me and my gran are wanting to start keeping bees we have done classes and have spoken to some locals but we need advise on where to get a cheap hive second hand even if its a bit beaten up i can fix anything lol
things we need to find are
1.a hive or 4
2.bee suits for 2 people
3.hive tools
4.bees (best breeds or swarms )
i know it wont be cheap but im looking for as cheap as possable im in kennoway near leven in fife hoping to find a local close to me who could lend a hive or sell one cheap or on payment plan pm me asap thanks for reading
To save yourself a lot of money perhaps look at a simple long hive and buy a tablet of bees wax to run a bead of wax on the underside of the top bars . The bees will draw the comb , this has advantages in that you can use it for cut comb.
You still have need of a back board and a queen excluder. As the hive grows you move the back board and QE backwards as the bars get filled .
Till when you have about 14 frames of bees & brood nest insert the QE and add four or five top bars then insert the back board . The bees will make comb on the bars and store honey . My queen excluder was a 4 inch square of 6 mm grid Kevlar welded plastic mesh stapled over a 3 " square hole in a blocking board .
Most 8 foot long or so long hive sides are easily made with cut lumber standardised ( CLSs ) 40 x 100 screwed together , you can also make the ends out of the the same and set it on an X set of legs , one at each end and one in the middle , again well screwed on .
If you can get hold of floor joists be aware that some may have been treated with insecticide , mould /fungi killer which will kill or damage your bees .
We found that having split lids that we covered over with a rubber sheet & a plank was a good idea . They were cut to 2 foot lengths for the middles & 28 inches for the outside ones ( for a rain lip ). Having sections like this was much better to handle & work the hive than an 8 foot long lid .
The longest long hive I've come across was not strictly a hive , but a feral nest in between 12 "x 12" adze hewn oak beams set 20 inches apart in a 15 century farmhouse. It stretched back 14 feet from the wall entrance where the bees had got in .