Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[ratcatcher]

ok peeps,

I'm currently in the process of buying 7 acres of woodland in the garden of england, and if all goes ok, plan to stick a few hives on it, now Ive got hold of 4 second hand commercial hives inc frames (1 brood,3 supers) and after they have had a good clean up, I plan to site them along a boundary line, but I dont want to use foundation, I'm hoping to just add a wax starter strip (homemade) to each frame, similar to the way I run my top bar hives, and after filling with swarms or splits, leave them to do, what comes naturally, I'll be checking them prob every 14 days or so, and adding supers if need be
harvested honey will then be taken as cut comb from the supers

[BBC]

The basic plan sounds good to me (even though I do feel some pangs of envy coming on ...).

First thought: you mention 'boundary line' - is that significant in any way ? Like - what's on the other side of the boundary ? Anything or anybody which could be troubled by your bees, or conversely, is there anything on t'other side which could cause your bees any grief ?

If I had 7 acres (assuming a rectangular plot), I might be inclined to create a 1/4 acre clearing near the middle in which to house the hives ...


Second thought: will the hives be visible from anywhere the public may have access ?


Third thought: will the prospect of the Queen possibly laying in the supers cause you any concern ? (I'm assuming that there'll be no Q/Ex)


Last (misc.) thoughts: is there any water nearby ? Any badgers, deer, woodpeckers, anything like that to be mindful of ?


Good luck with this ... I'm hoping that there'll be a few photos in due course ?

Colin
BBC
_________________
Bees build Brace Comb for a reason, not just to be bloody-minded.

[ratcatcher]

Hi Colin,

here's a birds eye view



you'll see theres a spring filled pond just in front of my northern boundary, this is fed by a spring stream that runs across and inside my boundary line from left to right, in time I aim to lay a low dead hedge along this boundary, which would obscure the hives, although even now with no leaves on the trees, observation from the private pathway is pretty obscure, there is a public footpath that runs down the outside boundary on the left, but it seems little used, the other plots all have warning signs up, warning walkers to stay on footpath due to pest control shooting 24/7
I will probably add signs warning of bees and to stay on paths

I was planning on using excluder's

as for wildlife, although not certain, I would imagine woodpeckers, deffo squirrels, deer, muntjac, chineese, poss badger, Ive got a couple of outback cameras, ready to set up and see what we have there, as have been told possibly wild boar too

so may have to erect some hazel fences surrounding them, all natural stuff of course

if you have a Facebook account, you can see more pictures,clips and the progress here


https://www.facebook.com/Goosewoods?ref=hl

just "like" the page

[rmcpb]

From the aerial photo on your Facebook page you have a clearing in the middle of the block. That would be a good place to put your hives.

I reckon you are a bit ambitious with the pea shooter if you have wild pigs there. You will be getting up really close and personal with them!!

Looks like a great spot.

[ratcatcher]

[Dexter's shed]

hi all, couldn't log in under the old name so re registered, we have been owners of the woods for 14 months now, are are only now looking at getting those hives in there, we are going to split the 4 into two areas of 2
keeping two on the proposed boundary line, it will be facing the pond and a field that is left to wild flower, and the other area will be another clearing just behind our camping area.

I still have those commercial hives, but will now be running them like rose hives, using supers without brood boxes, no queen excluder's and no foundation, just starter strips in the frames,

although I still have both of my top bar hives at a local allotment, I've always failed getting bees through the winter

having watched Tim Rowe's video's of the rose hive, I like this less hands on approach, inspections seems easier just by looking at the bottom of boxes, rather than removing frames/top bars, and adding boxes where the bees need it, depending on month of the year, only time will tell if this works for us, hopefully a couple of swarms will come my way and we can get bees in this year, then ..... well you know the drill