May 21, 2026
Long Langstroth Hive - Custom Designed, Hand Built, Hand Milled
Heroic news for a bee truck traveling the mountains of Utah... Bees on the loose at the White House... And building a beautiful long lang hive!
This episode of Bee Love Beekeeping features host Eric Bennett in conversation with Curtis "Jack Lumber" Nielsen, a first-year beekeeper from British Columbia, Canada, who dove headfirst into beekeeping by building his own custom hive from scratch.
Rather than purchasing a standard setup, Jack designed and milled an impressive 80-inch long langstroth hive almost entirely from a single log harvested on his own property. Thick two-inch walls, spring-loaded recycled freezer hinges on the hefty lid, and a screened bottom complete this beautiful hive.
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A central theme in Jack's beekeeping philosophy is the "condensing hive method." This approach runs counter to conventional beekeeping wisdom about ventilation, which made for a lively discussion.
Jack is currently setting swarm traps baited with lemongrass oil and old brood frames, hoping to catch his first colony from the wild.
The host wrapped up by praising Jack's DIY craftsmanship and open-minded approach, inviting him back in five years to report on how his unique long langstroth performs — and whether every one of his thoughtful design choices paid off.
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.
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Jack Lumber: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1082090891829171/user/61575394157709
WEBVTT
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in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
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embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
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precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
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motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
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instinct each act in service to the whole and
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then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
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of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
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part poet, they move along their hives with the
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efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
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the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
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and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
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Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
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like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
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journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping
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presented by our great friends and partners in
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beekeeping, Man Lake. By the way, if you haven't
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yet, please subscribe to and follow this podcast.
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Tell your friends about it and click on over
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to BeLoveBeekeeping .com to sign up for our free
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newsletter. Today's guest is a beekeeper in British
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Columbia, Canada, and we're going to be discussing
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his custom designed home -built long -laying
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hive. It was even made with wood from a tree
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on his own property. First, how about a couple
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of feel -good stories from the world of beekeeping.
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Here's a headline that happened just a few miles
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from where I live. Quote, firefighters save 25
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million honey bees stuck on an overheated tractor
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trailer on a Utah highway. So what happened is
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a semi -truck carrying approximately 480 hives
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broke down climbing Parley's Canyon. That's a
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high mountain pass near Park City. It was an
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unusually hot spring day and the fear was that
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the bees were going to die from the heat as the
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truck was parked on the side of the highway for
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a few hours. But then to the rescue came a fire
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truck which pulled up behind the bees and the
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firefighters began misting the hives with water
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to keep them cool. And it worked. The bees survived
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and not a single firefighter was stung. Next
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up, have you heard about the fancy new beehive
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in the White House's garden? Google it if you
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haven't seen it. It looks just like a miniature
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version of the White House. Anyway, it's gotten
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a lot of press recently with the First Lady showing
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it off to King Charles and others, but then last
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week something happened. The bees in that hive
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decided to swarm. According to a White House
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reporter, a huge swarm of bees took over the
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North Lawn driveway. She called it a Bee Tornado.
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A dense cloud of bees descended on broadcast
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tents before relocating to a tree. No injuries
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or stings were reported, but social media was
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abuzz with videos and jokes about the event.
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I'd like to welcome to the show today. Wow, this
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is gonna be different today. This is gonna be
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fun. I've got Curtis Nielsen here. aka fill in
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the blank jack lumber jack lumber jack lumber
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yeah so if anybody wants to find him on uh facebook
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i don't know are you on other social media too
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no that's it just facebook okay look up jack
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lumber because we're going to be looking at and
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talking about his hive design today And this
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is especially unusual that someone who doesn't
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have beekeeping experience and wants to jump
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in would jump in in such a big way to not only
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build their own hive but build a big one, make
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modifications. Let's start with this. Jack, what
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got you interested in beekeeping in the first
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place? To be honest, I'd have to say it would
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be the health. side of things with the family
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and just the negative effects of sugar and the
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positive effects of honey. I wanted to supplement
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out the sugar and in with the honey and you know
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when you're a small family on a tight budget
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sometimes you can only afford one of those kilos
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of honey per month and you know that's not quite
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enough so I was hoping to be able to build a
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hive that would provide me with enough honey
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to support the needs of my family. I've actually
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been known to tell some beekeepers if you're
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only in it for the honey it might be cheaper
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to go buy it someplace. I'm learning that, I'm
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learning that. Because as a hobby this can get
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a little bit expensive but you also put your
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talents to use building equipment and stuff so
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that that helps a ton. As you were looking at
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getting into beekeeping, there are a lot of choices
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as to what kind of beehive you're going to use,
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right? There's regular Langstroth, there's Top
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Bar, there's... Well, I don't even want to start
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trying to name all of them, but what got you
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interested in doing this kind of a design of
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a long Langstroth? So when I first started doing
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my research, I ended up talking to a bee supplier,
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a slightly local bee supplier. And like he said
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with the budget, you know, he was telling me
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that I should be budgeting around $1 ,200 to
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kind of jump in this season. And I was like,
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well, that's great. I got about $700 in the budget
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for us. So that's that's where I started thinking
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that, hey, I might not be able to afford to hop
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in with both feet. So I wonder if I could possibly
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build my own hives. Then started researching
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that and just looking at this the standard Langstroth
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and I don't want to ruffle any feathers But that's
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just not a very beautiful system and most standards
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aren't you know the standards are they're meant
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for? Traveling and and all sorts of things where
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obviously this one doesn't this thing's not gonna
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move I don't think I can move it if I wanted
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to so then I really started thinking like you
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know this I hate to say it, but this is a really
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ugly beehive to me, you know what I mean? And
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it's like, I'm back in crown land. These bees
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that I'm trying to catch are coming out of, you
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know, like 200 year old furs. So for me to take
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them from there and then put them into here,
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it just didn't seem right. So I started thinking
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like, hey, there's got to be a different, there's
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got to be a different hive than the standard
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Lange trough. And that's when I found these long
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Lange troughs and people were, they're all different.
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Every single one was different. And my first
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thought was like, this is something that I can
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make beautiful, you know what I mean? Not just
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for myself, but for the bees. I got a little
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farm here and I do the same type of thing with,
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you know, I got a nice barn and it's just for
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the sheep. They might not appreciate it, but
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you got a nice barn, nice home for the sheep,
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you get nice milk, you got a nice chicken coop,
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you get nice, nice tasting eggs. I figure, you
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know, if I give them a nice big bulky house to
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live in, that's, I'll get good honey. I like
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it. By the way, where do you live? I'm in British
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Columbia, Canada in central west on Chilcot and
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Plateau. I'm glad you're outside. We can see
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that gigantic tree behind you. I can't really
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tell what kind it is, though. I can't see it
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quite well enough. Is that a ponderosa? It might
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just be... It's one of the pines. I'm not sure
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which one of the pines. I don't think it's a
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dark pine, but one of the pine trees, yeah. For
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this hive design and and let me just say this
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up front because it's slightly Complicated the
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way we do this podcast the majority of our audience
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is listening on one of the podcast apps We also
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put out the video of our conversation on YouTube
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on that video I'll insert a couple of pictures
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of your hive so people can see it But let's assume
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that the majority of people can't so when we
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start talking about What it looks like we're
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gonna have to use a lot of descriptive words
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My first question for you is do you mill your
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own lumber? Yes I do and so when I see the live
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edge on the roof That makes sense because you
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were able to mill that yourself because that
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kind of wood is not that easy to find You're
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not gonna get it at home. Do you know absolutely
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not? This this whole hive almost the whole hive
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came from one eight foot log about 24 inches
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in diameter and it was kind of planned out before
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it was milled so I could you know I kind of every
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slice was going to a certain aspect of this hive
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like even like I have a the trays are made out
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of a half inch slice of it that's 15 and a half
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inches wide you know I mean solid wood not a
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single piece of plywood in the whole hive That
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is really cool. Before we jump into yours, why
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don't we just talk about long layings in general.
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Jack, I don't know how much you know about them.
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I know you do quite a bit. You did a lot of research,
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but for those that aren't familiar, basically
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a long laying strath is instead of stacking boxes
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up like in a normal laying system, it's as if
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you're stacking them side by side. So you would
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have what looks like a brood box but it might
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be it's going to be three or four feet long instead
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of just the width of one box and the idea is
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you can then just take frames in a row and just
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have instead of ten frames in a box or eight
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in a box you can have 30 or whatever number it
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is that you choose to do You can put a follower
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board. You can do different things. There still
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are ways to put queen excluders in. So you have
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some of the box that's for honey and some for
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not, but it's all horizontal. And for people
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that maybe have a hard time lifting really heavy
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boxes, it can be a wonderful system because you
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shouldn't have to lift anything heavier than
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one frame at a time unless your lids heavy. So
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that's the general idea. Do you have anything
00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:27.289
to add to that? You kind of hit it on the mark
00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:28.990
there. It's especially good, and that's what
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I found. A lot of the people in this ecosystem
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are in it due to the ease of inspecting frame
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by frame, lifting frame by frame, rather than
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the whole honey super. And that's where it kind
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of brings me also to the inline configuration.
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Half of this is the inline configuration, which
00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:52.110
also goes even beyond just the horizontal ergonomics
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and puts those frames directly in front of you.
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so that there's no twist motion when you're pulling
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them out. Yeah good point. Course you're young
00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:02.620
enough that shouldn't be a problem yet, but maybe
00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:05.700
one of these. Yeah, correct All right. Let's
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talk about your hive design because it's not
00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:11.539
a normal long laying either You've made some
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modifications Give us an idea how big it is how
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long how wide how tall is it on a stand? Explain
00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.279
the thing. Okay. So like you said, it was made
00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:25.700
out of all live dug for live edge dug for all
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two inch planks The box is 80 inches long which
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allows for me to do two entire inline systems
00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:36.820
if I chose to. I chose to keep it as half long
00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.159
-laying, half inline, just because I've never
00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:41.419
really dealt with either ecosystem. So now I'll
00:11:41.419 --> 00:11:44.899
be able to work one immediately, work the other,
00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:47.559
and really get a handle on my preference of which
00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:51.000
one I prefer. Okay, before you move on, I want
00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.039
us to make sure we understand that. Long -laying
00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.860
and you said inline? Yeah. you have some frames
00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:00.820
going one direction and then there's a great
00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:03.259
big divider in the middle as if you have two
00:12:03.259 --> 00:12:06.019
hives and then you have some going the other
00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:09.419
direction correct so that i got about a divider
00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:11.419
a two inch divider in the middle so when i was
00:12:11.419 --> 00:12:13.059
researching this hive a lot of the things i was
00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:15.460
doing is going through a lot of the the posts
00:12:15.460 --> 00:12:18.299
and topics and just trying to find people's problems
00:12:18.299 --> 00:12:21.840
and solve the problems within my hive before
00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.429
building the hive So that's what brought me to
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the center divider to completely divide the hive
00:12:26.990 --> 00:12:28.929
in half, which because people were having a problem
00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:30.789
with cupping their wood cupping because obviously
00:12:30.789 --> 00:12:33.269
the inner part of the hive is moist and the outer
00:12:33.269 --> 00:12:36.129
part is sitting in the sun. So I really wanted
00:12:36.129 --> 00:12:38.690
to firm that up with that center divider because
00:12:38.690 --> 00:12:41.470
another big aspect, I guess we can get into two
00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:44.169
theories of why I built it this way afterwards.
00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:47.450
So go ahead. You were explaining why you're going
00:12:47.450 --> 00:12:50.389
to have some frames going. I can't really call
00:12:50.389 --> 00:12:52.980
them vertical and horizontal. because everything
00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.779
is horizontal but you have some where the skinny
00:12:56.779 --> 00:12:59.559
end is towards you and somewhere the wide end
00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:01.080
is towards you in other words. So the inline
00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:03.519
would be the perpendicular ones to the body and
00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:05.659
those are two chambers so like with the inline
00:13:05.659 --> 00:13:07.980
model you're set with your two chambers. Mine
00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:10.820
are 13 because I made them square so that I could
00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:12.440
if I wanted to switch it back to inline it's
00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.259
just a matter of taking out that mounted queen
00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.480
excluder and it's back to inline. Versatility
00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:20.269
was a big plan with this hive. So the inline
00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:24.149
system is set up for a 13 frame brood box and
00:13:24.149 --> 00:13:27.929
a 13 frame honey box separated by a permanent
00:13:27.929 --> 00:13:30.529
queen excluder. Whereas like you were saying
00:13:30.529 --> 00:13:32.210
with the long line you have a follower board
00:13:32.210 --> 00:13:35.309
and the long line side can be a 6 frame, 8 frame,
00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:38.529
10 frame all the way up to the main box is 26
00:13:38.529 --> 00:13:40.950
frames on each side. Well you know your stuff
00:13:40.950 --> 00:13:43.370
considering you're new at this. I can tell you've
00:13:43.370 --> 00:13:46.009
done a lot of research. Let me make sure I also
00:13:46.009 --> 00:13:48.350
understand one thing. You're going to use a queen
00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:52.470
excluder and you are going to have honey supers
00:13:52.470 --> 00:13:58.590
on top of these brood frames or horizontally
00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:03.090
next to? Both. So my plan with the main chamber
00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:05.210
and I like running on theory I don't know if
00:14:05.210 --> 00:14:08.210
it's possible going through a few posts you know
00:14:08.210 --> 00:14:10.970
people were saying that in this system about
00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:14.269
a 13 frame brood is kind of sufficient you don't
00:14:14.269 --> 00:14:16.610
really need to go beyond that otherwise you're
00:14:16.610 --> 00:14:19.070
going to start getting honey in your brood my
00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:22.210
original intention with the 26 frames was you
00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:25.610
know if i could push brood to 18 19 frames which
00:14:25.610 --> 00:14:27.870
is what i read that standard long straight tross
00:14:27.870 --> 00:14:30.340
do they do about two deep boxes of brood run
00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:33.679
in about 80 % so run in 16 to 18 frames of brood
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:35.580
and then they go up into their honey supers so
00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:37.360
I was thinking that I could possibly do the same
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.340
thing so then that would leave me with about
00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:42.080
eight deep frames of honey which I would then
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.379
use that for winter storage and then anything
00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:47.200
that goes up into the supers is kind of for me
00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.059
to to harvest because that was another one of
00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:52.740
the the magic ratio numbers was for going into
00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:56.799
winter with these sealed chambers that I'd want
00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.129
four open cell frames with about nine honey frames.
00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:02.990
Quick break to discuss what just might be on
00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:06.559
your mind. right now come on admit it you're
00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:09.759
imagining the upcoming honey harvest because
00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.759
no matter where you live in the world it's either
00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.179
here now or it will be in the near future and
00:15:15.179 --> 00:15:18.720
Man Lake is making it so easy to plan for click
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:21.720
on over to Man Lake's website for an amazing
00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.940
selection of extractors filters bottling supplies
00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:30.120
uncapping knives supplies for a comb honey everything
00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:33.460
and I mean everything you'll need. But if you
00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:35.919
aren't there quite yet and the honey flow is
00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.879
right around the corner, make sure you have extra
00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:42.379
supers on hand. You never can have too many or
00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:45.519
be too prepared. And right now Man Lake is offering
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00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:54.840
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00:15:54.840 --> 00:16:00.029
.com, discount code MLBLove10. So that's kind
00:16:00.029 --> 00:16:02.470
of my goal is to hit those amount of deep frames
00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:04.490
and then anything else goes into the medium frames
00:16:04.490 --> 00:16:07.870
for me to harvest and How thick did you say the
00:16:07.870 --> 00:16:11.049
walls of this thing are how the original walls
00:16:11.049 --> 00:16:14.230
and the floor are two inches thick but then in
00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:17.429
order to Make the the whole hive bigger to allow
00:16:17.429 --> 00:16:19.590
the lid and allow the supers I added an extra
00:16:19.590 --> 00:16:23.210
inch and a quarter on both upper sides the top
00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:25.210
Nine inches of the hive is three and a quarter
00:16:25.210 --> 00:16:27.980
inches thick That's a lot of insulation. That's
00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:30.379
a lot of our value and you know that the little
00:16:30.379 --> 00:16:32.580
be Insulated and that's where it kind of comes
00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:34.700
to the whole the whole hive is kind of based
00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.919
off the condensing hive method Why don't you
00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.840
explain that a little bit for those that aren't
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.659
familiar? Okay So the condensing hive method
00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.399
is basically the research that I found it was
00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:48.580
based off of Fellows research up in the Yukon
00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:51.669
guy by the name of Tardif He was beekeeping up
00:16:51.669 --> 00:16:54.450
there and really wanted to find out what was
00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:56.350
going on with his hives, fill them full of sensors.
00:16:57.169 --> 00:17:00.769
And what he found was that the sealed chamber,
00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:06.250
the only vent being your entrance, was beneficial
00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:10.089
to the bees in many ways. So everybody's worried
00:17:10.089 --> 00:17:11.670
and like I've seen this in all the beekeeping
00:17:11.670 --> 00:17:13.069
groups, you know, when you're building stuff,
00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:14.869
it's like everybody's venting, venting, venting,
00:17:14.930 --> 00:17:18.220
venting, venting. And according to this guy's
00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:20.819
research, there should be zero venting in a climate
00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:22.880
like mine, in a northern climate. Absolutely
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.420
none. And people worry about, you know, the CO2
00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:28.019
buildup and the moisture buildup, and these are
00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:30.980
actually, what he is showing, beneficial to the
00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:35.180
bees. So the CO2 buildup actually puts them into
00:17:35.180 --> 00:17:37.799
a state, I can't remember what it's called, epoxy
00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:39.819
or something like that, but basically a hibernation
00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:43.200
state. So this hibernation state allows them
00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.130
to slow down their entire body, to actually you
00:17:47.130 --> 00:17:50.410
know kind of go to sleep whereas I find the normal
00:17:50.410 --> 00:17:55.190
vented systems that maybe the bees and like these
00:17:55.190 --> 00:17:56.529
are the ones that are going through tons of honey
00:17:56.529 --> 00:17:58.890
they're not getting to go into that hibernation
00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:01.529
state so they're working all winter long when
00:18:01.529 --> 00:18:03.690
I seen this research I was like it just clicked
00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:05.289
with me I'm like this makes sense like I live
00:18:05.289 --> 00:18:07.269
in the forest I've never seen a vented tree in
00:18:07.269 --> 00:18:10.390
my life they're not out there so why are we venting
00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:13.990
these hives the way that we are and another apparent
00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:17.450
benefit to this condensing method is that this
00:18:17.450 --> 00:18:21.470
CO2 chamber will kill off the mites. So not only
00:18:21.470 --> 00:18:25.170
has you know they get their hibernation state
00:18:25.170 --> 00:18:27.069
but you know nature's kind of solved this mite
00:18:27.069 --> 00:18:29.089
problem with itself is hey they go hibernate
00:18:29.089 --> 00:18:32.470
in this super condensed CO2 chamber and it's
00:18:32.470 --> 00:18:34.289
going to kill off the mites that are present.
00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:36.829
All right, I need you to send me a link to that
00:18:36.829 --> 00:18:39.750
research I have to admit I'm not familiar with
00:18:39.750 --> 00:18:42.029
it and I would love to read it because some of
00:18:42.029 --> 00:18:44.950
this stuff sounds counter to what a lot of us
00:18:44.950 --> 00:18:47.829
have learned but I'm open -minded I would love
00:18:47.829 --> 00:18:50.569
to read it and I tell you what you will find
00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:53.369
something over the next few years on this beekeeping
00:18:53.369 --> 00:18:57.710
journey of yours is that Some things that work
00:18:57.710 --> 00:19:00.450
for one person may not work for you. You have
00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:04.099
to be willing to adjust and change or you've
00:19:04.099 --> 00:19:06.940
got it all figured out already and we'll see
00:19:06.940 --> 00:19:09.460
where are the entrances and how big are they
00:19:09.460 --> 00:19:12.740
so i have two hive gate entrances at each end
00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:15.200
and these entrances are also kind of in line
00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.279
with this condensing hive method they're really
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.380
good for airflow so they're very very small little
00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:23.900
entrances and i have two of them for higher flow
00:19:23.900 --> 00:19:26.319
and then winter time you break it down to just
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:30.319
one then what these entrances do is allow basically
00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.059
and this is kind of how they market it is they
00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:35.420
allow the bees to open and close the front door
00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:37.960
basically and regulate that that one little bit
00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:39.960
of air that's coming in they they have a good
00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:43.140
chance of being able to block it or open it or
00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.220
do whatever they need to do with that air to
00:19:46.220 --> 00:19:48.799
to regulate the hive. Are the entrances round
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.099
or horizontal? They're horizontal and they're
00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:54.500
about four inches and they seem to be about the
00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:57.410
three eights. Height the bee space at heart.
00:19:57.549 --> 00:20:00.630
I also noticed on your Facebook page in one of
00:20:00.630 --> 00:20:03.630
the pictures You had a great big drawer on the
00:20:03.630 --> 00:20:06.789
bottom that you pulled out Explain what that's
00:20:06.789 --> 00:20:09.670
for. So yeah, that was one thing that I was really
00:20:09.670 --> 00:20:13.569
unsure about installing in the hive Because that
00:20:13.569 --> 00:20:15.410
came in with a screen bottom and when I put in
00:20:15.410 --> 00:20:17.849
the screen bottom, you know that to me was like,
00:20:17.869 --> 00:20:19.970
okay now I'm making a space in this hive that
00:20:19.970 --> 00:20:22.109
the bees cannot get to so if I have a problem
00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.980
with this space That problem is on me to fix
00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:26.460
because the bees aren't able to get there to
00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:28.559
clean it or do the business that they need to
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.359
do. After talking to more people, I was kind
00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:33.059
of put in line that this is more of a treatment
00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:36.480
tray than a hive checking tray. So these trays
00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.349
I will fill with Demataceous Earth. So basically
00:20:39.349 --> 00:20:44.390
any any bug or mite or anything that falls down
00:20:44.390 --> 00:20:46.410
out of the hive or off the bee or anything is
00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:48.029
going to fall down into the tray of demataceous
00:20:48.029 --> 00:20:51.029
earth and then I will then find it and kind of
00:20:51.029 --> 00:20:53.150
know that hey there's there's some stuff going
00:20:53.150 --> 00:20:55.849
on in here that I need to I need to take care
00:20:55.849 --> 00:20:58.829
of I can't wait to hear how your first year goes
00:20:58.829 --> 00:21:01.549
and I'll tell you what let's make a date right
00:21:01.549 --> 00:21:03.470
now five years from now you're going to be back
00:21:03.470 --> 00:21:07.369
on the show and you're going to be saying Every
00:21:07.369 --> 00:21:09.789
single thing worked or here are the modifications
00:21:09.789 --> 00:21:12.349
that I realized I made to make to it. Absolutely
00:21:12.349 --> 00:21:15.769
It's gonna be fun to see what kind of stand you
00:21:15.769 --> 00:21:20.190
have this on This stand is actually on 18 inch
00:21:20.190 --> 00:21:24.589
for rounds. I was planning on building a like
00:21:24.589 --> 00:21:28.089
a little crib frame out of logs and I had built
00:21:28.089 --> 00:21:30.650
this thing on pallets about four feet from where
00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:34.190
it's sitting right now and I just could not figure
00:21:34.190 --> 00:21:38.180
out how I was gonna move it onto the stand. So
00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:40.319
I brought these rounds that were actually, my
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:43.119
fireplace takes 16s. I accidentally cut these
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.599
at 18. I was like, perfect, they're beautiful.
00:21:45.700 --> 00:21:47.839
They still got lichen on them. So I brought those
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:52.079
out, placed those on the pad and then very sketchily
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.180
pulled the whole hive kind of off the pallets
00:21:55.180 --> 00:21:57.519
and the pallets tipped over and it just kind
00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:00.559
of landed in place and that's where it's gonna
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.140
live. And it just worked. I think it looks great
00:22:04.140 --> 00:22:06.859
on the logs. Thank you. Tell me about the roof.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:09.980
Is that also that two inch or two and a half
00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:12.299
inch thick? Yeah, the roof is two inch thick
00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:15.299
on the walls. The live edge planks are an inch
00:22:15.299 --> 00:22:18.000
and a half. And then there's going to be with
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.279
the condensed hive method. The goal is to reach
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.420
an R 40 in the roof. So I'm going to be heavily
00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:27.059
insulating the roof. And, you know, with these
00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:29.859
with these hives, people use like over top of
00:22:29.859 --> 00:22:33.769
the inner. inner box, they use blankets or wool
00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:36.269
insulation or whatever they need to give them
00:22:36.269 --> 00:22:39.029
that R40 and prevent that heat escape coming
00:22:39.029 --> 00:22:41.690
up from the chamber. And if you're worried about
00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:44.630
condensation, you may want to use something that
00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:47.410
would absorb a little bit of that also when you're
00:22:47.410 --> 00:22:49.920
talking about blankets or something. Do you have
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:52.579
your bees yet? I do not have my bees yet. I'm
00:22:52.579 --> 00:22:55.640
actually I'm setting swarm traps. There's no
00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:58.099
apiaries closest apiary and I don't even know
00:22:58.099 --> 00:23:00.380
if it's an active apiary is 40 miles from here
00:23:00.380 --> 00:23:02.539
but this property that I'm on now I've been here
00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.240
for five years and it has like the best bee population
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:08.240
I've ever seen and the honeybee showed up about
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:11.579
a week ago. And the numbers of them are growing
00:23:11.579 --> 00:23:13.680
every day. Like I just got these little bushes
00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.079
that are the first to bloom. We've had dandelions
00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.259
for about a week. And so that the honeybee numbers
00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:20.920
are really growing. So I'm hoping that I can
00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:23.200
hopefully catch a swarm. I think you will. What
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:25.359
are you using for bait? What kind of sand? I'm
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.160
using lemongrass oil and a couple brood frames
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.759
that I bought off an old beekeeper. And that's
00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:33.859
why I had one box that was one of my four mediums
00:23:33.859 --> 00:23:36.819
was an old deep that I bought that I cut down.
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.220
You've got it figured out. How many traps did
00:23:39.220 --> 00:23:41.420
you say you're putting up? I'm putting up three
00:23:41.420 --> 00:23:44.660
and I baited the hive as well because I do believe
00:23:44.660 --> 00:23:47.400
that it's like right back here in this in this
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:49.240
crown land. They're flying right by the hive.
00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:51.359
I know it's obviously not the right height but
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:55.140
sometimes you get lucky. I've had it happen before.
00:23:55.460 --> 00:23:58.460
It's rare but it can certainly happen. Okay this
00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:01.940
thing is 80 inches long. It's made of thick wood.
00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:05.539
Take a guess on what it weighs. I'd say 500 pounds.
00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:09.279
I'd say the lid on it has got to be a hundred
00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:11.500
pounds. Before I got the hinges on it, I was
00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:13.779
trying to lift it up with the two hands and it
00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:17.279
was tough. Yeah, the hinges, I think that could
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:19.460
also be a game changer in this ecosystem because
00:24:19.460 --> 00:24:21.859
I've seen a lot of complaints about the heavy
00:24:21.859 --> 00:24:26.460
lids on these things and I installed five recycled
00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:29.579
hinges from deep freezers, the spring loaded
00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:32.160
hinges and they take all the weight of that lid.
00:24:32.940 --> 00:24:35.349
You've thought of everything. So how much money
00:24:35.349 --> 00:24:38.170
do you have into this? Um you know most of the
00:24:38.170 --> 00:24:40.210
money went to the frames to be honest the frames
00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:43.150
and the honey excluders the actual hive itself
00:24:43.150 --> 00:24:46.009
maybe 150 bucks into the hive itself and then
00:24:46.009 --> 00:24:47.930
the rest of the money into quite a bit of frames
00:24:47.930 --> 00:24:50.250
to fill it and the honey excluders and stuff
00:24:50.250 --> 00:24:51.990
so maybe another four or five hundred bucks on
00:24:51.990 --> 00:24:54.630
all all the fun stuff probably not even that
00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:58.150
much that is so awesome i wish you all the best
00:24:58.150 --> 00:25:02.599
of luck swarm traps Oh man, I wish we could count
00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:06.579
on them. They work great. They just don't always
00:25:06.579 --> 00:25:10.319
work every single time. We've had people on this
00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:14.000
podcast that live down in the south of the U
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.819
.S. and they're just catching swarms right and
00:25:16.819 --> 00:25:20.380
left, it seems like. Up where I am, if I put
00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:24.180
out a half a dozen, I'll catch one or two a year
00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:27.259
and that's it. and I've had like one year where
00:25:27.259 --> 00:25:30.039
I caught zero so I think you're doing everything
00:25:30.039 --> 00:25:32.339
right and I think you deserve to catch a swarm
00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:36.079
or two and no commercial beekeepers are going
00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:39.180
to beat down your door to buy a hive like this
00:25:39.180 --> 00:25:41.519
because it doesn't make sense for them but it
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:44.480
makes so much sense for you and I love how thick
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.779
it is and what kind of art value that's going
00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.779
to give it that is just so important and it's
00:25:49.779 --> 00:25:53.460
going to be in many ways like them being in a
00:25:53.460 --> 00:25:57.029
tree. or at least a horizontal tree. Yeah that
00:25:57.029 --> 00:26:01.029
down rotten log. So in those swarm traps that
00:26:01.029 --> 00:26:03.430
lemongrass oil works great as you know there's
00:26:03.430 --> 00:26:07.029
also other things that you can buy like swarm
00:26:07.029 --> 00:26:10.089
commander that a lot of people swear by. I've
00:26:10.089 --> 00:26:13.349
had good luck with lemongrass oil. There is a
00:26:13.349 --> 00:26:16.089
sort of a sweet spot between not using enough
00:26:16.089 --> 00:26:19.809
and using too much and we don't have a scientific
00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:22.890
way to measure that that I know of. but I know
00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:25.829
if when you walk by it really smells strong of
00:26:25.829 --> 00:26:28.089
lemongrass oil you've probably got too much.
00:26:28.269 --> 00:26:31.529
I usually just take a q -tip and put two or three
00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:35.369
drops of oil on it stick it in that's all it
00:26:35.369 --> 00:26:37.410
needs and then I'll refresh that once a week
00:26:37.410 --> 00:26:39.789
or something like that and I'm sure there's people
00:26:39.789 --> 00:26:42.069
out there going that's not how I do it that won't
00:26:42.069 --> 00:26:45.299
work and Everybody does it different and everything
00:26:45.299 --> 00:26:47.420
works different for different people and that's
00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:49.440
one thing that you're gonna find about beekeepers
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:52.440
and Beekeeping but hopefully you can also find
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.539
somebody up in your neck of the woods that can
00:26:54.539 --> 00:26:56.839
be kind of a mentor to you that you can reach
00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:59.799
out to When you have questions and stuff if not,
00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:01.859
give me a buzz Yeah, definitely will and honestly
00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:03.900
that group that I joined on Facebook the long
00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:06.180
Langstroth hive group a bunch of amazing guys
00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:08.740
I really want to help you get on your feet and
00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:11.259
that's kind of what helped me get online beekeepers
00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:14.319
are that way They're very helpful and ask nothing
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:18.700
in return and you fit in so much because of your
00:27:18.700 --> 00:27:21.680
do -it -yourself attitude and being able to build
00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.279
this yourself and even change you know design
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:28.680
around from a traditional longling yourself and
00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:31.740
that's fantastic. So just enjoy the journey.
00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:34.920
Thank you. Jack Lomber is where people can find
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.400
you on Facebook and we're going to circle back
00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:39.180
in a while and everybody's going to hear how
00:27:39.180 --> 00:27:40.759
well this works. Sounds good. Thank you very
00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:46.069
much. Thanks again for joining us on Be Love,
00:27:46.190 --> 00:27:49.329
Be Keeping presented by Manlike. Another big
00:27:49.329 --> 00:27:51.730
thank you goes to V2B Health for their support.
00:27:52.170 --> 00:27:55.289
Vita's Varroa Control Ranger products includes
00:27:55.289 --> 00:27:59.470
Epistan, Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release
00:27:59.470 --> 00:28:03.069
Oxalic Acids Trips. Hey thanks a lot guys. And
00:28:03.069 --> 00:28:05.670
if you haven't yet, please subscribe to and follow
00:28:05.670 --> 00:28:07.910
the show, tell your friends about it, and click
00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:11.210
on over to BeLoveBekeeping .com to sign up for
00:28:11.210 --> 00:28:14.430
our free newsletter. If you have a guest suggestion
00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:17.509
or topic you'd like discussed on the show, shoot
00:28:17.509 --> 00:28:21.009
me an email eric at BeLoveBekeeping .com and
00:28:21.009 --> 00:28:23.509
remember if you're not just in it for the honey
00:28:23.509 --> 00:28:26.549
or the money, you're in it for the love. See
00:28:26.549 --> 00:28:27.269
you next week.
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.660
in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:12.839
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:17.699
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:22.420
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:28.800
instinct each act in service to the whole and
00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:34.560
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:40.500
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:45.460
part poet, they move along their hives with the
00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.560
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:54.219
the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:59.670
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:05.590
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:12.150
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:23.900
journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping
00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:26.920
presented by our great friends and partners in
00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:30.280
beekeeping, Man Lake. By the way, if you haven't
00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:33.280
yet, please subscribe to and follow this podcast.
00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:35.760
Tell your friends about it and click on over
00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.060
to BeLoveBeekeeping .com to sign up for our free
00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:42.819
newsletter. Today's guest is a beekeeper in British
00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:46.219
Columbia, Canada, and we're going to be discussing
00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:50.290
his custom designed home -built long -laying
00:01:50.290 --> 00:01:53.030
hive. It was even made with wood from a tree
00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:56.469
on his own property. First, how about a couple
00:01:56.469 --> 00:01:59.049
of feel -good stories from the world of beekeeping.
00:01:59.689 --> 00:02:02.030
Here's a headline that happened just a few miles
00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:06.230
from where I live. Quote, firefighters save 25
00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:09.789
million honey bees stuck on an overheated tractor
00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:14.430
trailer on a Utah highway. So what happened is
00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:19.270
a semi -truck carrying approximately 480 hives
00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:22.509
broke down climbing Parley's Canyon. That's a
00:02:22.509 --> 00:02:25.449
high mountain pass near Park City. It was an
00:02:25.449 --> 00:02:28.310
unusually hot spring day and the fear was that
00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:31.210
the bees were going to die from the heat as the
00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:33.389
truck was parked on the side of the highway for
00:02:33.389 --> 00:02:36.659
a few hours. But then to the rescue came a fire
00:02:36.659 --> 00:02:39.639
truck which pulled up behind the bees and the
00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:42.520
firefighters began misting the hives with water
00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:46.659
to keep them cool. And it worked. The bees survived
00:02:46.659 --> 00:02:50.520
and not a single firefighter was stung. Next
00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.800
up, have you heard about the fancy new beehive
00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.560
in the White House's garden? Google it if you
00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:58.500
haven't seen it. It looks just like a miniature
00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:01.759
version of the White House. Anyway, it's gotten
00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:04.460
a lot of press recently with the First Lady showing
00:03:04.460 --> 00:03:07.759
it off to King Charles and others, but then last
00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.840
week something happened. The bees in that hive
00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:14.159
decided to swarm. According to a White House
00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:17.840
reporter, a huge swarm of bees took over the
00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:22.159
North Lawn driveway. She called it a Bee Tornado.
00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.479
A dense cloud of bees descended on broadcast
00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:29.259
tents before relocating to a tree. No injuries
00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:32.800
or stings were reported, but social media was
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.520
abuzz with videos and jokes about the event.
00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:45.039
I'd like to welcome to the show today. Wow, this
00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:46.699
is gonna be different today. This is gonna be
00:03:46.699 --> 00:03:52.759
fun. I've got Curtis Nielsen here. aka fill in
00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:57.000
the blank jack lumber jack lumber jack lumber
00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.139
yeah so if anybody wants to find him on uh facebook
00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:02.560
i don't know are you on other social media too
00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.680
no that's it just facebook okay look up jack
00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.939
lumber because we're going to be looking at and
00:04:08.939 --> 00:04:12.729
talking about his hive design today And this
00:04:12.729 --> 00:04:16.850
is especially unusual that someone who doesn't
00:04:16.850 --> 00:04:19.569
have beekeeping experience and wants to jump
00:04:19.569 --> 00:04:23.089
in would jump in in such a big way to not only
00:04:23.089 --> 00:04:26.370
build their own hive but build a big one, make
00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:30.250
modifications. Let's start with this. Jack, what
00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:32.470
got you interested in beekeeping in the first
00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:34.389
place? To be honest, I'd have to say it would
00:04:34.389 --> 00:04:37.310
be the health. side of things with the family
00:04:37.310 --> 00:04:41.110
and just the negative effects of sugar and the
00:04:41.110 --> 00:04:44.769
positive effects of honey. I wanted to supplement
00:04:44.769 --> 00:04:47.970
out the sugar and in with the honey and you know
00:04:47.970 --> 00:04:50.910
when you're a small family on a tight budget
00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:53.129
sometimes you can only afford one of those kilos
00:04:53.129 --> 00:04:55.410
of honey per month and you know that's not quite
00:04:55.410 --> 00:04:57.910
enough so I was hoping to be able to build a
00:04:57.910 --> 00:04:59.970
hive that would provide me with enough honey
00:04:59.970 --> 00:05:02.899
to support the needs of my family. I've actually
00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:06.000
been known to tell some beekeepers if you're
00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.079
only in it for the honey it might be cheaper
00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:11.379
to go buy it someplace. I'm learning that, I'm
00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:14.339
learning that. Because as a hobby this can get
00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:16.439
a little bit expensive but you also put your
00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:19.139
talents to use building equipment and stuff so
00:05:19.139 --> 00:05:23.600
that that helps a ton. As you were looking at
00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:26.600
getting into beekeeping, there are a lot of choices
00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:29.180
as to what kind of beehive you're going to use,
00:05:29.660 --> 00:05:32.360
right? There's regular Langstroth, there's Top
00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.579
Bar, there's... Well, I don't even want to start
00:05:35.579 --> 00:05:37.939
trying to name all of them, but what got you
00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:40.279
interested in doing this kind of a design of
00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:43.639
a long Langstroth? So when I first started doing
00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:46.180
my research, I ended up talking to a bee supplier,
00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:48.980
a slightly local bee supplier. And like he said
00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:50.560
with the budget, you know, he was telling me
00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:52.879
that I should be budgeting around $1 ,200 to
00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:55.480
kind of jump in this season. And I was like,
00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:58.300
well, that's great. I got about $700 in the budget
00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:01.259
for us. So that's that's where I started thinking
00:06:01.259 --> 00:06:04.199
that, hey, I might not be able to afford to hop
00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:06.959
in with both feet. So I wonder if I could possibly
00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:10.279
build my own hives. Then started researching
00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:14.000
that and just looking at this the standard Langstroth
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.139
and I don't want to ruffle any feathers But that's
00:06:16.139 --> 00:06:18.519
just not a very beautiful system and most standards
00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:20.740
aren't you know the standards are they're meant
00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:25.000
for? Traveling and and all sorts of things where
00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:26.579
obviously this one doesn't this thing's not gonna
00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:28.160
move I don't think I can move it if I wanted
00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:30.980
to so then I really started thinking like you
00:06:30.980 --> 00:06:33.579
know this I hate to say it, but this is a really
00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:35.680
ugly beehive to me, you know what I mean? And
00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.459
it's like, I'm back in crown land. These bees
00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:40.639
that I'm trying to catch are coming out of, you
00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:44.779
know, like 200 year old furs. So for me to take
00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.019
them from there and then put them into here,
00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:50.639
it just didn't seem right. So I started thinking
00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:52.040
like, hey, there's got to be a different, there's
00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:53.459
got to be a different hive than the standard
00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:55.860
Lange trough. And that's when I found these long
00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:59.160
Lange troughs and people were, they're all different.
00:06:59.220 --> 00:07:02.149
Every single one was different. And my first
00:07:02.149 --> 00:07:04.750
thought was like, this is something that I can
00:07:04.750 --> 00:07:07.790
make beautiful, you know what I mean? Not just
00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:09.790
for myself, but for the bees. I got a little
00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:12.370
farm here and I do the same type of thing with,
00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:14.449
you know, I got a nice barn and it's just for
00:07:14.449 --> 00:07:16.509
the sheep. They might not appreciate it, but
00:07:16.509 --> 00:07:18.550
you got a nice barn, nice home for the sheep,
00:07:18.629 --> 00:07:20.550
you get nice milk, you got a nice chicken coop,
00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:23.329
you get nice, nice tasting eggs. I figure, you
00:07:23.329 --> 00:07:26.870
know, if I give them a nice big bulky house to
00:07:26.870 --> 00:07:30.269
live in, that's, I'll get good honey. I like
00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:33.509
it. By the way, where do you live? I'm in British
00:07:33.509 --> 00:07:37.550
Columbia, Canada in central west on Chilcot and
00:07:37.550 --> 00:07:40.470
Plateau. I'm glad you're outside. We can see
00:07:40.470 --> 00:07:44.370
that gigantic tree behind you. I can't really
00:07:44.370 --> 00:07:46.290
tell what kind it is, though. I can't see it
00:07:46.290 --> 00:07:48.949
quite well enough. Is that a ponderosa? It might
00:07:48.949 --> 00:07:52.250
just be... It's one of the pines. I'm not sure
00:07:52.250 --> 00:07:53.529
which one of the pines. I don't think it's a
00:07:53.529 --> 00:07:56.579
dark pine, but one of the pine trees, yeah. For
00:07:56.579 --> 00:07:59.100
this hive design and and let me just say this
00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:02.040
up front because it's slightly Complicated the
00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:05.500
way we do this podcast the majority of our audience
00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:09.439
is listening on one of the podcast apps We also
00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:12.560
put out the video of our conversation on YouTube
00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:16.600
on that video I'll insert a couple of pictures
00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.420
of your hive so people can see it But let's assume
00:08:20.420 --> 00:08:23.540
that the majority of people can't so when we
00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.430
start talking about What it looks like we're
00:08:26.430 --> 00:08:28.649
gonna have to use a lot of descriptive words
00:08:28.649 --> 00:08:31.269
My first question for you is do you mill your
00:08:31.269 --> 00:08:34.529
own lumber? Yes I do and so when I see the live
00:08:34.529 --> 00:08:38.070
edge on the roof That makes sense because you
00:08:38.070 --> 00:08:39.889
were able to mill that yourself because that
00:08:39.889 --> 00:08:41.730
kind of wood is not that easy to find You're
00:08:41.730 --> 00:08:43.549
not gonna get it at home. Do you know absolutely
00:08:43.549 --> 00:08:47.269
not? This this whole hive almost the whole hive
00:08:47.269 --> 00:08:51.110
came from one eight foot log about 24 inches
00:08:51.110 --> 00:08:53.960
in diameter and it was kind of planned out before
00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:57.019
it was milled so I could you know I kind of every
00:08:57.019 --> 00:09:00.220
slice was going to a certain aspect of this hive
00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:03.019
like even like I have a the trays are made out
00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:05.700
of a half inch slice of it that's 15 and a half
00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:07.539
inches wide you know I mean solid wood not a
00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:09.690
single piece of plywood in the whole hive That
00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:12.649
is really cool. Before we jump into yours, why
00:09:12.649 --> 00:09:14.889
don't we just talk about long layings in general.
00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:17.870
Jack, I don't know how much you know about them.
00:09:17.970 --> 00:09:20.169
I know you do quite a bit. You did a lot of research,
00:09:20.169 --> 00:09:23.370
but for those that aren't familiar, basically
00:09:23.370 --> 00:09:27.549
a long laying strath is instead of stacking boxes
00:09:27.549 --> 00:09:30.909
up like in a normal laying system, it's as if
00:09:30.909 --> 00:09:34.809
you're stacking them side by side. So you would
00:09:34.809 --> 00:09:38.470
have what looks like a brood box but it might
00:09:38.470 --> 00:09:41.450
be it's going to be three or four feet long instead
00:09:41.450 --> 00:09:44.950
of just the width of one box and the idea is
00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:48.690
you can then just take frames in a row and just
00:09:48.690 --> 00:09:51.370
have instead of ten frames in a box or eight
00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:54.710
in a box you can have 30 or whatever number it
00:09:54.710 --> 00:09:58.129
is that you choose to do You can put a follower
00:09:58.129 --> 00:10:01.090
board. You can do different things. There still
00:10:01.090 --> 00:10:04.129
are ways to put queen excluders in. So you have
00:10:04.129 --> 00:10:06.490
some of the box that's for honey and some for
00:10:06.490 --> 00:10:09.610
not, but it's all horizontal. And for people
00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:12.330
that maybe have a hard time lifting really heavy
00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:15.570
boxes, it can be a wonderful system because you
00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:18.029
shouldn't have to lift anything heavier than
00:10:18.029 --> 00:10:21.590
one frame at a time unless your lids heavy. So
00:10:21.590 --> 00:10:24.809
that's the general idea. Do you have anything
00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:27.289
to add to that? You kind of hit it on the mark
00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:28.990
there. It's especially good, and that's what
00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:31.850
I found. A lot of the people in this ecosystem
00:10:31.850 --> 00:10:36.370
are in it due to the ease of inspecting frame
00:10:36.370 --> 00:10:39.029
by frame, lifting frame by frame, rather than
00:10:39.029 --> 00:10:43.090
the whole honey super. And that's where it kind
00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:45.490
of brings me also to the inline configuration.
00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:47.669
Half of this is the inline configuration, which
00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:52.110
also goes even beyond just the horizontal ergonomics
00:10:52.110 --> 00:10:54.490
and puts those frames directly in front of you.
00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.200
so that there's no twist motion when you're pulling
00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:00.580
them out. Yeah good point. Course you're young
00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:02.620
enough that shouldn't be a problem yet, but maybe
00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:05.700
one of these. Yeah, correct All right. Let's
00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:08.379
talk about your hive design because it's not
00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:11.539
a normal long laying either You've made some
00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:15.340
modifications Give us an idea how big it is how
00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:19.919
long how wide how tall is it on a stand? Explain
00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.279
the thing. Okay. So like you said, it was made
00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:25.700
out of all live dug for live edge dug for all
00:11:25.700 --> 00:11:30.379
two inch planks The box is 80 inches long which
00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:33.700
allows for me to do two entire inline systems
00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:36.820
if I chose to. I chose to keep it as half long
00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.159
-laying, half inline, just because I've never
00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:41.419
really dealt with either ecosystem. So now I'll
00:11:41.419 --> 00:11:44.899
be able to work one immediately, work the other,
00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:47.559
and really get a handle on my preference of which
00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:51.000
one I prefer. Okay, before you move on, I want
00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.039
us to make sure we understand that. Long -laying
00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.860
and you said inline? Yeah. you have some frames
00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:00.820
going one direction and then there's a great
00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:03.259
big divider in the middle as if you have two
00:12:03.259 --> 00:12:06.019
hives and then you have some going the other
00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:09.419
direction correct so that i got about a divider
00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:11.419
a two inch divider in the middle so when i was
00:12:11.419 --> 00:12:13.059
researching this hive a lot of the things i was
00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:15.460
doing is going through a lot of the the posts
00:12:15.460 --> 00:12:18.299
and topics and just trying to find people's problems
00:12:18.299 --> 00:12:21.840
and solve the problems within my hive before
00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.429
building the hive So that's what brought me to
00:12:24.429 --> 00:12:26.990
the center divider to completely divide the hive
00:12:26.990 --> 00:12:28.929
in half, which because people were having a problem
00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:30.789
with cupping their wood cupping because obviously
00:12:30.789 --> 00:12:33.269
the inner part of the hive is moist and the outer
00:12:33.269 --> 00:12:36.129
part is sitting in the sun. So I really wanted
00:12:36.129 --> 00:12:38.690
to firm that up with that center divider because
00:12:38.690 --> 00:12:41.470
another big aspect, I guess we can get into two
00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:44.169
theories of why I built it this way afterwards.
00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:47.450
So go ahead. You were explaining why you're going
00:12:47.450 --> 00:12:50.389
to have some frames going. I can't really call
00:12:50.389 --> 00:12:52.980
them vertical and horizontal. because everything
00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.779
is horizontal but you have some where the skinny
00:12:56.779 --> 00:12:59.559
end is towards you and somewhere the wide end
00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:01.080
is towards you in other words. So the inline
00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:03.519
would be the perpendicular ones to the body and
00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:05.659
those are two chambers so like with the inline
00:13:05.659 --> 00:13:07.980
model you're set with your two chambers. Mine
00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:10.820
are 13 because I made them square so that I could
00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:12.440
if I wanted to switch it back to inline it's
00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.259
just a matter of taking out that mounted queen
00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.480
excluder and it's back to inline. Versatility
00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:20.269
was a big plan with this hive. So the inline
00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:24.149
system is set up for a 13 frame brood box and
00:13:24.149 --> 00:13:27.929
a 13 frame honey box separated by a permanent
00:13:27.929 --> 00:13:30.529
queen excluder. Whereas like you were saying
00:13:30.529 --> 00:13:32.210
with the long line you have a follower board
00:13:32.210 --> 00:13:35.309
and the long line side can be a 6 frame, 8 frame,
00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:38.529
10 frame all the way up to the main box is 26
00:13:38.529 --> 00:13:40.950
frames on each side. Well you know your stuff
00:13:40.950 --> 00:13:43.370
considering you're new at this. I can tell you've
00:13:43.370 --> 00:13:46.009
done a lot of research. Let me make sure I also
00:13:46.009 --> 00:13:48.350
understand one thing. You're going to use a queen
00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:52.470
excluder and you are going to have honey supers
00:13:52.470 --> 00:13:58.590
on top of these brood frames or horizontally
00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:03.090
next to? Both. So my plan with the main chamber
00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:05.210
and I like running on theory I don't know if
00:14:05.210 --> 00:14:08.210
it's possible going through a few posts you know
00:14:08.210 --> 00:14:10.970
people were saying that in this system about
00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:14.269
a 13 frame brood is kind of sufficient you don't
00:14:14.269 --> 00:14:16.610
really need to go beyond that otherwise you're
00:14:16.610 --> 00:14:19.070
going to start getting honey in your brood my
00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:22.210
original intention with the 26 frames was you
00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:25.610
know if i could push brood to 18 19 frames which
00:14:25.610 --> 00:14:27.870
is what i read that standard long straight tross
00:14:27.870 --> 00:14:30.340
do they do about two deep boxes of brood run
00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:33.679
in about 80 % so run in 16 to 18 frames of brood
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:35.580
and then they go up into their honey supers so
00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:37.360
I was thinking that I could possibly do the same
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.340
thing so then that would leave me with about
00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:42.080
eight deep frames of honey which I would then
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.379
use that for winter storage and then anything
00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:47.200
that goes up into the supers is kind of for me
00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.059
to to harvest because that was another one of
00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:52.740
the the magic ratio numbers was for going into
00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:56.799
winter with these sealed chambers that I'd want
00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.129
four open cell frames with about nine honey frames.
00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:02.990
Quick break to discuss what just might be on
00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:06.559
your mind. right now come on admit it you're
00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:09.759
imagining the upcoming honey harvest because
00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.759
no matter where you live in the world it's either
00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.179
here now or it will be in the near future and
00:15:15.179 --> 00:15:18.720
Man Lake is making it so easy to plan for click
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:21.720
on over to Man Lake's website for an amazing
00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.940
selection of extractors filters bottling supplies
00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:30.120
uncapping knives supplies for a comb honey everything
00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:33.460
and I mean everything you'll need. But if you
00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:35.919
aren't there quite yet and the honey flow is
00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.879
right around the corner, make sure you have extra
00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:42.379
supers on hand. You never can have too many or
00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:45.519
be too prepared. And right now Man Lake is offering
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00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:54.840
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00:15:54.840 --> 00:16:00.029
.com, discount code MLBLove10. So that's kind
00:16:00.029 --> 00:16:02.470
of my goal is to hit those amount of deep frames
00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:04.490
and then anything else goes into the medium frames
00:16:04.490 --> 00:16:07.870
for me to harvest and How thick did you say the
00:16:07.870 --> 00:16:11.049
walls of this thing are how the original walls
00:16:11.049 --> 00:16:14.230
and the floor are two inches thick but then in
00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:17.429
order to Make the the whole hive bigger to allow
00:16:17.429 --> 00:16:19.590
the lid and allow the supers I added an extra
00:16:19.590 --> 00:16:23.210
inch and a quarter on both upper sides the top
00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:25.210
Nine inches of the hive is three and a quarter
00:16:25.210 --> 00:16:27.980
inches thick That's a lot of insulation. That's
00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:30.379
a lot of our value and you know that the little
00:16:30.379 --> 00:16:32.580
be Insulated and that's where it kind of comes
00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:34.700
to the whole the whole hive is kind of based
00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.919
off the condensing hive method Why don't you
00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.840
explain that a little bit for those that aren't
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.659
familiar? Okay So the condensing hive method
00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.399
is basically the research that I found it was
00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:48.580
based off of Fellows research up in the Yukon
00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:51.669
guy by the name of Tardif He was beekeeping up
00:16:51.669 --> 00:16:54.450
there and really wanted to find out what was
00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:56.350
going on with his hives, fill them full of sensors.
00:16:57.169 --> 00:17:00.769
And what he found was that the sealed chamber,
00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:06.250
the only vent being your entrance, was beneficial
00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:10.089
to the bees in many ways. So everybody's worried
00:17:10.089 --> 00:17:11.670
and like I've seen this in all the beekeeping
00:17:11.670 --> 00:17:13.069
groups, you know, when you're building stuff,
00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:14.869
it's like everybody's venting, venting, venting,
00:17:14.930 --> 00:17:18.220
venting, venting. And according to this guy's
00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:20.819
research, there should be zero venting in a climate
00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:22.880
like mine, in a northern climate. Absolutely
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.420
none. And people worry about, you know, the CO2
00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:28.019
buildup and the moisture buildup, and these are
00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:30.980
actually, what he is showing, beneficial to the
00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:35.180
bees. So the CO2 buildup actually puts them into
00:17:35.180 --> 00:17:37.799
a state, I can't remember what it's called, epoxy
00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:39.819
or something like that, but basically a hibernation
00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:43.200
state. So this hibernation state allows them
00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.130
to slow down their entire body, to actually you
00:17:47.130 --> 00:17:50.410
know kind of go to sleep whereas I find the normal
00:17:50.410 --> 00:17:55.190
vented systems that maybe the bees and like these
00:17:55.190 --> 00:17:56.529
are the ones that are going through tons of honey
00:17:56.529 --> 00:17:58.890
they're not getting to go into that hibernation
00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:01.529
state so they're working all winter long when
00:18:01.529 --> 00:18:03.690
I seen this research I was like it just clicked
00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:05.289
with me I'm like this makes sense like I live
00:18:05.289 --> 00:18:07.269
in the forest I've never seen a vented tree in
00:18:07.269 --> 00:18:10.390
my life they're not out there so why are we venting
00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:13.990
these hives the way that we are and another apparent
00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:17.450
benefit to this condensing method is that this
00:18:17.450 --> 00:18:21.470
CO2 chamber will kill off the mites. So not only
00:18:21.470 --> 00:18:25.170
has you know they get their hibernation state
00:18:25.170 --> 00:18:27.069
but you know nature's kind of solved this mite
00:18:27.069 --> 00:18:29.089
problem with itself is hey they go hibernate
00:18:29.089 --> 00:18:32.470
in this super condensed CO2 chamber and it's
00:18:32.470 --> 00:18:34.289
going to kill off the mites that are present.
00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:36.829
All right, I need you to send me a link to that
00:18:36.829 --> 00:18:39.750
research I have to admit I'm not familiar with
00:18:39.750 --> 00:18:42.029
it and I would love to read it because some of
00:18:42.029 --> 00:18:44.950
this stuff sounds counter to what a lot of us
00:18:44.950 --> 00:18:47.829
have learned but I'm open -minded I would love
00:18:47.829 --> 00:18:50.569
to read it and I tell you what you will find
00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:53.369
something over the next few years on this beekeeping
00:18:53.369 --> 00:18:57.710
journey of yours is that Some things that work
00:18:57.710 --> 00:19:00.450
for one person may not work for you. You have
00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:04.099
to be willing to adjust and change or you've
00:19:04.099 --> 00:19:06.940
got it all figured out already and we'll see
00:19:06.940 --> 00:19:09.460
where are the entrances and how big are they
00:19:09.460 --> 00:19:12.740
so i have two hive gate entrances at each end
00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:15.200
and these entrances are also kind of in line
00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.279
with this condensing hive method they're really
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.380
good for airflow so they're very very small little
00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:23.900
entrances and i have two of them for higher flow
00:19:23.900 --> 00:19:26.319
and then winter time you break it down to just
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:30.319
one then what these entrances do is allow basically
00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.059
and this is kind of how they market it is they
00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:35.420
allow the bees to open and close the front door
00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:37.960
basically and regulate that that one little bit
00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:39.960
of air that's coming in they they have a good
00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:43.140
chance of being able to block it or open it or
00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.220
do whatever they need to do with that air to
00:19:46.220 --> 00:19:48.799
to regulate the hive. Are the entrances round
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.099
or horizontal? They're horizontal and they're
00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:54.500
about four inches and they seem to be about the
00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:57.410
three eights. Height the bee space at heart.
00:19:57.549 --> 00:20:00.630
I also noticed on your Facebook page in one of
00:20:00.630 --> 00:20:03.630
the pictures You had a great big drawer on the
00:20:03.630 --> 00:20:06.789
bottom that you pulled out Explain what that's
00:20:06.789 --> 00:20:09.670
for. So yeah, that was one thing that I was really
00:20:09.670 --> 00:20:13.569
unsure about installing in the hive Because that
00:20:13.569 --> 00:20:15.410
came in with a screen bottom and when I put in
00:20:15.410 --> 00:20:17.849
the screen bottom, you know that to me was like,
00:20:17.869 --> 00:20:19.970
okay now I'm making a space in this hive that
00:20:19.970 --> 00:20:22.109
the bees cannot get to so if I have a problem
00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.980
with this space That problem is on me to fix
00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:26.460
because the bees aren't able to get there to
00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:28.559
clean it or do the business that they need to
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.359
do. After talking to more people, I was kind
00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:33.059
of put in line that this is more of a treatment
00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:36.480
tray than a hive checking tray. So these trays
00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.349
I will fill with Demataceous Earth. So basically
00:20:39.349 --> 00:20:44.390
any any bug or mite or anything that falls down
00:20:44.390 --> 00:20:46.410
out of the hive or off the bee or anything is
00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:48.029
going to fall down into the tray of demataceous
00:20:48.029 --> 00:20:51.029
earth and then I will then find it and kind of
00:20:51.029 --> 00:20:53.150
know that hey there's there's some stuff going
00:20:53.150 --> 00:20:55.849
on in here that I need to I need to take care
00:20:55.849 --> 00:20:58.829
of I can't wait to hear how your first year goes
00:20:58.829 --> 00:21:01.549
and I'll tell you what let's make a date right
00:21:01.549 --> 00:21:03.470
now five years from now you're going to be back
00:21:03.470 --> 00:21:07.369
on the show and you're going to be saying Every
00:21:07.369 --> 00:21:09.789
single thing worked or here are the modifications
00:21:09.789 --> 00:21:12.349
that I realized I made to make to it. Absolutely
00:21:12.349 --> 00:21:15.769
It's gonna be fun to see what kind of stand you
00:21:15.769 --> 00:21:20.190
have this on This stand is actually on 18 inch
00:21:20.190 --> 00:21:24.589
for rounds. I was planning on building a like
00:21:24.589 --> 00:21:28.089
a little crib frame out of logs and I had built
00:21:28.089 --> 00:21:30.650
this thing on pallets about four feet from where
00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:34.190
it's sitting right now and I just could not figure
00:21:34.190 --> 00:21:38.180
out how I was gonna move it onto the stand. So
00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:40.319
I brought these rounds that were actually, my
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:43.119
fireplace takes 16s. I accidentally cut these
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.599
at 18. I was like, perfect, they're beautiful.
00:21:45.700 --> 00:21:47.839
They still got lichen on them. So I brought those
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:52.079
out, placed those on the pad and then very sketchily
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.180
pulled the whole hive kind of off the pallets
00:21:55.180 --> 00:21:57.519
and the pallets tipped over and it just kind
00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:00.559
of landed in place and that's where it's gonna
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.140
live. And it just worked. I think it looks great
00:22:04.140 --> 00:22:06.859
on the logs. Thank you. Tell me about the roof.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:09.980
Is that also that two inch or two and a half
00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:12.299
inch thick? Yeah, the roof is two inch thick
00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:15.299
on the walls. The live edge planks are an inch
00:22:15.299 --> 00:22:18.000
and a half. And then there's going to be with
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.279
the condensed hive method. The goal is to reach
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.420
an R 40 in the roof. So I'm going to be heavily
00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:27.059
insulating the roof. And, you know, with these
00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:29.859
with these hives, people use like over top of
00:22:29.859 --> 00:22:33.769
the inner. inner box, they use blankets or wool
00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:36.269
insulation or whatever they need to give them
00:22:36.269 --> 00:22:39.029
that R40 and prevent that heat escape coming
00:22:39.029 --> 00:22:41.690
up from the chamber. And if you're worried about
00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:44.630
condensation, you may want to use something that
00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:47.410
would absorb a little bit of that also when you're
00:22:47.410 --> 00:22:49.920
talking about blankets or something. Do you have
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:52.579
your bees yet? I do not have my bees yet. I'm
00:22:52.579 --> 00:22:55.640
actually I'm setting swarm traps. There's no
00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:58.099
apiaries closest apiary and I don't even know
00:22:58.099 --> 00:23:00.380
if it's an active apiary is 40 miles from here
00:23:00.380 --> 00:23:02.539
but this property that I'm on now I've been here
00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.240
for five years and it has like the best bee population
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:08.240
I've ever seen and the honeybee showed up about
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:11.579
a week ago. And the numbers of them are growing
00:23:11.579 --> 00:23:13.680
every day. Like I just got these little bushes
00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.079
that are the first to bloom. We've had dandelions
00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.259
for about a week. And so that the honeybee numbers
00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:20.920
are really growing. So I'm hoping that I can
00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:23.200
hopefully catch a swarm. I think you will. What
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:25.359
are you using for bait? What kind of sand? I'm
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.160
using lemongrass oil and a couple brood frames
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.759
that I bought off an old beekeeper. And that's
00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:33.859
why I had one box that was one of my four mediums
00:23:33.859 --> 00:23:36.819
was an old deep that I bought that I cut down.
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.220
You've got it figured out. How many traps did
00:23:39.220 --> 00:23:41.420
you say you're putting up? I'm putting up three
00:23:41.420 --> 00:23:44.660
and I baited the hive as well because I do believe
00:23:44.660 --> 00:23:47.400
that it's like right back here in this in this
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:49.240
crown land. They're flying right by the hive.
00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:51.359
I know it's obviously not the right height but
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:55.140
sometimes you get lucky. I've had it happen before.
00:23:55.460 --> 00:23:58.460
It's rare but it can certainly happen. Okay this
00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:01.940
thing is 80 inches long. It's made of thick wood.
00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:05.539
Take a guess on what it weighs. I'd say 500 pounds.
00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:09.279
I'd say the lid on it has got to be a hundred
00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:11.500
pounds. Before I got the hinges on it, I was
00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:13.779
trying to lift it up with the two hands and it
00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:17.279
was tough. Yeah, the hinges, I think that could
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:19.460
also be a game changer in this ecosystem because
00:24:19.460 --> 00:24:21.859
I've seen a lot of complaints about the heavy
00:24:21.859 --> 00:24:26.460
lids on these things and I installed five recycled
00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:29.579
hinges from deep freezers, the spring loaded
00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:32.160
hinges and they take all the weight of that lid.
00:24:32.940 --> 00:24:35.349
You've thought of everything. So how much money
00:24:35.349 --> 00:24:38.170
do you have into this? Um you know most of the
00:24:38.170 --> 00:24:40.210
money went to the frames to be honest the frames
00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:43.150
and the honey excluders the actual hive itself
00:24:43.150 --> 00:24:46.009
maybe 150 bucks into the hive itself and then
00:24:46.009 --> 00:24:47.930
the rest of the money into quite a bit of frames
00:24:47.930 --> 00:24:50.250
to fill it and the honey excluders and stuff
00:24:50.250 --> 00:24:51.990
so maybe another four or five hundred bucks on
00:24:51.990 --> 00:24:54.630
all all the fun stuff probably not even that
00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:58.150
much that is so awesome i wish you all the best
00:24:58.150 --> 00:25:02.599
of luck swarm traps Oh man, I wish we could count
00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:06.579
on them. They work great. They just don't always
00:25:06.579 --> 00:25:10.319
work every single time. We've had people on this
00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:14.000
podcast that live down in the south of the U
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.819
.S. and they're just catching swarms right and
00:25:16.819 --> 00:25:20.380
left, it seems like. Up where I am, if I put
00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:24.180
out a half a dozen, I'll catch one or two a year
00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:27.259
and that's it. and I've had like one year where
00:25:27.259 --> 00:25:30.039
I caught zero so I think you're doing everything
00:25:30.039 --> 00:25:32.339
right and I think you deserve to catch a swarm
00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:36.079
or two and no commercial beekeepers are going
00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:39.180
to beat down your door to buy a hive like this
00:25:39.180 --> 00:25:41.519
because it doesn't make sense for them but it
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:44.480
makes so much sense for you and I love how thick
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.779
it is and what kind of art value that's going
00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.779
to give it that is just so important and it's
00:25:49.779 --> 00:25:53.460
going to be in many ways like them being in a
00:25:53.460 --> 00:25:57.029
tree. or at least a horizontal tree. Yeah that
00:25:57.029 --> 00:26:01.029
down rotten log. So in those swarm traps that
00:26:01.029 --> 00:26:03.430
lemongrass oil works great as you know there's
00:26:03.430 --> 00:26:07.029
also other things that you can buy like swarm
00:26:07.029 --> 00:26:10.089
commander that a lot of people swear by. I've
00:26:10.089 --> 00:26:13.349
had good luck with lemongrass oil. There is a
00:26:13.349 --> 00:26:16.089
sort of a sweet spot between not using enough
00:26:16.089 --> 00:26:19.809
and using too much and we don't have a scientific
00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:22.890
way to measure that that I know of. but I know
00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:25.829
if when you walk by it really smells strong of
00:26:25.829 --> 00:26:28.089
lemongrass oil you've probably got too much.
00:26:28.269 --> 00:26:31.529
I usually just take a q -tip and put two or three
00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:35.369
drops of oil on it stick it in that's all it
00:26:35.369 --> 00:26:37.410
needs and then I'll refresh that once a week
00:26:37.410 --> 00:26:39.789
or something like that and I'm sure there's people
00:26:39.789 --> 00:26:42.069
out there going that's not how I do it that won't
00:26:42.069 --> 00:26:45.299
work and Everybody does it different and everything
00:26:45.299 --> 00:26:47.420
works different for different people and that's
00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:49.440
one thing that you're gonna find about beekeepers
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:52.440
and Beekeeping but hopefully you can also find
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.539
somebody up in your neck of the woods that can
00:26:54.539 --> 00:26:56.839
be kind of a mentor to you that you can reach
00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:59.799
out to When you have questions and stuff if not,
00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:01.859
give me a buzz Yeah, definitely will and honestly
00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:03.900
that group that I joined on Facebook the long
00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:06.180
Langstroth hive group a bunch of amazing guys
00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:08.740
I really want to help you get on your feet and
00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:11.259
that's kind of what helped me get online beekeepers
00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:14.319
are that way They're very helpful and ask nothing
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:18.700
in return and you fit in so much because of your
00:27:18.700 --> 00:27:21.680
do -it -yourself attitude and being able to build
00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.279
this yourself and even change you know design
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:28.680
around from a traditional longling yourself and
00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:31.740
that's fantastic. So just enjoy the journey.
00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:34.920
Thank you. Jack Lomber is where people can find
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.400
you on Facebook and we're going to circle back
00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:39.180
in a while and everybody's going to hear how
00:27:39.180 --> 00:27:40.759
well this works. Sounds good. Thank you very
00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:46.069
much. Thanks again for joining us on Be Love,
00:27:46.190 --> 00:27:49.329
Be Keeping presented by Manlike. Another big
00:27:49.329 --> 00:27:51.730
thank you goes to V2B Health for their support.
00:27:52.170 --> 00:27:55.289
Vita's Varroa Control Ranger products includes
00:27:55.289 --> 00:27:59.470
Epistan, Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release
00:27:59.470 --> 00:28:03.069
Oxalic Acids Trips. Hey thanks a lot guys. And
00:28:03.069 --> 00:28:05.670
if you haven't yet, please subscribe to and follow
00:28:05.670 --> 00:28:07.910
the show, tell your friends about it, and click
00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:11.210
on over to BeLoveBekeeping .com to sign up for
00:28:11.210 --> 00:28:14.430
our free newsletter. If you have a guest suggestion
00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:17.509
or topic you'd like discussed on the show, shoot
00:28:17.509 --> 00:28:21.009
me an email eric at BeLoveBekeeping .com and
00:28:21.009 --> 00:28:23.509
remember if you're not just in it for the honey
00:28:23.509 --> 00:28:26.549
or the money, you're in it for the love. See
00:28:26.549 --> 00:28:27.269
you next week.
