What beehive to use?

Most of my work from April to July is controlling the swarming of my bees. I would normally have got on top of it by now, I think the late spring has had a knock on effect. Colonies have taken longer than normal to build up their populations and swarming often occurs when the colony population first reaches it's peak.

As I have said in previous posts, it seems that some beekeepers around me are not controlling their swarming bees. So far this year I have had 18 swarms though some have been small 'after swarms' or 'casts'. Most of them took up residence in empty bait hives that I keep in most of my apiaries without any effort from me, as they prefer to set up home where bees have lived before.

I have managed to collect some whilst they have been clustered - they often do this near the hive they have left and again near their preselected new site - but some find it difficult to find an appropriate home.

I was employed last week to remove a colony established in a stud wall inside a rotting shed. (I cursed that I hadn't taken my camera with me) The cavity in the wall was only 2 inches but 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall and was completely filled with one enormous comb!

The bees had obviously been there for over a year and are sadly heavily infested with varroa. The comb was cut out and temporarily tied into empty British National frames and hived on the spot. I picked up the hive the next evening and the following day gave me the opportunity to stock a Top Bar hive that has been waiting for tenants. This is a new way of managing bees for me and one I look forward to experimenting with. The Top Bar hive is an ideal way to start beekeeping requiring less outlay than is required for other 'commercial' hives and is considered to be an altogether more sustainable beekeeping option. The wild comb was tied to the top bar until the bees do their own job of securing the comb to the bar when I'll remove it.