peak-hives.co.uk

National Nucleus Hive Options.

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:41:25 +0000

Here’s a couple of National Nucleus Hives I’ve finished today. On the left a flat pack National Nuc in Red Deal with a standard floor. On the right a fully assembled Cedar National Nuc with Varroa Floor (with slide out tray). Both take 5 Hoffman DN4 frames with an extra 8mm manipulation space.

National Nucleus Hive Options

National Hives from Chatsworth Cedar

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:32:24 +0000

The first batch of locally sourced Chatsworth Western Red Cedar has been milled up by Simon at Rowsley Sawmill and I’ve just stacked and ’sticked’ it to air dry. Simon’s milled it into 2″ waney edge boards which I can then machine up into either national hive rails or slice down the middle for hive ends/sides. Kiln drying would be too expensive so we’ll stick it cover it to protect it from the rain and wait…

Air Drying Chatworth Western Red Cedar

Top and Bottom bee space National Hive

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:45:05 +0000

I’ve had quite a few requests to produce top bee space national hives. Got an order finished this morning so just before my lunchbreak I decided to ‘jig up’ for offering top bee space nationals. Basically the difference in machining requires the production of a deeper top rail for supers and brood boxes and a suitable mortice in the brood/super sides to accommodate the deeper rails. Anyway to cut a not very long story shorter here’s a couple of pics showing the standard British National Hive option of bottom bee space and the new optional top bee space…

Bottom Bee Space National Hive

Top Bee Space National Hive

I’ll update the site to allow choosing top bee space as an option later tonight.

Flat Pack National Hives picked up from the Workshop

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:54:03 +0000

Hi. Rich came up on Wednesday to the Peak Hives workshop and picked up his flat packed national hives. Was good to see him again and Steve who came along too. Rich is an experienced beekeeper so by agreement (and the fact that they wouldn’t fit into his car otherwise) I didn’t seperate them out into individual units.

Here’s the kit he took…

Rich's Hives

I’m getting plenty of enquiries about making up batches of frames and will endeavour to have a go this weekend (I do have to make a special meal for the oldies though on Saturday as it’s their golden wedding anniversary). The other thing that I need to respond to is enquiries about ‘top bee space’ national hives. It’s technically sorted but I want to have a go at machining some up before offering it as an option. Coming soon, probably tomorrow.

Allotment news is that I made some space this afternoon for another fruit tree in the garden…it’s getting tight on space and I’ve another two trees to plant. I wonder if the farmer who owns the field across the road would mind.

All the best and as usual, happy beekeeping 2010!

National Hive Roof Detail

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:46:42 +0000

A quick post to show a detailed view of our lock joints on a standard national hive roof. Originally I was using a dovetail jig but thought it was worth while investing in the required tooling to make the roofs as per the specification laid down by the British Beekeepers Association Modified National Hive plans which are the mainstay of all Peak Hives products. I’m hoping to find some time in the next couple of weeks to make up a few observation hives…those dratted orders keep getting in the way though.

Happy beekeeping 2010!

Lock Jointed National Hive Roof

Cedar National Hives ready for shipping

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:24:32 +0000

Here’s a couple of cedar national hives ready in the workshop for shipping on Monday. Here at Peak Hives we’re busy working away in spite of the cold weather that just doesn’t want to go away. When Spring actually comes I’ll be one happy camper although the local allotment association reckons we’re ‘at least a month behind’ everywhere else…I do wonder if that means I’m going to have a hard time of it keeping bees here in Tideswell…seems likely.

Assembled Cedar National Hives

Cedar National Hive with Gabled Roof

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:12:00 +0000

This national hive in western red cedar with a 14×12 brood box, 3 supers and a gabled roof is only going 10 minutes down the road so collection from the Peak-Hives workshop is on the cards.

cedar national hive with gabled roof

Our gabled roofs are now made with a single piece cover of galvanized metal sheet providing the same protection as the single piece cover for the standard roofs and our nucleus hive roofs.

British National Hive in Red Deal

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:34:21 +0000

Now that the big freeze is over (at least for the moment it looks that way) we’re back in production. Here’s a British National Hive with 2 Supers in Red Deal.

British National Hive in Red Deal

Here’s to a successful beekeeping 2010. I’m long overdue to start frame making and I’m compiling a list of potential customers for DN4, SN1 etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to get that thin kerf blade in use soon…

Allotment news is that I’ve just planted 2 out of 6 trees supplied by Rogers of Pickering. 1 Bramleys Seedling and 1 Spartan apple (recommended by Carl with thanks). I’ve a couple of pear trees to plant next (Buerre Hardy and Conference) and 20 odd raspberry canes along with some plum trees and gooseberry bushes. When we moved here as a family in the early 60s all these things were here and producing fruit. Somehow they’ve been left to grow old and wither…(I blame the supermarkets..grrr). With some luck and cultivation we’ll be back to picking our own fruit in a couple of seasons…

National Hive Varroa Floors…

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:58:45 +0000

Phew. Now that the worst of the big freeze appears to be over I can start working away in the workshop again…Next winter I’ll have dry lined it with kingspan insulation (if the temp goes below 5 deg C then glues don’t set which as things stand pretty much closes the workshop down!!!). Apart from the difficulties that the extreme weather has caused work wise it’s been hard enough just keeping warm at home…Managed thanks to the Husqvarna and a beautiful Jotul 602N. Best thing my Dad ever bought!!!

Any road up…here’s a couple of Open Mesh Floors…One for a full size British National Hive and one for a National Nucleus Hive…One in Cedar and the other in Red Deal…

I do find the Nuc one cute…there again I need to get out more…

British National Open Mesh Floor with Slide out Tray

British National Nucleus Open Mesh Floor

Btw, the jury’s still out for me on the OMF versus Standard Floor…

Enduring the Cold Snap…

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:21:17 +0000

View from the kitchen window…

Winter 2009

It is very pretty (and the children are loving it!!!) but it’s becoming a chore now…my current best friend is…

husqvarna...keeping us warm...

…to keep the home fires burning…if only the home (my parents home) were better insulated, then I wouldn’t have to be out so often with the chain saw looking for fuel. It’s a long story but the short version is that the house was built during the war when materials were scarce. Nick.