If Heath Robinson had been a Beekeeper

If Heath Robinson had been a Beekeeper,
Hints and tips, widgets and Thingamabobs by Graham Royle of the National Bee Unit
at the Sutton Coldfield Bee Keepers association meeting 17th May 2012

Graham Royle is an experienced Bee Farmer having attain a National Diploma in Bee Keeping, and having worked at the National Bee Unit, gave the audience a talk on making Bee Keeping easier with various tools and general advice, for bee keepers.

Graham gave lots of advice on apparatus that is useful for bee keeping, most of the equipment that he mention he had made himself or adapted for the use of beekeeping.

He advised us you should purchase beekeeping equipment with three primary aims
Keep it simple
Save time
Make the general interest or hobby of beekeeping more interesting.

Information on hives
The hive floor which these days is removable should be at least 2 inches from the mesh floor. This means that when varroa mite fall they cannot return into the hive.

Always use sensible beehive stands and Graham showed us an image of two hives that were precariously balanced on an oil drum, and a bee keeper actually having climbed on to the plank of wood to check on the bees. He suggested breeze blocks as a stand as they do not rot or corrode, as easily as wooden stands. He also showed various other stands that Graham uses. These included stands made from wood that and could be easily closed and transported, for use on Heaths collecting heather honey for example.

He suggested always having various shaped wedges in your tool box to prop up wobbly hives, something that my hives do and something I should use.

Placing 9mm holes in the standard mouse guards so that they could be placed in the hive in winter to ensure that other creatures were unable to get into the hive. This is something I have heard from Julian Routh who is an advocate of this method of keeping bees. Again this is something I need to implement.

Record cards should relate to the Queen and not the hive. Most records are based on the hive and not the queen. If the Queen swarms and the swarm is collected then the hive record should move with the swarm. When a new queen emerges a new record card should be created.

Graham is an advocate of the use if dummy boards. It makes the inspection less complicated and means that you are less likely to rub the bee's when returning frames into the hive.

Scales under the hive so you can monitor the weight of the hive. Graham showed pictures of a device that he had build that measures  the weight of the hive and allows the beekeeper to monitor the weight. He showed that during a year the weight only massively changes a couple of times a year. This is usually when a flow is on and the nectar is being collected.

Information on Smokers
Use Saltpetre 50g per 1 Litre of water. Cut up old towels then soak in the Saltpetre/water solution which makes lighting the smoker easier. Then hang the towels out to dry Saltpetre is a flammable chemical and can be obtained via the Internet. The Saltpetre soaked towel should be placed at the bottom of the smoker and then lit, more fuel then added, wood chip, paper, grass etc. This makes lighting the smoker easier, and practice is important for new beekeepers. The last thing you want is to spend 20minutes lighting your smoker and then spending 5 minutes checking a your 1 and only hive. This used to happen to me regularly, Graham is right lots of practice.

Use Bungs in the top of the smoker as its easer to relight a smoker that has already been lit. The use of a bung makes checking on hives at multiple sites much easier, and safer.

Frame Hanger
A frame hanger is in reality a bent piece of metal that can hold a frame. It is placed on the open hive and holds the frame on the outside of the hive, freeing you to examine the hive without putting the frame on the floor. This one frame hanging on the outside of the hive leaves frees space within the hive to manipulate the frames and examine frames for food, eggs and brood etc. I don't use one of these but I can see the advantages of one. I may try and make one myself.

Don't use leather gloves instead use latex or marigold gloves. They may be thinner but they are much more hygienic. latex gloves can be used for a single day and then disposed off. Marigolds can be use for a couple of months they can also be washed. They are also much cheaper than more traditional leather gloves used by beekeepers.

For swarm collection, Graham uses a self made vacuum cleaner device. Its a nuc box with a motor from a car heating system that sucks the bees into the hive. He attaches various pipes to the device and sucks the bees into the hive. He can reach swarms that are 25 feet off the ground. The device could be described similar to the backpacks the ghostbusters used in the cartoons and movies to collect ghosts.

Cleaning Equipment
The Solar extractor should be large enough to hold a Queen Excluder and use a funnel  to filter the wax. Graham uses a funnel made from a old traffic cone and the filter is a old pair of tights. The wax drips through the tights and any other debris is left in the tights.

Wheelie bin Liner
When applying acetic acid to frames place the supper boxes and brood boxes into a wheelie bin bag liner and place the acetic acid also inside the bag. The acid will evaporate and filter around the bag.

When extracting honey, don't use a uncapping knife use an electric paint stripper it quickly heats the wax and doesn't produce lots of uncapping waste.

When extracting honey run at a slower speed for much longer, don't just put it on full speed. Let it run at a normal speed for longer than you would normally then run at a faster speed.

Graham uses a wall paper stripper to remove the wax from only on frames and be lives this to be the best method to recover wax from old used brood frame coombe. I have always been told that old brood comb was only good for burning.

Graham has an old Burco washing machine that he uses for various things, cleaning old frame, he places the frames a soda solution to clean them. he also described used hot water in the washing machine with wax the wax floats and the debris falls to the bottom and the water keeps them apart. His wax is generally cleaner and free of debris.

This was a very interesting talk. I enjoyed it and was amazed at the thought and time Graham had spend making his own equipment, and well as the ideas he has come up with to save time and enjoy beekeeping.