The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Bees & Beekeeping => Topic started by: ATF on March 27, 2011, 02:41:03 pm
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Hi there,
I'm planning on building my own beehive and wondered if anyone had any experience? There's many plans and tutorials online that I've had a look at but would be interested in hearing any personal experiences.
cheers
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You need to be VERY accurate with your measurements because of bee space. This is about 1/4inch - just enough for a bee to crawl through. Spaces in the hive that are bigger or smaller than this will be filled by the bees with propolis, which is sticky brown stuff and by all accounts, a bu88er to remove when you want to pull frames out to check them.
Other experienced beekeepers will correct me if I'm wrong - we don't have bees yet, so I'm reciting (accurately, I hope) from our beekeeping course :)
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The guy I beekeep with, (if that makes sense) makes hisown 'deeps' and said it was very easy to do and about a quarter of the price! They aren't pretty and aren't as functional as the bought ones - he made them flat on the outside which means it is less easy to pick up and move - depends how confident you are! It's in inside space that is key as said above.
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I've just made my own top bar hive using these instructions. It really was very easy and cheap;
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/how-to-build-a-top-bar-hive/6288193 (http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/how-to-build-a-top-bar-hive/6288193)
Lots of long time beekeepers seem to be a bit wary of these hives but I'll be starting with one this year so I'll see how it goes.
Good Luck
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Thanks for the link - just ordered the book. His philosophy certainly seems to fit with my ideas on beekeeping. The course on beekeeping I have done seemed a bit intrusive - leaving 'em to get on with it sounds like a much better plan. I'll certainly give it a shot.
Now anyone in Fife with any spare bees i can keep? ;)
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The folk at our community farm built a top-bar beehive a couple of weeks ago - there's a fairly detailed writeup on our website:
http://www.hempsalsfarm.com/2011/04/horizontal-top-bar-hive-building/ (http://www.hempsalsfarm.com/2011/04/horizontal-top-bar-hive-building/)
If you've got specific questions I'd be happy to answer or refer them on to Dan who masterminded the whole operation!
Ben
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have a look at this, I made my OH one of these topbar hives it was quite simple would put the photos on if I could work out how to re size them so they will go on
http://www.biobees.com/how_to_start_beekeeping.php (http://www.biobees.com/how_to_start_beekeeping.php)
:bee: :bee: :bee:
You can download the book for free!!!
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thanks for the link, I've got his book too and just ordered my wood so hopefully I can have some bees move in over the summer!
hope your is going well,
ATF
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Hi there,
I'm planning on building my own beehive and wondered if anyone had any experience? There's many plans and tutorials online that I've had a look at but would be interested in hearing any personal experiences.
cheers
May I suggst that you look for plans for a National bee hive get them put in laminate to protect them .. it was developed as a workable size to sucessfuly keep bees during world war 2 .
The sizes should now be in meteric sized wood .
Decide right away top or bottom bee space & stick to it ..I had bottom bee spaces as it was easier to remove frames from a brood box or a super plus there were less squashed bees .
It is not difficult to make them especially if you get the rails and pieces made to size at the wood yard if they do such a thing.
Instead of using very sharp castleated galvanised seperators or galv runners to support the frames I used 2,5 twin and earth cable clips nailed into the top runner space & cut a bead of wood to fit the clip and simply cut off a filing for each clip , glued it before I nailed it down... they worked well .
Keep the joints tight and if possible use an expanding waterproof wood glue when making the brood box and supers or else the wax moth will have a lovely place to lay eggs in . Trim off the dried expanded glue with a sharp chisel when it is fully set some 24 hrs later.
Because I made so many brood boxes . supers and neuc boxes I made an acurate true squared hollow box form to check everything was square before stacking everything whilst the glues dried .
I made the crown boards , as feeders in the form of a 3 inch deep tray that had a centre block 1.1/2 x 1 1/2 by 2 inch high and used a forstener bit to bore out the center 3/4 inch hole for the bees to come up and take syrup ,, each crown feeder was sealed in four coats of marine varnish to ensure it was water proof to hold syrup feeds . The crown board itself was a 3/4 thick marine ply edged in brood and super sized thick cedar with the bottom bee space , the board was routed in the sides for 5 mm and held in place using that water proof expanded glue .. I used ratchet straps to hold things square ( had dozens of them )
The 3/4 inch breather hole in either side of the the lids was coverred in some stainles steel mesh from conical puree sieves .
I made all my own lid covers from aluminium sheets taken from scrapped caravans and formed them over several squares of marine ply glued together as a single block .
The base board was made from marine ply and set in sloping routed in grooves on the side and rear walls . I again marine varnished both sides for the grooves holding the actual floor board was not equat ..I could have it hot or cold hive gap .
All my hives were sprayed in Cupronel green bee friendly preservative inside and out with three coats ..each coat being allowed a two day drying soak in pero=iod
I used Canadian Red Cedar wood .. pine does not last long .
Again I used the expanding wood glue for all joints /seams as well as sheradized self countersinking wood screws instead of nails .
My hives are stil being used 20 years later by another bee farmer / keeper .
I don't know what the fad is for varroa floors or pollen traps but the same still applies.... keep everything to standardized sizes ....all my timber was re run though a planer to ensure true sizes for all thicknesses .
make a decisoin early on as to what system of hive and frame etc you will be using and stick to it .. it's hard work with several different style hives and having god knows how namy different types of frames or supers as you have to be able to carry spares /extras for each hive .. a standardized hive with commom parts make this a thing of the past.
Queen seperators/ excluders ... the best I found were the round chrome plated bar types for they were held in a wooden frame ( made by mee ..watch the bee space and didn't damage the bees . zinc pressed one bend /distort and have sharp edges , plastic /silicone ones break /tare
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Hello all, hope you don't mind the thread ressurection but at least it is keeping hive building information in the same place. :thumbsup:
I have just finished my first top bar hive, nay my first bee keeping foray ever. Just need the bees now. What do you think? :farmer:
Full description here. (http://www.brixtonsbounty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/building-top-bar-bee-hive.html)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tcgl30dHI30/Ua2isMt00bI/AAAAAAAAA24/WfHWexJXN2U/s1600/P1050709.JPG) (http://www.brixtonsbounty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/building-top-bar-bee-hive.html)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fwaova-VHkw/Ua2jPtv3SpI/AAAAAAAAA3A/mcyUtdvWkvU/s1600/P1050710.JPG)
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Looking good - I like the design especially with the nice top. When I did mine I made sure I painted all the inside with waste melted beeswax to make it smell bee friendly and put some lemongrass oil inside - it smells like Queen Bees.
Never had a "self install" in a new hive, and often even an introduced swarm/nucleus will desert if it all smell to "new" especially if there were any glues or varnish/paint finishes used in the construction.
Also I put some short pieces of printed wax as a started on a few of the bars. If you then make the interior space pretty small with the follower boards they will start off building straight - then if you intersperse the straight combs with empty bars they have to build straight again.
Lost pretty well all my bees to spray a few years ago, what survived I have just left to go feral.
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Thanks, yes I had read about lemongrass oil so must obtain some.
On tenterhooks now until I get the bees in.
Forgot to mention I've just done the 10 week beginners course at Grantham BKA, thoroughly recommend it.
Olly