General Management
Double Screen Queen Introduction Method by Albert Knight
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website and Albert Knight. PH. Albert Knight’s Double Screen Queen Introduction Method Introduction of honey bee queens can be difficult if …
1930’s Beekeeping
This was a cine film that was used at the courses at Craibstone for candidates preparing for the SBA Expert exam. Some lovely material in here and they way they dressed… impressive. I was very pleased to have it converted to DVD and then to post it on youtube where it has attracted quite some …
Bailey Comb Change
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Bailey Comb Change, Renewing all combs at the same time A manipulation in beekeeping to displace old or diseased …
Bait Hive
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Bait Hives for the Attraction of Honey Bee Swarms Bait hives can be used in two basic ways, firstly …
Bee Space
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Bee Space We all “KNOW” that bee space is between 4.5 mm and 8 mm and it is also …
Castellated spacers
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Castellated Spacers for Beehive frame spacing Sheet metal plates with rectangular cut-outs that can be used in beehives instead …
Clipping and marking Queens
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Clipping and Marking Queens Baldock Marking Cage This nasty looking gadget is known as a Baldock cage, it is …
Clipping and Marking Queens
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself PH. Clipping and Marking Queens Baldock Marking Cage This nasty looking gadget is known as a Baldock cage, it is simple to use and …
Cold way or warm way frame orientation
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Top or Bottom Bee Space Cold or Warm Way, placement of bee hive frames All through my beekeeping career …
Colony Assessement
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Honey Bee Colony Assessment This is a “paperwork” exercise and is the collating and analysing of the data collected as …
Cone Escapes
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Simple Conical Bee Escapes or Cone Escapes WBC Cone Escape WBC Cone Bee Escapes ?? ?This traditional British design is …
Cool Weather clustering behaviour
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Sometimes known as “drippy bees” this pattern of behaviour helps young, wax secreting aged bees to keep warm when …
Division Board
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Division Board, for British Bee Hives The division board is sometimes called a follower board and as it is …
Drifting
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Drifting Behaviour in honey bees Prevailing wind or repetitive features in a landscape can cause honey bees to enter …
Dummy Bee Hive Frames (Large)
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Dummy Bee Hive Frames Which Occupy the Space of More Than One Frame In many cases… If there are …
Dummy Frame
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself PH. Dummy Frame, for British Bee Hives The dummy frame is also called a dummy board and is very often confused with a division …
Easy Sections
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Easy Sections… ‘Perfect’ Sections Every Time This is not my original idea, it was passed to me in the …
Fecundity of Honey Bee Queens
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Fecundity of Honey Bee Queens The two paragraphs that follow are a mixture of information due to David H. …
Feeders
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Feeders for supplying honey bees with supplementary food Many types of feeder exist, but in the main they …
Feeding Candy (Fondant) to Honey Bees
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Feeding Candy (Fondant) to Honey Bees E.B. Wedmore described the making of candy in great detail, I have paraphrased his …
Feeding Honey Bees for Winter
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Feeding Honey Bees for Winter When to feed… Apart from which hemisphere you keep bees in, there are differences …
Finding and judging out Apiaries
Deciding to keep bees at home is of course your decision, however please bear the following in mind. How well do you get on with your neighbours? What are you going to do if you lose control of a large colony and your neighbours get stung badly? What insurance do you have and will it cover …
Flour uniting
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Uniting Honey Bees Using Flour Drilled coffee jar lid, photo…Dave Cushman One of the things that I carry in …
Following behaviour
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Following Behaviour in Honey bees This may be an extension of guarding behaviour or it may be a separate …
Formulas for just about all your bee needs
Well worth a look, though I doubt it calculates for dropped nails…lol http://www.synthium.net/resources/convert.html#sugarmix1
Garden Beekeeping
If you have a big garden then all should be well, the following comments were made by myself on the beekeeping forum in response to some rather wooly thinking about having hives in a small suburban situation. If a hive goes berserk in a garden and it can and does happen do you yes you …
Hive Numbering
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Numbering of Bee Hives for Inventory and Records Hive numbers are not commonly employed by hobby beekeepers that may …
Hive Tools
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Hive Tools, for working with bee hivesHive Tools are specially designed levers with scraping edges and other features that …
Jumping bees
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Jumping Behaviour of honey bees under manipulation There are two aspects to this trait which may exist separately or …
KISS or Keep it Simple Silly, a years overview
The Keeping it Simple Silly, beekeeping over view. Or KISS. If you consider the bee colony as an entity, and you should, disturbing it for no good reason is a bad idea. Now lets have a think about “no good reason”. It is all so very easy to justify to yourself, that “quick peep”and …
Laying Workers
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Laying Workers in Honey Bees This page deals with laying workers that can result in queenless colonies, the sort …
Making Increase
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Making Increase (method 2) This method has many slight variants, but is mainly the one promoted by BIBBA. (The …
Making Increase in Honey Bee Colonies (Method 1)
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Making Increase in Honey Bee Colonies (Method 1) A method of increasing the number of bee stocks, whilst maintaining …
Newspaper Bag Method of Uniting Bees
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Newspaper Bag Method of Uniting Bees To “unite” one frame of bees to an existing stock If there is …
Nucleus Colonies
Various uses of honey bee nuclei How to use small colonies of bees known as nuclei in various beekeeping contexts. This where Poly Nuc units really shine in supporting small colonies and? are relatively cheap compared to the bought timber version. Beware the second hand ones as inevitably they never fit each other as I …
Numbering queens
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Numbers for Marking Queens that need a Definite Identity Queen honey bees are marked for various different reasons:- To …
Pollen Trapping
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Pollen Stripping Screens Round Hole Pollen Stripping Screen welded 5 mesh pollen stripper Various types of wire mesh have …
Porter Bee Escape
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. The Porter Bee Escape Invented in USA in 1891 (presumably by a man named Porter). Originally designed for clearing …
Queen Balling
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Balling of Queens, A Behaviour of Honey Bees I first noticed this behaviour, not by observing it first hand, …
Queen Introduction Cages
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. The Introduction of Travelled or mailed Queen Honey Bees There are many methods that have been used, and there …
Robbing
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Robbing Behavior of Honey Bees Robbing Behavior of Honey Bees is the robbing of honey from another colony of …
Running behaviour on the Comb
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Running Behaviour in Honey Bee Colonies Running behaviour of honey bees on frames in bee hives that are opened …
Scout Bees Measuring or Inspecting The Volume of a Cavity
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Scout Bees Measuring or Inspecting The Volume of a Cavity Observations about repetitive bee behaviour that would be considered …
Shook Swarming
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. The Shook Swarm or Shakedown Method for Honey Bee Comb Renewal The shook swarm or Shakedown method is a simple …
Smoker Fuel
A continuous flow of cool smoke to hand is comforting to the beekeeper whether needed or not. The usual fuels are sacking, cardboard, leaves, pine cones and rotten wood. The first two are prone to being dowsed in non flammable chemicals, leaves burn too fast and pine cones are resinous. Yes I use rotten wood. …
Smoker Lighting
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Lighting the Bee Keeper’s Smoker There is nothing magical about this operation, but it does seem to give some …
Smokers
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. The Beekeeper’s Smoker small copper bee smoker, Photo… E.H. Thorne The smoker is a simple device for burning fuel …
Standard Abbreviation Code for BIBBA Hive Record Cards
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Written mainly by Beowulf A. Cooper, the information on this page has been garnered from notes taken by myself …
Switchable Board for wet supers
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. This method has been used in conjunction with porter escapes to allow the beekeeper to permit the return of …
Uniting A Nucleus Of Bees To Another Hive
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Uniting A Nucleus Of Bees To Another Hive A manipulation in honey bee management that can be used to …
Uniting a Super of Honey and Bees
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Uniting a Super of Honey and Bees There are some occasions, when a colony is underdeveloped, that insufficient stores …
Uniting Bees Using A Peppermint Flavoured Spray
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Uniting Bees Using A Peppermint Flavoured Spray Uniting honey bees by spraying them with a slightly sticky liquid …
Uniting Honey Bees Using Newspaper
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Uniting Honey Bees Using Newspaper Newspaper uniting is the most common method of combining two boxes of unrelated bees, …
Use of the Marburg Swarm Box
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Use of the Marburg Swarm Box The Marburg swarm box is a useful addition to any beekeeper’s kit… It …
Waxmoth, treating combs for prevention
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Treatment Against Waxmoth and general sterilisation of honey comb Total control is unlikely to be achieved, the strength and …
Winter feeding
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Feeding Honey Bees for Winter When to feed… Apart from which hemisphere you keep bees in, there are differences …
Winter Losses in Honey Bees,
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. Winter Losses in Honey Bees, A Necessary Part of Strain Maintenance Most of us direct a great part of …
Laying Workers in Honey Bees
This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website. PH. This page deals with laying workers that can result in queenless colonies, the sort of laying worker activity that …