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British National Beehives
Based in a small workshop in Tideswell in the Peak District we make British National Beehives out of 1st grade Western Red Cedar, high quality Red Deal or, when available, locally sourced Western Red Cedar according to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) Modified National Hive Plans. Everything we sell we make here in the Peak District. 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.
Fully Assembled National Hives
Flat Pack National Hives
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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...
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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...:-)
As we want to make everything for the National Hive here in the Peak District we’ve decided to start making frames…it’ll be tedious work (11 frames per brood…9, 10 or 11 frames per super etc etc ad infinitum) but hey, work is work! We’ll be starting off with Hoffman DN4 standard National Brood Frames, then SN1 super frames and as many of the other types that seem to be in demand. More soon…
All the best.
Nick
ebay keeps things ticking over I suppose…getting busy now though so might reduce it to one promo a week…
flat pack cedar national super
Paul (from Oxfordshire Beekeepers) came up today to pick up 11 Flat Pack Western Red Cedar National Hives comprising standard floor with entrance block, standard brood box, 2 supers in red deal and a 4″ roof with galvanised metal cover. It’s turning into a production line…
 flat pack national hives lined up for collection
After the excitement of the morning it was back to the workshop to catch up with orders…Here’s a 14×12 National Brood Box in red deal being dry assembled before sending out as a flat pack kit.
 14x12 National Brood Chamber in Red Deal
Will be working this weekend to get a few orders out…
Up early to pick up my brother’s 1 tonne van and 3/4 tonne trailer (thanks Neil!)…then off to Chatsworth. The forresters were already working on the tree when I arrived. Even though Western Red Cedar is a ‘light’ wood…it’s bloomin heavy when it’s wet and in big logs!!! The rough sawn lumber was then transported to be resawn into 2″ waney edge planks. I’ll then stick them for a good while and monitor the moisture levels. Here at Peak-Hives we’re trying our best to source local timbers and once again many thanks to all involved for this timber.
 Peak District Western Red Cedar for Peak-Hives
 peak district western red cedar for national hives
Was this tree planted by Capability Brown?…Now that’d make a National Hive!!!
As promised by Dave the Head Forrester at Chatsworth and a day earlier than expected. Our tree has mostly already been felled and will be transported on friday for milling. Then it’ll be put in storage for air drying. The waiting process then begins, checking frequently with the moisture meter for suitability for use in our national hives. The timber will be resawn in 2″ planks at Rowsley Sawmill (thanks to Simon). Here’s a quick shot of one of the logs…
 Chatsworth Western Red Cedar for Peak-Hives
Many thanks to Dave and all involved.
Latest Assembly instructions leaflet in pdf format added to the links on the right and
here
here at Peak-Hives we take hive making seriously. whether it be ripping and planing timber down to size, tenoning top and bottom rails, putting just the right bevel onto bottom rails, morticing out our national brood box and super ends everything is done with precision and care. In the picture you can see 6 well used items from the workshop…getting things square is as you can see very important and that was the main idea behind the photo…but up in the top left you can see the other little tool that has edged it’s way into the shot and deserves a mention…without that calculator there’d have been many a costly mistake it has to be said…trusty little fella has aided me many a time…
 squares and calculator used in national hive making
just a quick reminder that on the 26th November we’ll be milling up about 1 1/2 square metres of Peak District sourced Western Red Cedar for use in our national hives (thanks to the Peak Park ‘live and work rural’ team and Adele in particular. between cutting down, resawing, natural air drying and other tasks related to preparing the timber it’ll be some time before we can use the timber for our hive ‘micro’ production line but will keep the blog posted with how the timber is preparing itself for use as bee houses (nationals of course)…if you’re interested in having a hive constructed from this premium material then please register your interest by mailing me at nicholas@peak-hives.co.uk
I suppose it’ll be done on a first come first served basis…
…now where’s that moisture meter?
have to keep pluggin away with the old fleabay wednesday sunday thing…
assembled cedar national hive brood box
I needed a 14×12 frame today and Mike kindly offered to lend me one. Whilst I was there I was given a tour of his apiary with several National Hives and a very nicely put together Dartington. Thanks for the frame and the tour Mike. See you at the December CBKA meet.
keeping up with the wednesday/sunday promotional postings on ebay we’ve just listed another fully assembled national hive super in western red cedar…
cedar national super
got a big order on for flat packed mixed national hives…part cedar and part red deal…here’s a picture of one of the red deal supers being dry assembled to test for square and fit…
 testing national hive super for square
tomorrow, sunday…lots of national roofs and nucleus hives to work on…and perhaps a bit of a rest in the afternoon…
time to check all those national rails for fit to a brood and super…here’s a cedar national super and a cedar national bottom rail being put together in a dry fit…
 national hive bottom rail and national hive super tested for fit
tomorrow is national hive standard floor day…making up about 30. had a big order and all with standard floors.
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…
fully assembled national hive super
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@peak-hives.co.uk
interesting report on beekeeping by the food programme on radio 4. visit to the national honey show.
here
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…
leaflet 367b
and here’s a page with all the text and images…
leaflet 367
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!
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To Order
You can purchase everything for a National Hive here on a single page. If you're looking at buying a complete hive then please use the center column...for National Hive parts please use the left hand column.
You can view your order at any time here...
If you have any problems ordering please email nicholas@peak-hives.co.uk and we'll reply as soon as possible.
You can also call Nicholas or Adriana on 07594 583 151 but emailing is best as it allows Nick to be more productive in the workshop and get orders out earlier. All hives / hive parts are custom made to order. Please remember that our priorities are quality and sustainability and not making a quick profit out of mass produced items.
If you have a large order (eg 10 plus hives) then discounts will be available. Please call to discuss but please remember our prices are already very competitive.
Delivery/Collection
If you're within pickup distance then we welcome collection in person direct from our workshop in Tideswell. Otherwise UK mainland delivery charges are as follows:
£0.01 to £99.99 = £9.99
£100 to 199.99 = £7.99
over £200.00 = free delivery
If your order is to ship to Northern Ireland, The Channel Islands, Republic of Ireland or the Highlands and Islands please add extra postage by clicking this button...
Peak Hives is, and will remain, a small cottage industry. We have a small dedicated workshop and Nick makes all our products to order. Due to the huge increase in interest in beekeeping we are very busy at the moment. If you have a time critical order then please call Nick/Adriana on 07594 583 151 and we will always try our best to accommodate your needs. Please note that the current turn around on orders is approximately 2-3 weeks.
Testimonials "...Hi, I’ve just received my new nucleus hive and I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s far too nice to go outside, it’s more like a piece of furniture!..."
"...The quality looks really good, and I am looking forward to assembling the first one to see how they look."
"...Once again I compliment you on the top quality of your products, excellent, it's nice doing business with someone who cares..."
"...arrived and look excellent - the nuke in particular is a masterpiece"
"...really gratifying to know that there are still craftspeople in this world who can turn out high quality products, use sustainable business practices and materials, still charge an accessible price and deal with customers in a friendly manner..."
"...thanks for the hive its gone together well and is now waiting for its bees!"
"...arrived this morning, very nice, I am well pleased with it."
"...Just to say thanks for you effort to get the bee hive to us. The brother-in-law is a happy fellow..."
"...were easy to assemble and all functioning...The quality of timber is also so much better than other ones I've had..."
"...Nuc’s just arrived. Many thanks for getting it out to me before the weekend. It looks really good, can’t wait to put it together so I can split my colony and put it to some good use..."
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