Hive lifts

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, about a year ago I saw some photos and some discussion on carts that lifted hive boxes and had wheels. I think that one of them was fabricated in Sweden. I am looking for some ideas on this equipment but can not find it. Thanks for any help.

[magnet-man]

I believe I posted the link for the cart that would roll right into the back of a pickup truck. It was a Swedish web site about beekeeping in I believe the Chec Republic. I did a search using my Id but the search is only returning threads in 2005. I think I did the post back in November of 2004.

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Thanks magnet-man, I will keep the thought in mind and do some more research. I am just a hobby bee-keeper who is getting older. I had a metal cattle gate float down our creek and so I have a bunch of metal to transform into something usable. All four of our hives are sitting on 18" steel pipe stands that were formerly a basketball court. The single pipe works beautiful as I put a strip of sticky stuff around the middle of the pipe and the ants are history, hopefully any other critters are also dicouraged by this method.Thanks again, Alex in KY

[Bryn]

I intend to make a lift carrier from the deck of an old push mower. I did a test with about 80 lbs. on it and it seemed to move quite well under the load. Once I remove the engine and then weld up some angle iron to hold the hive I'll report back.

[nursebee]

Have you checked Mann Lake catalog?

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, well I am still tossing around ideas on this subject. Right now I am thinking on fabricating something that will look like an engine lift that mounts with clevis pins on the front of my heavy lawn tractor. The problem still is the operation while guiding the boxes on and off. Maybe a winch with remote buttons running off a battery. The cart that I saw had a unique feature that pulled the boxes to a vertical frame on an angle. The angle was part of the lifting force. The other challenge is how do you attach to the box and hold it. Right now I am thinking of something with carpenters pipe clamps. Oh, well, hopefully I come up with something before the back gives out. Take care and have fun....

[RAlex]

I have on occasion toyed with the idea of making a hive hoist that would attach to the front end of my David Bradley walk behind. Not sure of any of the details yet but want to be able to load hives on the back of my pick-up truck. ..Rick

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, well, here I am soaked in perspiration as I just checked the hives and it is over 90F.
Yesterday was the same but I finished welding and assembling my brain storm. The lawn tractor, it's and old Simplicity, has now a hydraulic lift in front courtesy of some scrap steel and Harbor Freight. So far I have not lifted any deep supers, that is the reason for the effort, but the whole thing looks promising. I just don't know yet how to load pictures to this board but once I learn I will try it. The thing that I like the most is the clamping device that is made with two pipe clamps and a fabricated "Lifting Beam".
Take care and have fun.

[SippyBees]

I for one am looking forward to seeing your pics.... I also have been brainstorming for quite a while on the best way to make a lifting device. I have had several ideas, but really no time to do the trial and error testing to find what works best.... anyway, looking forward to seeing your creativity..
Thanx

[Lew Best]

Hi

You have to put the pix on a photo album service & post the link. I use photobucket.com It's free.

Lew

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi Lew, thanks for the tip. I put the photo on the photobucket service. See what you all think.
http://photobucket.com/albums/a297/Habedere
look for Beetractor. Take care and have fun.

[Lew Best]

interesting!!!!!!!

Lew

[power napper]

Looks like it might work Alex, I made a two man manual hive lifter like in the bee catalogs and you got me thinking about mounting something like yours on my gravely. Way to go!!

[beegee]

I'm going to fabricate a hydraulic hoist to fit in a receiver hitch. It would mount at the edge of the truck bed and be able to swing at least 270 degrees. I could then move it from pickup to flatbed to trailer just by welding a receiver in the appropraite place.

[nursebee]

That tractor ppic looked like it took some work and money. So you take your tractor out, clamp the equipment on, pump up the lift, move the tractor and repeat? Sounds like easy on the back but a lot of work. What about a tall heavy hive?

May I repeat myself? Have you looked at the Mann Lake catalog? Look for the loader. http://www.mannlakeltd.com/catalog/page73.htm
beegee--> I have this item if you want to try it out. I have made some adaptation per MB prior experience to allow me to lift tall stacks.

How about the WTK loader they sell with or without a trailer? Might be a good place to start from if you are a DIYer.

If your ideas already take 2 people to operate, a welding shop can make you an easy loader for less than $100. I'll sell mine for less than that also. It just means you have to add a strip of wood on the side of each hive.

I like the ingenuity but find it impractical.

[peggjam]

Make sure you have enough weight at the rear to offset whatever your going to pick up. I would hate to see you pick up a hive and have the rear end of the tractor lose enough traction that you can't go anywhere with the load off the ground. Neat idea though.

peggjam

[Jon McFadden]

Alex,
The problem you need to address is the distribution of weight in the hive (honey). You're assuming it will be balanced. Rest assured, it won't be.
Remove the pony clamps and make a cross with half lap joints. This will form your strongback. Attach angle iron hooks that will fit in the finger holes and grip tighter when weight is applied. This will keep the hive level.
You need to be able to swivel the load slightly to move it to the side.
Here's another way to do it without the tractor. Use some strap steel on edge to form a track. Use pressure treated two by fours for ties. Dado a pair of grooves in the 2X4s to hold the strap steel in gauge and vertical. Run this track behind your hives. Construct a cart to mount your hoist on and you can move your hives where you want.
The next step is to extend your track to the honey house and add a 1' gauge locomotive to pull it with. These are available as do-it-yourself, kits, or ready to run.
My son and I plan to build a hand cart to provide motive power.

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, thanks for all the nice comments on the lift. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. The tractor weight has been tested and I still have the scar above my right ankle. Some years ago I turne the thing over and it took two guys to lift it off my leg. As to cost, well that is subjective. The lift itself was about 60 dollars, the steel was under 20 and I did all the welding myself, you see, I am retired and TV bores me. The lift does turn 360 degrees, it even has a grease fitting on the top. The boom extends for another two feet so I can get close enough if I have to. The clamps I don't think will give any problems as the center part where the chain attaches actually grabs into the hand-holds, and I have several different types. I really don't want it to balance perfectly to I can Inspect at times without lifting the whole thing off. It also enables me to smoke the bees out from under as it comes down. The hydraulic lift has a rather long control tube but if it needs more it can be made longer or eventually the whole thing can be updated with an inexpensive electric winch with the control right there at hand. Yes I did look at what Mann Lake has and it is good stuff, however, part of the whole exercise for me is the challenge. At present, the only draw-back that I see is that I will have to run a couple of rods or similar to transfer some of the pulling force to the back of the tractor. Right now, the whole thing is held on by three bolts and removal and attachment takes about two minutes. The bolts might me replaces eventually with clevis pins and then the whole thing is faster yet. The tractor has to do many different jobs. There might even be a pressure washer hook-up to the front of the engine as well. For me all this is fun and if someone can use my ideas and I can ease my efforts then it is all worth it.
Take care and have fun.

[Jon McFadden]

Alex,
If you are going to swivel it, you might think about outriggers to stabilize the weight.
I didn't realize the cherry picker you bought swiveled. I will have to check it out.
Thanks for the wonderful idea and pictures.
The only thing I don't like about the whole design is the pony clamps.
You have a good point about needing to tip the hive.
Bee Culture had a system for handicapped beekeepers that was pretty slick. I don’t remember the issue.

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi Jon et al, the pony clamps are just something that I came up with for several reasons. First I can use them on woodworking projects as well, second the pressure is in line with the grain of the sides with minimal damage, third, the extension on the ends can be used as hand-holds for lifting if someone is helping me. I don't think that they will slip, even with considerable weight. If I ever decide to lift more than one box at a time I will change the length of the chains, possibly weld a hook on the ends of the spreader bar adjustments. I did look at the Mann Lake cart. It is a wonderful item, however, my philosophy does not let me put the hives on the ground. I might load another picture of my hives and you will see what I mean. Like I said, I am strictly a hobbyist and i like to tinker but we can also contribute some ideas to the commercial end of beekeeping. Tkae care and have fun.

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, well I did load a couple more pictures into the photobucket site and you can see a bit more of some of the crazy Ideas. Take a look at http://photobucket.com/albums/a297/Habedere
and you can see why the hand truck will not work for me. The stands are anchored in about two feet of concrete and the rest is mostly scrap steel.
The sticky slide gets coated with FGMO. In hot or humid weather it stays open, that is, I take it out completely. Take care and have fun

[Jon McFadden]

Alex,
I looked on Harbor Freight's on line catalog and couldn't find the lift your pictures show. Do you know the model number?

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Good morning Jon, I had found the lift in our local store on display with the number SKU-1647.
At the time they did not have one in the warehouse and so I snooped around the Harbor Freight internet site and that thing told me that the number was not in the catalog or was being discontinued. That worried me. On the next Monday I called them and they had just received a shipment of five that morning. I bought mine the next day. The people in the store did not think that it was being discontinued. Take care and have fun.

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi Jon, I just snooped around again on the Harborfreight site. I did find it after some searching under the number 01647-4VGA. Try that and see what you think. Obviously I was lucky and caught our store with a sale price of $59.95.
I hope that helps.

[RonS]

Alex,

I am a novice so my question may not make sense, but won't the noise of the garden tractor agitate the bees? As an aside, I admire your ingenuity and perseverence. I have the latter, but totally lack the former.

Ron

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi RonS et al, well like I said before, the proof is in the pudding. However, I use this tractor for mowing and I mowed directly across the front of our hives. The trick is with this tractor you have to keep the hives on the right, the left side has the exhaust. For the lifting operation the tractor does not need engine power so things will be quiet. I will let you all know how things will go. My main interest is the status of the brood boxes later in the year to check on the amount of brood and honey for their winter survival. Of course if I see something in the meantime, this rig will jump into action. Right now we have still a good nectar flow and today I found them bringing in nice white pollen so I don't want to disturb them. I will let you all know what improvements, if any, I will make after an actual use of the lift. Take care and have fun.

[magnet-man]

Alex, I found the link.

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000395

[jalal]

we haven't seen this guy in ages and he pops up with a link for some random thing tongue.gif

[honeyman46408]

http://photos.yahoo.com/ebrice@prodigy.net.

My "Hill Billy Hive loader"

This is my first try at posting some of my pictuers so hope it works

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi, well today I started on another project that has been a burr under my saddle for quite some time. So, in order to swat two flies at once, I pulled the VW engine out that I want to rebuild and lifted it with my hive lift on the engine stand. It did it! I am sure that the engine has quite a bit more weight than a full deep super and so I think I have the pudding proof. See http://www.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Habedere Take care and have fun.