It is 20 degrees below freezing on December 28th, we are closing down this 2021 year.
I might not be able to work on wood gasification metal fabrication but it will not stop me from planning, and working on other projects.
One of my main interests of mine this pass year is Bee Keeping. I quickly realized that you really do not own bees. You provide a place for them and if they like it the queen will stay there with her colony. It is totally their choice to stay or not. This is why I love the title Bee Keeper and not Bee Owner. They are Almighty God YEHOVAH’s bees and that is just a fact.
Studying them is absolutely fascinating.
I am hoping to expand from the 3 colonies to more by setting up more swarm nucs like last year.
I ask God for bees and I had a 100% for my 3 swarm nucs that were set up. They were small feral swarms and that was good.
The 2 long horizon hives I built can hold 3 colonies each. And they are designed to stack honey supers boxes on top by just opening the hinged top lid for honey production.
Now why did I title it “DOW Bee Keeping?” Because I plan to not use gasoline to do this profitable hobby.
I had honey to sale this last season but I decided to let the bees have all. They earned it, all the honey they put up and they made all of their own comb on the frames and the bee bread for their resources to survive this winter. So this year they are on their own. I hope and pray they will make it through this winter. It will test out my insulated horizontal hive I built for them. I built proven horizontal hives for them.
I am right now designing a honey frame spinning extractor for the extra deep frames I built for the horizontal hives.
Bob
Culdnt agree more. The moment we started owning bees, problems started to occur. That, and good old human greed ofcorse…
Im moving toward full, or near full interfeerance free beekeeping in hollowed out logs. The more l look at nature and natural bees, the more it seems to me that the cruel truth is we do more damage to the bees with helping them all survive thain we do good.
Lets take 10 natural hives for an example. In reality, probably only 3 strongest of 10 will survive the winter strong. But the 7 dead ones will get robbed in spring by the strong ones, boosting them and their strong genetics. The empty comb is then just waiting for a new swarm to move in.
Im thinking, this is probably the kind of beekeeping l wanna do. Take the honey and wax from the colonys that dont make it, and leave the thriveing ones alone.
Based on a few documentarys l saw about skeep beekeeping, its kinda what people did for milenia.
Here, the traditional way was beekeeping in small frameless boxes like theese.
It was the way we kept bees till a good 100 years ago.
I agree the horizontal hive mimics a hallowed out log with insulation built into it. I feel inspection of the hive to much is not good. The feral bees have survived with out man’s intervention from the beginning. The commercial bee sales into the country are the ones to blame, because of the greed the Verola Mite Destructor got into our country in the late 80’s early 90’s now we have to deal with them.
I am hoping I can raise some hygienic bees that will be resistant against the mite. This will be very hard to do with all the unhealthy commercial bees around us. With God’s help it will be done.
Hopefully you live way out into the country area away from the commercial bee keepers
Bob
Thank you for showing me those old horizontal bee boxes.
There is a frame less top bar horizontal hive construction I have looked at using the small colonies like the small boxes you have shown. It is like a horizontal V trough. No frames just a top bar that can be removed with the comb attached to the bar.
Different ways of bee keeping.
Keep It Simply Simple hive construction. KISS Bee Keeping.
Bob
Yes Bob, l have had such a “frameless” hive before. But its by no means interfeerance free. Problem is, we still dictate the comb spacing with comb bar width. Sounds non important but its far from that.
Varroa was originaly hosted by some other Japanese bug. It could not reproduce on a wild bee larve at the time. Then something changed. Human greed discovered comb fundatiin and frames. While the idea of helping bees with fundation sounds good, the problem is mostly that people also discovered they can print the cells bigger thain they are in nature, wich resaults in bigger bees. Biger bees can haul more nectar… So, from natural 4.8mm cells we now came to 5.2mm cell size.
This doesent sound too bad, untill you realise that those bigger bees take a couple of days longer to develop/incubate. And those extra few days now matched the varroa life cycle perfectly! So, hence the spread to a new host it never bothered before.
If we realy want to get resistant bees we shuld let them to degrade back to their natural state. Unfortunaly bees build cells judgeing by their own size, so geting them to build back on the original small cell size takes a few generations. There are some beekeepers here that have sucseeded in this, but many gave up. Its no easy task.
They report best resaults in tall narrow hives, where at the top the bees start building the cell size they were born in to, but as they build down they gradualy make the cells smaller with each generation. Top ones get filled with honey.
This is very interesting Kristijan. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours reading and never heard these things. Very interesting that my bees are smaller then other bees I have seen. This could be more evidence that my bees are feral bees. I did ask for feral, verroa mite resistance bees. Another thing I noted the wild bees we have
In other species are small also.
Only the native American bumblebee is large but not as large as the Japanese bumblebee. They live in smaller colonies like the cutter bees or Mason bees. I am going to try to propagate some of the other species also. They say they are endangered too.
I did notice the bees made the spacing different when they built their own comb from scratch. Less drone cells where the mites like to lay eggs. I will see in the spring how they are doing.
Thanks for the great information on smaller bees and cells incubation time vs. Verroa mites incubation time. It explains why the drone cells have the mite problem, longer incubation to hatch out drones and bigger cells size then of the female worker bee.
Bob
Gonna follow this, interesting. I had a swarm a few years ago. They just were hanging in a apple tree. Magnificent. The kids were young and I was afraid that they got hurt, so I put the bees on a place impossible to survive. Stupid, still feel bad about it. If you start with bees, you are responsible for them. To many projects to start this, but it never let go. Honey only for our own use, not selling and disturbing as little as possible. Thanks for posting.
I have see old picture drawings of how they hollowed out trees for bees. How tall are these narrow hives and how do you the harvesting if the honey that is in the top of the hive. We need to keep from disturbing the rest of the hive at all costs. Why the long horizontal hive build.
I have watched videos of bee people who specialize in bee removal from places where feral or hive swarms have relocated themselves. They move into houses, barns, sheds, stacks of lumber where ever they can find. Very interesting how the comb is layed out by the bees. Some of the hives have been there for years. With no help from man. The Verroa Mite Destructor failed to destroy the hive and the bees were thriving making lots of honey and reproduction for themselves.
All the while the bee keepers in the same area are having there white box bee hive colonies being destroyed by the mites. What is the difference in the colonies. The bees can make the comb the way they want to and not dictated according to mans plans and designs. Go figure, the bees know how to survive. Doing their regular swarms is all apart of it. The down time in the old hive between the new queen being abstabilished and stary laying eggs again. The old queen’s eggs have all hatched out. Old queen and older bees leaving and making a new hive with new comb. Man trying to stop this all the time. Man not wanting to lose his bee’s. He needs to get a clue the bees do not belong to him. Let them be free to do their thing to survive. I am planning on having places for swarms to go if the queen wants to swarm and relocate her hive colony.
Lots more of studying to do to figure the bees secrets out.
Bob
Yes their swarm can be a little intimidating. More than likely that swarm just moved on to a new location, it is hard to kill a big swam. Sometimes there is more than one queen flying in them. Smaller swarms can come together to make one big swarm. When the main queen finds her new hive the other bees will kill the other queens flying with them. If you find a pile of bees you can sometimes find the queen and save her.
Helping bees in the right way is good for them.
Bob
Bob, l agree with what you sayd.
Bees survived for literaly milions of years. Now we came and think they cant do without us 
Bob, the hives l plan to do are called Anastasias hives. Looks like this.
Its a 4 foot long, 30deg tilted hollowed out log (or made of boards) that has a slit on the side. Its a Siberian design. At first, lt made no sence to me. Every natural beekeeper l ever read about sayd bees preffer tall vertical hives wich made sence to me. Also, the slit on the side???
Then l realised. Dead hollow trees rarely are vertical, or horisontal. When they fall its usualy the tree ends up sloped a bit. Like this hive sistem recommends.
This is good since we gain the comb continuity yet the comb doesent run as a whole peace from top to bottom, as wuld be if it were positioned verticaly. Thats wery prone to breaking or collapsing in the summer over its own weight and heat.
Then l asked the same question as you Bob. Aparently, when year is good and there is exess honey, they start to deposit the honey on the low part towards the door on the bottom where it can be braked off. If the lower comb is empty, you just leave them alone that year.
Ah, there you go JoepK,
A sense of personal ethical responsibility.
Only with this can you truly become a good human.
Now balanced that with the real actual needs of near hairless, fang-less, talon/claw-less humans; then a person can settle in with the world around them. In place. In balance.
As much harm as has been done by greed, will prove to be done by those out-of-balance now wishing to erase the human from “Gaia”. Denying themselves, and their true needs.
Both of these extremes, are insanities.
S.U.
Yes this is exactly what I am going. The strongest colony had extra honey at the opening side of the hive that moved the bee breeding area more in the center of all the hive frames. On the other 2 colonies that are in the other horizontal hive they are smaller colonies the breeding area is closer to the hive opening with only a couple of frames of honey.
They are in God’s hands if they make through the winter here.
We will see in the spring.
I like this design you found from the harsh winter north of the earth. A proven hive design that has worked for decades. I like the idea of only harvesting the honey in the front that can be opened up.
The side slit opening for ventilation that the bees can control. The 30° slope hive foor for bees to easily clean their hive out of pest, dead bees, wax. House hive cleaning in general. Heat storage in the up part of the hive that can be recycled by bees when needed themselves. Condensation and water auto drainage built in. Insulation around the hive by its own construction. A roof built over head like the natural forest canopy in the forest. I see a amazing design in this hole thing. Thank you for showing me this. It is a answer to my prayers asking YEHOVAH God there must be a easier way to build bee hives and harvesting the extra honey that the bees do not need so they have their own beebread pollen, and honey reserves to live on through the winter months with out feeding them man made white sugar water that is not good for them and giving them fake pollen bread made by man. Again that is not good for them. This only breeds weak colonies of bees and not strong healthy bees that can survive on their own. All I can say is Thank you Thank you Thank you. This is really the KISS from what I can see in bee keeping.
Bob
All l got to figure out now is how to make them… They shuld be thick walled and with a 16" cavity. I realy want the hollowed out log kind. Any ideas of how to hollow the logs guys? I was thinking to drill them trugh first in the center with say half inch drill, then either burn them out or make a special tool that wuld run down the center hole and gradualy cut away the cavity. That, or chain saw and chisel the center out…
You have a sawmill. Saw logs down to the designated thicknesses, width, length. Cut the edges at the angle to make a hexagon. You can cut the vent in the side with a chain saw or saw. Build the top end with a thick cap of wood that can be removed if needed. The bottom Door for access to the hive for the extra honey that they do not need for personal use or to sale.
I just need to find me some one with a sawmill in my area and free logs that can be used for building the hives. Not likely.
Another option is build a long square insulated box to the correct dimensions you stated.
I can get all the wood I need to do this mostly free, they will be like my horizontal hives I built but longer. In the top corners they could be double corners on each side to give a more rounded contour.
I would build a smaller roof over the hives. The snow load is less in our area then in Siberia and not as cold. I think our climate is a lot like ours Kristijan.
I can put them up where I want them and put some lemon grass oil in it and used bee comb, then ask YEHOVAH to bring His feral swarm of bee to the hive.
Bob
I have hollowed out logs in the past but left a bottom in it. IV done it with fire just by setting hot coals in the middle and burning it down and in very time consuming but was a fun project, made a giant mortar and pestle. Bore cutting with a chainsaw is light speed faster, but bore cutting requires a sharp chain and a good feel for where the bar is headed in and will stop, just bore in about the thickness you want all the way around nice and slow till the core comes free then thin the edge to your liking with the saw. I did this then cut in a few cross cuts to make a swedish torch and then burned it out to make a planter
I would take a long wood auger drill and drill out a hole and light it like a swedish torch like Marcus said. Or build a box and add tree slabs around it for more wood insulation.
Kristijan, and Bob, you are absolutely correct. I learned this from watching the “Natural” beekeepers on YouTube over the years. You can buy foundation with smaller cell sizes, but you have to regress your bees gradually. I think letting them build their own comb / cell sizes will do this, could take years. This year I am doing everything wrong according to the books, (ignoring them, letting them keep all their stores) we will see how the winter goes!
Some use “Drone” foundation to help control mites. You must have a tight clockwork rotation schedule and never miss the time to remove that drone comb. Too much work for me.
I like the idea of horizontal hives, but I still want it to be built to be able to do an inspection. Actually, in the USA you must have a way for a state inspector to check them if they want to. If you are in the quiet backwoods, you will never meet an inspector unless you ask them to come. Very decent people, usually beekeepers themselves.
Yes, you could controlled burn the log hollow, like making a primitive canoe.
I know a fella that runs this way Mike, he has I think 21 colonies spread about the coastal range and won’t tell anyone where they are and his honey sells for top dollar every year, but with basically having wild bees, you get the more wild problems. He is always battling the black bears and skunks, has small electric fences solar powered around them as a deterrent and loses a few hives yearly to them still. He is pretty proficient at catching wild swarms to replace them
Hi Mike not only the size of the comb was altered making the bee bigger but the spacing between the combs was changed by frames. The newer generation of bees we have now can work with this larger hive set up because of breed selection. But with consequences, Pests problems in the hive.
Finding true feral bees that have been living generations with out the influence of man is hard now, and you will see a small bee. My uncle when I was a boy had bees in his orchard and they were a small darker bee. I think he called them the Spanish bee. They were definitely small in size but hard workers in pollination and making honey production. Now those bees are the same size as other bees. Why modern bee keeping has changed them.
Yes the state regulations of man with all of it’s rules and regulations for bees has brought us to weak bees and problems,why? Greed and more greed. But we have to remember this. The honey bee is not native to the USA. They were brought in from other countries. So we need to deal with all the hybrid breeding problems that it has caused. The Verroa Mite Destructor brought in from another county, AFB, Wax moth, Hive Beatle, UFB being problems for all the breeds of bees in America now.
The Pestilence that is invading everywhere these last days on the earth. We can see it and need to fight it. If we can have bees that can naturally fight it and win. That is a win, win for everyone. Especially that of the feral bees that are now in danger too. Why? Modern farming practices of spraying pesticides that kill bees. Again greed involved here. It is not a one answer problem but of many things man is going. Yes I put the blame on Mankind. Me included.
We need to deal with the problems we have created or suffer the consequences of it period.
Bob
