The starter hives

Timothy Stevens the beekeeper also took out of his van a nifty homemade folding bench that he calls a hive stand. It made an open and level platform about a foot off the ground for the two hives to sit on and be secure. Finally he took out the two hives. They were disappointingly small. One was made out of wood and looked the part somehow, but the other looked more like a Styrofoam cool box. ‘They are starter hives with small swarms in them. The swarms will grow in size over the summer,’ Timothy explained. ‘By July they will have reached full force and are ready to produce honey. By then more storeys will have been added to the wooden hive and the Styrofoam box will be replaced by a wooden hive. The population of bees will have grown to sixty thousand.’ I was impressed.