John is such a talented craftsman. He used pine wood and nailed and glued all the joints. The set includes two honey supers, two deep brood chambers, the base, the inner cover/top feeder, the outer cover, an entrance reducer so that the honey bees have a better chance at protecting their hive from enemies, and 40 frames!
It seems to be the consensus among seasoned bee-keepers that all wood hives are the way to go. wooden frames with wax foundation are far superior to plastic foundations. The bees don't seem to develop their comb in a nice pattern when you use plastic frames. Wooden hives are more expensive, but the materials are better, natural and it is worth it when you have a nicely developed comb.
What I've noticed the most with the wood frames and wax foundation is the fantastic smell of the pine and the wax. It is so comforting! The one drawback to wax foundation is that you may have to deal with wax moth. We haven't had a problem with that, but I think once the bees build up the wax, the smell would attract wax moth anyway. The trick I hear, is to not let any unoccupied hive with wax built up sit out. If there are no bees in a hive for an extended period of time you should melt the wax down and use it.It doesn't seem very hard to replace the wax foundation should we run into any problems.
We're getting two boxes from John since we are keeping a hive in two different locations. One in Worcester, MA and the other will by in Princeton, MA.
 |
| Here is all our equipment ready to go |
 |
| Packed it all in the Prius. Gotta love hatchbacks! |
 |
| Here's John posing with his masterpiece! |
 |
| Stored in the garage at home and waiting to be painted |
 |
| All 40 frames |
 |
| John put the wax foundation in this weekend. He didn't want to put them in any earlier in order to avoid the chance they be attacked by wax moth. |
~Shreena
mmmmm honey
ReplyDelete