Beehive

[Mike Henderson]

I'm getting ready to add another beehive to my place so I decided to build the hive myself. Here's a picture of the finished hive. It consists of a bottom, two brood boxes, two medium supers, and a top. It's made from pine. Working with pine is nice. It's an easy wood to work with and not very expensive. I paid $1.50/bd ft for 12" wide planks.

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I made the boxes with hand-cut half blind dovetails. I thought maybe the bees would appreciate having a home that was build like furniture and they'd want to stay, rather than swarm:)

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Inside, I put sheet metal on each of the rabbets which will support the frames. This is to minimize damage to the wood when you're using the hive tool to pry the frames apart or remove them.

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And I made a top and covered it with galvanized sheet metal.

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Next, I need to paint the boxes. Then get some bees. Maybe split a hive.

Mike

[Kent A Bathurst]

I made the boxes with hand-cut half blind dovetails.

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Very nice Mike. Very nice.

One more example of a woodworker gone 'round the bend - WAY 'round the bend ....but I love it. :D

[Mel Fulks]

I'm with Kent on this one,nice work....but please don't try to make any honey! Even if those bees decide they they are too
rich to work!

[John TenEyck]

Pretty cool Mike. My granddad used to make his own hives, too. He had 40 hives at one time. He didn't make them with dovetails of any kind, however, much less hand cut ones. His bees made a lot of honey. They knew they were there to work. He sold honey in 1 lb jars up to 5 gal pails. I remember once when his homemade extractor broke and there was honey everywhere. He wasn't happy. He also sold some comb honey, and that's my favorite. I guess it reminds me of my granddad. Too bad it's hard to find anymore, and when you do the price makes your eyes roll. I hope your bees prosper and make lots of honey.

[Kent A Bathurst]

.......... comb honey, and that's my favorite.

J-10.........awww...jeeezzzzzzzz I had forgotten that treat - cannot tell you the last time I had some.........gotta be 5 decades past........

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I just wanted to add that it took me longer than I thought it would to build the hive. A hive may look simple but there's a lot of different steps to do to complete the components. One area I was experimenting with is the handles. I drilled out the space and then used my router and MicroFence edge guide to smooth out the sides. I made the first handles too wide, and with squared off ends, but decided that the rounded ends looked better. At first, I drilled the "mortise" out to full depth, but that left center holes from the Forstner bit, so I wound up only drilling it about half way and then using the router to finish it so I'd get a smooth bottom.

If I build another one, I'll be a bit faster because I'll know what works and what doesn't - if I remember:).

Mike

[Shawn Pixley]

I knew you were kewl! Kudos on the support for bees!

Nice work on the hives. I've never seen such nice ones.

[Art Mann]

It is easy to build your own frames too. Many years ago, my Dad and I used to have about 30 hives and most of them were built in my shop, including brood chambers, supers, bottom boards frames and top covers. The hives were built with half lap joints and wood screws - not nearly as nice as your boxes but they worked for a while.

[Mike Henderson]

It is easy to build your own frames too. Many years ago, my Dad and I used to have about 30 hives and most of them were built in my shop, including brood chambers, supers, bottom boards frames and top covers. The hives were built with half lap joints and wood screws - not nearly as nice as your boxes but they worked for a while.
I looked at building frames but they're pretty cheap commercially so I just buy them. I don't suppose you're associated with Mann Lake, are you?:)

Mike

[Michael Weber]

Nice hive. Back in the 70's/80's I had fun with bees. Built hives from plans in "Mother Earth News". Recently saw someone post (may have been here) about Top Bar Hives. Interesting and totally different. Simpler and with no stacking boxes and you let the bees draw their own comb which would be great for comb honey. Not good for commercial operations but supposedly a more natural process for the beekeeper with a few hives.

[Jason Roehl]

You guys ever see this? I just came across it a couple days ago. Seems pretty interesting--I wish I had the land to be able to maintain a hive (I suppose I could put one at our church...) No affiliation whatsoever, other than I love raw honey.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive

[Quinn McCarthy]

Mike

Nice job. I knew a guy that built one for the inside of his house. It was a piece of furniture kind of. It was make of oak and plexi glass on the side so you could see what was happening. He also had a clear tube that went outside. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I used to bow hunt on his land

[John TenEyck]

Now that is really cool. And look at the build quality of the box, too, sort of Greene and Greene.

John

[Art Mann]

You guys ever see this? I just came across it a couple days ago. Seems pretty interesting--I wish I had the land to be able to maintain a hive (I suppose I could put one at our church...) No affiliation whatsoever, other than I love raw honey.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive

That is truly an interesting video. However, as someone who owned a small scale commercial apiary, my opinion is that it will never work except as a novelty. It is necessary for other reasons besides honey harvest to go through the hive from time to time. If you just turn a crank and get a paltry little 20 kg harvest from time to time, the bees will seal the box up to the point it will take hours to go through it and clean things up when it becomes necessary. In the end, no work will be saved, especially for a commercial beekeeper. This method also precludes harvesting honey in the comb, which is a high profit premium product for those who are willing to fool with it.

[Mike Henderson]

Nice hive. Back in the 70's/80's I had fun with bees. Built hives from plans in "Mother Earth News". Recently saw someone post (may have been here) about Top Bar Hives. Interesting and totally different. Simpler and with no stacking boxes and you let the bees draw their own comb which would be great for comb honey. Not good for commercial operations but supposedly a more natural process for the beekeeper with a few hives.
I don't really understand "top bar hives". I understand how they're built, but not how they work. It seems to me that the bees will wind up attaching the comb to the sides of the box, as well as to the top bar so that when you went to remove a "frame" you'd have a mess on your hands. Before you remove a frame, I don't even see how you could slide something down along the side to separate the comb from the side.

Also, I don't understand if it's possible to have an "excluder" function so that the comb you harvest is not brood comb. In a standard hive, there's an excluder between the brood boxes and the supers so the queen cannot get into the supers. That means that the supers are only honey and no brood. If you harvest comb that has brood, as well as honey, you weaken the hive (remove future workers) and you get impurities in your honey (bee larvae). Maybe the hive is divided into two sections with an excluder between them.

If anyone know how a top bar hive works, and why it's supposed to be "better", please post. Art, do you know anything about "top bar hives"?

Mike

[Also, a lot of hobby beekeepers do not use foundation in their frames but let the bees build their comb from the top of the standard frame (there are techniques to encourage them to align the comb with the frames but I won't go into that here). Often, that's done without wires to support the comb, and if so, you can harvest the comb for eating.]

[Lee Reep]

Mike,

Nice job! I've been toying with the idea of putting a beehive in the yard. My wife and I are birders, and we have numerous feeders in our yard to attract birds. That also means we have lots of squirrels. We planted a lot of perennials over the years to attract birds and many of those attract bees.

However, since our city is so crazy on what they do and don't allow, I guess I'd better check to see if I'd be violating any statutes by having a beehive. I really need to move out into the country or into the hills where an outdoor shop, a beehive, a firepit, has little chance of disturbing any neighbors.

[Art Mann]

If anyone know how a top bar hive works, and why it's supposed to be "better", please post. Art, do you know anything about "top bar hives"?


Hey Mike, I had not heard of that configuration before. The last time I kept bees was around 1982 and I have lost track of newer methods. I got curious and read up on the subject after you mentioned it. It looks like they are constructing the hive such that the bees have little opportunity to build comb other than across the top bar. I have my doubts about that. Bees can be pretty clever about doing things their own way. Kind of like the video Jason posted, it looks like an interesting concept and might even be fun as an alternative for a very small time hobby beekeeper. I just can't see it fitting into a high production methodology of commercial beekeepers. It also looks like a lot of trouble to maintain for hobbyists as well.