peak-hives.co.uk » Cedar

Custom Varroa Floors

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:09:17 +0000

Our client wishes to place his apiary with the back of his hives against a limestone wall. After having picked up his original order for a National Hive in Cedar with a standard Varroa Floor he realised that the slide out Correx tray meant that his hives would have to be 1/2 metre away from the wall. After a quick consultation with us we’ve come up with these bespoke Open Mesh Floors. On one the tray slides out to the left and on the other it slides out to the right allowing two hives to be inspected from a central position. We always try to meet any special requirements if we can. If the customers happy, we’re happy.

Custom Varroa Floors

6 Frame Nucleus Hive!

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Here at Peak Hives we take product development seriously. When we get National Hive suggestions from customers they are always considered carefully and incorporated into our product line if they’d be a useful addition to the beekeeping experience. Hence the new Peak Hives Nucleus Hive.

6 Frame Nucleus Hive

The most noticeable improvement is our new Nucleus Hives have room for 6 frames instead of the previous 5. But also we’ve built in room to add a dummy board (which comes included) alongside the 6 frames to make inspection easier.

As can be seen from the photos there’s the optional 7 litre Ashforth Feeder sized to sit perfectly on top of the brood area. The other feeding option is provided by the feed hole in the crown board which allows the use of a contact feeder should you prefer. Also optional is the Nucleus Hive stand with landing board again sized to sit perfectly under the hive.

6 Frame Nucleus Hive

We’re the only National Hive makers to incorporate a Varroa Floor with our Nucleus Hives and with the new 6 frame Nucleus Hives and that will continue. Whether a hive is for a nuc or a large colony it’s always useful to be able to inspect for Varroa infestation. As can be seen in the photo we use yellow correx trays in our Open Mesh Floors to aid visual identification of the mite. The standard floor will also continue as an option should you prefer. Both floors come with an entrance block.

Nucleus Hive Varroa Floor

And of course we’re offering the new product in standard National Hive brood size and 14×12. All in Western Red Cedar or the more economical Red Deal.

2011 Photo Competition Winners.

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:37:02 +0000

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

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

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

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.

14×12 National Hives

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:33:58 +0000

The season is more or less upon us and I’m too busy to take photos of everything leaving the workshop and blog it but here’s another recent order. The customer is moving from standard brood box size to 14×12 brood boxes. He had two national hives from us last season but this year wishes to move to 14×12 and expand his apiary. So there’s two fully assembled hives in cedar with 14×12 broods, a nucleus hive, an ashforth feeder and two ekes to convert his standard broods purchased last year to 14×12 size.

14x12 Hives and Ekes

After cocking up the first attempt at making the ekes (my bees have to suffer once again…) I’m now very happy with them. They just drop into the standard brood box (after removing previous metalwork of course) and you have a 14×12 brood chamber…

I’ll be able to join the debate as to whether 14×12 or brood and a half is better later in the year as I’m going to be running both side by side this season.

Little ‘n’ large

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:34:43 +0000

A couple of hives finished today. On the left is a five frame National Nucleus Hive suitable for 5 frames plus 8mm ‘wiggle’ room. On the right a full sized National Hive also from first grade cedar. Comes with a Stand with Landing Board, Varroa Floor, Standard Brood Chamber, A Framed wired queen excluder, two Supers, An Apiguard Crown Board and a Standard 4″ roof.

little-n-large

These are to go tomorrow to a repeat customer. It is very rewarding to find that many Peak Hives customers are satisfied with their first order and purchase again.

All the best. Nick and Adriana.

Product Improvement – Cedar Staining

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:53:41 +0000

Cedar is a superior timber for making hives partly because it has natural chemical constituents that protect it from insect and fungal attack. These chemicals can cause a side effect though in that they can react with the iron content of standard nails and cause staining if the wood is wet. I’ve been wetting the wood in picture every day for a couple of weeks and you can see the stain from the standard steel nail starting to spread. Of course this doesn’t occur if the hive is protected with paint or Danish/Linseed Oil but some prefer to leave their woodwork untreated to age and weather naturally.

On the left you can see the stained standard nail. On the right you can see no staining around the galvanized nail fixed in place by my new Air Nailer.

Cedar Test Piece

Here’s the old technology compared with the new. Hammer vs Air Nailer. Won’t be throwing the hammer away just yet but the Nailer certainly speeds up hive assembly leaves a neater finish and, using galvanized nails, gets rid of the staining issue. Peak Hives assembled National Hives will from now on be constructed using the newer method.

Hammer vs Nailer

First National Hive for 2011

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:33:53 +0000

I’ve sent out a couple of flat pack hives this week but this is the first assembled British National Hive to come out of the Peak Hives workshop in 2011. As can be seen from the photo the stand is ‘legless’. I believe the customer has a bench arrangement in place and will sit the hive on this so no legs required. The hive consists of National Stand, Open Mesh Floor for Varroa control and monitoring, National Brood Box, Framed Queen Excluder, 3 National Supers, A Standard Crown Board with Porter Bee Escapes and a Standard 4 inch Flat Roof.

An Ashforth Feeder was also included with the order and a 70mm eke in Cedar to use with a plastic feeder the customer already has. Nice bit of kit if I do say so myself.

First National Hive for 2011

All Season Workshop!

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:07:37 +0000

New for this winter is a workshop you can work in!!! Last winter’s cold snap that lasted quite a lot longer than one would think a ‘snap’ would last more or less closed Peak Hives down while the temperatures dropped far far below ‘glue setting point’. It was also physically very draining to be in there for any length of time.

So I’ve stumped up for some Kingspan and insulated the most exposed bits. It’s already a big improvement and the rest will be insulated over the coming weeks. As testament to it’s new found cosiness here’s a picture of the lastest National Hive to emerge from the new warm and snug work environment…

Bit of an odd angled view but it’s a large 14×12 National Hive in Cedar with Stand, 3 Supers and a Gabled Roof and it’s the only way I could get it all in shot.

14x12 National

Peak Hives Apiguard Crown Board

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:58:10 +0000

A new product for Peak Hives and a few photos of recent items that have left the workshop.

After a suggestion/request from an experienced beekeeper from the Leicestershire and Rutland BKA Peak Hives will now be offering the ‘Apiguard Crown Board’. It incorporates a modification to the standard Crown Board adding a 3/4 inch strip round the normally flat side of the standard Crown Board. The purpose of the extra strip is to facilitate Apiguard treatment. Under normal use the board is placed with the beespace side downwards but when it’s time to apply Apiguard (a Thymol based product which used in conjunction with other treatments has so far proven effective against Varroa) the Apiguard Crown Board is flipped over giving the 3/4 inch extra space for the Apiguard tray to sit in. A simple modification but effective against the Varroa mite.

As with the normal Crown Board it also doubles up as a clearer board with the supplied Porter Bee Escapes.

It can be purchased either as part of a flat pack or assembled hive or seperately from the left hand column.

Here’s a few snaps of the new product.

Apiguard Crown Board 1

Apiguard Crown Board 2

Apiguard Crown Board 3

I think the photos more or less explain the way it works. Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Now here’s a few photos of recent orders. We’re still very busy and this is just a snapshot of a few that have been made up and shipped to hopefully happy Peak Hives customers.

Recent Cedar Hive

Recent Deal Hive

A Couple of Flat Peak Nucleus Hives

Update complete for now. I have a number of products in the pipeline but have to concentrate on orders for the time being.

A 14×12 and a Nucleus

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:53:01 +0000

Two orders made up today. One 14×12 National with 2 Supers and a Nucleus Hive. None of this is new but we’re proud of making our products out of locally sourced materials and both of these are constructed from Peak District Western Red Cedar.

National 14x12 In Cedar

Standard Nucleus Hive In Cedar