Articles

These instructions are for the assembly of all types of kitset supers including Full Depth, ¾ Depth, ½ Depth and Ceracell SlimlineTM supers, whether treated or untreated.Step 1: Check All DimensionsBefore you do anything to your kitset, check all the dimensions. Although we do try to ensure that all components of your kitset are consistent in their lengths and widths before you purchase it, you must check that you are happy that the finished su… Read more

Feeding your bees is an interesting topic and you will find many different types and styles of feeder used around the world. I am going to discuss the most commonly found feeders in New Zealand.Now, with the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter, is the time to be thinking about when and how you are going to feed your bees. Some beekeepers will keep back enough frames of honey in their hive to cover the winter period. The ideal amo… Read more

The Ceracell Great Escape®Advantages of Using a Bee Escape/Clearer BoardIt is important to remove the bees from the honey supers before you transport the supers to your extraction room. For commercial operators, it is actually a requirement to have zero bees in the extraction room for food purity reasons. For hobbyists, it is important to minimise the annoyance of having bees flying around your ears while you are trying to uncap comb and spin o… Read more

With winter comes the question about feeding. To get a colony through the winter and early spring if the beekeeper has taken off most of the honey surplus, the bees will need feeding at some stage.The natural foods of bees are nectar and pollen. Nectar is the primary source for carbohydrates, and pollen for protein, fats and minerals. Most of us know that the bees turn the nectar they collect into honey, which can be stored for indefinite peri… Read more

Varroa ManagementI had the pleasure of attending the American Beekeepers’ Federation conference this January 2015, and one of the sessions was on varroa management.Usually when we think of dealing with varroa, we immediately think of ‘strips’ of something. Well there is much more that can be done, and perhaps should be done before we hit the problem with ‘strips’. Understanding the life cycle of the varroa mite is critical in managing the paras… Read more

The Ceracell EmlockThe Ceracell Emlock, made in NZ with our own stamping dies, is the ultimate hive strapping system.If you have moved hives before, you know that the bees are more aggressive at night and you don’t want to take any chances that the hive boxes might slip, leaving a gap for those angry girls to get out. Having used ratchet straps before, I know they are not good enough and fiddly to use. The cloth strapping gets tangles, the ra… Read more