tideswell in the Peak District we make Highest Quality British National Beehives out of 1st grade American Western Red Cedar or High Quality Red Deal according to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) Modified National Hive Plans. Everything we sell we make here in the Peak District. We also stock other items of Beekeeping Supplies including Frames, Foundation Wax and Hive Tools. The driving forces behind peak-hives.co.uk are sustainability and quality workmanship. Sustainability because, well it matters quite a bit we think and quality workmanship because customer satisfaction is paramount. Cedar Scarcity.Unfortunately building materials are extremely scarce at the moment and pricing is highly volatile. This goes for Western Red Cedar too. I have decided that until the market settles down I will not be making up any Cedar hives or hive parts. We'll be back in operation once the supply issues have been resolved. Many thanks.webcam...Want to see your National Hive being made? Here's what's going on in the workshop right now. The image is updated every 10 minutes during working hours. Click to see full size... blog...The rest of the centre column is an ongoing blog of what's new at peak-hives.co.uk and other items of interest...veg garden...renewables etc, but please don't let reading about the allotment distract you from placing your order...:-)quite a few orders on despite the inclement weather for bees…people must be preparing for next season and planning on making up a few flat packs over the christmas break…so here’s a few national hive rails in cedar and red deal ready to go into flat pack beehive kits…  british national hive top and bottom rails was stood at the tennoning machine most of the afternoon… auction to promote the business…every wednesday and sunday a british national hive item will go for auction… busy bee in the workshop…british national hive rails half made up. then split into 4 piles. 1 cedar for bottom rails. 1 red deal for the same. 1 cedar for top rails and 1 red deal for the same…more machining to do tomorrow…bevels and rebates…  making national hive rails …ebay has it’s place I suppose. flat pack national super in western red cedar  flat pack national hive super on ebay mix and match your british national hive parts in cedar and red deal. we’ve noticed that quite a lot of customers like to buy certain parts of their national hives in western red cedar and other parts in red deal. typically those parts that are out all year round (stand, floor, brood box and roof) are supplied in western red cedar but national supers are supplied in red deal as they are often taken in during the winter and so receive less harsh treatment. this seems to make sense so we’ll be updating the site to allow the purchase of a complete and flat pack national hive but made up of the different timbers. in the meantime if you’d like to place such an order then mail us at nicholas@localhost interesting report on beekeeping by the food programme on radio 4. visit to the national honey show. had a visit to the workshop today by some senior members of the Leicestershire & Rutland Bee Keepers Association and gave a guided tour of Peak Hives. They made some great suggestions as to modifications particularly to crown board design which are going to be incorporated into the standard Peak Hives crown board. Any other bka’s are more than welcome to pay us a visit in Tideswell. All the best and thanks to the lrbka for the visit. Nick talking of ebay…I couldn’t resist. given that peak-hives is all about providing everything for national hives I bought this on an ebay auction a couple of days ago. it’s the 1961 ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food advisory leaflet 367. here’s a pdf of the entire document… and here’s a page with all the text and images… seems that if you’re running a small business it’s good policy to also have an ebay thing going…so our ebay user id is ‘peak-hives’ I’ll try to put a product up there every wednesday and sunday to help spread the word. to be honest though given the way people spend spend spend on ebay it’s probably cheaper to purchase national hive products off this site. all the best nick nice gabled roof hive with a 14×12 brood box in red deal…  national hive with gabled roof and 14x12 brood chamber the 14×12 certainly give alot more space in the brood box. be interesting to calculate the volume sizes comparing standard brood with 14×12…one day will get the calculator out. I think in our apiary setup next year we’ll go with one standard and one 14×12 to compare. two complete assembled national hives finished this weekend. 1 standard in cedar with brood box, 2 supers, varroa floor, stand with landing board, crown board and standard roof. 1 in red deal with 14×12 brood box, varroa floor, 2 supers, gabled roof. now for the packing and arrange delivery. could do with a packing department! they should be with their owners by wednesday latest. this weeks orders so far include 11 x flat pack nationals and various supers and brood boxes. busy bee! very busy day! locally sourced cedar being the big event. anyway, here’s the flat pack national hive roof assembly instructions in pdf format. arranged to pick up locally sourced western red cedar in november. couldn’t contain myself and had to hop on the bike to go and see the tree and here’s a picture (location carefully disguised). now to find a kiln and a resaw facility…hopefully the folks at ashopton sawmill might be able to help out with the resawing and my contacts have put me in touch with someone who has a kiln. the warning that keeps getting repeated though is ‘watch out for your costs’ as the ferrying about of timber is costly in itself and time as they say is money. anyway, with a bit of luck and care we’ll soon be machining up national hive parts made from peak district grown western red cedar. cool! we’ll certainly beekeeping (sorry, couldn’t resist) one of those for the colonies in our veg garden apiary.  western red cedar for national hives In the veg plot here in the peak district we’re planning on putting out a couple of bait hives just to see if it’s possible to attract a swarm (or two if we’re lucky) . Don’t hold out too much hope though as the local BKA (Chesterfield) has apparently had a bait hive out there for the last decade and not attracted anything apart from a dead mouse and plenty of wax moth so we’re told. But one of the goals here is not to turn beekeepers by the strength of our wallet and seeing as how the main suppliers are, in 2010, going to be charging £200 plus for a nuc then there can’t be any harm in trying a couple of hives in the spring. Wondering if there’s any benefit from the swarm lures you can buy…but in the meantime here’s a useful information resource provided by the BBKA… Here’s an interesting article about getting 2 frame nucs through the harsh Canadian winter. Great use of space and resources for maximum effect. Nice beekeeping! here’s a pdf of the assembly instructions for the standard national hive open mesh floor. national roof to follow… assembly instructions for our flat pack national brood chambers and national supers…will upload the rest later and make a right sidebar widget for them to permanently reside there… ‘live and work’ rural from the peak park visited our workshop today and offered it’s support to peak-hives. it looks like there’ll be two main ways that assistance may be offered to support the business. firstly and most importantly for peak-hives is locating sources of locally grown timber. seems like local sawmills cutting local timber are as rare as hens teeth! however, with the inside knowledge of the peak park it’s likely that national beehives constructed from locally sourced western red cedar isn’t such a pipe dream after all. secondly there’s the ‘environmental quality mark’ which is a certification or award given to eco-friendly businesses. all in all it was a very interesting visit. more later. another flat pack part is ready to go…national roof. with a bit of luck today I should have the paypal checkout system up and running. please let me know if you experience any problems with it from a customer point of view…nicholas@localhost
peak hives are now producing flat pack national hive parts…so if you need a brood box or a super or any part of a national hive then we can deliver from stock to the UK. All parts are machined by us for assembly and come with everything you need except glue. So grab a pot of waterproof PVA woodglue and a hammer and you’re away…it could even make a nice Christmas holiday project…assembling an entire hive.
these are the same parts we use to make our hives and are machined according to BBKA specifications. this is where our own hives are going to go next year…hope bees like nettles..
apiary at the bottom of the veg patch…couldn’t be better! just been making up some national nucleus hives. standard deep brood with spacing for 5 hoffman frames. next to do some 14×12 brood boxes and 14×12 nucleus boxes. piccys coming soon as well as some sort of purchasing system for seperate parts as I’ve had quite a few requests for individual supers, brood boxes etc. nick just a quick graphic to show what’s included with every national hive we make. national stand, national varroa floor, national brood box, 2 supers, national crown board with porter bee escapes and a national roof with a galvanized cover. all you need are some bees and frames and you’re away. (Update- this is now a bit out of date as we now have the beehive configuration options in the centre column) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po0Wlizfc_Y[/youtube] here’s a better pic of national hive number 1. should be able to click on it to see a bigger version.
next to finish off the first batch of 5 nationals and then make up some national nucs and 14×12 brood boxes. national hive number 1 completed in western red cedar…yay! very pleased with the result and will be sorry to see it go…but this is supposed to be a hive making (micro) business so go it has to. probably through ebay just to kick things off. anyone interested in purchasing direct please phone nicholas on 07594 583 151  first hive in western red cedar built strictly to BBKA plans and comes complete with…national stand with landing board, varroa open mesh floor, entrance block, brood box, 2 supers, crown board for porter bee escapes, national roof with galvanized metal cover. |
Peak Hives now has it's own nursury for Pollinator Plants. We are keen gardeners and with our interest in beekeeping supplying quality pollinator plants seemed a natural progression... The polytunnel is now populated with our own propagated and carefully selected bee friendly plants. We're now taking pollinator plant orders for despatch between January 2019 and June 2019. Please indicate your preferred delivery window when ordering your plants. Lavender 'Hidcote'In flower and swamped in bees 'Hidcote' is a bushy dwarf evergreen shrub with narrow, silvery-grey leaves and small deep violet-purple flowers in dense, aromatic spikes 3-4cm in length
1 Litre Pot £4.99 2 Litre Pot £6.99 Achillea 'King Alfred'A low growing Achillea with silver foliage with sulphur-yellow flowers that appear in spring
1 Litre Pot £3.99 2 Litre Pot £5.99 Lavender 'Rosea'Fragrant rose pink flower spikes rise on short stems above neat, grey-green foliage. With its pretty pink blooms, Lavandula angustifolia 'Rosea' makes a lovely accompaniment to the traditional purple English Lavenders.
1 Litre Pot £4.99 2 Litre Pot £6.99 Potentilla ‘Golden Starlit’ (Summer)This brilliant yellow flower is perfectly complimented with a grey/green foliage which the bees love. Recommended by the RHS to be an excellent attractant and nectar source for bees and other beneficial insects.
1 Litre Pot £3.99 2 Litre Pot £5.99 Lavender 'Devon Compact White'An ever popular perennial with profusion of pink, slightly more petite flowers on very upright habit over dense, aromatic, grey-green foliage with a tight mounding habit.
1 Litre Pot £4.99 2 Litre Pot £6.99 Pulmonaria ‘Trevi Fountains’Pulmonaria 'Trevi Fountain'. A spring flowering perennial forming dense clumps of narrow white spotted dark green leaves. The flowers are cobalt-blue with a pinkish cast and long-lasting. One of the earlier flowering lungworts and so particularly valuable as an early nectar source for bees.
1 Litre Pot £4.79 2 Litre Pot £6.79 Potentilla ‘Scarlet Starlit’A Potentilla that has well-balanced but dwarf habit which carries crimson red flowers in the summer over foliage that has an eye-catching silver lustre. Recommended by the RHS to be an excellent attractant and nectar source for bees and other beneficial insects.
1 Litre Pot £5.50 2 Litre Pot £7.50 Veronica spicata ‘Heidekind’ (Summer)From June-August, each strong stem is topped with a fat, cerise-pink flower which should be deadheaded to extend interest.
1 Litre Pot £4.95 2 Litre Pot £7.95 Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Autumn)C. plumbaginoides commonly called hardy blue-flowered leadwort is a low-growing herbaceous perennial with spreading roots, forming a mat of stems bearing oval leaves which turn red or purple in autumn. Clusters of rich blue flowers from late summer adored by bees.
1 Litre Pot £5.49 2 Litre Pot £8.49 Sage officinalis ‘Icterina (Gold)’ (Autumn)A cheerful addition to the herb garden and particularly attractive when topped by its purple-blue flowers in Spring and Summer.
1 Litre Pot £6.50 2 Litre Pot £8.50 Euphorbia ‘Baby Charm’ (Spring)Beautiful red tints to the attractive green foliage, with sprays of delicate green flowers on red stems in spring.
1 Litre Pot £4.79 2 Litre Pot £8.79 Helleborus orientalis hybrid ‘Pink Lady’ (Spring)One of the very best bee plants is the hybrid hellebore (Helleborus x hybridus) because the open flowers are easy to access and provide life sustaining nectar and pollen for at least two weeks or more.
1 Litre Pot £5.20 2 Litre Pot £7.20 Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii (Summer)Attractive to bees and other pollinators Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii bears attractive, daisy-like flowers with cone-shaped, black-brown centres from August to October.
1 Litre Pot £4.99 2 Litre Pot £6.99 Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ (Spring)Tangerine flowers. Loved by bees and ideal for cutting. Flowers May-August.
1 Litre Pot £5.79 2 Litre Pot £8.79 Iberis ‘Masterpiece’ (Spring)Iberis 'Masterpiece' is known for attracting bees, butterflies and moths. It has highly nectar-pollen-rich-flowers.
1 Litre Pot £4.99 2 Litre Pot £6.99 |
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