Thank you Thank you Thank you. My husband loves the bees but as he is getting older he has a hard time lifting the hives. now he will be able to get back into his secret love of bees. and the honey . may god bless you over and over
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G’day @karel_thome, I hate to be a party pooper, how is he going to lift the sometimes heavy honey super in order to frequently check on the brood?
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Jeff is right.
You need to look in the brood box every week during “the season”
Hi Karel,
One idea for making the movement of the boxes easier might be using two medium boxes together for the brood, and instead of ‘supering’ (putting the deep box with the flow frames on top of the brood) he could ‘nadir’ (put the deep box with the flow frames underneath the brood).
It is a less common way to arrange a hive but the bees will go for it if you set it up that way and then he could check the brood from the top more easily without lifting.
When he was going to harvest honey he would have the mediums to shift when he wanted to check the fill on the flows, but ver all it would entail MUCH less lifting of honey weighted boxes.
Also, there are some very clever ideas for ‘hive lifts’ which allow you to use leverage to get into the hive. Someone here on the forum posted info about building one. Maybe someone with better recall than I will remember where that info was and post a link. (hint, hint ; -)
He might also consider using a top bar hive where there would not have to be any stacking at all and he could access all of the frames easily. The top bar hives have a bigger footprint, but offer an advantage in the weight area!
@karel_thome Using a top bar hive would help - you can modify a Flow frame for top bar but would need an oblong TBH not the traditional with inward sloping wedge bottom - you would need to get it made unless you are good with carpentry - they are not difficult to build.
The reason for the inward slope is to help with rain run off but if you over hang the roof sufficiently that can be over come - most bee hives have straight walls so it is really not a problem just protect the wood like any other hive if you build it oblong
here is a pattern for one:-
http://horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/long-langstroth-plans.shtml
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Hi Dee, I’m finding that if I do a proper preemptive swarm control measure, I’m not needing to check on the brood for another 4-5 weeks. The advantage of this type of swarm control is: #1 your not checking on the brood on a weekly basis. #2 the colony is still strong enough to produce honey. #3 Your keeping your brood combs fresh. & #4 Your making extra colonies.
Thank goodness for grandsons
That as well Dexter…