The Bee Man British Bees Hints & Tips

This section is under construction and should be ready by the end of September 2013
every thing in this section is what i do keeping my bees it works well for me and you should only take it as a starting point
every hive, beekeeper and area are different if it suits you and your bees thats the best way to do it.

Many Beekeepers and local beekeeping associations will tell you "Do it like this or that our way is the only way" But there are many ways to do many things and you will find the way that suits you and your bees is the best way!

Winter Feeding
Feeding Fondant
Sugar Syrup
1:1 Sugar Syrup
2:1 syrup
1:2 Syrup
Thymol Pre-Mix
National Bee Hive Dimensions & Statistics
Langstroth dimentions
Commercial Dimentions
Smith Beehive Dimentions
WBC Beehive Dimentions
Beeswax Lip Balm
Antiseptic Beeswax Balm

You should always add fondant to your winter feeding.Even if the bees don`t need it I always give every hive at least 1Kg on top of the brood frames. Roll out the fondant in to a large square place directly on top of the brood frames and cover with cling film this stops the fondant from drying out and going hard. This has saved my bees on many occations from starving especially from isolation starvation.

Feeding your bees to go in to the winter you shouid start after the Varroa treatment I feed my bees 2:1 syrup
2-1 Syrup mix is 2Kg of white sugar to 1Ltr of water feed the bees as much as they want and stop feeding the when they will take no more each hive needs around 90 Lb of store to make it through the winter some need more some need less

Sugar Syrup

One of the reasons to keep bees is because you can harvest the honey that they create. After a honey harvest, it may be necessary to supply bees with an artificial honey replacement or with a source of artificial nectar, in order to prevent starvation. At other times when real nectar may be scarce or unavailable, artificial nectar can be used to encourage the drawing of comb or to aid in the rearing of brood. It should also be noted that honey contains materials that bees can not digest and sugar syrup makes for a better source of bee feed. This does not mean that it is appropriate to take all of the bees’ honey. After all, the bees did work rather hard for it. Bees should always have excess honey in storage. When using sugar, only use white cane sugar. Don’t used raw sugar, brown sugar or molasses as they contain impurities that may harm the bees or may be difficult for the bees to digest. If using powdered sugar instead of standard crystallized cane sugar, be sure to check the ingredients list as some powdered sugar contains anti-caking agents that might be harmful to bees. Although the following recipes call for ingredients by weight, volume is a close enough approximation as the bees don’t particularly care about the specifics of sugar concentration.

Laying Workers

When a colony becomes queenless, the ovaries of several workers develop and workers begin to lay unfertilized eggs. Development of the workers’ ovaries is believed to be inhibited by the presence of brood and the queen and her chemicals. The presence of laying workers in a colony usually means the colony has been queenless for one or more weeks. However, laying workers also may be found in normal “queenright” colonies during the swarming season and when the colony is headed by a poor queen. Colonies with laying workers are recognized easily: there may be anywhere from five to fifteen eggs per cell (Figure 3) and small-bodied drones are reared in worker-sized cells. In addition, laying workers scatter their eggs more randomly over the brood combs, and eggs can be found on the sides of the cell instead of at the base, where they are placed by a queen. Some of these eggs do not hatch, and many of the drone larvae that do hatch do not survive to maturity in the smaller cells.

Making Frames

Making up frames is simple the important thing is to make sure the well put together as when the bees draw out the wax and fill them with stores they get heavy and you don`t want them to collapse. So make sure there held together well. I use 15mm brads and a brad gun but panel pins and a small hammer work just as well some also use a small dab of wood glue to add extra strength.
The following photos show the order to put them together on the top bar you will see a strip of wood that is cut most of the way through you need to break this off and when you put your wax in bend the long hoops of wire over and use this strip of wood to trap them this will then stop your sheet of wax from slipping out.

1:1 Syrup

2:1 Syrup

1:2 Syrup