Hi All

I have read the posts regarding ergonomics of hives and 'feeble'
beekeeper  problems - I believe  given the nature of the human back
we are all feeble so the following is universally useful.

I have a few hives given to me by an elderly beekeeper. He used a
single deep hive body and shallow supers. On the side of each box he
attached two of those metal braces one uses for attaching 1.5cm
(1inch) plastic piping to walls. These were screwed in. When he came
to the hive he would have a sturdy iron pole with him which he placed
through all the braces. Then he had a wheel barrow with extracted
super frames and boxes next to him - he would open the top of the
hive, remove any capped frames and then replace them with light
empties, then he would rotate the now empty super so it was suspended
next to the hive on the pole (like a hinge) and he would move on to
the next super and work his way down. Then he got somebody to push
the wheel barrow back to the farmhouse and swung the hive back
together. This system works very nicely although with the number of
hives I have it is impractical.

Keep well

Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa

Time = Honey