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
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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...:-)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 To celebrate the New Year and upcoming beekeeping season and as a small thank you to all our customers we are offering a Fully Assembled Peak Hives Nucleus Hive in Cedar as the top prize in a photo competition open to any Peak Hives customer. Just email us a photo of your Hive/Apiary and the best shot will win the Nuc. We’ll include Hoffman frames (a new Peak Hives product). Second prize is a Cedar Brood Box and the runner up will get a Cedar Super. All we ask is permission to put the photo into a gallery section that will feature on the Peak Hives website. The closing date is Aug 1st 2011 when the winners will be informed. So no need to go out in the bitter cold of winter… Good luck and thank you for your custom. Mail your photos to nicholas@localhost All the best for the 2011 beekeeping season! Nick and Adriana Well no. There’s just two as can be seen in the image below. Western Red Cedar and Red Deal. In woodworking it’s not often you come across a timber that can have quite such a gamut of colouring as that of Western Red Cedar. As can be seen in the picture the leftmost timber is Red Deal but all the others are Cedar despite them looking nothing like each other. Red Deal and Western Red Cedar have quite different characteristics. Western Red Cedar has long been used for construction where timber is likely to come up against the elements. It has natural oils that resist insect attack and protect it from the worst the weather can throw at it. It’s also very light. This is a big advantage when one considers the weight a beekeeper has to lug around in a super full of honey. The reason it’s light is that it has a kind of honeycomb structure in the wood (i.e. lots of air pockets) which adds to it’s usefulness too in beekeeping in that it’s a good insulator keeping the precious bees warm in the winter. Red Deal’s main advantage is price. It’s certainly cheaper and if you don’t mind the extra weight it’s perfectly good as a timber in National Hive production. It can also last a very long time IF looked after. Looking round town houses in neighbouring Buxton it’s remarkable how many still have front doors that were constructed in Victorian times. What’s made them last so long? Paint! 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. Here’s a 14×12 top bee space National Hive in Cedar. It’s for an order but I shall also be moving my bees onto 14×12 top bee space in the coming season. I’ve just about managed OK this year with the ‘brood and a half’ I got the bees on but I have to agree with Ted Hooper that a single brood chamber has to be better (easier) to manage and any help in making the transition from beekeeping novice to beekeeper is more than welcome! This hive has been constructed using a mix of bought in and locally sourced Peak District Cedar. Having retired the family car last year in October and managed (with great difficulty) borrowing my parents car in the meantime I decided it was time to look round for a vehicle that would do the family runs and also help out with delivering National Hive orders in the locality when necessary. By chance we came across a real bargain and here’s the first batch of flat pack and assembled Peak Hives National Hive parts out for delivery this morning. The Berlingo is already a success with the children and it’s a fantastic addition to the business too. The next step is to add a towbar so that I can pick up and move about the locally sourced cedar that Dave and Adele at the National Park authority very kindly send my way when they can. Jim at Hotline signs is doing me some Peak Hives window graphics, can’t wait to see them. I would have liked to have continued living without a vehicle but it’s just not possible where we live. If I did then I’d be giving myself a major headache and putting both family and business under too much strain. Whilst the locally sourced timber is sticked and stacked in the now nice and dry spring weather I’ve been conducting a little experiment in timber drying. I cut a piece of the Chatsworth Cedar to the dimensions of a National Hive top or bottom rail and I’ve been taking photos of how it’s gone on weight wise inside a centrally heated house…the difference is dramatic to say the least. From a whopping 372 grammes and feeling like a truncheon it’s now a mere 145 grammes and feeling like a piece of balsa wood. It’s incredibly light. Part of the reason why hives are made out of cedar is that it’s light but the reason why it’s light is because there are lots of air pockets in the timber which gives it another potentially useful property. It’s a good insulator. Nice warm bees in nice light and comfy cedar hives… Every now and again I go to the lumber stack and ‘heft’ a piece of the Chatsworth cedar and I can feel it getting lighter in weight almost day by day. Had a busy and tiring day felling two Western Red Cedar trees with tree surgeons Paul and Dan. The trees had to come down anyway as they were about to topple the chimney stack on the house they were next to. Once they were down I sliced them into National Hive sized logs and then as soon as possible it’s down to Simon at Rowsley Sawmill where they’ll be milled into 2″ boards ready for air drying this summer. Here at Peak Hives we’re very keen to obtain locally sourced materials if at all possible and many thanks to Dave for giving the heads up on the trees and to Paul and Dan for letting me come along on the day. Can’t wait to get one of Peak Hives National Beehives made up out of Peak District Cedar. Local tree surgeon Paul has contacted me with regard to a couple of Western Red Cedars that he has to fell. They need to come down anyway as they are threatening the buildings nearby. He’s been very helpful and positive about these trees being used for National Hives rather than just burning them as firewood and is in negotiation with the owners now to see if it’s possible to do a deal on their unwanted trees. Many thanks to Paul! Hi. Dave and Adele at the Peak Park have come up with another Western Red Cedar that is about to be felled. More locally sourced timber for National Hives! I’m very pleased and would like to thank both Dave and Adele for their support for the cottage industry that is Peak Hives. The tree is due to be felled anyway as it’s leaning a bit too close to it’s owner’s conservatory. My opinion is that it’s better used as timber for National Hives than put through one of those awful chipper machines and ending up as garden mulch. I’ll have to arrange milling again into 2″ boards with Simon at Rowsley Sawmill and then it can join the Cedar from Chatsworth that is already sticked and seasoning. It’s not really economically sensible to do this as the time and effort it takes is enormous but there’s definitely a satisfaction in knowing that the timber I’m working came from just down the road rather than the other side of the world. Here’s a pic. 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… 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. 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… Many thanks to Dave and all involved. 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? |