beekeeping advice required...

[locum76]

hello beekeepers.

we have been keeping bees at the farm for 3 years with varying success. this year we want to expand the apiary with some bought nuclei. However all of the nuclei commercially available come on national or WBC frames and we have loads of hand me down smith hives (approximately 20 empty hives).

my question is, can national frames be augmented to fit into smith hives?

cheers

Rob

 

[EdS]

yes.

Smith frames are the same size as Nationals except for shorter lugs.

They can be swapped.

http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/smtopbars.html

How are they coping with the winter - I lost all mine last year.

 

[locum76]

cheers ed, thats exactly what i was looking for. last winter we lost 2 out of four hives but manged to split one in the summer ending up with three. we've lost one this winter but the other two are okay, we've had to feed them twice though due to poor nectar flows last summer (had a rubbish harvest too).

 

[EdS]

I'm going to leave it a couple of years before I re-start. Unless the wild bees get into a hive