Thread: Beehives

Hi Marc.

BTW your image isn't working.

I used to go fishing with a guy at Maclean who used to keep bees and used to make his own Beehives. He only had basic equipment and wasn't a professional woodworker but his bee hives where well made.

I have no doubts that any one with basic wood working skills and a bit of equipment could make them if you had one to go by. Not sure if he did them with dovetails or finger joints.

I didn't take a lot of notice of how he did them as I wasn't much interested in wood work at the time. More the pity because i would be interested now.

Seems his link has a double http// which is preventing it from opening, here is the shot


No reason why you couldn't make your own, neighbour of my brother does his own

Here is a link to an American site with plans for beehives. I don't know if they vary from Australian beehives but I couldn't find any plans on Australian sites. I don't think the bees would know the difference.

http://www.beesource.com/plans/index.htm

There is a difference between American sizes and Australian sizes. I know because I made beekeeping equipment commercially for 10 years. If you let me know exactly what size box and frames you have I will do up some dimensions and a cutting plan for making them.

I have 10 frame boxes, (even when I only put 9 in them, but that has nothing to do with the size). Full size super for the brood and half size for the honey, saves my back and the queen hates the shallow frames so I don't need queen excluder.

I realize that there is not much complications in making the boxes, yet there are a few things to consider.
They must be cheaper than buying them from the shop... a full size super (flat packed) is worth $20, shallow $13. Does not sound like much but if you need 3 or 4 hundred things start adding up.
The timber must be 22 mill, not 19, one can machine it down but it would add to cost.
The finish does not need to be dressed, can be rough-sawn so I suppose it calls for milling your own or finding a supplier who supplies the one who do it comercially.

Timber...almost anything will do from Pine onwards. hardwood is probably too heavy and would split when nailed....even when I know of a guy who does not use nails in the joints and glues them with phenolic resin....must have heaps of time.

I have seen some commercial set up to do the finger joint on 30 or 40 boards at the time, I was thinking in something more basic to do with a reuter, clamping perhaps 4 at the time and going over them with some sort of guide like the one used to do draws.

Butcher, your help would be very much appreciated.

The best timber is Hoop Pine. It is stable, plenty strong enough but reasonably light.

Just a note on the joinery. We never made finger jointed boxes. A simple rebated butt join, nailed with glue.

The overall dimensions are: -
Length - 20"
Width 16"
Height 9 5/8" (half-depth - 4 3/4")
Thickness 7/8"
(This may sound strange to some but the industry still works in imperial measurements)

The cutting dimensions are
sides cut 19 1/8" long
End cut 16" long with a 7/8"x7/16" rebate for the sides to sit in. A rebate 5/8" by 7/16" across one side for the top bar rebate.

To answer a couple of your other things. The timber is dressed to 22mm in house. The cost of buying large quantities (we processed up to 30m3 a month) of dressed timber makes it very expensive. We sold them for $16.00 each for 1st grade boxes. Sounds cheap but we could produce around 100 per day with 3 blokes working and considering the timber cost was around $8.50 there was not a lot left but it is a competitive industry up here.

If you want any more info send me a PM with details and I'll see what I can do.

Yeah I entertained the thought but really it was easier and most probably cheaper to buy them at the quantities I need.

Although I saw the plans for a bee condo where there were 2 brood boxes horizontally and then the supers went on in the middle and then went up. Beats having to lift a brood box off each time.

Originally Posted by Wood Butcher

The best timber is Hoop Pine. It is stable, plenty strong enough but reasonably light.

Just a note on the joinery. We never made finger jointed boxes. A simple rebated butt join, nailed with glue.

I had a bunch of super butt jointed, but they did not last more than a few years before getting loose and wobbly. Nothing beats the finger jointed boxes.

No offence but that means you didn't assemble them properly. Did you nail through the sides as well through the ends and with what size nails? We used to advise 65mm x 2.5mm hot dipped gal nails with a pilot hole drilled, with at least 5 each edge on a full depth boxe. . Also you have to use the glue liberally and seal the joints really well with paint.

The problem with finger jointed boxes is if the timber moves due to humidity then the joints can split.

Originally Posted by meerkat

Yeah I entertained the thought but really it was easier and most probably cheaper to buy them at the quantities I need.

Although I saw the plans for a bee condo where there were 2 brood boxes horizontally and then the supers went on in the middle and then went up. Beats having to lift a brood box off each time.

It may be cheaper if you need a few dozen, but even then, it depends what floats your boat. I love to mill and cut and glue and nail.

As for the dual queen hive, there are many designs. What do you think of this: 3 full size boxes next to each other. Each box at each end with one queen. Stack half size super on top of the centre box. The 3 boxes comunicate via a large opening on the side covered from the inside by a queen excluder. Each brood box has conventional entrance plus the super pile has extra entrance from the first half super. The roof will be a challenge to seal properly since can not overalp all around...unless the centre pile of super is separated and comunicates via a sort of tunnel, large tube or similar.

Interesting.

Just to clarify, the middle box is empty and used just to support the supers on top or would you put frames in there too ?

You cannot have empty boxes or the bees will build combs at their discretion.
Here is one way http://www.betterbee.com/resources/i...ronereport.pdf

This "tower" has a double brood box each side, this requires two very strong queens and would make a super super hive. Sort of defeats the purpose. If you can have two brood box you don't need a dual queen hive. Furthermore, since the honey super are half on top of the brood, if you want to open the box you still need to move the honey. This has been set up in this way to combat varroa, something we don't have (yet) in Australia.

I came across this idea of the 3 side by side boxes some time ago. The middle tower is only for honey, the two side boxes are for the 2 queen. The middle super is made of one full size and the rest half super boxes.
If each of the 3 boxes is on a standard base, no modifications are necessary. the only change would be to block the middle box lower entrance and have a form of tunnel communicating with each of the brood boxes. I would be inclined to have a large tunnel, say 6" plastic pipe? purely for the benefit of ventilation. each tunnel will have a queen grill, or rather part of one nailed over the opening. the middle honey super can have an extra opening and perhaps extra ventilation under the roof is necessary. Note that in this way you can move honey without opening the brood box, or you can work on the queen without lifting honey and you can even add another brood box if necessary if your queens are really strong.

The only thing to work out is proper ventilation. Ideally you would want the side of the boxes to be completely open but this would make the whole thing a special built and unpractical for a larger operation. If you only want a couple you can build 3 purposely built boxes with large side openings and proper sealed and water proof tunnels. Remember this is non standard beekeeping it is experimental and there is a lot more to two queen hives then the hardware. One consideration is for colder climates since there is no honey to keep the heat on the brood box.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestwoqueenhive.htm

Originally Posted by Wood Butcher

No offence but that means you didn't assemble them properly. Did you nail through the sides as well through the ends and with what size nails? We used to advise 65mm x 2.5mm hot dipped gal nails with a pilot hole drilled, with at least 5 each edge on a full depth boxe. . Also you have to use the glue liberally and seal the joints really well with paint.

The problem with finger jointed boxes is if the timber moves due to humidity then the joints can split.

Well I can't say how they were assembled since I did not do it, I inherited the boxes one year old. Also the thin edge of the heads tends to rot rather quickly. Pilot holes? mate, when you assemble boxes you want to get it over and done with, T nailer or palleting coil gun is the charm. I had many hundred boxes made from Camphor laurel, others from Norfolk pine, radiata, London plane all finger jointed, wacked one bright ordinary 52mm mail per finger, paint once and 10 years in the open and on and off trucks no probs.

I thought I revive this thread with something of interest.
With todays advent of plastic beehives and prices coming down, http://www.aussiehive.com.au/
this is a bit of a moot subject, however wooden beehive assembly will be arond for a few more decades.
No bee keeper that has more than a few beehives and that moves them around would consider
super boxes that are not fingerjointed. However...I have seen some that were jointed with half rebate,
allegedly glued with phenolic marine glue and nailed and that resisted the usual 10 years of weather and trips to the shed.
This however must be the best and simples contraption I have seen for assembly of fingerjointed super boxes.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxqYbmvz1ww"]YouTube - Hive Body Assembly Fixture[/ame]