Month: July 2015

This Post follows the natural growth of a colony inside a log and any other observations.

1st June 2015

The swarm was a strong local swarm of dark bees. After bringing them back to the log at dusk they rested overnight and the bees were introduced to the log early the next morning. The main part of cluster was put into the top, where it fell on to some newspaper pinned to the top spales. This prevented them all dropping to bottom with the possibility of damaging the queen.

Continue reading Life in a log hive

In this post, I describe how John Haverson and I made the log hives : using fire, chainsaw and gouges.

Without any special tools we began by using fire to help hollow the log.

The logs typically are between 32- 36″ long with a 12″ hole. This leaves plenty of wall thickness, needed for insulation.

We started by drilling a small hole through the log, working from both sides and hopefully meeting in the middle.

Continue reading Making a log hive