My two penn'orth on the subject of hive stands
 
(see recent mailing from Malcolm Roe)
 
I found that the lightweight Thermalite building blocks are not good.  They
are designed for internal walls and soak up water like sponges.  I
originally had a mixture of the heavy concrete (breeze) blocks and
Thermalite which happened to fall into the back of my Land Rover as I was
passing a building site in Nottingham.  The Thermalite eventually cracked
and had to be replaced.
 
By the way I like the combination of concrete blocks and angle-iron
runners, made up to accomodate 2 hives.  The runners are placed like an
inverted "V" so the hive bottom board side battens are resting on the point
and they naturally drain.  The surface area of contact is so small that: 1)
no moisture can build up between the bottom board and support and 2) you
can slide the hives along the rails very easily for manipulations such as
artificial swarming etc.  The groove that soon appears in the bottom board
side battens is useful since it means that the hives cannot slide
front/back - useful in my farm apiary site where the hives tend to be
rubbed against by dairy cows!
 
On the climate point made forcibly by our friend Eric from Alberta, I also
find it a bit painful to be reminded about the S Carolina January weather!
Nevertheless we've had one of the mildest winters on record in England,
especially here in the North.  I visited my hives yesterday in glorious
sunshine and 14 degrees.  All the bees were flying well and snowdrops and
gorse are in flower as well as the usual winter jasmine.  We're normally
under snow at this time of the year.
 
Cheers, Max
 
                                                  |||
                                                 (@ @)
---------------------------------------------ooOo-( )-oOoo-----
Dr Max Westby
(Among other things a Sheffield Beekeeper)
South Yorkshire Beekeepers Association  BBKA apiary reg: JQ34
Phone (Home):          +44 (0)114 236 1038
Fax:                   +44 (0)114 276 6515
e-mail:                [log in to unmask]
World Wide Web Site:   http://www2.shef.ac.uk/default.html
---------------------------------------------------------------