Beehives

[Grockle]

Last year, I heard a buzzing sound from one of my nest boxes. I immediately thought that the wasps had returned, but no, on closer observation, it was clear that the squatters were a small variety of Bumblebee.
They stayed active until the first frosts arrived and provided interest for all the family, friends and neighbours.

Mini Bublebees

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So I thought, why not build a hive for honey bees from some pallets and other spare wood lying around the garden. So I scoured the internet for plans and found some good ones. I then checked the dimensions of my bits of timber and found that the width of the planks were not wide enough unless I glued some together then sawed them back to the correct size. Too fiddly!

I then compared the cost of making a hive out of new cedar wood or buying a kit from a selection of suppliers. I hadn't realised that there were so many different types of hive such as Langstroth, National and WBC.

WBC hive

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WBC Hive

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After much head scratching I decided on a WBC kit as it is more ornamental than the others and would look good in the garden even if I decide not to obtain a bee colony. It took a while to build and when it wash finished, I couldn't resist personalising it with thee carvings.

[Rorschach]

Looks great!

We had bees move into an old nest box, we had to remove them though as the nest box was right next to the veg patch and my mother who deals with all the growing is highly allergic to bee stings, too much of a risk unfortunately.

[joinerjohn]

Very nice,, I'd love to keep bees, but my garden is miniscule (about 6 ft by 12 ft and right next to the road/pavement) so the council might take a dim view of passers by getting stung. (missus dunna like anything that flies, unless it's got Thomas Cook/ Jet2.com/Easyjet or RyanAir, signwritten on't side)

[wine~o]

Nice work, Grockle.

I'd love to keep bees if I had time

[Grockle]

Thanks to all for the comments.

Happy Bee

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Just had my first bee. My neighbour come across the road with a big smile on her face and presented me with this little fella.

[getthewheelsinline]

Ha! Nice neighbour & nice hive! Keen to have my own hive too - there is a local bee club which has good numbers.