peak-hives.co.uk » Varroa

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

Varroa Floor Improvement

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:11:06 +0000

From now on the slide out trays used for Varroa inspections on Peak Hives Open Mesh Floors will be made from 4mm Yellow Correx rather than the 5mm ply previously used. This change applies to full National size Varroa Floors and our Nucleus Hive Varroa Floor.

Open Mesh Floor Improvement

At Peak Hives we take suggestions/requests from our customers seriously. Generally speaking I’d say that if a customer suggests an improvement it doesn’t always register as I’m so busy working on orders that product modification isn’t foremost in my mind but if it’s asked for again then I try to stop what I’m doing and give the matter some serious consideration and come to a decision.

The main reason for this change to Yellow Correx slide out trays is better visibility as compared to the ply trays I previously manufactured. It is much easier to spot a Varroa Mite against the Yellow Correx background than against the purpleish coloured ply.

Of course if you’re a previous Peak Hives customer and would like a Yellow Correx slide out tray then just get in touch and we can sort you out with a new tray at cost.

Monitoring Varroa

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:10:45 +0000

We’ve now got two strong looking colonies of British Black Bee (Apis Mellifera Mellifera) in the Peak Hives Apiary. On inspection the other day with our experienced beekeeping friend Carl we popped off a cap from a drone cell and there looking up at us was a fat and annoyingly healthy Varroa Destructor mite. Today I decided to start a monitoring process using the slide out trays on our Varroa floors which will be in the hives for the next seven days. When they are removed the mite drop will be counted and action taken if the mite drop is above certain suggested levels (see the Beebase page on Varroa and the very useful Varroa Calculator).

I read somewhere about putting oil onto the paper laid on the slide out trays to make sure the little buggers can’t get away or don’t blow away and in the photo you can see the two trays that went into the hives today at 4pm. On the right is just plain white paper and on the left the paper has been liberally coated with sunflower oil. I did wonder if the smell from the oil might cause fright to the bees. Perhaps someone with better knowledge could comment on that. Anyway in they went and now to wait for the results.

Varroa Mite Monitoring

National Hive Varroa Floors…

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:58:45 +0000

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…