Building The Bee Hives In Pictures

[pdilley]

Post-Build it report:

The African KTBHs are going like gang busters!
Friends Langstroth is going but slower than the KTBHs so you can see how much bees like them African hives!
The Warre Hive started late and is not really building out fast so slowest of the lot but that might be an unfair comment as it started the latest of the hives.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

And now for something different...

For those who want to see a top-bar style basket skep like hive, seeing is believing:

VIDEO:


Image of basket/mud hive with a Super:


BASKET HIVE HOME ON THE WEB:
http://www.gaiabees.com/

MORE VIDS (EDIT):
Found some more here
http://www.themelissagarden.com/videos.html

REMINDER:
Winter's coming, plenty of time to plan out some building of top bar hives to be ready for spring swarms for those who missed out this season and want to get started with the next season with bees.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[praxis178]

REMINDER:
Winter's coming, plenty of time to plan out some building of top bar hives to be ready for spring swarms for those who missed out this season and want to get started with the next season with bees.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

Yep, I'm laying in materials to build two or three (have 3000m^2, so could do, if I'm reading the regs right, 10 here in QLD) KTBH long boxes and two or so swarmers.

Been itching to try this for years, granddad kept bees back in the old country which as a 7 year old I helped raid/look after, so I know I'm right with bees, not that my old man is; he's fiercely allergic, even a bee landing on his bear skin gets a reaction, a sting is a mandatory trip th the ER epipen or not! :excl:

 

[pdilley]

Yeah, you are looking at about 320mm width on the wood after cutting out the sides so not exactly 10 cuts into a 3000mm piece of wood but a lot of people built them from pallet strips of wood, old fencing, etc. when recycling wood so it won't hurt if a hive or two have multiple pieces of wood making up the sides. With my CD Ply hives, I didn't get the bees fully filling up an entire hive on the first year, but very close to it! So you can experiment it a bit of a longer hive if you want. Some are trying very long hives. Using the Ply you get somewhere near half way between the small hive and the long hive in the free PDF plans download which is good enough for me.

Depending on the UV in the sun in your area you could go to an exterior UV protecting paint if worried about the wood or having to refresh the finish annually with wax and oil.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[praxis178]

Yeah, you are looking at about 320mm width on the wood after cutting out the sides so not exactly 10 cuts into a 3000mm piece of wood but a lot of people built them from pallet strips of wood, old fencing, etc. when recycling wood so it won't hurt if a hive or two have multiple pieces of wood making up the sides. With my CD Ply hives, I didn't get the bees fully filling up an entire hive on the first year, but very close to it! So you can experiment it a bit of a longer hive if you want. Some are trying very long hives. Using the Ply you get somewhere near half way between the small hive and the long hive in the free PDF plans download which is good enough for me.

Depending on the UV in the sun in your area you could go to an exterior UV protecting paint if worried about the wood or having to refresh the finish annually with wax and oil.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

Had a bit of spare time this weekend so I started to knock out a swarmer sized TBH, all recycled timber. As I didn't really want to waste any I ended up making it a bit longer than I had originally planned (was aiming for a almost square configuration) at 14.5 bars/600mm long (yep that half bar is a load of fun!). Lesson learnt, the next swarmer will be sized to better suit the bars.

Anyway over the next couple of months I'll be building some more boxes probably go with two hives at ~1.15m long and another 600mm long swarmer.



This is the box as it stands right now, still have to finish the roof/lid, figured I'd make it water shedding as it might end up having to earn it's keep out in the weather at some point. Still trying to decide if I'll make some legs for it or just a multipurpose stand thing that can be used when inspecting the hives to hold my gear or as a stand for the swarmer etc....

BTW That wax/oil stuff is a bit of a pain, but if you take a heat gun to it on a low heat setting you can get it to melt/wick into the timber and dry all in a few mins, don't know if that's a good thing, but I was sick of the goo getting on all my tools and then onto my clothes! :unsure:

Edit: smelling.

 

[ratchie]

Thomas J what sort of timber are you using would any type be ok ?

 

[praxis178]

Thomas J what sort of timber are you using would any type be ok ?

Ok quoting from one of my books "red cedar is best, but really any clean untreated timber will do, the bees won't know the difference", the stuff I'm using is from house demolitions just picked through the demo-yard's "broken and shattered" pile, so in my case lengths are all kinda random as is the material, some is pine, some is oregon, but it works out ok, sorta. <grin>

I'd love to put cedar shingle roofs on the full length hives, that would just look SO COOL! :icon_chickcheers:

 

[ratchie]

Ok thanks ,I have a heap of cyprus 70x19 I know termites dont like it but unsure about bees.

 

[praxis178]

Ok thanks ,I have a heap of cyprus 70x19 I know termites dont like it but unsure about bees.

Wish I had some of that! Out of curiosity just where in Nambour are you? I'm just up the road in Yandina....

 

[pdilley]

Shedding roof cover is good. I've always meant to build mine but never got around to it so if building new hives I will Be building shedding from the get go. The Warre is shedding from the get go so I'm happy with that one.

Boiled linseed oil is well linseed oil smelling. For purposes of doing annual refrshes I did a bit of searching for old electric fry pans to keep on low and keep the oil and wax liquid and emulsified until applied. I've since gone to natural finish on sides and uv exterior paint on roof surfaces facing direct sunlight constantly. I've got a hive that I'm converting to all uv paint on exterior surfaces and of course unfinished natural wood on interior surfaces facing the bees. I'll get to run all combinations finish and see how it goes and what suits but I think at a minimum the roof and legs should be painted in uv blocking paint as they are the two areas showing the wear first on the all wax and oil hives.

Bees are so low maintenance with these hives you can make as much or little work for yourself as suits your style.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[ratchie]

Nambour Heights near the bowls club

 

[praxis178]

Shedding roof cover is good. I've always meant to build mine but never got around to it so if building new hives I will Be building shedding from the get go. The Warre is shedding from the get go so I'm happy with that one.

Boiled linseed oil is well linseed oil smelling. For purposes of doing annual refrshes I did a bit of searching for old electric fry pans to keep on low and keep the oil and wax liquid and emulsified until applied. I've since gone to natural finish on sides and uv exterior paint on roof surfaces facing direct sunlight constantly. I've got a hive that I'm converting to all uv paint on exterior surfaces and of course unfinished natural wood on interior surfaces facing the bees. I'll get to run all combinations finish and see how it goes and what suits but I think at a minimum the roof and legs should be painted in uv blocking paint as they are the two areas showing the wear first on the all wax and oil hives.

Bees are so low maintenance with these hives you can make as much or little work for yourself as suits your style.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

I'm beginning to wonder if using a natural decking oil might not be the way to go, if you don't want to "paint" the hives....

 

[praxis178]

Nambour Heights near the bowls club

Might have to see about getting together for a cold one then! :icon_drunk: if nothing else....

 

[pdilley]

I'm beginning to wonder if using a natural decking oil might not be the way to go, if you don't want to "paint" the hives....

You have to be careful when trying out new finishes, especially the furniture ones and study up on all the chemicals inside. Even boiled linseed usually has chemical drying additives etc and natural on a label is not a gauruntee it's not got any chemicals in so read the contents. I had a furniture/woodworking mate want to put orange oil finish on because it was natura including te bottom surface of the lid. When he transported a swarm 20 minutes in the car they all died inside the hive. My small swarm collecting hive had housed swarms for a day or two on location plus drives in car and then two weeks in the back yard before transfers to a proper KTBHive and they have all survived.

Don't gas the poor little buyers with fumes of who knows what's in it

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[praxis178]

You have to be careful when trying out new finishes, especially the furniture ones and study up on all the chemicals inside. Even boiled linseed usually has chemical drying additives etc and natural on a label is not a gauruntee it's not got any chemicals in so read the contents. I had a furniture/woodworking mate want to put orange oil finish on because it was natura including te bottom surface of the lid. When he transported a swarm 20 minutes in the car they all died inside the hive. My small swarm collecting hive had housed swarms for a day or two on location plus drives in car and then two weeks in the back yard before transfers to a proper KTBHive and they have all survived.

Don't gas the poor little buyers with fumes of who knows what's in it

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

Yep, too true, I have some that is IIRC 80% tung oil and the balance is linseed oil and pine turpentine..... But for now I'll stick with the wax/oil mix, will have to find one of those old electric fry-pans though, will make things so much easier!

 

[ratchie]

Might have to see about getting together for a cold one then! :icon_drunk: if nothing else....

yes I am in Yandina a couple of times every week.

 

[praxis178]

yes I am in Yandina a couple of times every week.

Cool we'll have to tee up a day next week sometime so I can christen the kegging setup I'm picking up Saturday properly, seeing as I have a brew just about ready to keg and all..... :icon_chickcheers:

 

[ratchie]

sounds good ,I was at the SCB last saturday were you the guy with the hat ,after about 10 rye esbs its a bit hard to remember,

 

[praxis178]

sounds good ,I was at the SCB last saturday were you the guy with the hat ,after about 10 rye esbs its a bit hard to remember,

Nope hatless was I, I had my baby sister along, she was sucking down the Rauchies like there was no tomorrow (which by all accounts she wished there hadn't have been!). The Rye was divine!!!

 

[praxis178]

Picture of my first swarmer completed (and rain tested last night).



All seemed to go well, but it was rather light rain so probably shouldn't count as a test. :lol:

Don't know how I ended up with the roof out of square either, oh well I just hope the bees won't notice!

Now that I have a bit of a jig made up doing the long boxes should be a cake walk, just so I don't mung up the roofing,... again. :angry: