Any info would be welcome to be honest
Ok, starting with the hives.
There are 3 main types popular here in the UK, the National, the WBC and the Commercial.
I have the WBC type, they look nice in the garden and you can them from
here, the place I get all my supplies from. You can also pick them up used and pretty complete for around £100 or maybe less. Well worth getting the plastic legs for them as they don't rot.
The types of hive all have slightly different dimensions, derived from experience over the years, and that's what you have to worry about, as the parts are not particularly interchangeable, and dimensions of things are very important to bees.
So with a WBC..the naming of the parts...
At the bottom of the hive you have the 'Base'
It has the sloping bit sticking out for the bees to land on and do their dancing(brilliant to watch) sometimes called the 'lighting' board as that's where they alight, and collectively with the little roof projection, called the 'porch'
On top of this are then the 'lifts'. These are the protective outer layers for the contents and stack on top of each other.
Inside the lifts and protected and insulated by them are then placed the main parts, the boxes.
The bottom box(or 2 stacked if you are ambitious) is called the 'brood' box and as the name suggests it is where the young are raised.
Above the brood box you put a queen excluder, like a grille whose dimensions prevent only the queen from going any higher up and laying eggs in the places where you only want honey. You don't want that to happen.
Into the brood box then go 'frames', evenly and precisely spaced, usually with plastic spacers though I use wood. These are simple wooden shapes that have a bees wax sheet inserted and held together with tiny panel pins. The wax sheet is called brood 'foundation' and is pre-embossed with the correct sizes for 'brood' cells and usually strengthened with a piece of wire woven into it.
Above the brood box(s) go the 'super's. These are usually shallower than the brood box, and are where the bees will store everything they have collected and made and need to survive successfully, primarily honey.
Again, these 'super's are loaded with a precise number of evenly spaced frames, usually deeper than the brood frames, and pre-embossed with the correct size cell base for storage cells.
You can put as many supers as you can manage on the hive, but make sure you have the right number of lifts to cover them.
Typically, most people run with 1 or 2 supers.
On the top of the stacked supers is then a 'crown' board, just a piece of thin wood to close of the top of hive, but what you have to prize off when you collect the honey as the bees produce a reddish coloured resin derived substance called propolis that acts like an all purpose super glue and crack filler and it's really difficult to get it off your fingers and impossible off your clothes. I've warned you....
And then right at the top, placed on this assembled stack, goes the roof.
All you need now is some bees, and this is the best month to pick up a swarm that will work as it will have plenty of time to stock up to survive over winter. So get a jamjar and put a few table spoons of honey in it, pour some caster sugar in to about half way and then fill it up with hot water. Then, and this is an old trick, add a few drops of lemon juice(trust me).
Let it cool, place hive base in suitable slightly elevated place in garden where the porch gets sunlight for most of the day and you'll be happy with it's postion. You really don't want to try and move a fully loaded hive once it gets going.
Put brood box with brood frames in on base and top this with the queen excluder.
Put a super box on top and as you put each super frame into it, using a pastry brush, carefully paint each them with some of the solution and place them in the super. Don't worry if you put too much on, they will soon tidy it up when they arrive.
Stack the lift(s) on around the brood and super(s) and put crown board on followed by roof, and pour yourself a drink.
Now check hive every few days. You may just get the contents quickly robbed so you have to repeat the process, they are sometimes little thieves to each other, but with luck after a few weeks you might find there are lots of bees flying in and out. If you see ones with bags of pollen on their legs going in, you've passed the first hurdle and you've now become a beekeeper. They are now your responsibility.
Now leave them well alone, I have found this is important. Do not start tinkering this year, unless you think something has gone horribly wrong, like mice or shrews have got in, or they decided to move house.
They will keep active throughout the year provided the temperature is above 10 C (mine are inside right now), there's always something flowering each month and they know where to find it, mine were busy on Christmas day here, but for deep in the winter they sometimes might need additional food. I use small thin blocks of cake icing(make sure it's pure with no chemicals). Off with the roof and crownboard, quickly drop them in, then put them back.
The following year, assuming they have survived the winter, is when things get interesting.
Around about now, May, I'm going to be doing mine shortly, open the hive up, take crown board off and add another super with frames on top and a lift to surround it, then put crown and roof back on.
Provided the weather has been good, come late June, open it up and start harvesting your honey from this top super.
Have new blank frames ready to insert as you take the loaded ones out, you'll need a screwdriver or special tool as they will be secured with propolis, and then be surprised, they are quite heavy.
Get protective clothing and a 'smoker'if you are nervous, oh, and stock up on bee sting balm and above all, stay calm.
What to do with the comb then?
If you don't mind the wax, simply spread it on freshly made toast (watch out for the strengthening wire!)
If you want to separate the honey from the comb either go expensive and get or loan a centrifugal seperator, or do as I do, just put the comb in a muslin sieve inside a funnel, crush it and let it drip into a container in a warm room. you can then put what's left in a container, put it in a pan of hot water and it should further separate but it will start to get discoloured. Incidentally, pure honey never rots, just crystalizes over time. Wonderful stuff.
Have fun.
