(joyful music)
- Hi everyone,
today I'm gonna talk to you about situating your hive,
and all the ins and outs you might need to know.
Before you get your bees,
you'd like to think about whereabouts you're going
to place your hive in your garden, or on your property.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere,
it's recommended that you place the front of your hive
facing north, to northeast,
at home I've got mine exactly northeast.
If you're in the Northern Hemisphere,
it's the opposite way around,
so you'll have your hive facing between south and east.
We're at Cedar's property and we're gonna be placing
our hive at a north, to northeast aspect.
Once you've got the position
of where you're going to put your hive,
you need to perhaps put it on some besser blocks like this,
so it's raised up a little bit,
or you might have a nice bench or some kind of stand.
So the base needs to be nice and level
so your bees can build the honeycomb nice and straight down
with the help of gravity.
One of the reasons we raise the hive off the ground
is to keep small animals from entering
the front of the hive.
It also stops any moisture from being absorbed
from the ground.
So first of all we have the bottom board, or the base,
and as you can see with the Flow Hive base,
we've got this here, the gentle 2.5 degree slope,
and what this does is,
this allows the honey to flow easily through to the back
of the hive, and out the back of the hive
at harvesting time.
This is the bees' landing board,
it's gently sloped forward to allow any rain to roll off.
And this raised section here,
this stops any animals bigger than a bee from getting
into the front of your hive.
So this is your brood box, this is where your bees go,
and it's really important to establish a nice,
healthy brood box full of bees
before your put on your Flow super.
It's important your bees have got a nice, clear flight path
in any direction that they might like to fly in.
You can cover the front of your entrance
depending on your climate,
if you're living in a colder climate,
close off your entrance with a little piece of wood,
and that'll keep it a lot warmer in your brood box.
So if you have a small amount of brood in your brood box,
having the entrance closed over three quarters of the way
helps the guard bees protect the entrance
from any intruders, because they have less area to protect.
The bees need to keep the hive at a constant 35 degrees,
so depending on your climate, we need to support the bees
to make their job as easy as possible.
So here in Australia,
it's nice to have the early morning sun on the hive,
but as the day warms up,
some dappled sunlight in the afternoon
is a really nice idea.
My hives are a little over exposed with the afternoon sun,
so what I've done, I've erected a shade cloth
towards the back and the side of my hives,
and this just helps keep them cool
with that hot sun in the afternoon.
We've had a few concerns from customers about the super
blowing off your brood box.
This isn't gonna happen 'cause it's really strong
and sturdy.
Plus the bees,
they like to fill in all the gaps with propolis,
which acts like a glue.
So it's nice and strong, it's not going to move at all.
Propolis is a tree resin which the bees collect,
and they use propolis to fill in all the gaps,
which helps maintain the temperature of the hive.
It's really important that you consider where you want
to situate your hive.
Moving the hive more than a meter a day
disorientates their navigation system,
so this makes it very difficult for them to find
their way back to the hive.
Alternatively, you can move your bees
over three kilometers away,
leave them there for about six weeks,
and then bring them back to the new spot in your yard.
If you have any concerns that your bees don't have enough
access to water, you can fill a shallow dish with water,
then you can add some sand or some gravel,
some twigs, or even some corks,
just something for the bees to stand on
so they can have a drink.
You need to consider your pets as well
when you're keeping bees,
so what I've done is, I've put a fence around my bee hives,
and this just keeps the dog away from the bees.
It's a good idea to let your neighbors know
if you get yourself a bee hive,
and perhaps you could give them your phone number,
just in case they have any concerns.
It's important to consider not having your hive entrance
facing your house or your neighbor's.
When you put your lights on at night,
the bees are gonna be attracted to the light,
and this can be a problem for both you and the bees.
To keep up to date with all the latest episodes,
please subscribe to the Flow Hive YouTube channel.
And if you have any questions or suggestions,
pop them in the box below,
and we'll do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.