Just seen an adtrader ad for complete unused hives - someone help me shop vicariously! I have been banned from even considering them - and they have been on my wish list for many a year!!
sally_in_wales Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 20809 Location: sunny wales
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 06 6:57 pm Post subject:
ooh! Got a shed full of hives in various state of disprepair, and bees that need a good talking to, so I can't play. But Ooooh!
mochyn
Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 24585 Location: mid-Wales
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 06 10:53 am Post subject:
D*mn. Just bought a hive-kit form Thorne's.
Alchemist
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 123 Location: Aberdeenshire
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 06 9:02 am Post subject:
I might be able to help. I went up to an estate auction yesterday and (somewhat to my surprise) bid and won a beehive complete with little buzzing inhabitants. I've been promising myself bees for about four years since i did a course on beekeeping, but I think i'm still in a state of shock after actually doing the deed. I'm going to pick them up tonight, so any words of wisdom on how to safely shift them would be much appreciated. My somewhat makeshift plan at the moment involves closing up the hive, strapping it shut, and then lots of gaffer tape and possibly some old net curtains.
sally_in_wales Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 20809 Location: sunny wales
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 06 12:19 pm Post subject:
Wear your beesuit even whilst transporting them if at all possible, carsick bees are not good passengers! Also, if you can put an empty super on before strapping them, down, you give them room to move about, and they tend to get a bit hot and bothered whilst being moved so a bit of space will help keep them calm. I well remember fetching ours, with me sat in the back of a transit van bracing a large buzzing hive with both feet as we went round corners praying nothing would shift!
Alchemist
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 123 Location: Aberdeenshire
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:57 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the notes Sally. They're now home safe and sound and installed in the garden. I used ratchet-straps to hold the hive together and then wrapped the whole thing with a kind of open-weave fabric bag in the end - open enough to let air pass in and out, but too small for bees. I had visions of having it all go horribly wrong and having to bail-out of the car or some-such, but thankfully they were quite well-behaved.
I went up to an estate auction yesterday and (somewhat to my surprise) bid and won a beehive complete with little buzzing inhabitants. I've been promising myself bees for about four years since i did a course on beekeeping, but I think i'm still in a state of shock after actually doing the deed. I'm going to pick them up tonight, so any words of wisdom on how to safely shift them would be much appreciated. My somewhat makeshift plan at the moment involves closing up the hive, strapping it shut, and then lots of gaffer tape and possibly some old net curtains. 
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