Welcome To the JHH Logbook - June

Jeffrey and I place bricks at the chosen site for placing the JHH. I fetched the JHH and placed it on top of the brick base under a small tree facing North.

Before I could do this however I placed wax starter strips into the frames.
Check the picture. I did this using a beeswax candle and thin 2cm wax strips. The beeswax candle is lit and the melted beeswax embeds the starter strip in the groove under the top bar of the frame. As you can see these are two frames lying side by side which have had wax starter strips added.

This is an important exercise as it assists the bees to build the comb straight inside the hive. Some beekeepers prefer to use full wax foundation sheets. These come in different sizes as different cells are rolled into the foundation sheets depending on the purpose iit is being used for.

Brood foundation has a larger cell than that of honey. The Langstroth frames also differ in size as well. Make sure you use the correct foundation sheet for the correct purpose. Brood foundation is for use in the brood chamber only and the same for the honey foundation. Bear in mind that the wax sheet makes comb honey harder to chew.

Having finished that this is what our site looks like with the JHH placed on to the brick base.

This is the JHH bee hive site for the logbook experiment.

The left hand side of the box is where the entrance is. The white slats are brackets to reinforce the box for when it is full of honey. I can stand on the box and it will easily take my weight. I should take a pic of that before any tenants move in. *note to self*

The two wooden arms showing on the left-hand-side are the supports running along the top inside of the box. The arms are drilled to be used as points for suspending the box under a tree using wire. The JHH is designed for this purpose as it is creates a more natural site for bees elevated from the ground and easily adjusted to lesson ant, badger and termite distrubance or damage. Most importantly, it could then also be suspended out of human traffic or interference.

The front slit is the cut entrance.

I then open the box to reveal the inside frames. Note that they run across the entrance opposite to the concept used in Langstroth hives.

Now see the full length of the top bars: Note that there is no bee space between the frames. There is a reason for this which I will bring up at a later stage.

Here are the last photos taken with regards to the placement of the hive at the chosen site.

The smoker hole at the back of the JHH. It closes easily.

Once the JHH is ready for harvesting we will open the bee Smoker hole, place the smokers nozzle inside the box and send 3 puffs of medium smoke into the back of the hive.

The final setup and first stage of the JHH Logbook experiment.

Be sure to check the next insert.

[Bee Gloves] [Bee suits] [Hive Tools] [bee Hives] [Smokers] [Blue book]

[Wax foundation sheets] [Queen excluders] [Bee brushes] [Honey knife] [Extractors*]

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Generally, beeekeepers use gloves every time they are at the apiary. You can do an external inspection of a hive which does not require any gear however this is only recommended once you have gained confidence in handling bees and with the appropriate precautions.