The Hive

Having read "Bees At The Bottom Of The Garden" by Campion and Hodgson and "Get Started In Beekeeping" by Waring and Waring I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a beehive. On eBay I found some guy selling a load of 'refurbished' beehives -brood boxes, 2 supers, all frames, roof, floor, feeder, crownboard and queen excluder. It took a few weeks to arrive (forever in eBay terms) but eventually I got the postcard to say a courier had tried to deliver it whilst I was out so off I went to pick it up and haul it home.

It was held together with a ratchet strap and wrapped with pallet wrap. First problem was the ratchet strap. I've never used one before so had no idea how to loosen it. A couple of minutes with Google and I had it removed. So here's the hive it it's glory:

Looks pretty good in that picture really. However it was actually in a pretty poor state. The seller's idea of refurbished was closer to what I'd call knackered. The boxes were all pretty loose, plenty of cracks scratches and dents in the wood too. It was  also full some suspiciously dark looking drawn comb, and quite a lot of straw, wood shavings and other random crap from the farm building it'd been stored in -still it was a bargain. I ordered a varroa mesh floor from Fragile Planet and figured I'd better get a second brood box and roof in case I needed it for swarm control later so got them from the same chap in pretty much the same sorry state.

Cleaning up the hive took ages. I pulled out all the frames and cut out the drawn comb with my trusty bolo machette (a must for both the garden and the kitchen) then dissassembled each frame and scraped off the remaining wax, removing bits of wire and nails as I went. Having done that each piece of wood was scorched with a butane torch then boiled in some very strong caustic soda. My housemate wasn't too impressed with the huge pan of caustic soda sat in the kitchen for a week, and by the time I finished I'd got some fairly impressive chemical burns on my arms so she was quite right tobe concerned really. After being allowed to dry the parts were then soaked and scrubbed in a soda crystals solution and rinsed with hot water. The scrubbing was pretty back breaking work but I wasn't really going to take any chances with giving my new bees a hive with disease in it.

Boiling frame parts in caustic soda

To fix up the boxes and roofs I scorched them very thoroughly with the butane torch. I found some large aluminium nails in the back of my local hardware shop where I also picked up some wood filler. After drilling guide holes I banged the nails in to get the boxes good and square, then woodfilled the cracks. I decided I wasn't sure abot the fibreglass roof skins so I pulled them off and scorched underneath then and ordered some metal skins to replace them. Of course the metal skins didn't quite fit so it took a few hours with the lump hammer before I got them on -as well as a tube of no more nails, some short clout nails and a bit of drilling. Must be great living next to me!

I decided to treat the wood but didn't really know what to use. The floor I'd got from Fragile Planet had a nice green treatment on it so I emailed them and asked what it was so I could paint my 2nd hand stuff the same. They replied pretty promptly saying it was a standard fence paint which I could get from B&Q or Home Depot, helpful folks I'll use them again. So off I went for a few litres of green shed and fence paint.

Treating burnt wooden boxes

I gave all the external surfaces two coats of the stuff. I also added a little roof cover across the front of the brood box complete with drip groove as some my neighbours mistakenly believe that leaving a light on all night deters thieves and I figured that'd confuse the bees -as well as make it easy for potential thieves to see what they're up to. Incidentally if I see someone stood outside a house at night with the garden light on I'll think nothing of it, whereas if I see someone stood outside a house in the dark using a torch that really will get my attention. Turn those lights off people -have a look at the International Dark Sky Society website for a few more reasons why you should be doing this anyway. Anyway getting back on topic after adding a landing board to the varroa floor the hive was pretty much finished, just needed to pop foundation in the frames and then get me some bees.