Fancy Garden Hive

[foxden]

Very nice, I would love to see one assembled and perhaps polyurethaned. With an A frame copper roof, too. Definitely would be a show piece in the garden.

[kbfarms]

The CNC is great, just not kind to your wallet. We will need to sell a lot of these

[slickbrightspear]

hey KB
have you tried using that thing on any sassafrass yet. I know when we are cutting them your chain saw will throw sparks and that is just the wood no metal or rocks. we used to cut a lot of sassafrass for barn poles and teir poles.

[kbfarms]

Not yet, we had to glue boards to get a deep size. I'll post when we use it. Wonder what caused the sparks. Our understanding is that this is a "soft" hardwood. What do you think about the wood as far as it's use for bee boxes?

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

2 questions-
What kind of equipment are you using?
Ball park on what you would charge per box? $50, $100, $200????

[kbfarms]

2 questions-
What kind of equipment are you using? A CNC machine. We build the models, load them up on a laptop and have the CNC carve them out.

Ball park on what you would charge per box? $50, $100, $200????

We are still trying to figure that out---ballpark probably somewhere between $60-$80 per a box. Our biggest issue so far is machine time. Right now each design on a deep or medium spends about 6 HOURS on the machine. I don't know if we can cut down the machine time and still get that quality. We're still working through the process. This is actually the hardest part of the process, pricing the boxes so folks can afford them, but yet covering our costs of making them. We're not trying to get rich making these (good luck to us) but we do want to cover our expenses and make a bit of profit.

Would welcome comments on the price range.

[slickbrightspear]

sassafras is a very hard and very brittle not sure how it will work for bee boxes. If you cut it yourself be very care full about 2 years ago I cut a sassafras about 18 inches around about half way thru it split in half and started to fall over top of the split which left the log about 12 feet in the air and then it immediately fell of the side just missing me as I tried to get away happened very quickly

[StevenG]

For those of you who are developing these projects, please keep us posted. Especially if you consider producing signs... I am interested! Both in signs, and a hive body for decorative advertising purposes.
Regards,
Steven

[kbfarms]

Once we are ready to go into production, I will most certainly post in the for sale section.

We'll produce signs, boxes and probably a shelf that will sit on a table so you can rack up your honey bottles and bears on it for sales. We are also going to produce a prototype pair of cleats that looks like a branch with a swarm on one end. That was a suggestion by one of the folks on this thread and we are going to try it out to see how it looks.

[kbfarms]

Here is our deep honey comb and flower&comb design. We have a bee medallion design yet to cut and that will finish our initial designs. One again, please note that we are using bee box parts on hand to cut these. Our production will be select lumber.

[Mark in Kansas]

I really like that. I'd buy a couple.

[kbfarms]

Here is our final bee box design, a bee medallion. The farm name in this one is engraved instead of raised. We like the engraving, but we are going to look at a couple of different fonts, we are not certain we like this one as a final font. This box will be the least costly as it is around 3 hours of machine time. This one can also go on mediums and supers with very little modification, so all the boxes can match. I think this design would also go well with the other designs if you wanted this for honey supers and use another of the designs for deeps.

[KQ6AR]

You're really getting good detail in the veins of the wings, & other places.
Very nice.

[kbfarms]

Actually, this is the one design we bought. But it is still nice . Probably should have stated that. Sorry about that!!

[kbfarms]

Just wanted to update folks on how our carved bee boxes are going. We have completed all our designs. We will have all the designs I've posted to date also in a medallion format similar to the large bee. Before too long, I hope to get those designs up on the website.

Our only hitch to date has been finding clear pine at a reasonable cost, and we need clear (select grade) pine for these boxes. It does not seem that we can get that lumber in KY for a reasonable cost. We did find a supplier for cypress and made a lumber run today to try our carvings on that wood.

For us, the cypress is cheaper than clear pine (go figure). Every cypress board we bought is perfectly clear. So if the carving turn out well on this lumber, this is probably what we are going to use at least initally.

We have our website up at www.kbfarms.com and we are also on facebook. If you would like to contact us, please either PM me here or send an email through the website or facebook.

Once we are up and running, I will also post in the for sale section here on Beesource. Thanks again for all your interests in the bee boxes.

[slickbrightspear]

have you tried poplar

[kbfarms]

Just wanted to post a final update in this thread. We are ready for production. For now, we have settled on cypress wood for the hive bodies. If you are interested in getting a quote from us, just go to our website at www.kbfarms.com, pick out the design you'd like and send us an email with the size of box you'd like (deep, med, 10 frame, 8 farme) and we'll send you a quote for the box. The same for a sign, send the size, desired design and information you'd like on it and we'll send you a quote. In the quotes will also be a file with the way the sign or box will be carved so there is no misunderstanding on what exactly you will get. We want to ensure that you are happy with your order. I'll be posting in the For Sale section in the future on Bee Source. I appreciate all the feedback from the folks who participated in this thread. It really helped us to nail down what folks would like.

[kilocharlie]

Looks like it would make a great gift!

[kbfarms]

have you tried poplar

We looked at popular, but because it sometimes has a green color when finished, we decided some folks may not want that tint to the wood. We've planed the Sassafras wood and I really like the color. We are going to try a sign with that wood. The only drawback to that wood is that it has to be glued up to make anything beyond a medium size.

Some other folks have suggested Cherry for signs. My understanding is that is a very hard but pretty wood. I don't know how fast bits would dull using that wood.

I think cedar would be a very pretty wood for signs. We are going to look around for red cedar and try that wood. Has anyone worked with red cedar? Do you like it?

[MichaBees]

I would go with Mahogany -durable and able to take differences in humidity.