Construction of the “Mpofu hive”

by Peter Bechtel, Bee School, Lutheran Farmers’ Training Centre, Piggs Peak Swaziland

The Mpofu hive is a new beehive developed in the Mpofu area of Swaziland. This is a very hot, dry area with strong spring and autumn honey flows. It is an isolated community, without a local source of timber for building hives.

The original idea for the Mpofu hive came from Jabulani Mnisi, the Extension Worker of the Mpofu area who noticed two problems. First his farmers were having difficulty in getting standard Swazi hives* because of lack of funds and transport for timber. Secondly the Swazi hives became too hot for the bees in summer resulting in high absconding rates.

Jabulani began to experiment by putting hives and metal drums full of bees in holes in the ground. This kept the hives cooler, but other problems such as ant attacks and rotting wooden hive parts became apparent. The final design of the Mpofu hive is shown in Figure 1*.

The Mpofu hive will hold 25 standard top-bars. It is made of mud bricks, mortared with mud, and plastered with a cement plaster (stones may be used instead of mud bricks). The cement plaster assures that ants cannot enter the hive, and that it will last for many years. The hive lid is made of metal tiles or plastic fertiliser sacks.

Tools and materials you will need

Tools: bucket for water, shovel, small trowel or short, smooth plank.

Materials: about 50 mud bricks or large stones, mud for mortar, wheelbarrow full of sand for plastering, 25 standard top-bars, about one third of a sack of cement (one sack is enough for three hives), four or five pieces of plank about 7.50m wide and 20cm -long scraps of metal are also good.

(it is wise to build your hive so you can use a standard feeder, if you do this you will also need a feeder).

Building instructions

1. Choose a good site for the hive.

2. Clear the site and level it. Clear an area about 3 or 4 m in diameter.

3. Mark out the size of the hive on the ground. Lay all the top-bars side by side on the ground to make a rectangle. Using a stick draw a line around the top-bars and mark the comers with small sticks.

4. (Using the lines as a guide, dig a foundation for the hive to 10-20 cm deep. foundation should be as wide as the shovel.

5. Mix up mud for the mortar - use good clay mud, not stony or sandy soil.

6. Build the walls of the hive using the mud blocks and mud mortar. Be careful to build square and straight. Make the walls about 40 cm high (a little less than knee high) and take care the hive is the right width. When the hive is finished, a top-bar should just fit inside. The ends of the top-bar should touch both sides of the hive (Figure 3*).

7. As you build, make sure to make an entrance hole. Make a feeder hole too if desired. These holes should be at the front of the hive which must face the rising sun, so the bees will start work early. Use the pieces of plank (or metal) above the holes, to hold up the wall above. The feeder should fit inside the feeder hole and the entrance should be 2cm by 12cm. Make both of these holes bigger than you require — when you plaster with cement, you will reduce them to the correct size. Both these holes should be off the ground to reduce the risk of ant attacks (Figure 4)*.

8. Prepare for plastering. After building the walls, take a little mud and smooth out any cracks or holes. DO NOT PLASTER WITH MUD — if you do the cement will not stick properly. To keep the hive dry in wet weather build up the floor with a 5 cm layer of mud. Let the hive dry for 2 or 3 days.

9. Plaster the entire hive with sand and cement plaster. Mix plaster using 4 parts sand to one part cement. Using the trowel, plaster the entire hive, inside and out. Make the plaster 1-2 cm thick. Plaster the floor and work very carefully near the entrance and feeder holes. Be sure that the entrance is the correct size and that the feeder fits well.

10. Check the width of the hive with the top-bars. After plastering, the top-bars should sit on top of the side walls (Figure 6*). If the hive is too wide, make the plaster a little thicker on the inside walls.

11. Let the hive dry slowly for about a week. Splash some water on it every day to prevent cracking. The cement should be kept wet for at least a week.

12. Assemble the hive. Lay the top-bars on the hive, and check to make sure that all 25 will fit. If the hive is too short, lay the end top-bar on its side, if it is too long, use some pieces of plank to fill the gap at the end. /t is very important that the top-bars fit properly - if they do not, ants may be a problem. After checking the top-bars, add a metal tile or plastic fertiliser sack for a lid. A traditional roof peak (ingcongwane) also makes a nice lid. The lid must not leak, because the hive will fill up with water if it does. Use a piece of wood to close the feeder hole when not in use.

13. Catch bees and transfer them into the hive. Keep the ground around the hive clear so that roots will not destroy the walls and ant attacks will be reduced.

Conclusions

Advantages of the Mpofu hive:

1. Extremely inexpensive to make. The total cost is approximately 8.00 emalangeni (local currency).

2. Traditional skills are used in construction. No special carpentry skill is needed.

3. Locally available materials are used.

4. The hive cannot be stolen.

5. The hive is very durable and long-lasting (estimated life is at least 10 years).

6. The hive is cool for the bees in summer, and this reduces absconding.

7. The hive has ant-proof walls and floor.

8. Top-bars are interchangeable with the standard trapbox and standard Swazi hive*. This makes modern management (such as transferring of bees) possible.

9. The hive will accept a standard feeder.

10. If a bee disease (eg: foulbrood) infects the hive it can be sterilised by removing the bees and building a fire inside. This will become important in the future as the number of bee colonies increase.

11. Produces clean honey due to the cement walls and floor.

Disadvantages cf the Mpofu hive:

1. The hive does not sit on a hive stand, thus it may not be a good hive for areas with ant problems.

2. The hive cannot be moved.

4. Moisture and condensation may be a problem in wet regions.

* for information on Swazi hives see Field Support Guide FSG 92 “Introduction to Beekeeping” (see Bookshelf: this publication will shortly be available from IBRA)

✝ In Swaziland, standard top-bars are 3.3 cm wide and 45cm long. They are usually between 1.5 and 2.5 cm thick. The width of the top-bar is the critical dimension: it determines the “bee space” and varies slightly from one race of Apis mellifera to another. The way to determine the required size of top-bars for your bees is to find a wild colony and measure the distance between combs - from the centre of one comb to the centre of its neighbouring comb: your top- bars need to be exactly this width.

Experimental construction variations

1. No cement: if you cannot afford cement, plaster the hive with a one part mud, one part cow dung mixture. Follow this with several layers of pure cow dung plaster. This will not work in areas with many ants or termites and rain will damage this hive.

2. Ant problems: put a deep layer of wood ashes all around the hive. The layer should be 5-10 cm deep and 10 cm wide. Re-apply at regular intervals and after rain. A lot of ashes will be needed for this method to work. Alternatively when building the hive make the following changes to reduce ant attacks: be very careful when fitting the top-bars and make sure they fit tightly without gaps; do not make a feeder hole, use the dish method of feeding instead; make the entrance using a piece of pipe or bamboo cemented into the front wall angled downwards and sticking out about 10cm from the hive. The diameter of the pipe should be as big as your forearm. When the cement is dry, smear the pipe with road tar or a mixture of grease and creosote, ants will not be able to cross this mixture.