Rendering old comb in kitchen steamer

I used the old kitchen steamer today to render down this lot of old comb. Not much but it was just to try it out. It worked really well. I put the tray in the bottom compartment, fitted the second compartment over it and laid some netting in the second tray. I squeezed together lumps of the comb and filled the container, folded over the net, put the lid on and switched on. 10 minutes later I had a couple of ounces of rendered beeswax which I poured into a tray to set. The net I used was too coarse and it let through some bits of detritus so I will render this wax again with the next batch through a finer mesh.

Visit to the Straw Museum

I visited a Straw museum yesterday. They had some old skeps, some with their hackles. The hackles were made out of birch bark made into a cone. Each skep was quite small with wooden floor and a central hole at the top about 2 inches diameter with a wooden plug closing the hole.

Steam wax melter

My wife said to me the other day that the steam cooker that we cook our fish and veggies in had developed a fault, it still worked but the timer which clicked it off had become useless. I am sure with a mind to the fact that I usually spill wax on the cooker when I am melting it in a double boiler (tin can in a pan), she suggested I may be able to use it for melting beeswax. Anyway she bought a super duper new steamer and today I trialed the old one to melt a couple of ounces of beeswax. It worked a treat! Within a few minutes the wax blocks were completely melted. I took the opportunity to wax glue some old comb into the top of an ali-baba basket to use as a swarm catching skep/bait hive. I stuck the small piece of comb in and then poured the rest of the molten wax directly into the lid to give it that beeswax smell.

What Natural Beekeeping means to me

Whichever type of hive you keep bees in, there are some essential elements of natural beekeeping that are common to all. Established beekeepers may already be following most of this but new beekeepers or those converting to natural beekeeping may have to adjust step by step as and when they can.

The five main elements are -

1 Minimum Interference.

2 Only increase from untreated survivors.

3 Do not use synthetic chemicals in the hive.

4 Feed sugar only when absolutely necessary.

5 Do not use foundation.



1 Minimum Interference. Every time you open your hive it causes stress to the bees. The queen can go off laying for several hours and the whole balance of the hive may be upset. Nest scent (and heat) is lost, and the pheromones that control everything that goes on within the hive have to be re-established.

2 Only increase from untreated survivors - once you have your required number of stocks, don't buy queens, as you may add potential genetic weaknesses. Unless some bees are established that will survive untreated, you cannot fully develop natural sustainable bee-keeping. By only increasing from survivor stocks, this mimics what happens in nature.(Survival of the fittest) Allowing for dead outs because they will happen, baiting feral survivors and splitting of surviving colonies is the way forward.


3 Do not use synthetic chemical varroa treatments in the hive, to which mites are likely to develop immunity and which prolong the bee/mite co-adaption process. At first, bees may not survive without doing something (bio technical IPM), but the less you do, the better in the long run. This may have to be a gradual process.

4 Avoid feeding sugar unless there is a danger of starvation. By allowing bees to keep enough of their own stores for them to survive the periods of dearth (winter in northern climes and summer in hot countries), their health is not compromised, as they would by feeding refined sugar. This view is supported by a number of studies.


5. Avoid using foundation, as it prevents bees from building as they choose. Typically, bees build cells of between about 4.7 and 5.7 mm diameter. Cells can vary in size through the season and between different strains of bee. Allowing bees to build their own comb puts them in charge of how, where and when it is built - and they know what they are doing better than we do.

For more information see here and here.

Click to enlarge

I saw this today. A black wasp with a long tail depositing it's eggs in the occupied mason bee holes in my solitary bee house. When I first saw it, I thought I wouldn't have time to get my camera, attach the macro lens and get a shot in but I needn't have worried, this lady took her time and spent several minutes at this. Anyone know the species of wasp, I think it may be a ichneumon wasp but would appreciate knowing for sure.

Warré Bee House Entrances

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I fitted the Warré bee house entrance porches today. As you can see I have painted each one a different colour. The proximity of the entrances could lead to serious drifting so now I think I have enough of a contrast between each one.

I did a brief inspection on the kenyan in the barn this afternoon. I went about half way in. Still plenty of brood and the bees were calm. I did spot one bee with deformed wings so I will monitor this and look for further instances. Last inspection showed plenty of stores at the far end that I didn't inspect today. There was quite a bit of unsealed nectar in the first few combs but I am not going to harvest from this hive this year. I want them to winter well on plenty of their own stores. If they survive a third season without treatments, I will split this colony into two next summer and put them in mini kenyans sat on top of warré boxes in the warré bee house.

After some discussion with Scott McPherson on the Natural Beekeeping Network forum I made up two kenyan to warré transfer boxes. Photo shows both boxes with one upside down. The idea is to sit the mini kenyan on top of a standard warré box. The width of this mini kenyan is eactly the same as a warré box and the added wings close off the gaps. I had thought originally I might two tier them putting the lower one with all the brood and the top one with all the stores. Of course I would have had to make some slotted bars to allow the bees up to the top one. Anyway I have decided I may actually split my kenyan next year and use just one box on top the warré's. Thanks Scott, although I had thought this is the only way to do something like this, you had actually beat me to it with your photo here:-
http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/2574827/sn/1508326128/name/DSCF0828.jpg
Great minds!

Bee Hive moved into Warré Bee House

At last a warm sunny calm day! I moved the Svea/Warré combination hive into the new bee house after first painting that corner with Falu red paint. I will finish painting the bee house at a later date. I smoked the bees then put a floor board and a new warré box section with starter strips into place in the corner of the bee house nearest to the hive. Then without taking the top board off the Svea, I lifted the Svea section out of the way. This box was full of honey and weighed a considerable amount. I then took the warré section that I had given to them on June 29th and which was now fully drawn and filled with brood and put it directly on top of the new warre section. I then sat the Svea box on top of the two warré sections. The old floor was covered in bees so I propped it up at the new entrance. Later in the year when it starts to get cold I will add a square of old wool carpet to sit on top of the Svea box. I could have harvested some honey but I have left it all in there so that they can be sure of a full larder for the winter and means I will not have to feed this colony any sugar syrup. Next spring I will use the lifting gear and add a further warré section. Later in the summer I will remove the Svea section and harvest the honey. Then it will be a pure warré hive.

Lifting gear trial fit into warre bee house

I did a trial fit of the lifting gear in the warre bee house. I used ten huge eye bolts screwed into the cross bars at all five hive stations. The lifting winch simply clicks onto the eye bolts at the required station. I used a brick to simulate some weight on the hook. So far so good.

Click on any image to enlarge.

Finished the warre bee house today, well it still needs a coat of paint but all the structure is there. Fitted the runners for the rear sliding doors. There are two wide doors at the top and three sliding doors at the bottom. The bottom doors are to allow access to slide in a warre section underneath. The top doors are to allow access to fit the lifting gear onto each station. Now the whole thing is pretty bee tight so I will drill a small hole at the top under the roof overhang at each hive station to allow trapped bees out when I have done a manipulation. Here are a couple of photos which show rear doors and one of the front with the first 'porch' in place. The warre hive to the left of this will be transferred to this station in the near future.