BeeLove’s Modern Log Hive
BeeLove Apiaries has redesigned the traditional log hive to create a more sustainable and productive design. The rationale for the modern log hive design is that the majority of beekeepers within the BeeLove Apiaries network use the traditional log. To support their efforts, we have improved the design by adding two features:
- Using planks of wood instead of carving out large trees. Traditional log hives can last for as long as 30 years or more. However, they use a lot more wood. The hive is carved out from a large tree, with significant portions of the tree wasted. Thus, using planks of wood shaped into the log structure is more efficient and sustainable.
- Introducing a queen excluder. We also introduced a mesh partition to act as a queen excluder. It divides the hive into two compartments. Bees move between the hive compartments except for the queen. The end goal is that honey from the traditional logs is not contaminated with eggs. It is easier to process and does not affect the quality of honey at our processing centre.
- New hives for arid and semi-arid areas?
- In our previous article here, we mentioned how a farmer is redesigning hives at his farm in Makueni County. The cost of modern hives being prohibitive, Mzee Kamula’s apiary comprises the traditional log hives plus some of his own designs.
- Mzee Kamula’s designs have more ventilation than typical hives. Over time, he has observed that the hotter dry months are increasingly unbearable for bees. His experiments test whether more ventilation outlets are required for hives in arid and semi-arid areas. BeeLove Apiaries has supplied him with modern hives with which to compare. We shall report his findings as the experiment goes on.