Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Che Guebuddha]

I turned my log into a log hive today. I will use it as a bait hive this year;
http://cheguebeeapiary.blogspot.se/2013/04/che-guebee-log-hive.html

[biobee]

Nice work, Che. Someone gave me a smallish hollow log recently that I hope to be able to use - maybe for a cast to live in.

[Che Guebuddha]

Thanks Phil.
At first I was reluctant to using logs in case of inspection but hey we cant all be conventional and perfect

I will treat this hive like I would treat a feral colony in a log; let em bee and observe. If they die I will take out the comb and check the cell size from top to toe.

They will be alowed to swarm at will. If I see the swarm I'll catch it if not well ... one more feral colony on the loose

[catchercradle]

Sadly one of the two feral colonies near me didn't make it through the winter. I have yet to check the other one out. I suspect that the space it has isn't enough for a large colony and witht he weather last year..........

If the other one is still going strong I might see if there is anywhere I can hang a bait box up.

[Che Guebuddha]

Its so nice to hear people reporting the presence of feral colonies. According to my local bee inspector we have no ferals in this locality. Im already priming my bait hives with Lemongrass EO. Its still too early for swarms around here. We are waiting for the Dandelions too bloom, that is swarm time prep.

Im seeing bees in my backyard already. Not sure if they come from hives or are feral ... This locality has numerous old Oaks and lots of forest. Lets hope for the best.

[Solarpat]

I've been real happy with my log hive. Looking at your web site and your natural beekeeping philosophy makes me think you'll be happy as well. Hope you get bees in it real soon. Try asking a pest control person about the location of bee trees. That's how I found the tree that had bees in it for my log hive.
One more thing...if you have any disease-free comb, I've found that to be very much of an attractant in your bait hive.
Good luck.

[Che Guebuddha]

My log is no match to your handsome Bee Beard and the gorgeous Bee-atrice but im hoping to get a swarm move into it. We apparently dont have many swarms around here (if any according to the locals). I might place a small split into it and see how they fare. I will be spliting my two KTBH colonies in Jun and if there are numerous queen cells I'll make sure to place small cast size colony into the log.

[Solarpat]

Bee-atrice log hive didn't make it through the December cold snap. The cast swarm never built up very fast and couldn't get through the sub-freezing nights, but good news in early June 2014. A ginormous swarm chose Bee-atrice while I was out of town for two days. The brood area temperature shot up from 60 degree F to 94 degrees F (34 C) in the space of about three days.
I had tried dropping a couple of small swarms inside, but they didn't take. I'm thinking this swarm came from the cranberry bog pollinator hives, but in truth I have no idea, except that it's a large swarm. You can't believe how happy that makes me feel after having that hive empty for about half a year.
http://solarbeez.com/2014/06/17/bee-atrice-steps-into-prime-time/

[Che Guebuddha]

I follow your blog Congrats on the swarm!

My log hive is still in Sweden empty. Last year no swarms due to locals clipping queen wings
Next week im off to our summerhouse in sweden to bring most of our stuff to our new farm in Denmark. This time the log is comming with
It may be too late to start it this year though. As you already experienced cast swarms arent the best choice for large logs.

[Solarpat]

[Solarpat]

[Che Guebuddha]

The log is locked inside the garage If I was to leave it outside all I would find now inside of it would be a swarm of European Hornets
Lots of hornets there and no swarms due to wing clipping practice.

What I could do is move one top bar nuc in by simply placing the top bar combs from above. I would need to chop'n'crop a bit but its doable