Che Guebee Apiary: Coating the Top Bar Hives with raw Linseed Oil

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Coating the Top Bar Hives with raw Linseed Oil

I will get 2 bee colonies at the beginning of May and the hives are not being coated yet. It takes a month for the raw Linseed oil to dry. The weather forecast sais sunny skies for the next couple of days with temperature around 8'Celsius. This is not that warm but I cant wait any longer so I coated 6 hives today.

One can see the difference in color between the coated hive and the un-coated stand

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is Natural Beekeeping?

"Natural Beekeeping" is a concept, an idea which springs from a human mind and as such will differ from one person to another, from one culture to another, depending on our limited and conditioned perception about what it IS being a Honeybee. Since natural beekeeping is an idea and not the actuality it is not to be taken rigidly. Instead it is to be directly inspired by the Actuality. But let's avoid going too philosophical about it and let me simply describe how I see "natural beekeeping" benefiting honeybees (these are only guidelines not a dogma);

- free wax comb construction resulting in clean wax and various cell size

- bees overwinter on their own honey stores (feeding sugar syrup ONLY if absolutely necessary)

- lots of peace (low interference from the beekeepers part)

- treatment free (The only way to have a sustainable system of beekeeping is to stop treating, instead making splits from survivor colonies seems the most natural way to me)

- bees are allowed to raise as many Drones as needed (no drone culling)

- natural Queen selection resulting in the strongest Queen (no queen cell culling and only working with local Queens or my own)

- pesticide free bee zone and supporting organic farming (this is a global issue and must be dealt with locally first through environmental organisations and by buying and growing organic food/clothing, etc ...)

- expanding my apiary every year by making splits using Queen Cells from my own strong survivor colonies or catching local swarms. This is the best way to counteract winter losses.

- planting for the bees flowering trees, bushes and plants covering all seasons. Biodiversity is the best healer for the bees and all other creatures.

Natural Beekeeping

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Coating the Top Bar Hives with raw Linseed Oil

No comments:

Post a Comment

Catching my very first Prime Swarm