Even though I have been busy working on the house I had to get started on our newest project, and that is bees. We want a couple of hives, only as a hobby, bees are very important to the growth and production of everything around us, so we are doing our part. I could have bought a hive and worked for there to make more brood chambers or honey supers, but as a wood worker I couldn't. We got "Building Beehives for Dummies" and I'm off to the races. It is simple and as long as I follow the directions all will be good, because there is something called "bee space" you have to remember, too much and they fill it with combs, too small and they seal it up with propolis, thus reducing the space they move around in.
I made the main boxes and frame from pine and the stand from ceder. It is recommended to paint them to help protect the wood so I thought we'd paint them before we sent them out to get our hives started. After all I don't want to be painting with 20,000 bees buzzing about. I made three medium brood chambers (bodies) and have stated making the frames that hold the foundations for the bees to draw out the combs and start making new bees and eventually honey. There will be plenty of work ahead of me making more supers and frames. So as suggested in the book I made an frame assembly jig, to ensure they are the right size and square, and it is a lot easier to assemble in bulk rather then one at a time.
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The parts needed to start a hive, bottom board, inner
and outer covers, body and entrance reducer. |
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The first brood chamber set up with bottom board, inner
and outer covers with entrance reducer. |
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| The frame assembly jig, knobs hand made. |
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| New frames in the jig. |
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| The frames in the super. |
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I made handles for two to lift when full of honey. Like a
french cleat, wedges under the handle and won't slide off. |
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| The three brood chambers and the stand. |
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| Exterior paint, lavender is the color I think. |
