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British National Beehives


Based 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...

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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...:-)




Peak Hives Fondant Cosy

Requested by our long standing customer Johan I have just made up a batch of 10 of these ‘Fondant Cosies’. The outer ring is filled with 75mm Kingspan and the centre feed area is designed to take 2.5KG packs of either Fondabee or Ambrosia Fondant. The fondant is laid on top of the super/brood frames and is then covered with a lid filled with 25mm Kingspan. The lid sits on rails that are 50mm up from the base so there’s enough space above the fondant packs for the bees to roam around over the top of the fondant.

Peak Hives Fondant Cosy
Fondant Cosy
Fondant Cosy Kingspan
Kingspan Filling

Tested them with 2.5Kg packs of Fondabee and Ambrosia. I’ve just added them to the Peak Hives product range and they can be found in the left hand column.

Ready Assembled Frames

Ready Assembled Frames
Ready Assembled Frames

Daughter Alexandra isn’t mad about bees but she is about horses and wants to fund her equine hobby. So she’s now the official Peak Hives assembled frames maker. We’re now offering assembled DN4, DN1, SN4 and SN1 frames with foundation wax. Standard frames with wired worker foundation. You can find them in the left hand column on the website. Here’s to bees and horses!

We’ve been so busy during the Covid lockdown and want to thank all our patient customers awaiting their National Hive products from Peak Hives. Stay safe!

Fenland Apiaries

We’ve worked with Helen and Ken from Fenland Apiaries for a number of years now and they have over the years provided Peak Hives customers with the most fantastic Nucleus Colonies. Any enquiry we have for Nucs goes straight to Helen.

They’ve just launched a new website to promote their honey and honey based products.

https://fenlandapiaries.co.uk/

Do visit and purchase.

We do live in strange times. The Covid pandemic has affected so many in so many different ways. Here in sleepy Tideswell we’re very lucky to be out in the countryside. Very lucky!

For Peak Hives it has caused a huge increase in business. I suppose so many people in lockdown are finding time to increase their bee stocks and enter into the world of beekeeping. So to all customers, many thanks and many many thanks for your patience in understanding that we’re a small business making our own National Hive and beekeeping products in a small rural workshop.

Happy beekeeping 2020. And let’s beat Covid!

Copper Nucleus and Commercial Brood…

Here’s a couple of items that have recently been completed in the Peak Hives workshop 2020. The first is a National Nucleus Hive in cedar with a custom copper roof.

National Nucleus Hive with Copper Roof
National Nucleus Hive with Copper Roof

Also recently completed is this National Hive in cedar with a Commercial Brood Chamber. Suitable for prolific bee colonies the Commercial Brood Chamber sits perfectly underneath standard National Queen Excluder and supers.

National Hive with Commercial Brood Chamber
Cedar National Hive with Commercial Brood Chamber

We’re getting busier now for the 2020 beekeeping season and thank all customers old and new for their orders. Standard National Hives are our main product but it’s nice every now and then to get special requests like this. Happy Beekeeping!

Helen’s 2020 Nucleus Colonies

We’ve just had an update from Helen the bee breeder we have worked with for many years and her Nucleus Colonies this year are priced at £200.00.

“High quality, strong, healthy nuclei (nucs) comprising; laying queens (marked), 5/6 frames of bees, brood in all stages and stores. These are hardy and hard-working bees which are well-tempered and easy to handle.  They build well in the Spring to make good, large colonies for early honey production.

All in accordance with FERA recommendations. Varroa treated.”

For an agreed price depending on distance she will deliver and install the Nucleus Colony to UK addresses.

We’re very busy with National Hives and one or two special orders so the season is now well under way. Happy beekeeping 2020.

Winner

We have had a fantastic response to the Photo Competition 2019 ‘Pollinators’. Unsurprisingly many of them featured honey bees but there were plenty of unsung heroes submitted including bumbles, butterflies, hover flies and moths. The overall winner though had to be this fantastic macro shot of apis mellifera mellifera. Just a stunning shot!

Click to see the full size picture…

Apis Mellifera Mellifera
Winner 2019 Photo Competition

A Peak Hives 6 Frame Plus Dummy Board Cedar National Nucleus Hive will be manufactured in the workshop and sent out to the winner.

I’ll add a gallery of other entries as soon as I can. Many, many thanks to all who took part.

Observation Hive + Logo.

The latest piece out of the Peak Hives workshop is this Oak Observation Hive with engraved logo. Honey bee researcher Craig contacted me with the request for the hive and asked if it would be possible to engrave the University of Aberdeen logo on the brood chamber. I had recently acquired our laser engraver to provide the possibility of engraving security codings such as postcodes, addresses or mobile phone numbers onto our National Hive products so I was very pleased to be able accommodate Craig’s request and engrave the University logo onto the observation hive. See below for the finished product.

Observation Hive with Engraved Logo
Oak Observation Hive
Observation Hives with Engraved Logo
University Logo
Observation Hive with Shutters
Removable Shutters

I’m very pleased with the outcome and will be shipping the hive to Craig later this week.

Laser Engraved Hives…

Having recently acquired a laser engraving machine we’re now able to engrave the Peak Hives logo onto our hand made National Hives and Nucleus Hives. Here’s an example. We’re not going to turn every item into a billboard but a small logo will serve a useful promotional purpose to support the business. What it also means is that we can offer ‘security’ branding. Our customer in the case of this 6 Frame Plus Dummy Board National Cedar Nucleus Hive has chosen to have her Post Code engraved on the Brood Chamber.

Laser Engraved Nucleus Hive
Laser Engraved Hive
Post Code Branding on Nucleus Hive
Post Code Branding

In an ideal world theft wouldn’t happen but unfortunately it does and there’s even been cases of hives full of bees being stolen so we’re happy to offer this security service to our customers. We can engrave your Post Code, Phone Number, Name or anything you prefer as an identifier. I’ll be adding the option to engrave on the Peak Hives website soon but in the meantime if you order and want a security engraving please let me know by email. We’re still very busy with National Hives and I’ve just placed a large order for First Grade Western Red Cedar to deal with Christmas orders.

Happy Beekeeping, Nick.

A Bit of Fun…

Junk Rescue came to Peak Hives. The up-cycling CBeebies program came to the workshop and I converted an old chest of drawers to a National Hive. It was a bit of fun but it was a bit tight in our little workshop with Danny Sebastian and the film crew crammed in there…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007g97/junk-rescue-series-2-16-bedside-furniture

Now back to standard National Hives in Cedar and Red Deal. I’m also currently working on a couple of observation hives.

An interesting week…

On Monday we had a visit from Neville from Sheffield University who collected the Oak Observation Hive in the picture. It’s to be used in the Department of Computing! Analysis of bee behaviour and how it can be translated into algorithms. Tuesday saw the collection of the other Observation Hive pictured. It is to be used to demonstrate bees in schools. The schools one is a self contained unit just for demonstration and the other has an entrance which will go to the outside of the laboratory so it will be a living and working colony.

Observation Hives
Observation Hives

Also new is that we have propagated Buddleia globosa and are adding these to the pollinator plants for sale.

Buddleia Globosa

And finally we’re now official suppliers to Chatsworth House and I went today to set up two new National Hives in the kitchen gardens to the rear of Chatsworth House. Apparently the Duke insisted on purchasing our hives.

I’m also very busy as per usual at this time of year making in our workshop our National Hives from First Grade Western Red Cedar and thank all our customers for their patience.

Photo Competition 2019

To mark the launch of our Pollinator Plants we’re once again holding a photography competition.  This time the only requirement is that your shot features pollinators or something related to pollinators.  So bees, butterflies, moths all count as would an interesting hive design or location or a bank of lavender swamped with bumble bees…anything pollinator related.

First prize is one of our Cedar 6 Frame Nucleus Hives with a Varroa Floor.

Copyright of the photograph will reside with the photographer with license to use being given to Peak Hives.

Cheers and please email all entries to nicholas@localhost marking the email Photo Comp 2019.

Closing Date will be 1st of November.

Happy Snapping and have a great beekeeping season.

Nick

Thursday Order Updates

As we’re now in the busy season and Adriana is working very hard for her teaching qualification order acknowledgements will be sent out on Thursdays for the previous week. This means that I can get on with making up our High Quality Cedar National Hives and Hive Parts in the workshop. If you place an order with us you’ll get the standard Paypal receipt and then on Thursday we’ll send out a PH number and an expected date for dispatch. At this stage in the beekeeping calendar it’s always difficult to keep up with orders and we thank our loyal customers for your patience.

Stachys byzantina and Verbena bonariensis

We’re very busy now and thank our customers for their patience in waiting for their Peak Hives National Hive products to arrive. We are also busy in the propagation of pollinator plants and have just added Stachys byzantina (Common name ‘Lambs Ears’) and Verbena bonariensis in the pollinator plants section of the website in the right hand column. Both are super pollinator plants and are now available in 1 and 2 litre pots.

Verbena bonariensis
Verbena bonariensis
Stachys byzantina
Stachys byzantina

2019 Nucleus Colonies

Our bee breeder Helen has sent us details of her super Nucleus Colonies to be supplied in 2019. If you’re looking for a Nuc then hers are top quality and you even get a named queen and as an additional service she can come to you to install the colony in your Peak Hives National Hive.

Queen Castle

A long standing customer wanted me to undertake this ‘special’ and make him a Queen Castle. It’s basically 4 x 2 frame Nucleus Colonies under a single roof. Each side of the Queen Castle has a unique entrance for one of the colonies. There is enough room in each compartment for two Hoffman Brood Frames and a Dummy Board for manipulation. Hope it works well for H. our loyal customer.

Queen Castle

Queen Castle

Inside Queen Castle

Inside Queen Castle

Queen Castle Inner

Queen Castle Inner

Here’s also a quick shot of the polytunnel. The Veronica Spicata ‘Heidekind’ is in the foreground and the Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Leadwort) just behind it and the Rudbekia fulgida var. deamii just visible.

Pollinator Plants in Polytunnel

Pollinator Plants in Polytunnel

Meanwhile in the Misting House we have the heated misting bench full of Pollinator Plants looking to go to their new owners. We’re overwintering some plants that have already been sold and will send out to our clients as soon as the weather picks up in the new year. Can’t wait for Spring 2019.

Bee Plants on Misting Bench

Bee Plants on Misting Bench

Apart from the ‘specials’ and polytunnel business we’re busy as usual making the mainstay of the business which is high quality hand made Cedar National Hives. A note here on quality. We only use first grade Canadian Western Red Cedar and don’t use cheaper lower quality cedar which we are aware is available and have been offered. As a business we have opted to keep our quality of materials and workmanship to a high standard on our National Hives.

Peak Hives Pollinator Plants

Marrying our love of beekeeping all things bees and an equal love of gardening Peak Hives are proud to announce that we will be establishing a new line in Pollinator Plants. As with our hand built Cedar National Hives made in our workshop from start to finish our Pollinator Plants will be propagated and grown on in our own Propagation House and Polytunnel here in Tideswell.

There’s such enjoyment to be had in watching a mass of bumble and honey bees working a plant they love.

Lavender Hidcote

Lavender Hidcote

As a first offering we will be raising both 1 ltr and 2 ltr pots. Orders can be placed from now on for delivery in 2019 and the best plants will be selected as orders come in. These are plants that we have already propagated this Summer/Autumn and will overwinter ready for dispatch in the Spring. It’s early days but we already have over a thousand plants in pots in the polytunnel.

The initial list of plants includes… (flowering season in brackets)

Achillea ‘King Alfred’ (Summer)

Lavender ‘Hidcote’ (Summer)

Lavender ‘Rosea’ (Summer)

Lavender ‘Devon Compact White’ (Summer)

Potentilla ‘Golden Starlit’ (Summer)

Potentilla ‘Scarlet Starlit’ (Summer)

Pulmonaria ‘Trevi Fountains’ (Spring)

Veronica spicata ‘Heidekind’ (Summer)

Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ (Autumn)

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Autumn)

Sage officinalis ‘Icterina (Gold)’ (Autumn)

Euphorbia ‘Baby Charm’ (Spring)

Helleborus orientalis hybrid ‘Pink Lady’ (Spring)

Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii (Summer)

We’ve also added a couple of Plant Breeders Rights varieties as they are such good plants for bees and pollinators. We won’t be able to propagate these until we establish a relationship with the breeder in question (already in hand).

Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ (P) (Spring)

Iberis ‘Masterpiece’ (P) (Spring)

Watch out for Peak Hives Pollinator Plants on offer soon…

Helen’s Bees

Click the link below for details on Helen’s Bees for the 2018 season.

 

Bees for Sale – 2018

2017 Cedar.

The first delivery of 1st Grade Western Red Cedar to arrive at Peak Hives this year. Because of steeply rising material prices we have had a choice to make. The options were to continue to make our National Hives using the same First Quality Western Red Cedar or to buy in an inferior Cedar that is currently being offered far cheaper. We have chosen to stick with our high quality material and not to think only of short term profit. Whether it’s Brexit or some other economic factor that has pushed prices up I don’t know but when the latest material invoice arrived I had to sit down and think a while…

Western Red Cedar 2017

Western Red Cedar 2017

Conclusion…

Customer satisfaction comes first.

Happy Beekeeping to all our customers for 2017!

2017 Nucleus Colonies and Courses

Helen our bee breeder has just sent me some updates regarding her super nucleus colonies for the upcoming season and also the courses she runs for new beekeepers.

Click the links below for further information…

Bees for Sale – 2017

Keeping Honey Bees – Course info

As for Peak Hives we’re busy making our Cedar National Hives and the occasional special request and looking forward to a few days off between Christmas and New Year.

Seasons Greetings to all.

 

Peak Hives on the Radio

Melvyn Bragg is currently presenting a radio programme on the history of t’ North…

Our National Hives are the ones Melvyn talks to Adrian about at the start of the Programme.   It was only after completing the hives for the project that I found that the worker bee was the symbol of Manchester.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07synwj

We’re still very busy in the workshop but have afforded ourselves a few days off during the summer and would like to thank our customers for their patience.

An item that will soon be added to the Peak Hives product line is the Top Bar Hive.  They are proving very popular and despite them not being National Hives we will happily add them to the Peak Hives family.

Eat Natural Hives…

As a Winter project I was asked to make the 50 first Eat Natural Hives.  Quite good fun and using recycled pallets the specially designed hive looks a treat…

There’s a video of me making them at

http://eatnatural.co.uk/pollenation

Observation National Hive

Usamah from the East London Mosque sent me this image of their Peak Hives Observation Hive a couple of days ago.  It’s sat in a courtyard in the Mosque.  They seem to have it set up as Brood, Super then Brood.  Must be a reason but it’s looking good anyway.

ELM Observation Hive

ELM Observation Hive

 

We are very busy at the moment as it’s the height of the season and we get frequent calls of the nature ‘…help I have a swarm and need….’.  We do our best to help but with us being a small business it’s hard to keep up with demand sometimes and we definitely don’t like to mess with the order queue for our National Hives.

PH as Featured in the FT…

A month or so ago I was asked if we’d like to be in the FT in an article based around Artisans…

Here’s a link to the article.

https://next.ft.com/content/911e8538-1856-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e

I’ll write more on this later but for now must get back to the workshop to make up some hives…

Nick

New Blades…

At the start of every beekeeping season I invest in new blades for all my machines. It’s not always so urgent because Cedar is a very forgiving timber to work and doesn’t cause too much wear on the TCT on a blade. But it’s more or less become a tradition in the Peak Hives workshop and it is nice when the new blades cut for the first time…hot knives through butter!!!

New Blades

New Blades

We’re now busy with our standard National Hive products so I can’t take on any ‘specials’ until the back end of this season…but I do like the odd Observation Hive or Top Bar. Nice to make a variety of things.

New Apiary…

Our customer is returning to beekeeping after a period of some years away from the hobby. Now that she has opportunity again she said she’s really looking forward to getting back into it and has ordered enough National Hives and Nucleus equipment to see her through at least the first season. There’s two full National Hives in Cedar and a Nucleus Hive also in Western Red Cedar.

The customer also bought Ashforth feeders for the full sized hives and the Nucleus.

National Hive Apiary

National Hive Apiary

I think it’s also time for me to cut a path to my hives kept in my parents garden. They were put out of the way from my father who, when a few years ago was suffering with early stage Parkinsons, would stand right next to them to show his interest. So my bees had to be hidden away from him in the bushes where they’ve remained until now. A machete may be required to beat a new path to their door.

We are getting busy again now and it’s looking like a full on beekeeping/hive making season ahead. So head down and fire up the machines for National Hive making. I do the odd special request every now and again too as can be seen from the blog entries…

 

Bees For Sale

Our bee breeder Helen has been in touch with me to say she is back making up Nucleus Colonies after moving house.

Please see the attached Flier she sent us…

Peak Hives – bees for sale

She’s also running some Beekeeping Courses.

Beekeeping Courses

Palmer Style Double Nucleus Hive

In amongst the standard National Hives in Cedar it’s nice to get the odd request for something different. Our client asked for a Palmer Style Double Nucleus Hive in 14×12 size. It took a bit of head scratching and figuring out but here’s the result. The main brood chamber is split into two with two mesh floors pointing in opposite directions so the bees know which entrance is theirs. The brood then has two 14×12 height but half width ‘supers’ on top which each have their own crown board with ventialtion holes and porter bee escapes. This is then topped off with a 6 inch roof. I hope our client Simon has a great season with it and we’ll be shipping it out today.

Palmer Style Nucleus Hive

Palmer Style Nucleus Hive

Of course our bread and butter standard product is the top quality National Hive and it’s so nice to see that we already have plenty of repeat customers placing orders for this beekeeping season.

Here’s to a successful 2016!

Happy New Year

And a Happy Beekeeping Season for 2016 from Peak Hives!

I hope this current unseasonal weather gives way to some more normal sharp frosts and perhaps a bit of snow to keep the children happy. our bees should be fine as we left on a full super of honey and unless there’s some significant cold weather heading our way that should see them through.

Meantime here’s a picture of a custom National Hive in Cedar built with half sized Supers. The customer didn’t want to be hefting full National Supers around and asked if I could make them 230mm wide instead of the standard National size of 460mm. At peak production times it would be harder to accomodate special requests as we are so busy with Standard National Hive orders there’s little time to find for anything out of the ordinary but in the quieter parts of the year we’re always happy to make non standard orders.

National Hive w Half Supers

National Hive w Half Supers

Here’s to 2016…

Snelgrove Board

Snelgrove Board

Snelgrove Board

We’ve had many requests for these and now the beekeeping season has quietened down I’ve finally got round to making the required jigs so they can be made consistently to a high standard. The Snelgrove method of swarm control is well documented and a very good description can be found from the Barnsley Beekeepers website Snelgrove Method

As with all our standard products they are made to National Hive size.

pour les abeilles françaises…

These two Top Bar Hives were ordered some time ago and are now ready to be shipped out to our customer Richard who lives in France.  Apparently once our previous Top Bar Hive had been seen on the Peak Hives website no other would do.  Nice to know our quality workmanship is appreciated.  They are Cedar and have hinged viewing panels for less intrusive inspections.  It’s a nice change to make a ‘special’ but our customer was also very patient and understood that we had to get on with our standard National Hive orders and work on these as and when we could.  One day I’ll make one for myself as they do look an interesting way of beekeeping.

Top Bar Hives in Cedar

Top Bar Hives in Cedar

We are about to have our annual holiday so enquiries and orders for our National Hive products received while we are away will be dealt with upon our return.  All the best.  Nick and Adriana.

Foundation Wax

After many many requests from our customers I’m pleased to announce that we now stock foundation wax.  British Standard in Deep, Shallow and 14×12.  We can’t hold a full gamut of wax but we’ve selected the most useful sizes of the wired foundation to stock.  Our mainstay is of course National Hives in Cedar and the more economical Red Deal but we want to be able to offer everything you’ll need to get a hive up and running so adding foundation to the Peak Hives product line is a big step forwards for us.

Peak Hives Foundation Wax

Peak Hives Foundation Wax

It can be found near the frames and plastic frame ends lower down the left hand column.

All the best and happy beekeeping for the upcoming season.

Plastic Ends

We now stock plastic frame ends to fit on to SN1 or DN1 frames.  Many beekeepers use self spacing Hoffman Style DN4 or 14×12 Frames in their National Hives but there is an argument that the shoulders of the Hoffman frames can pose a risk to the queen when removing the frames as she could be squished between the frame shoulders.  So we have decided to stock plastic frame ends to help those using DN1 or SN1 frames.  Many experienced beekeepers don’t bother with the spacers and just space by eye.

The Plastic Frame Ends can be found in the left hand column near the bottom.

We’ve started the new year with a flood of orders for our National Hive products so it looks like a busy year ahead.  Happy New year to all our customers past and future and happy beekeeping for 2015.

Holidays 2014

From today 26th July all Peak Hives orders will be made up and dispatched after we return from our annual holiday.  We thank all our customers and hope you all have had a great beekeeping season.  There’s been plenty of swarming but it also looks like a good honey crop is coming.

Please feel free to place orders for our National Hive and Nucleus Hives.  We will be returning to full production again upon our return.

All the best

Nick, Adriana and Fam.

Gearing up…

For the growing season 2014!  The Polytunnel is now up and running after a lot of hard graft.  54 feet by 14 feet so lots of room to grow in.  Apart from the usual toms, cukes, strawberries and peppers the plan is to propagate bee friendly plants for sale through the Peak Hives website.  I’ve started off with Cotoneaster which are now coming on nicely.  We’ve got 8 raised beds each 8ft by 4ft and a couple of smaller ones for the children to learn a bit of horticulture.  One worry is it’s near to our apiary so I’m hoping we don’t have problems with bees getting caught inside.

Peak Hives Polytunnel

Peak Hives Polytunnel

Here’s a picture of recent products coming out of the workshop.  A couple of our popular 6 Frame plus a Dummy Board National Nucleus Hives in Western Red Cedar.  The customer asked for extra height on the stands and also ordered Nucleus Hives sized queen excluders and supers.   We’re getting busier and busier now that the weather seems to be picking up and I’ll probably have to change the turnaround time soon.

Two Nucleus Hives

Two Nucleus Hives

National Hive – 2014

Here at Peak Hives we’re gearing up for the 2014 season here’s the latest delivery of first grade Western Red Cedar delivered to us by our timber supplier.  It really does look super quality material.  After briefly changing suppliers for a cheap deal on short lengths it’s a relief to be back with the supplier who has provided us with top quality timber for a number of years.  We’ve always found that quality of relationship is very important with those who we deal with.

Cedar Delivery

Cedar Delivery

I’ve been asked a few times about whether it’s best to buy Assembled hives or Flat Pack.  I would say that the flat pack option should only be chosen if you’re a competent woodworker with the right tools and a suitable place to assemble.  It’s also useful to have seen a National Hive before or better still already own one.  So if in doubt choose an Assembled National Hive as a safer option and then perhaps if you need to expand your apiary later try a flat pack.

Last year we managed to get approx 120lb of honey from our small apiary and that included leaving 2 full supers on each hive as we nearly lost colonies through starvation due to the late cold snap in April.  Hopefully with the extra stores all our colonies with go through this years winter and we’ll get as good a honey crop as 2013.

National Hive Travelling Screen

After having had several customers request these I finally found time to seek out the right mesh and make some up so they’re now added as a Peak Hives product in the left hand column.  In the past I’ve seen some of these done with quite a wide mesh hole.  We’ve chosen to use a small mesh hole to reassure that no bees are going to escape on that journey up the M1.

travelling screen

travelling screen

I’ve also added the National Hive 6″ Roof as a flat pack option.

Carnival Float

Here’s our entry for Tideswell and Eyam Carnivals this year.  A friend suggested the theme of bees and beekeeping and I was happy to make up a WBC for a change.  The colony reached about 15 bees in the end and there were a few of us as beekeepers with smokers etc.  All good fun but we didn’t win a prize.  I wasn’t expecting to when we saw the floats other teams had put in.  They spend months in barns making amazing floats.  One lot had converted ride on lawnmowers into the Whacky Races.  Dick Dastardly, Penelope Pitstop, Red Baron, Pat Pending etc…

Peak Hives Carnival Float

Peak Hives Carnival Float

It’s back to the workshop tomorrow.  We still have a large order book for our National Hive products and it will be hard going after the holiday but customers are waiting.

Neonicotinoids on Horizon

Beekeeper and journalist Bill Turnbull has made an interesting program for Horizon re bee decline.

Amongst other reasons for the problems our bees are experiencing presented in the piece was the role of the controvertial pesticide ‘Neonicotinoids’.  They act on the insect nervous system and a compelling piece of evidence was submitted when they showed bee disorientation after exposure to ‘Neonics’.

I’ve grabbed the screen from iplayer showing the flight path of bees exposed to the pesticide and bees who haven’t been exposed. According to the program the test results have been validated using hundreds of bees.

1.  Flight path of bee not exposed to Neonics (found hive through landmark recognition)
Neonicotinoids Free Bee Finds Hive

2.  Flight path of ‘lost bee’ after exposure to Neonics

Neonicotinoids Lost Bee
The program did say that there might be more than one cause for the problems including varroa, intensive farming etc etc but as an interested amateur beekeeper concerned for the environment after seeing this program I think we need to reconsider the use of such chemicals.  After all if it is actually affecting the bees brains might it not be rewiring our own…

Once again at the centre of the controversy is big money.  Bayer/Monsanto.  The UK government lobbied heavily and voted against the current EU 2 year moratorium on the use of Neonicotinoids.

2013 Holiday

Hi.

After a very busy season making our Cedar National Hive beekeeping equipment our annual holidays are coming up so any orders placed from today 02/08/2013 will be made up upon our return in the first week of September.  Many thanks to all our clients new and old.

Nick & Adriana.

Swarm

Got a call today from one of the local Youth Hostels.  They have a healthy colony that for some years has resided in a roof and it had swarmed.  Nick, the manager, called and asked if I could capture the swarm as he was concerned about the youngsters in the hostel.

As quick as I could I got together all the requisite National Hive items and donned my bee suit and headed down there.  Lovely swarm of bees hanging in a tree bough at chest height that was easily pulled down into the hive and snipped off with secateurs.  New colony for our apiary!!!  Tomorrow I’ll be off down to the apiary to put a feeder on and open up the entrance.  With a bit of luck and sugar they’ll build up for the winter and won’t be ‘chasers’.  Last swarm we had were chasing me out of the veg garden.

France hols (2 weeks) beckons and after a busy season we’re all ready for a break.

Two National Hives and a 14×12 Nucleus

Latest lineup finished today in the Peak Hives workshop. The customer is, I believe, writing an article on beekeeping for a National Sunday Supplement which we’re very excited about. Would be great to see some of our National Hives in a widely distributed Sunday. Apart from our website we don’t advertise and we’re always busy so the thought of a deluge of orders the Monday after publication is a little daunting but in today’s economic gloom it’s definitely better to be worried about having too much work than too little.

Each hive comprises of National Stand, National Brood Chamber, 14×12 Eke, 2 Supers, Framed Queen Excluder, Apiguard Crown Board, Gabled Roof, Ashforth Feeders, Top Bee Space, all in first grade Western Red Cedar. The Nucleus Hive is one of our own popular 6 frames plus the supplied dummy board with a varroa floor again in Cedar.

Sunday-Sup

 

Given that we’re due about a foot of snow overnight it’s unlikely to leave the workshop tomorrow. Just have to work round them until the courier can get!

66 National Hives – One Order!

On Monday I delivered Peak Hives biggest order to date for our Cedar National Hives to our customer in South Wales.  They are involved in a transnational project regarding bees and biodiversity and a part of the project involved running apiaries and educational workshops in their area.  For sensible reasons I won’t say exactly where they are.  They had already taken a delivery last season from us for 33 hives and were happy to then go on to order another larger order.

Many thanks to Rob, Gareth and all involved in the project for placing your orders with Peak Hives.

It’s been a big job for a small business like ours but I finished off the last Varroa Floors on Friday and can now get back to the standard order queue.  Thanks to all Peak Hives customers for your orders and your patience.

Merry Christmas 2012!

From all of us at Peak Hives to all our customers, past, present and future…have a wonderful Christmas.

Our colonies here in the cold, wet and windy Peak District have been tucked away with a kilo of baker’s fondant and a slab of insulation on top of the crown board.  I’ll heft the hives in Jan 2013 and put more fondant on if needs be.

Here’s hoping all your colonies make it through the winter and ever the optimist let’s look forward to a bumper honey crop for 2013.

Nick, Adriana & Fam

Double Brood Nucleus Hive

We’re back from our annual family trip to the Vendee and back into the workshop.

This client likes to use a double brood chamber on his nucleus colonies and asked if we could make up an extra brood chamber in nucleus size.  We’re always keen on custom orders and here’s the result…

Double Brood Nuc

Double Brood Nuc

As with all Peak Hives products it is manufactured to National Hive standard dimensions.  But we do our Nucleus Hives for 6 frames plus a dummy board (supplied) for easier manipulation.

The Honey Man – Tideswell Theatre

Coming to Tideswell on 10th May – The Honey Man, by New Perspectives Theatre Company, about a bee keeper.

A four star review in The Guardian today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/mar/22/the-honey-man-review?INTCMP=SRCH

Splayed Legs Hive Stand

I’ve been asked a number of times for these so I set aside some workshop time to make up the required jigs and ensure that they could be manufactured to a consistent high standard.  That done I have now added them as a product in the left hand column and they are also an option on our National Hives.  Apart from looking good, the splayed legs add stability and the longer landing board should be appreciated by both bees and beekeeper alike.

Splayed Legs Hive Stand

Splayed Legs Hive Stand

Christmas orders 2011

We’ve had a number of enquiries as to when is the last date for ordering Peak Hives National Hive products to ensure timely delivery for giving as Christmas presents this year.  Up at the top of the page from now until around Christmas time there’ll be a ‘last order date’ which will be continually monitored and updated to ensure delivery in time.

Hope that helps.

Frames and Dummy Boards

Just added Frames and Dummy Boards to the Peak Hives product list.  They can now be purchased from the left hand column along with all other Peak Hives National Hive products.

These two products have been requested umpteen times.  Dummy Boards present no problem it’s just that I’m so busy with existing orders it takes some time for me to fit into the work schedule making up anything new.

Dummy Boards

Dummy Boards

Frames are another matter.  Each frame consists of 6 seperately machined elements and yet they command such a low selling price.  I’ve been working on this problem for a while and whilst it’s been sorted some time ago for supplying my own apiary I have been wary of offering them as a PH product up until now.  Various jigs have been designed and made and then remade and then again reworked but I’m now finally confident that they can be viably produced in batches meaning I’m not having to work for two penneth an hour.

DN1 Frame Pack

DN1 Frame Pack

So far we’re offering the bread and butter DN1 and SN1 frames in packs of 10 in the flat.  Hoffman brood frames will come before the new 2012 season.

Alea Iacta Est.

Peak Hives Nucleus Colonies

For the upcoming 2012 season Peak Hives has joined forces with a local bee breeder and will be supplying Nucleus Colonies of bees.  We still have to cross some ‘t’s and dot some ‘i’s but if you’re interested in a ‘nuc’ then please email.  Our bee breeder is very experienced and has invested recently in some Buckfast Queens to breed from for the next season.  More on this soon…

2011 Photo Competition Winners.

The season’s nearly over here in the Peak District.  Time to pop some Apiguard on the hives and get things ready for the winter.  We took over 200lb of honey off our 5 colonies and we’re jarring up to sell through local outlets.  James and Alexandra are already planning what to buy with their ‘honey money’.

Anyway to ease a bit of the upcoming winter gloom here’s the winning entries for our photo competition.  We have had tons of entries and it’s been VERY hard work to come up with 3 winners.

1st Prize of a complete Peak Hives Nucleus Hive goes to Paul M for this shot.  It’s just fantastic and I’ve even incorporated it into the PH banner at the top of the website.  Many thanks Paul.

Paul-M-1st

Paul-M-1st

Second prize (and it was VERY VERY hard deciding between 1st and 2nd) goes to Cora M.  Just a great image!  PH didn’t supply the supporting cast by the way and the pyrography must be all Cora’s work too.  Brilliant and thanks for the photo!  An assembled cedar super will be on it’s way.

Cora-M-2nd

Cora-M-2nd

Third goes to (this was another really hard decision as there was a super Christmas image in contention) Stephen S for this image.  Also on it’s way will be an assembled cedar super.

Stephen-S-3rd

Stephen-S-3rd

Many, many thanks to all the PH customers who participated.  It was a bit of fun and it worked well so I’ll probably do something similar next season.

Bearing in mind our order queue it’d be appreciated if the winners could be patient in receiving their prizes.  I promise that they will turn up in good time for the 2012 season.