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Thread: Making beehive boxes

  1. #16
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    Bruce, there was just a thread on Beesource about "Camouflage" for hives to help reduce things like vandalism. You clearly have seen the benefit of coloring so they blend into the landscape for that purpose given it took those folks 5 years to notice them. We chose a color that was complimentary to our property, but in hindsight, we might have gone a little darker and greener for even more blend.

    I love the minefield thing! Very clever! And quite accurate, especially later in the year when "the girls" are very protective of their winter stores.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  2. #17
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    Sounds like fun Bill.

    Here's a video of a Top Bar Hive being built.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkExxg_lR-Q

    I had never seen that type before, of course I don't know anything about bees so that's hardly surprising.

    Regards, Rod.

  3. #18
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    Top bar hives are nice for garden use where the primary purpose is for the benefit of the bee population. They are also great for people who have challenges lifting and manipulating the boxes used in "Langstroth" style stacked boxes...they can get really heavy during a nectar flow as honey gets made/stored.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Rod Sheridan View Post
    Sounds like fun Bill.

    Here's a video of a Top Bar Hive being built.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkExxg_lR-Q

    I had never seen that type before, of course I don't know anything about bees so that's hardly surprising.

    Regards, Rod.
    I documented the building of a top bar hive that I built for someone. You can see it here. To me, the disadvantage of a top bar hive is that you can't extract the honey and keep the comb. Making comb is energy intensive (the bees have to eat a lot of nectar to produce wax) for the bees so if you can give them the empty comb after extraction you save them a lot of work and energy.

    Mike

    I should do a tutorial on making the parts of a hive. I always considered that to be pretty simple woodworking so I never documented it.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 03-30-2020 at 12:30 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  5. #20
    It has been quite a few decades since I kept bees, but I recall cypress as being the preferred wood at the time. It would still seem like a great choice to me if available where you are. It is long lasting outside in the elements, lightweight, and strong enough, also not bad to work with.

    Personally I'd buy the stuff precut and ready for assembly. Unless you are going into production of a lot of hives the setup would probably be more trouble than it is worth for the little if any savings on a small production run. As was mentioned this needs to be pretty precise work to keep bee space correct and so on. I guess you could make just the boxes themselves and buy the frames, but I still doubt you could save much. OTOH, if you just want to do it for the sake of doing it...

  6. #21
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    Thanks Mike, very interesting.

    Hopefully you are isolating and doing well?

    Regards, Rod.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pete Staehling View Post
    It has been quite a few decades since I kept bees, but I recall cypress as being the preferred wood at the time. It would still seem like a great choice to me if available where you are. It is long lasting outside in the elements, lightweight, and strong enough, also not bad to work with.
    Cypress is a great choice for this purpose where it's available economically, which is largely in the southern states of the US.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #23
    There's some evidence that using rough sawn wood towards the inside of the hive is good for the bees. The bees coat the rough face with propolis which protects against various bacteria which might hide in the rough face. Also, even during the winter bees need water - for one thing to thin the honey. They cannot eat honey without thinning it. In the winter, moisture condenses on the side of the hive and the bees can use that moisture.

    If you don't do anything else, insulate the top of your hive so that moisture doesn't condense on the top and drip down on the bees. I put a piece of rigid foam in the telescoping top. What I use, plus the interior cover (which only has an R value of about 1) gives me an R value of maybe 7 (don't remember exactly) which is enough to keep condensation down. You can see a discussion of what I did here.

    The metabolism of honey creates water vapor so even in the winter the hive has high humidity.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  9. #24
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    Back in the mid 1970's, I built boxes, frames, tops, bottom boards and stands for sale. I had quite a racket going. I purchased all the material, which was white and southern yellow pine, from an army ordinance depot. They had mountains of pallets made from 1X6 to 1X12 #2 lumber in 2 to 6 foot lengths that sold for $5 a pickup load. The crates contained missiles and parts for the M1 main battle tank. There is no telling how much money the army wasted on premium lumber used for nothing more than packing material. That made the material cost for my business essentially zero.

  10. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Art Mann View Post
    Back in the mid 1970's, I built boxes, frames, tops, bottom boards and stands for sale. I had quite a racket going. I purchased all the material, which was white and southern yellow pine, from an army ordinance depot. They had mountains of pallets made from 1X6 to 1X12 #2 lumber in 2 to 6 foot lengths that sold for $5 a pickup load. The crates contained missiles and parts for the M1 main battle tank. There is no telling how much money the army wasted on premium lumber used for nothing more than packing material. That made the material cost for my business essentially zero.

    Art, were you in the South Port NC area? Sunny Point is still a shipping point for explosives. The trains going there have cabooses on them

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