The Honey Factory

[Sally PB]

Neither hubby nor I have been stung yet.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I managed to haul my bee-hive into the garage yesterday afternoon.

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I had to haul the hive down the hill, around the house into the garage over rough terrain, so the hive got pretty shaken up. Now the bees are angry and would like nothing more to come outside and rip that guys head off that has dared to treat them bad…

As said those commercial hive-boxes would need a thick layer of insulation to protect the bees from the cold. I did that last year with two hives and one didn't make it.
I am currently in the process to set up a wood-workshop in my garage, i need to decide between a miter-saw or a table-saw, there's only room for one...
Hopefully i will be able to build my own hive boxes this winter so i will never have to move whole hives again.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Neither hubby nor I have been stung yet.

My biggest mistake so far: I wanted to put a honey super on top of the hive bioxes and used the bee brush to brush off the bees from the top of the frames… They instantly attacked me and i found out the hard way that the cloth sleeves of the bee-gloves offer very little protection against stings. Now i am wearing welder gloves with long leather sleeves.
I heart that rubber gloves are good too. The bees can sting through the gloves, but they won't because they won't recognize the rubber as something stung-worthy, like a piece of wood or so.

 

[Sally PB]

When we put a honey super on, we just did the "bulldozer" approach. Get the box edge lined up, and slowly push it across. No problems.

It was a nice, sunny, 80 degree day, though. The disloged bees just flew off, and then came back around.

It's too cold now for us to open the hive. But when I'm out there, I put my ear by the opening, and I can hear a low hum.

If it's sunny, the sides of the hive (covered with tar paper) feels warm.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

When we put a honey super on, we just did the "bulldozer" approach. Get the box edge lined up, and slowly push it across. No problems.

It was a nice, sunny, 80 degree day, though. The disloged bees just flew off, and then came back around.

It's too cold now for us to open the hive. But when I'm out there, I put my ear by the opening, and I can hear a low hum.

If it's sunny, the sides of the hive (covered with tar paper) feels warm.

It was my first year of beekeeping and i didn't know better. Now i set down the box tilted and rotate it in position, shoving the bees out of the way.
I do have to open my hive one final time to remove the inner cover, set that syrup feeder on top of the honey super, fill it with syrup add the inner and outer cover again.
I'm not sure if i should do that on a lousy cold day or on a warmer day.
What would you do?
On a cold day they won't come out and fly off?
- Or -
On a warm day, i open the entrance again so the bees that flew off will be back inside in the night when the cold return?

This is where i am lacking experience…
And before you ask: I wasn't able to add the feeder before closing the hive as i had to transport it inside and the additional weight of the empty(!) feeder would have been enough to prevent me from lifting that hive. I was barely able to lift it, i estimate that hive weighs about 100Kg (220lbs).

 

[R2elk]

#1: Have you ever looked closely at your hive boxes that you bought? The wood is not even ½ of inch thick and has grip notches carved into the walls. Add staples, nails or screws as conductors to this and you should understand why your hives are dying in the winter. Those boxes have been made for commercial bee-keepers who keep hundreds of hives, stored away side by side and stacked-up up to three levels with fork-lifts and covered with heavy tarps, so the hives share the warmth they produce.
A single hive in such boxes is doomed if not heavily insulated

The commercial hive bodies are made from wood that is 3/4" thick except where the handles are.

I have successfully over wintered bees in these hives many years without additional insulation.

My uncle built the boxes for his hives (he had about 50) himself out of pine or spruce wood. The walls were 5cm (~2") thick, the outside coated with bees-wax once a year. The boxes were assembled without any metal parts to avoid any thermal bridges. If i remember correctly the corners were just simple 45° miter joints with wood glue. Simple wooden handles were added to all four sides with just glue and wooden dowels.

Miter joint corners are weaker than butt joint corners. Dovetail corners are the strongest.

These are hand made from 2' stock which is an actual 1 1/2" thick.

I am currently in the process to set up a wood-workshop in my garage, i need to decide between a miter-saw or a table-saw, there's only room for one...

I recommend a table saw if your goal is to build hives. It can be used to perform more of the necessary tasks than a miter saw can do.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm not sure if i should do that on a lousy cold day or on a warmer day.

Definitely warmer! 55 or warmer is what I heard, and not raining. Someone asked this at a bee meeting. The answer was, "Think of it like this. You're on the top floor of your house, wearing nothing but your undies. The only way to keep warm is to rub your arms and move around, and that is enough to keep you warm. Now, I'm going to take the roof off your house and peek in. Do you want me to do that on a warm day, or a chilly day, and what if it's raining?"

He added, "Suit up, have a helper, and be quick about it. The girls are in a pissy mood this time of year."

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The commercial hive bodies are made from wood that is 3/4" thick except where the handles are.

I have successfully over wintered bees in these hives many years without additional insulation.


Miter joint corners are weaker than butt joint corners. Dovetail corners are the strongest.

These are hand made from 2' stock which is an actual 1 1/2" thick.
View attachment 3674788

I recommend a table saw if your goal is to build hives. It can be used to perform more of the necessary tasks than a miter saw can do.

Those hive boxes look beautiful! And the handle bars look exactly like my uncle did them, except for the screws. He avoided any metal on his hive boxes and used wood dowels only - and of course glue… What kind of wood did you use?

As for the joints: There are a couple of videos on YT where people have tested a plethora of joints and the miter-join came up with enough strength for most applications, having the advantage of simplicity to make. - For example see below:

I was surprised too and i also thought that dove-tails are the strongest joints - apparently that is not the case.
Miter joints need no rigs, dowels dominos, splines, …, just two 45° cuts, glue, pressure, done! My uncle Willy explained to me that when you use clamps to apply pressure to the joint, the glue is pressed in between the fibers of the wood before solidifying, so the wood fibers are being mended to each other. In fact when that car crashed into the bee-hive the wood broke and the joints stayed intact.
But the biggest advantage of a simple miter joint for bee-hives is that no end-grain is exposed to the elements, only long grain which is much more water resistant. You have one tiny edge where water can attack and that edge should be filled with glue.
According to my uncle the strongest joint is a box-joint with a vertical hardwood dowel. In order to break that, the box-tails would have to be ripped off.
He always used miter-joints for the bee-hives, they are strong enough for the purpose and they don't expose any end grain.

As for the saw, i know it would be best to have both types of saws plus a band-saw, but i only have room and money for one saw. Folks at the box-stores are telling me that a miter saw is more flexible to use, so i should get a miter saw first.
I do not want to specialize on bee-woodware , i also want to build things for my house, like a platform for the washer and dryer, shelves, maybe even some furniture.
My - tentative - plan is to buy a miter saw that will be installed in the center of my 2½' x 12' workbench and after selling a lot of honey i will buy a portable table-saw…

 

[Apis mellifera]

I would love to treat for mites without chemicals.

Even sugar is a chemical and most beekeepers sooner or later need to feed their bees. I think part of the confusion when treating for mites for new beekeepers is separating what's a synthetic chemical treatment and which occur naturally. Most beekeepers (including myself) stay away from synthetic mite treatments. The big 3 are:
Apivar (Amitraz)
Apistan (Tau-fluvalinate)
Checkmite+ (Coumaphos)
Dont use those. Those treatments (hard chemicals or synthetic compounds) are more for large beekeeping outfits that have a huge amount of bees to treat.
Stick with (soft chemicals or natural compounds)
Thymol (Apilife VAR, Apiguard), Formic Pro, oxalic acid, hop beta acid(Hopguard)
I make extended release oxalic acid pads but I heard that they may come out commercially next year.
A great guide for reference is the Honey Bee Health Coalition. Try out the Varroa Management Decision Tool:
https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/

 

[Apis mellifera]

I have successfully over wintered bees in these hives many years without additional insulation

Those boxes are excellent! Love the looks and the handles. When I built my nucs out of rough cut I glued and screwed butt joints and those things have held up for 15 years and still look great. The commercial finger joint boxes that I have a few are rotting and falling apart on the joints and are less than 10 years old.