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Along with my poly nuc boxes I ordered some of Payne’s poly brood boxes, intending to use them this year with my own floors and supers. As with the nuc boxes, first impressions are good. Other reports on these had left me in two minds about them and I really wasn’t sure if they were going to be of sufficiently high quality. In fact I think I was worrying unnecessarily and I’m now fighting the temptation to order a few more before the sales end. The only real criticism I have is that I’d have preferred not to have handle recesses on the sides that are parallel to the frames and have thicker walls the entire way down.
The boxes come with slots already cut for castellated spacers, or they can be fitted with runners (my preferred choice). On the view of the bottom you’ll see that they also have cut-outs in the corners which are designed to locate on lugs in the Paynes open mesh floor which is a nice touch.
The really noticeable difference between these and the Lyson/Abelo boxes is the external dimensions. The Lyson boxes are the same size externally as a standard National. These are 15mm to 20mm bigger each way (though obviously not in height as that would muck up the bee space). I’ve taken some photos with a standard cedar super on top to show the internal and external fit. For me the largest problem this causes is that a standard National roof will not fit, but that shouldn’t be a problem I have to solve for a while.
Like the nuc boxes, these benefit from painting with water-based exterior paint. Once that’s done and the runners are fitted they’ll be ready to go.

Top View	Side View	Bottom View
With Super	With Super	With Super

I was going to make up some nucleus boxes this year. Quite a few people have been giving positive reports of the Paynes poly nuc boxes though, and the prices in their sale finally convinced me to buy some. They arrived this morning along with a few brood boxes and a large number of frames (also purchased in the sales) and I’ve had a chance to get a quick look at them.
Overall they look pretty good. Despite being polystyrene they feel solid, there’s a built-in feeder down one side and they come with a float for the feeder, a disc entrance cover, a clear acrylic crown cover and a snug-fitting lid. The base has a built-in mesh floor and the gap that allows the bees to reach the feeder has a slot to allow insertion of a piece of metal or plastic sheet to block access to the feeder. I assume that might be required to stop the bees building wild comb in the feeder if you have a higher volume top feeder in place. They also have lugs on the feet and roof that allow them to stack together nicely. All I need to do is paint them with some acrylic masonry paint, fix the entrance discs, put frames in and they’re ready for action.

Nuc Box	Inside View	Entrance Disc
Cover (still with backing)	Feeder float

Abelo Beekeeping Equipment sell both National and Langstroth polystyrene hives. I believe they source them from Lyson in Poland. Unfortunately their current batch of National hive bodies have incorrect spacing between the frame sides and the walls, and between the boxes. As a result they’re not selling them from their site, but they are available on ebay at a much reduced BIN price. Every now and then they auction one and they usually go for around £30. At that price I thought I’d take a punt and see how the bees took to them as the bee space problems may not be insurmountable. The hive has now arrived and here’s what it looks like (complete with a few old frames in the brood chamber). I’ve not checked the spacings yet.

Open Mesh Floor	OMF With Tray Inserted	Brood Chamber
Brood In Position	Supers	Supers In Place
Crown Board	Crown Board Vents Open	Full Hive

During the course of 2011 I took over a number of hives from other local beekeepers wanting to reduce the number they had.

Four colonies that I took on at the start of the year were at a nearby farm, though one colony turned out not to have made it through the previous winter due to a woodpecker attack. Twelve more were actually located within a few metres of my house, in a field belonging to the neighbouring farmer. These I took over after the honey was harvested.

My first plan is to create a new home apiary area with a shed for storing kit, but I’ll cover that another time. Other than that the main issue is that I now have twenty colonies in a mixture of British National single brood, brood and a half and double brood configurations. I really need to rationalise things.

The bees I’ve kept in double brood seem to do well and get through the winter fairly easily, though I was wondering if double brood was perhaps a little too big. Brood and a half is a pain in the neck for comb changing and manipulation though, so it was a case of staying with double brood or changing to a different hive type. After quite some deliberation over Langstroth and 14×12 hives I finally decided to stick with double brood. If I were starting from scratch I may well have gone with Langstroth, but I have sixty or more National wooden supers and I’d prefer not to have to replace them all.

To address the issue of the double brood perhaps being a little too big, I’ve decided to experiment with some polystyrene hive bodies to see if the colonies get larger in the warmer environment. I have ordered enough for four double brood colonies, with one poly super to go on top of each. I have also pretty much completed all the little repair jobs to patch up wear and damage to hive bodies and supers as I’ll probably need most of those to take everything to double brood with a few singles left for swarms.

So, my current plans are:

• Double brood colonies that weren’t set up last year will have their top brood box moved to the bottom and the bottom box refilled with foundation and replaced on top
• Brood and a half colonies will have the super removed, perhaps by putting it under the brood box first, to move the bees out of it, and then have a new brood chamber full of foundation placed on top
• Single brood colonies will be taken up to double brood

A friend has set up an apiary for me in one of his fields a couple of miles away, so I’ll take five or six colonies there, swapping two into polystyrene hives.
I’m also talking to someone else about a second out-apiary where I know large quantities of field beans and oilseed rape are regularly planted. If possible I’ll move another five or six colonies there.
That should leave me with between four and eight colonies at home depending on how well they come through the winter. If I can find someone a little further away I may well look to set up a third out-apiary with some of those. Either way, it will mean a good reduction of hive numbers at home from sixteen or more, which should be a benefit in terms of available forage.
There are lots of other issues to think about, too. I need to move the three colonies at the farm onto mesh floors as they’re still on solid ones. The Dartington style floor appeals to me, though it’s more work to make. I need to re-think my record keeping to be able to handle a 400% increase in hive numbers, and to decide how I’m going to keep track of which kit has come from which hive at which apiary so I don’t start mixing things up.
I also want to investigate the possibility of drone-culling as a method of varroa control. I might well build some special frames for drone culling and put one in each hive.
Finally, I need to make sure I have enough clearer boards, insulated roofs, feeders, nuc boxes and so on to get everything through next winter.
It’s not like I’m going to be short of things to do…

On Sunday I treated my bees with oxalic acid as part of my varroa mite management. The general idea is to pick a time close to Christmas or New Year when there is hopefully no brood in the hive and the colony is clustered for warmth over winter. Each hive is quickly popped open, 5ml of the oxalic acid/sugar syrup mixture dribbled over each “seam” of bees and the crown board and roof are then replaced before the bees really have time to react.

This year is different, however. Because it has been so mild my colonies have not clustered at all and are still flying regularly. Because that may increase their food requirements I’ve taken the preventative measure of putting a QX and eke on top of each hive with fondant resting on top of the QX (so it doesn’t drop down between the frames). Opening each hive is more disruptive as a result and takes a few seconds longer, by which time the active bees are flying out of the top of the hive, somewhat less than amused by the intrusion and pretty hacked off once they’re covered in the oxalic acid solution. I don’t blame them, but it was a fair from pleasant experience and I picked up a sting on my wrist (through my suit and gloves) where a couple of bees had become caught in the folds of the material.

Most of the colonies had started using the fondant, with one (a swarm I took last summer) getting well into theirs. Now through to March is really the danger time for starvation so I need to keep an eye on the situation there.

Unfortunately two colonies look to me as if they are unlikely to make it through to winter. They were being badly attacked by wasps during October and whilst I moved the hives to a different position in the apiary to make them harder for the wasps to find, they look like they’ve lost the will to live. I shan’t be counting on them in my plans for the coming season and if they do make it I’ll consider it a bonus.

The remainder of the colonies appear to be doing well, with some hives having as many as eight seams of bees present. I just hope that the strange weather conditions haven’t affected their ability to make it through to the Spring and that they don’t run into trouble if we have a sudden cold snap in the next couple of months.

Today I have to go and treat three colonies that I look after for a local farmer. The forecast for today was sunny, but it doesn’t seem to be living up to expectations. Hopefully the rain will at least hold off so treatment is possible.