BackBeekeeping Made Easy
Building you own bee equipment
For the beekeeper, working with wood can be an enjoyable past time. It requires some skill to make accurate cuts with woodworking equipment. The job is made easier if the proper woodworking tools are available such as a table saw.
One of the reason L.L. Langstroth never became rich is because his hive design was simple and easy to build. Therefore, why pay for a patent to build the thing if you could just go out a whip up one so easy. There are no secrets to constructing bee equipment. Homemade equipment often sells for far less as used equipment than equipment manufactured with finger joints.
Butt joints are just two boards butted together and nailed. Many homemade hives have these joints and they say "homemade." Often a dado joint, will also imply that the box was homemade, but Rossman's Apiary in Georgia make equipment with the dado joint. Rossman's have not only dado joints but the best hand hole cut into the side of a box one would want. Their boxes are made from long lasting cypress.
Two things you must keep in mind if you are going to build your own equipment:
What you may have difficulty with:
Lets take these items one at a time. If you are a hobby beekeeper and will be building equipment for only two or three hives, we suggest you take your time and do the best job you possibly can. For the individual thinking they can save a great deal of money by building their own equipment -- I say, buy it! Often the cost of the material will equal the price of a piece of bee equipment manufactured for you. What you will get out of the experience is a great deal of satisfaction.
This is a very simple hive stand. It gets the hives up off the ground six inches and will hold two hives.
It is constructed of treated 2 x 6 material. It will take one 12 foot 2 x 6 to construct each stand. Two lengths are cut four foot long for the sides. Two lengths are cut 16 inches long for the inner supports. The inner supports are set 8 inches in from each end. This can then be nailed with 16 common nails or screwed with lag bolts or treated deck screws 2 1/2 inches long. This hive stand can be moved about and easy to transport.
A more permanent hive stand can be constructed by sinking 4 x 4 post in the ground to a depth of 18 inches.
Rocks are dropped down the hole before the 4 x 4 post are set. A platform is then built on the post which support the whole thing. This type of hive stand can not be moved. It can be built 12 inches or more above the ground and looks great in a garden setting. If it is raised 16 inches or so from the ground it will keep the skunks out of the hives. This is a picture of my friend, Dan Hicks from Sandusky, Ohio. Dan is new to beekeeping and wanted to get two hives or gums going. The use of the term "gums" can tell you a lot about Dan's background. Most likely his father or grandfather had "gums." These were tree sections cut from a tree with a wild nest of bees in the section. The log sections were
then set upright and boxes were then placed above to gather the honey. This is a rather large gum hive in Michigan. The beekeeper is attempting to get the bees to move up into the standard boxes above. Once they do, he will get rid of the gum. It will make fine fire wood.
Bottom Board
If you are a novice woodworker, we would encourage you to get the series of Bee Culture Magazines which include articles by Peter Sieling on building bee hive equipment. The articles are a step by step process of how to use the saw and make the various cuts required. The January 2003 issue covers Bottom boards and top covers. The December 2002 issue covers making Super Supers. This includes hive bodies and frames. If you are serious about building good bee equipment, these two issues are way beyond what we can offer. Peter is also the author of a book, Bee Hive Construction published by Garreson Publishing, 7201 Craig Rd., Bath, N.Y. 14810 or visit www.beesource.com.
A simple homemade bottom board can be put together easily. The outside measurements are 16¼ by 21¾ inches.
This bottom board looks homemade.
This bottom board is nothing more than two bottom cleats 16¼ x 4 inches wide x ¾ inches to which are nailed slabs of wood that measure 16¼ wide by 21¾ long. Above the wood floor are three strips of 3/4 x 3/8 inch to support the hive body above the floor board so bees can come or go from the hive. One of these strips will be 14 1/4 " long for the back and two will be 19 7/8" long for the sides.
A bottom board constructed to look manufactured
This
bottom is constructed from only four parts. The bottom board
floor can be made from 3/4 in plywood (treated) or boards. We
would suggest that the bottom board be protected by using material that will
last a long time. The rails are made from from treated 1 X 1
7/8 inch boards. These may need to be sawed to get the 1 7/8 inch
width. 2 inch board are really 1 1/2 inches.
We have used treated lumber with no ill effects on the bees. Some people
have worried about this. Before long the treated lumber will not be
available due to U.S. regulations.
Lets look at the rails first. A dado cut is made in the length of 1 x 1 7/8 inch board for its full length. We generally buy 10 foot boards and cut them to five feet in length to make it easier to work with the board. We then cut the 5 foot board into strips 1 7/8 wide. One 5 foot board will make the rail for one hive. We then dado a slot in the rail board 3/4 inches wide 3/8 inches deep. This slot is measured 3/4 inches from the top of the rail. When done we have a 5 foot rail with a dado cut exactly 3/4 inches from the top of the rail. The outside dimensions of a bottom board are 16 1/4 inches by 21 7/8 inches. Our bottom will be cut to the exact size of 15 1/2 inches wide by 21 1/2 inches. This will allow 3/8 inch of the bottom floor to fit into the dado cut completely around the rail except at the front. Our rails will need to be cut as follows: 2 side rails will be 21 7/8 inches long. 1 end rail will be 15 1/2 inches long. The material should fit solidly together -- a nice tight snug fit. The floor of the bottom board can be glued to the rail and screws used to fasten it in place. This bottom board should like just like the one you would buy. Be sure to give the bottom board two coats of paint.
Hive Bodies
You can click on this image to enlarge it. 
This again is a home made bee hive and looks like it. It will work just as well as the commercial hive bodies but the resale value is poor. Too often, pictures and plans like this do not give you the full story on building hive bodies. We would like to share some important points below which you need to take into consideration before you begin your project.
Thing you should know:
Click on the picture to see bee space above the frame.
Click on the picture to see bee space below the frame.
This drawing is from Circular 1125 published by the University of Illinois.
Dimensions of the various hive bodies are clearly shown. Note that at the bottom is a box with the dimension of the inside. These inside dimensions are very important for frame spacing. These boxes are for 10 standard frames. About the only thing you need to do is decide on the depth of the rabbet cut to hold the frames. Are your boxes going to have bee space at the top of the box or at the bottom of the box. Once you make your decision, all boxes must be of the same design to avoid burr comb and gluing of equipment by the bees.
Hive cover
There are many different types of hive covers used for bee hives. The simplest one is called a migratory cover as shown in this plan.
Top covers protect the bees from rain and snow. They should not have any cracks to allow moisture to drop below. Many beekeepers have telescoping top covers with a metal cover. These top covers are not very difficult to make.
It is made of a rim that will slip down over the outside dimensions of the hive boxes for a distance of 2 inches. Once the rim is made a sheet of 3/8" plywood is nailed to the rim and then this is covered by a sheet of metal -- Aluminum or tin are common materials.
The bees will do just a well in a homemade hive that respects the bee space as they will in a commercial made hive body. The only reason you should consider the commercial made product is the resale value of the equipment. We have decided that the cost of making a hive body is more than purchasing commercial hive bodies, we elect to buy ours. Our only labor is putting the hive bodies together.
Using ads found in current bee magazines, we found that boxes can be purchased for the following:
We checked at the lumber yard to see what a 6 foot 12" x 1" board without knots would cost. Cheapest cost was to buy 1 -- 12 foot board at $1.75 per board foot. At that price we could get two deep supers out of a board. We would need to cut the pieces, dado the rabbet joints, and still construct the hive. Cost = 21.00 divided by 2 = $10.50 per hive body and we do all the work. If you are interest in the address of the above bee box manufacturer it is: Humble Abodes, Inc. RR#1, Box 570, Coopers Mills Road, Windsor, ME 04363. They can be emailed at: humbleabodes@prexar.net. We have been pleased with the equipment we have received from them. They sell frames as well.
Frames
We would recommend that you purchase your frames rather than build them. However, if you desire to build everything yourself the following pattern will help you make a frame that will work.
Final comments:
Avoid the use of plywood with the exception of using it under the metal in the top cover. We have made bottom board floors from plywood and they just have not held up and solid wood floors have. The same applies to hive bodies made from plywood. We have a nuc's made from plywood. We can expect to replace them every four to five years. We have shifted to making all our nuc's out of white pine treated with a penetrating stain before painting. We use 12" pine and buy it in large quantities which has reduced the price of a 8 foot board to $5.50 per board. We watch the prices and buy a large quantity when we can get a good deal. We still buy all of our honey supers.
