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British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

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  • More advanced beekeeping discussion forum.
More advanced beekeeping discussion forum.
 #5523  by Patrick
 19 Jan 2020, 09:17
The slatted rack between floor and frames gets a mention in Sims Sixty Years with Bees and some US videos recommend their use, with various (I have to say unsubstantiated) merits being suggested. The one I have just watched shows the beekeeper sublimating oxalic without any form of respirator, so make of that what you will.

I can’t say I have ever tried them, but I can’t see they can do any harm either. I have noticed the disadvantage of keeping more hives is that it can mean you can become more resistant to buying experimental kit or trying more time consuming experimental hive management, as the multiplication factor kicks in. Maybe it’s just me.

Once you have numbers there is a practical and financial drive to simplify and strip back. Maybe something gets lost along the way? I have always wondered if 4 hives or thereabouts is perhaps the most enjoyable and experimental number as a hobbyist? It’s all too easy to think more is necessarily better.
 #5524  by Alfred
 19 Jan 2020, 09:42
Nail on the head
Especially with fiesty local colonies as a learner last year I found my eagerness for safety in numbers had become a monster .
I Built spare kit then didnt like it hanging around unused,so I put bees in it.
Then I had no spares so I built some more and then put bees in that.
I had no time left for enjoying beekeeping
Three colonies is great for building up a nuc and lo and behold is also the first threshold for the Bbka insurance
 #5525  by AdamD
 19 Jan 2020, 10:33
Alfred wrote:
19 Jan 2020, 09:42
I Built spare kit then didnt like it hanging around unused,so I put bees in it.
Then I had no spares so I built some more and then put bees in that.
I had no time left for enjoying beekeeping
I enjoy my beekeeping but at some times of the year it becomes a bit of a chore and every year I say that I must reduce the number of colonies I have and each year I fail miserably!