Cutting through the Deep Ocean of Views

If you are to ask me how did I get into beekeeping I wouldnt know what to say realy. I even said to my wife the other day "when did i get so interested in bees". I just cant remember that day ... its not as if a friend was a beekeeper and showed me around the hive and I just fell in love with the ladies, no ... this was more subtle, creeping under my skin until it reached my heart.

I do know that i've got interested in bees through researching about my new passion called Self-sufficient Homesteading.

Somehow I ended up reading The Barefoot Beekeeper by Phil Chandler and I could see myself in the near future building a Kenya Top Bar Hive. Call me psychic as it turned out i've build two only a couple of month later and kept in them two bee colonies.

What a magic experience that was! And I got stung 8 times :) how cool is that (if not alergic i guess).

And here I am today. Beeless. I left those hives to the school of Self-sufficient Householding I attended for 8 month in Sweden. I hope for next year generation to get interested in top bar beekeeping.

During this year I've read alot on beekeeping. Both books and online bee forums. The books which had great influence on me are; The Barefoot Beekeeper by P. Chandler, The Buzz About Bees by Jurgen Tautz, Top Bar Beekeeping by Les Crowder, and others.
Forums are Biobees and Bee Source.

So much I've discovered!!! There are so many great hive designs out there like Perone, Warre, Kenya Top Bar Hive, Log hives, Skeps ... and many variations on the mentioned.

I found out that there is conventional beekeeping utilising anti Varroa treatments and there are those called natural beekeepers practicing treatment freebeekeeping. Often the debate between these groups can become harsh.

Some say water spray is better than smoker, others that vertical hives are better than horizontal ones, the third say that one is to leave the bees in peace, others that often management is needed. There are those who use top entrance and those who say that top entrance is bad and advise bottom entrance.
Some love wax foundation and frames others curse them and propagate top bars instead. One takes the honey from the bees and feeds them with sugar syrup and the other claims bees are to winter on their own honey.
Some are creating ventilator hives others do condenser hives.

Im cutting through the Deep Ocean of Beekeeping Views trying to create my own begginer style. I know that my own experience will filter out whats working best for the bees in my locality but one must start somewhere, right?

DIY Hand Miter Saw

I was looking to buy a miter saw but the price was too high for my self-sufficient householder pocket so I pondered what to do.
An idea came up and I collected a few pieces of materisl from the garage and this was the result :)

hand saw, a tick wooden plank wide enough for the saw blade and a 90' deg metal piece

screw or nail the metal piece to the plank but make sure not to make it too tight for the saw

fasten the whole thing and viola, an inexpensive hand miter saw :) Dont you just LOVE DIY :)

Collecting Wood Pallets

I've managed to get 4 new big pallets and 2 smaller ones. Its not only the planks that are re-used but nails also (2 nail lenghts). I will soon make a few hives out of those. The pallets are heat treated (HT) so no danger to the bees.

Bee Song by Lara Conley

I am happy to have found this lovely bee song :)
Here is the link http://www.myspace.com/laraconleymusic

I was looking to buy Lara Conley's bee song on iTunes but could not find her there ...

Giant Asian Hornet Invading Europe

EDIT; The video shows the Japanese Gian Hornet which is NOT the same as the Asian Hornet which invaded Europe. The Asian is a bit smaller than the European Hornet. Im glad we didnt get this Japanese one !

Read more in The Telegraph

Asian Hornet Trap and Reduced Hive Entrance leaflet
How to turn a 2 liter pop bottle into a killer wasp and hornet trap

Is my new KTBH too deep?

Now that I've placed an old comb from my "Phil Chandler size" top bar hive into this new hive which is much deeper I wonder whether the combs will collaps or not. As you can see the diference is huge. The hive is 45cm deep and 45cm wide at the top. I know the bees will attach the comb to the side of the hive but at some point I will be inspecting combs and to do so I must cut them off the wall. This will put the whole comb weight at the top bar connection.

One is sure, there will be no flipping around with this long comb ;) otherwise it sure will break.
This hive's body is adapted to the swedish hive called "Lagnormal" and is an equivalent to its two deep boxses. The idea is to let the bees have a big uninterupted brood nest. The honey will be harvested from the super which is placed on top of the bars.

Will this deep comb collaps?

Melting Top Bar Virgin Wax

I've found this pot in a second-hand shop very cheap. Its a type of a juce maker. I decided to have it for melting bees wax. This wax comes from a Top Bar Hive which means the bees built it 100% New virgin wax which I will use to make skin salve with knowing that it has no contaminants, as is the case with foundation wax sheets.

the wax is broken into pieces and placed in the upper part of the juicer ...

wax melting ...

Lovely smelling virgin wax from a top bar hive

 all whats left behind are the pupae cocoon which I threw into the compost.