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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...:-)




Observation Hive Standard Product

I’ve just added our 6 Frame Observation Hive to our standard products list which can be ordered from the left hand column. In standard it comes in First Grade Western Red Cedar and holds six brood frames (seven if you count the one lifted into the viewing frame). It comes with a dummy board and shutters to block out light when in transit. It has a mesh floor complete with Yellow Correx inspection tray. The entrance is a stainless steel disc which is held in place with an allen bolt so it can be fixed tight for display. Optional is a crown board and roof kit so the hive can be used to house a colony longer term.

6 Frame Cedar Observation Hive
Observation Hive Open
Open View with Queen Excluder

Perfect for Farmer’s Markets and can be laser engraved with your custom logo.

A Trio of Observation Hives

Peak Hives Observation Hives
Peak Hives Observation Hives

Here’s three National Nucleus size Observation Hives just completed in the Peak Hives workshop. From Left to right, 6 Frame Cedar Standard National Brood with a Brood Lift and a Super Lift on top and a custom laser engraved logo, 6 Frame Oak 14 x 12 Brood Size Main Chamber with a single 14 x 12 Brood Lift and on the right a 6 Frame Cedar Standard National Brood with 2 x Brood lifts.

These are now packed and ready for sending out to our patient customers. At Peak Hives we’re really busy and Covid 19 isn’t impacting on workshop time but it has had some effect on supplies. Those issues are now resolved so I’m spending 7 days a week in the workshop to get on top of the order queue. As ever the majority of orders are for National Hives custom made in our workshop from Finest First Grade Western Red Cedar.

Uncertain times…Take Care out there. Keep Safe.

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.

Observation Hive in Oak…

Our long standing customer Adrian is having a birthday soon and as a present he has had commissioned this observation hive. It is a 6 frame 14×12 Nucleus Hive made from Oak and has the observation window piece above with the optional super frame.

He collected it from the workshop today and was pleased with the piece.

Happy birthday Adrian!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

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.

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.

Observation Hive For Scotland

Here’s a National Observation Hive which has just left the workshop on it’s way to Scotland.  Taken some time in the making and I prefer to do these specials when it’s the quiet season so I can spend a little extra time on the machining and getting it just right.  Many thanks to David for his patience.  It would have left the Peak Hives workshop last week but we have had a dump of snow and the gritters don’t come up our lane these days so it had to wait until the courier van could get to us.

Observation Hive Closed

Observation Hive Closed

Observation Hive Open

Observation Hive Open

For now that’s the specials done with as we are very busy with orders for our National Hives and looking forward to a great 2015 beekeeping season.

National Hive Observation Brood

This combination of a Cedar National Hive Observation Brood Chamber and Polycarbonate Quilt are to be used by a Beekeeping Association when they run their introductory beekeeping courses later in the Spring.  It should allow the novice beekeepers chance to have a very good look at the colony without actually opening up the hive and disturbing the bees.  We’re getting busier now that the days are starting to lengthen and people are beginning to think about their apiaries once again.  Here in the Peak District there’s still plenty of time for wintery weather so I won’t be going near our bee hives for ages yet.

Observation Brood Chamber

Observation Brood Chamber

 

 

Top Bar Hive

One of our existing clients requested this Top Bar Hive.  It’s been a very interesting build and having seen it I’d love to have one myself but alas this is shipping tomorrow to our client.  It’s made of Western Red Cedar and has a hinged viewing panel as well as a Varroa Mesh floor and a mechanism for counting Varroa drop.  About this time of year I can take a little time away from the bread and butter business of National Hive making and take on these ‘specials’.  It has been a bit of a labour of love.  I shouldn’t really have spent so much time on it but pride in my work led me to dedicate perhaps rather more time and effort than I should.

Top Bar Hive in Cedar

Top Bar Hive in Cedar

I can imagine the management of one of these Top Bar Hives is quite different to a National Hive and if I do get time I’ll make myself one for our apiary.  They look fun.

Top Bar Viewing Panel

Top Bar Viewing Panel

It’s near enough Christmas now and any orders received from today onwards won’t be delivered in time for Christmas Day delivery.  We wish all our customers past, present and future a merry Christmas, happy New Year and happy beekeeping for 2014

Observation Hive No2

Earlier on in the year we were approached by a visitor attraction to build an observation hive to be installed for public viewing.  We were, as usual, too busy building our National Hives so we couldn’t accommodate them at the time.  Now that the main season is over I can make up special requests and this is the result

Observation Hive 2

Observation Hive 2

It will be wall mounted and takes 3 DN1 brood frames and an SN1 super frame as specified by the customer.  I was concerned that having only 4 frames it might be too small but the client assures me that they have seen similar observation hives run successfully over long periods.  They are also quite well in with local beekeepers so should have assistance on hand should they need it.  I’m currently discussing with the customer as to whether I travel up to the lake district where the attraction is to fit the hive.  Hopefully I will be and can make a weekend of it and do my best to get up Scafell.

 

National Observation Hive

One of our school customers wanted an observation hive and sent me an image of one they had seen to see if I could make a copy.  They also wanted it to be compatible with frames taken from their existing Peak Hives National Hive so as to facilitate colony management etc.  The photo they sent me was of a hive based upon the Langstroth so it did take a bit of modifying to make it National Hive compatible but here’s the result.

National Observation Hive

National Observation Hive

 

National Observation Hive

National Observation Hive

 

National Observation Hive

National Observation Hive

As you can see with the hinged doors open and the polycarbonate quilt it will make for easy viewing of the entire colony.  I added toggle latches to hold the floor to the brood chamber and to the modified super above the brood so as to make sure there weren’t any mishaps whilst the hive was being observed.  I’m pleased with the result and think our client will be too.