NEW beekeepers starting off on their own this month will find that deciding which type of hive to choose is only the beginning of a whole new world of baffling alternatives and strange jargon.

What do beekeepers mean by 'warm way' and 'cold way' for instance? What is the difference between 'wide spacing' and 'narrow spacing' or 'deep' and 'shallow' boxes? These are typical beginners' questions and there are many more where they came from.

So let's look at some of the first decisions you are going to have to make as a new beekeeper and try to find the simplest route through the maze of options.

Which hive?
Although not the prettiest hive to look at, the National hive is probably the easiest to learn with. The exterior has good hand holds making the boxes easy to lift even when they are heavy with honey. Each box holds 11 'frames'. Frames are simply four-sided supports for the sheets of 'foundation' wax which the bees are given as a guide to draw (build) their combs on. The frames enable the beekeeper to remove the combs easily from the hive to check on the progress and health of the colony.

Frames used in National hives have long 'lugs' (lugs are the ends of the top bar) which make the frames easy to grip and pick up. For beginners, who are all fingers and thumbs to start with, the long lug makes learning manipulation techniques easier than with the short lugged frames used in some other hives.

After a few years you may want a larger hive. If you want to stay with the National, it is possible to extend the brood area, alternatively if you want to change hives altogether, there is usually a good second hand market for Nationals because they are so popular.

Deep or shallow frames?
At the beginning the general rule is to have a deep box, referred to as a 'brood chamber', for the queen and her brood; with shallower boxes called 'supers' for the storage of honey stacked on top. Deep frames for the brood chamber and shallow frames in the supers keeps it simple and allows for no doubts about which frames go where.

With a standard National brood chamber the brood area is 2,200 square inches which holds about 50,000 worker cells. This is sufficient while you are learning.

It may not be until your second year that you need to add a super. When full, each super will hold over 10kg (25lbs) honey. Deep boxes and frames are not usually used for honey storage as you would have to be very strong to lift them!

Warm way or cold way?
Depending on which way round you position the brood chamber onto the hive floor, the frames will either be parallel to the entrance, referred to as 'warm way,' or at right angles to the entrance, referred to as 'cold way.' When manipulating the frames, you should obviously not stand in front of the hive entrance so that the bees have to navigate around your backside to get home. Most beekeepers stand at the back of the hive and have the frames running warm way i.e.

parallel to the entrance. This means that with your left fingers on the left lug and right fingers on the right lug, the frames can be removed without twisting the frame or twisting your back. But if two people want to work together, then standing at the sides of the hive and facing each other, with the frames running the cold way (front to back) works better. Either person can examine the frames without twisting.

There is no right way or wrong way; it is more a matter of personal preference and common sense although you will hear beekeepers have quite heated discussions on this subject.

Frame spacing -brood chamber
In a wild bee colony, the spacing between brood combs allows two bees working on faces of adjacent combs to pass each other comfortably back to back while they tend the brood. This exact spacing is very important to bees and this exact spacing must be used in the brood area of the hive. It is easy to achieve by using frames with Hoffman self-spacing side bars, or frames with special spacers called 'narrow ends' fitted over the lugs. When the frames are pushed up tightly together (and tightly is important) the spacing will be correct for the bees, the foundation will be drawn out evenly and the combs will be easy to remove for inspection.

National hives hold 11 frames in the brood chamber although there may appear to be room for 12. Don't try to squeeze in that extra frame. Once it is drawn and contains honey you will have great difficulty levering it out without damaging it, which makes the bees cross. Any extra space should be taken up by a dummy board, a thin wooden frame-shaped blank. When you carry out an inspection you remove the dummy board first which gives you space to manoeuvre the frames without causing damage to bees or comb. Always have the correct number of frames in the brood chamber, and have them correctly spaced, or bees will rapidly fill the gaps with their own wild comb. This causes lots of problems for the beekeeper as it can be time consuming and messy to remove and queens are often accidentally damaged in the process.

Frame spacing -super
There is much more flexibility and therefore more confusion when it comes to spacing the frames in the honey supers. However, the foundation has to be drawn out first and this is best done by using the same narrow spacing as in the brood chamber.

In subsequent years, once the frames are drawn out, they can be spaced wider apart if required. So in a National super, instead of having 11 frames, you can use just 9 or 10.

The bees will extend the cell walls and make the combs fatter (although not all bees make a tidy job of it). This is referred to as 'drawing the combs wide'. The end result is that the amount of honey stored in the full super will be about the same whether 9, 10 or 11 frames are used. However, not all beekeepers use this wide spacing method because the frames are heavier and this can make uncapping at extracting time a much more tiring task.

There are various methods of wide spacing.

Wide 'ends' can be fitted onto the frame lugs as a temporary measure while you experiment. If you want to make the arrangement permanent, 'castellated' spacer strips can be fixed into the supers to hold the frames. A third option is to use Manley frames which have wider sides than standard frames, but be aware that Manley frames can only be extracted in radial extractors and most new beekeepers start with the smaller tangential type.

Wired or unwired foundation?
Brood comb needs wired foundation to give it support. Unwired foundation is only usually used in brood frames for specialised queen rearing operations. Super comb for extraction also needs wired foundation to give it strength to resist the forces it goes through during the extraction process.

Unwired foundation is used for producing cut comb honey or sections, where both honey and wax are to be eaten, and you should use the very thin foundation specially made for the purpose.

What sort of foundation?

Foundation can be embossed with either worker cells or the bigger drone cells. Some beekeepers use drone foundation in the supers because it can be quicker for the bees to draw out and fill up with honey. However, at the beginning it is best to keep all your frames as worker comb because this is 'fail safe'. If the queen happens to get the wrong side of the queen excluder, she will still lay worker eggs in the worker cells. You only want lots of drone bees if you are rearing queens or trapping varroa mites.

Queen excluders
The queen excluder keeps the queen safe and secure in the brood chamber and prevents her from entering the honey supers and laying eggs there. Many new beekeepers start with the bendy, slotted type of queen excluder because they are the cheapest.

However, the framed wire ones are much easier to use, last longer and I am sure that they are kinder to the bees and cause less wear and tear to their wings.

Keeping it simple -summary
In the first couple of years, use deep frames for the brood chamber and shallow ones for the supers. Use wired worker foundation and narrow spacing throughout the hive. This simple formula should prevent you from getting into too many difficulties. Later on you can progress to a bigger brood area and wide spacing in the supers if you want to. But while you are learning, be kind to your bees and to yourself and try to keep it simple.

Jobs for June
After the May flowers have finished, there is often a 'June gap' with little nectar available. Make sure your bees have sufficient stores, especially if you have taken off an early crop of honey.

Keep checking for signs of swarm preparations.

IPM. June is a good time for drone trapping, a simple way to remove varroa mites without the use of chemicals.

The bees will extend the cell walls and make the combs fatter