New used gear

MrB had phoned yesterday to ask if I was interested in having some used bee hives. A local beekeeper aged over 80 had died last year and his widow was keen to clear out his bee house. In the meantime the bees had died so there was only equipment and probably not the best as others had already had first pick.

The hives are a different system to the one I have but the same as MrB has. Not sure what it is called, but it is only used in bee houses,

In effect there is a double bottom "brood" box which is pushed up against the side of the beehouse with a slit for the bees to fly in & out. In the honey time, a second "normal" size box is placed on top of the front half of the brood box.

Now that I have a covered bee area, MrB thought I might be able to use them especially as the frames (the things the bees build on) are the same size as mine.

So this afternoon we popped over and both he and I took 3 hive sets each. They need a lot of cleaning up, scraping away all the old wax and propolis and "burning out" the interior to ensure there are no disease sources left. The price was so good 10 Euros/set that it is worth the effort. First though had to burn all the old frames which were still full of honey and wax. Great shame but due to risk of disease and because wax moths had taken hold, there was no choice.

Will try to Blip the boxes when I have cleaned them out. Now having thoughts of trying to find an old builders wagon to start a new bee keeping form - protection from wind and rain . for the beekeeper of course.