Second Hand Bee Hives
Starting out beekeeping can feel very expensive with the need to buy the protective clothing, hive equipment, hive and bees. It is therefore popular to buy old equipment from bee keepers who are giving up. Though with the increasing popularity of bee keeping this is becoming more difficult, and can be expensive if bought from an auction site.
Last May we saw an advert in the Scottish Bee Keeper of a bee keeper fairly locally who was giving up. I phoned him and we went and filled the back of the car with supers, brood boxes, queen excluders, bases and frames. This all came home and was put in the garage.
Last May we saw an advert in the Scottish Bee Keeper of a bee keeper fairly locally who was giving up. I phoned him and we went and filled the back of the car with supers, brood boxes, queen excluders, bases and frames. This all came home and was put in the garage.
Brood boxes and supers
Bee hives can carry infections in old wax or in the nooks and cranies of the wood itself. It is therefore important to make sure thay are cleaned out before your bees get near them.
With our supers and brood boxes I emptied them, cleaned them and then sanded inside and out. Finally I used a blow torch to "cook" not char the wood. I believe to cook the wood it to heat it without discolouring it. As you will see from the picture I did char it a bit.
With our supers and brood boxes I emptied them, cleaned them and then sanded inside and out. Finally I used a blow torch to "cook" not char the wood. I believe to cook the wood it to heat it without discolouring it. As you will see from the picture I did char it a bit.
Then the outside we painted with bee safe paint, to protect them from the elements when they are in use. A friend, who is a joiner, advised me that cedar though great wood absorbs water like a sponge. The brood box our bees are currently in has tended to prove this true. I can't move them till the spring - if they survive - when I will put them in one of the boxes I am working on at the moment.
Frames and wax
To prevent transfer of infection, the wax from all the frames was removed and melted down to make candles for Christmas, the details of which are on our Bees Wax page.
The wooded frames, many were old and broken, but any that had been used we broke apart to use for kindling, it is not worth risking infection and they can't be fully sterilised. We did get many unused frames so we can put those in the cleaned boxes, without wax in them until they are needed.
The wooded frames, many were old and broken, but any that had been used we broke apart to use for kindling, it is not worth risking infection and they can't be fully sterilised. We did get many unused frames so we can put those in the cleaned boxes, without wax in them until they are needed.
