The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They are store-bought but yes, they are reinforced. There used to be 10 hives on them (on 3 blocks altogether) at one time so those are quite strong enough.

I tried to use two of the store-bought concrete-posts as a ramp for my wheelbarrow and after a day's work both had developed cracks on the underside. So far my two landscaping timbers are holding up very well after three years of use. But my ultimate goal is to build a bee-house where the hives are quasi-inside and can be maintained independent from the weather, something similar like this:

Which would also protect the entrances from wild weather and offers storage for the bee-utilities - and maybe the beekeeper…

 

[Supercow]

That's the traditional form in Slovenia (where the Carniolan bee breed comes from). The hives shown are AŽ type ( https://sca.kis.si/en/education/beekeeping-with-az-hives/ , https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/az-hives , https://www.czs.si/content/D2?sif_co=D2 ). Scroll down to the bottom of the page on the last link and under "Načrti za izgradnjo čebelnjaka" you'll find 3 sets of PDF building plans.

Of course one can adapt the idea to Langstroth or any other infinite-Lego-boxes type simply by having a single row of hives with open space directly above them before the roof starts.

My current idea is to build a 2 x 2 x 2 m frame cube for the young ducks which would then be expandable into further 2 x 2 x 2 units, whether closed or not, with a solid roof or a net. Bees could also be housed in one such unit.

There is a nice area enclosed by trees from the north and east sides so it's protected from cold weather - bees used to be there but it turned out they are too close to the neighbor (he was in the flight path to the next field) so there were some unhappy encounters and they got moved.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

That's the traditional form in Slovenia (where the Carniolan bee breed comes from). The hives shown are AŽ type ( https://sca.kis.si/en/education/beekeeping-with-az-hives/ , https://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/az-hives , https://www.czs.si/content/D2?sif_co=D2 ). Scroll down to the bottom of the page on the last link and under "Načrti za izgradnjo čebelnjaka" you'll find 3 sets of PDF building plans.

OMG! I think that was what my uncle had in his bee-house. As a little boy i never thought much about it, but my uncle had free-standing bee-hives (Langstroth?) and he had a bee-house with a lot of built-in bee-hives. The "door" to the brood-chamber had a window that was usually covered with styrofoam. I remember he took the foam off one day and showed me the queen-bee through the glass. Other than that there was a bee with a white dot on its back running around i sadly don't remember much.
It would be great to find a way how to turn the allmighty Langstroth hive compatible to a Slovenian Bee-House! I'm shying away from coughing up $40 for that though: https://preciousbeehives.com/product/az-langstroth-hive-blue-prints-for-10-frame

Of course one can adapt the idea to Langstroth or any other infinite-Lego-boxes type simply by having a single row of hives with open space directly above them before the roof starts.

My current idea is to build a 2 x 2 x 2 m frame cube for the young ducks which would then be expandable into further 2 x 2 x 2 units, whether closed or not, with a solid roof or a net. Bees could also be housed in one such unit.

The idea is tempting, if you have flat land where you can arrange the boxes. And you need to come up with some protection against predators able to dig under the boxes.

There is a nice area enclosed by trees from the north and east sides so it's protected from cold weather - bees used to be there but it turned out they are too close to the neighbor (he was in the flight path to the next field) so there were some unhappy encounters and they got moved.

That must either be a very sensitive neighbor or there must have been a truckload full of bee-hives. When i picked up the Russian nuc, i was less than 10 meters away from, maybe 50 fully active bee-hives and no bee bothered me. Of course, if you have some highly bee attracting plants close to your patio you should not bee surprised to have a lot of bees close by. Or if the bottle with the after-shave slipped in the morning…

 

[Supercow]

The thing is that our neighbor is a soccer coach and his sons are in junior team, so they mow their lawn every other day or so, keeping it like a soccer field.

And then they take the batches of clippings to the compost pile. Which is at the end of their property and in the flight path of our bees visiting the next neighbors' field when it has oilseed rape or something equally attractive in it. (So do we but you know the saying - the grass is always greener on the other side.)

So you're a in train of bees going to and from a nice field when suddenly some bears... I mean humans sweaty from mowing all that grass... appear in your path. That's just not going to end well.

I knocked on their door and said the bees are sorry and are sending a big jar of honey but that even if I talk to every one individually they are still going to do the same thing the next time around. Things quieted down after that but in the interest of good relations I moved the bees farther out on our propery when the next shelter-belt of bushes and trees had grown enough.

... And now something about ducks!

Our little and not-so-little ducklings are growing, they will now be 5 and 9 months old. They all have feathers and they are developing their voices. One is whistling like a songbird, quite interesting. The big drake is soooo motivated to get into their enclosure but he just can't. Keeps running along the fence all day though.

The adult ducks are at 50% of their laying production - must be the heat. I'm looking out for serious molting but haven't really seen that yet.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Did anybody ever figured out what happened with @Trimurtisan - the initiator of this thread?

I don't know if we will ever know. I know right before he disappeared he expressed having struggles and wasn't doing great and was taking a break to work through it. This was in 2020 right as the world was shutting down.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Our little and not-so-little ducklings are growing, they will now be 5 and 9 months old.

You meant weeks, right?

 

[Supercow]

Oh yeah... You know, time has been running so strangely lately, I'm just kinda lost. Must be all the ducklings

 

[Miss Lydia]

You meant weeks, right?

I was scratching my head wondering where I had been the last 5-9 months. Whew glad that got cleared up.

 

[Luv Ducks]

The thing is that our neighbor is a soccer coach and his sons are in junior team, so they mow their lawn every other day or so, keeping it like a soccer field.

And then they take the batches of clippings to the compost pile. Which is at the end of their property and in the flight path of our bees visiting the next neighbors' field when it has oilseed rape or something equally attractive in it. (So do we but you know the saying - the grass is always greener on the other side.)

So you're a in train of bees going to and from a nice field when suddenly some bears... I mean humans sweaty from mowing all that grass... appear in your path. That's just not going to end well.

I knocked on their door and said the bees are sorry and are sending a big jar of honey but that even if I talk to every one individually they are still going to do the same thing the next time around. Things quieted down after that but in the interest of good relations I moved the bees farther out on our propery when the next shelter-belt of bushes and trees had grown enough.

... And now something about ducks!

Our little and not-so-little ducklings are growing, they will now be 5 and 9 months old. They all have feathers and they are developing their voices. One is whistling like a songbird, quite interesting. The big drake is soooo motivated to get into their enclosure but he just can't. Keeps running along the fence all day though.

The adult ducks are at 50% of their laying production - must be the heat. I'm looking out for serious molting but haven't really seen that yet.

My whistlers were all drakes except for one which shocked me. I had it penned as a drake because of the whistle but it was a hen. I have a chocolate runner right now that is whistling that I am betting on being a drake also. My big drakes keep staying beside my pen for my two small ones also. At first I was hoping it was because they were females but I am thinking instead its because they are males and they want to get rid of them as they would be competition for them. I will keep mine away from the big drakes until I rehome the big ones.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Happy 4th Everyone!!