Buy equipment - Bee management...

Managing your bees is important to keeping them healthy and productive. From pest control and feeding, to marking your Queen, the right equipment is essential.

Pest Control and Disease

A hot air oxalic acid vaporizer, an effective treatment against Varroa, it is basically oxalic acid in the gaseous state. Non toxic for the bees, it also does not hinder the queen in her egg laying and shows to be highly effective against Varroa. Single phase 220V power supply required. Can be directly connected to mains or a generator.

Vaseline grease can be spread on the bottom sliding board, and used in checking and detecting fallen varroa mites.

Catalogue reference

113. Hot air oxalic acid vaporizer £344.40
114. Vaseline grease (250g) £4.00

Bee Medicants

Bees need to be protected from disease and when pollen and nectar are not available or in short supply, supplementary feeding may help the colony survive or make it more productive and populous.

Catalogue reference

115. Neopoll 1kg pack of vitaminised bee food. Winter and Spring feed containing pollen £3.95
116. Fumidil B. A drug added to the Autumn feed to counteract Nosema
A = sufficient to treat 3 colonies. £14.90
B = sufficient to treat 53 colonies. £155.40
117. Apistan £19.50
118. Bayvarol £19.50
119. Apiguard (per sachet) £2.15  Box of 10 sachets £20.50
120. Hive clean £15.40
121. Oxalic acid (approx. 1/2 litre bottle). Store the acid
carefully £5.20
122. Api Life Var (per sachet) £2.30  Box of 10 sachets £20.50

Sugar Duster

Glory-Bee sugar duster – fill the chamber with dry icing sugar and pump into entrance. For use with varroa floor.

Catalogue reference

123. Glory-Bee sugar duster £25.20

Bees and Queens

Our bees are bred from stock which we have found best suited to our seasonal climate and system of management. We endeavour to provide the beginner with a relatively docile strain of honeybee which overwinters well, builds up strongly into a large industrious non-swarming foraging force which will gather a good surplus of honey. Regular disease inspections are conducted by our beekeepers and by Ministry officials.

A five comb National nucleus headed by a young mated and laying queen and carefully balances proportions of young to old bees, eggs, brood and stores is supplied in a special ventilated, lightweight non returnable box, with hiving instructions. A 10% deposit is taken with each order which is collected from us. The customer is notified by a telephone call or email.

Catalogue reference

124. Queen Bee £31.00
125a. Package bees £125.00
125b. 5 comb Nuc B.S.Frames £165.00
126. 5 comb Nuc Lang or 14 x12 £175.00

Queen Marking and Rearing Appliances

With such a large number of bees it is often difficult to find the Queen quickly, so for this reason, many Queens are marked with a light daub of paint on their thorax. The paint does not harm the queen. The particular colour identifies the year the queen hatched. Sometimes tiny identification discs are used if more than one Queen was born the same year.

The international code of colours for Queen marking is as follows:
White = for any year ending in 1 or 6
Yellow = for any year ending in 2 or 7
Red = for any year ending in 3 or 8
Green = for any year ending in 4 or 9
Blue = for any year ending in 5 or 0

Catalogue reference

127. Queen marking cage press-in type £4.95
128. Queen marking cage with plunger £4.95
129. Queen catcher, glass £4.10
130. Queen catcher, clip type £3.10
131. Queen marking colours (see list of colours above) £3.95
132. Plastic queen mailing/introduction cage £0.55
133. Queen mating Nuc. Polystyrene, weather proof, warm. Full instructions provided £22.10
134. Butler Queen intro cage £1.55
135. Super for above £9.25
136. Feeder for above £9.25

Plastic 'Rapid' Feeders

There are many types of feeders. Direct contact feeders are usually some sort of air tight container. Indirect rapid feeders normally hold a large volume (2-3 gallons) and are the same dimension as the hive. These type of feeders don't require an empty super to be put over them, they can be made of wood or plastic and fit under the roof. They can be filled and re-filled easily.

Catalogue reference

137. 14 Pint £10.20
138. 3 Pint £6.30
139. Entrance feeder £3.50
140a. Miller feeder supplied made up (approx. 2 1/2 gall. capacity) £43.60
140b. Ashforth feeder supplied made up (approx. 2 1/2 gall. capacity) £20.50
141. Frame feeder £5.50
142. Contact feeders (available in 1 gall. and 1/2 gall.) 1 gall £5.30 1/2 gall £4.20