A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Beekissed]

This is the very sturdy, very heavy and well built~but very filthy~nightstand/end table that I want to convert to a hive body for a TBH. Got this thing for $4 at a yard sale...

 

[3goodeggs]

If populous wasn't a problem you could hang the frames from the drawer, and pull it out for inspection.
That is a sturdy looking box.
The bottom will need the beetle drop tray. but I would think Some wood runners to slide in a baking sheet would work.
You will have fun turning this into a hive.
Be careful if it is composite board though, that will need to be sealed really well or it will melt in the rain.

 

[Beekissed]

If populous wasn't a problem you could hang the frames from the drawer, and pull it out for inspection.
That is a sturdy looking box.
The bottom will need the beetle drop tray. but I would think Some wood runners to slide in a baking sheet would work.
You will have fun turning this into a hive.
Be careful if it is composite board though, that will need to be sealed really well or it will melt in the rain.

I know! This is going to be fun, right?

No composite in the body, though the top may be from the looks of it...but that will be wrapped in flashing and any seams caulked, so no moisture will get in there. I plan to take the face off the drawers, reposition the tracks to hold my bars and hinge the top drawer face so it can be opened for observation. I'll place a piece of glass behind that.

The bottom drawer face will be removed, reattached but shimmed out a little at the bottom to make my entrance...I want them to crawl up in the hive like they would if they had made a hive inside the siding of an old house. I'll fit a piece of shim to that entrance so I can reduce it and/or close it entirely when/if I need to do so.

That hive body is made out of some extremely tough stuff...not sure what the name of it is, but I have a partial sheet of it up in my wood scrap pile and that stuff cannot be destroyed by anything. I'd be surprised if I could even burn it effectively...might take awhile.

I'll likely make a drop door on the bottom so I can clean it out, or possibly the slide out sheet like you describe.

I too was thinking how cool it would be to pull out a drawer with the frames all hanging there for inspection...wouldn't that be neat?

Sort of like a filing drawer for comb frames....just pull it out, remove the "files" you want, push it back.

 

[noble]

That is supper cool. I put observation window's in all of my boxes to. Love them. My hives are doing well considering they are so small.
Today I harvest a new one . This new one is HUGE. I posted the pictures of my husband and I getting the other three hives on Facebook and now I get a call a week from my friends to come get wild hives from all over. Lol so far we have kept 2 small hives and gave a SUPPER HUGE one to my brother in law. So today is my chance to get a big one (so I can help my other hives get bigger ). I'm excited. I had a small problem with hive beetle s but we cought it so soon that in a week we no longer have them.

 

[noble]

the bee's where out foraging so there not there but I went in the evening and there where so many you couldn't see the comb. It's about 2 feet wide and about 2 feet deep.

 

[noble]

here is the smallest hive and the queen. She has the big black dot and is much longer

 

[noble]

new comb and attaching the wild comb to the frame

 

[noble]

these where the worms from the beetles.

 

[noble]

 

[noble]

very small hive