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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...:-)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 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. 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… 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… 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. As requested here are the assembly instructions for Peak Hives flat pack National Hive Stand… Happy new year to all Peak Hives customers!!! For new beekeepers (and there’s plenty, including me) I thought it might be worth while suggesting what I would think of buying as a first apiary set up. If you’re good with a hammer, nails, glue, flat surface and *JOINERS SQUARE* then: 2 x Flat Pack of the default national hive configuration you see when you load up this page. Add on a crown board and choose which type of metalwork you require for the brood box and supers (I’d recommend metal runners throughout and then use frame spacers to start off with – this can be changed over later to castellated spacers for the super easily enough should you wish) And then choose which floor you want. Most go for the Varroa Floor with slide out tray but many experienced beekeepers go for a standard floor. Then timber. Cedar is good for two reasons…1. it’s light. A national super full of honey is already heavy enough. 2. Cedar is naturally resistant to rot. Red Deal on the other hand is notably cheaper and will make a robust hive (provided you take care of it, which is easily done. There’s plenty of houses round here built in the victorian era with original Red Deal doors because they’ve been well maintained). That recommendation is to go with 1 nucleus colony. The nucleus goes into hive number 1 and then when (possibly) a month later it swarms you have hive number 2 in which to put the swarm. It’s said that it’s easier to manage two hives than 1. And safer too. 1 Hive + 1 Disaster = No Bees! Of course if you’re not entirely confident about your assembly skills then perhaps choose the same set up but pre-assembled here at Peak Hives. Assembling a hive when you’ve done it lots of times is one thing but doing it for the first time can be a bit daunting. Happy beekeeping 2010! Nick Hi. I thought it might be informative to show the workshop (or the ground floor machining area at least). This is where all our national hives are made. Upstairs there’s an assembly area and shelving for hive parts. As you can see it’s an old building which in it’s time has been a cow shed, a hen shed, a joiner’s workshop, an electricians workshop (The whole of Tideswell was electrified from here), an artists studio, a joiner’s workshop again and now peak-hives. The image is several shots stitched together using ‘hugin’. All the best and happy beekeeping for 2010!  Peak Hives Workshop I’ve just updated the prices/availability regarding the National Hive Gabled Roofs reflecting the fact that we’ve decided not to do them any more in flat pack. The reason is that the roof structure with the top finishing piece is, I think, a weakness (given that its the most exposed part of a hive) and it’s better to have a single one-piece metal roof cover which, thanks to Swift Engineering of Buxton, we can now provide. It means it’s not feasible to send them out as flat pack as the metalwork will get spoiled in transit. We want you to get the best use out of our products for many seasons and this decision was made to ensure that’s the case. My own view is that for practical beekeeping the flat roof might be the better solution as you can turn it upside down and put supers on it etc but I understand the desire for the aesthetics that the gabled roof provides. Feedback, as always, is very welcome. All the best. Nick Quick post while I’m having lunch…Here’s a shot of this morning’s activity. National Hive Nucleus Roofs with the new lock joints. These are for a couple of orders for 14×12 nucs and standard nucs in red deal. back to the workshop…  national hive nucleus roof Just working on orders and there’s a couple of 14×12 nucs in there in red deal so I’m making up a batch of 5. Here’s the brood chamber dry assembled. Back to the workshop now to start on the roofs.  14x12 nucleus hive Our Wadkin BAOS, my favourite machine, died the other day as the wormwheel on the thicknessing feed motor lost it’s thread. Fortunately there are plenty of these machines about and you can still buy spares from places like Advanced Machinery. Very good company to deal with!!! Here’s the BAOS on it’s side hanging from a block and tackle whilst I effected the repair. Remarkable how much weight can be packed into a smallish machine. Took all day (sorry if it’s put your order back) but by the end of the day my fav machine was doing the business again and had been oiled up and greased to boot. Now tomorrow has to be back to production and building up stock of British National Hive parts.  Wadkin BAOS under repair As a quick break from making up a batch of national nucleus hives today I had the chance to test out my new gear for making lock joints for national roofs. previously I’d been using dovetails (which are perfectly suitable and in my opinion in some ways better) but given that all the big boys use lock joints I felt it necessary to follow suit and so here’s the test pic on a couple of bits of scrap western red cedar…  testing a lock joint for national hive roof construction Assembly Instructions for Peak-Hives Flat Pack National Hive Gabled Roof …here I’m getting too busy now to do a listing every Sunday and Wednesday so it’ll just be Sunday from now on. At least for the time being anyway. it’s twenty to twelve at night and I’ve just got back from the workshop…covered in grease and mess from trying to resuscitate a machine. tomorrow’s national hive making is going to be pushed back while I try to get the part needed for my Wadkin BAO/S planer thicknesser. If all else fails then I’ll use the older machine that we have in the workshop (thanks to neil) to do the thicknessing but the BAO/S will still need that part and it’s a matter of sourcing it without being stung (no pun intended) for too much cash by the parts dealers. ugh! 2009 has been an ‘interesting‘ year. roll on 2010! Another listing for a national hive super on ebay….here Arrived today. One pricey blade! A quick break from making up orders and stock to perform a test with the new blade. Cuts like a dream. Finishes as if it’s been through a planer. The cut width is a tiny 1.7mm!! This will certainly do the trick of getting the maximum number of National Hive frames out of the timber used. I’ll be making up a batch of frames next week probably starting with DN4 Hoffman’s to be supplied with our brood boxes or sold as flat packs.  Thin Kerf Blade used for making National Hive Frames Not sure how M and T are doing but we’re snowed under with orders. Initially I was working on a just in time ordering system. That’s been binned as I can see that if I don’t have stocked shelves of National Hive parts then I won’t be able to cope. So every order that comes in now is being made up but doubled…one for the customer and one for the shelves… I’m also fretting about delivery times…Adriana is taking charge of running the business as regards that so I shouldn’t be so concerned given that she’s a background in managing businesses very sucessfully… worries gone? not quite but almost… Cheers and here’s to a good beekeeping 2010! Nick We’ve just purchased some tooling to improve upon our National Hive Roof design. Now roofs will be constructed using 1/2″ lock joints. Frames wise I decided that it was worth investing in a thin kerf saw blade for our table saw. Each cut will only waste 1.7mm instead of the usual 3.2mm. When machining up lots and lots of little parts (ie. frame bits) it will be much more economical if each rip through the timber only consumes 1.7mm….that’s the theory anyway and it’s backed up by me getting the plastic out to pay for an expensive saw blade… We hope your bees will be happy in our hives and would welcome feedback in the new season…photos or comments please and we’ll set up a gallery area on the site. All the best Nick Wednesday listing…here here’s the first of perhaps many thousand…a quick bit of jig making and we’re producing Hoffman DN4 frames. More tests to do but the initial test was today and if we can make the Hoffman self spacing frame then the others shouldn’t be a problem. if you’ve a request for a frame type then please mail me.  DN4 Hoffman Frame for National Hive 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… 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 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 Sunday listing… 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@localhost 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… 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… 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… 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 |
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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