?s before buying equip.

[Ttankofish1]

Leaning toward building using ideas and measurements from this site. Going to use pine for cost saving and will paint a light natural color. Will definitely buy wood frames and still not sure about what foundation.i am very aware about bee space that's the only hesitation I originally had about building my hives. I am going with two deeps on a screened bottom and will add medium supers to that.i would like all mediums but I already ordered nucs that are in deeps and don't want to complicate things more.

[Grant]

I build my own boxes when the wood is free, otherwise it is more cost effective to buy the pre-cut boxes from the suppliers...and I enjoy wood working, don't get me wrong. I prefer Copper Napthalene, but it only sold in large sizes for dipping (and it stinks).

I can't build a frame to equal the bought frames. I use both plastic foundation (with my own added wax) and wired wax foundation, then I also slip in a few foundationless frames to save a buck on foundation.

There are many ways....

Grant
Jackson, MO

[bobbarker]

Hey Ttank, welcome to the site.

I started last year, and used the plans on this site to make a few hives, and it went really well. The plans are pretty fantastic, and I had no problems. I'm a moderately skilled woodworker (I don't want to say I'm great, but I'm not a rookie either), so if you're familiar in a shop, you should have no trouble building the equipment.

As far as treating your hives, consider Thompson's Water Seal. It works great, and it would be a minimalist treatment.

I buy my frames, and use wax coated plastic, and the bees did fine on it last year. That's just my .02.

[Ttankofish1]

Bbarker, thanks that is a confidence booster. I will use the measurements from the plans but may modify a bit to use finger joints. I have not made them before but think I can with a router table . Going to do a practice joint and see how it goes.

[Ttankofish1]

Actually the plans are for finger joints I was thinking of other plans I looked at.

[bobbarker]

I used all box joints last year, and decided that it was just too time consuming. I've got a lot more boxes to build this year than last, so I'm going to try a Kreg jig and pocket screws/glue. I've really fallen in love with the Kreg jig the last few years, and it'll be a heck of a lot faster than box or finger jointing. I'm confident that it will hold up just as well, but I guess I'll know for sure in a few years.

[BeeCurious]

I thought about building the boxes but the savings do not seem to be significant . Don't know if it's worth the time for me .

Check out the cost of commercial boxes from Miller's. For me they end up being cheaper than getting free shipping from Mann Lake...

http://millerbeesupply.com

[Ttankofish1]

Yes those are the plans from this site I refer to.

[Ttankofish1]

My last post I was accidentally looking at last post on page one when I wrote that. As for miller I worry about quality when things are so cheap. The kreg jig is awsome and I thought about using it. I can build boxes... As cheap or cheaper than anything you can buy and I know how they are built then. Still leaning toward finger joints , I did a test run and went pretty good. Also like a dado joint. I think the kreg will hold up as I do even but joints with screws. Screws with glue is very strong and I don't think there is to much joint stress . Most of the weight is verticals on the frame rest. That's coming from me who's more familiar with wood than beekeeping though.

[danno]

free shipping from Mann Lake on orders over 100.00 A few boxes, frames, foundation and a couple of hive tools and your there. A friend and I bought two skids of 50 med from them this winter. He got the commercials and I got the economies. I was very happy with the fit, quaility and the PRICE. I also bought 700 frames and with 700 sheets of plastic. I have bought foundation from all the large companies in the past. This was the first time I didn't need to add extra wax. They have a heavy coat sprayed on

[Ttankofish1]

Hope that worked, this is what I have so far. Home made four deeps and four medium supers ( not in photo). Went well once I figured out how to make the jig for the joints.

[danno]

Nice work! what are you going to do for handholds

[Michael Bush]

> Can't figure out what frames and more importantly foundation to go with.

I like foundationless... Matching the right foundation to the right frame is important. Many use plastic. Many use wax. Many use foundationless. The all work to some degree or another.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesoptions.htm

Cell size is an issue for Varroa from my experience:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm

>one book I read recommended a slatted rack, anyone use or experiment with and see a difference.

I wouldn't sweat it at this point. You can get one anytime and try it. I used to have enough for all my hives. When I converted to eight frame boxes, I sold all of those ten frame slatted racks and have never made or bought them for the eight frame. I was also expanding, and I couldn't see making 200 of them...

> Last ( for now ) I think I'm going with cypress hives, can I stain or preserve the exterior with out solid paint.

The cypress that is available these days, doesn't really last any longer than pine in my experience. I wouldn't waste my money on it. You can paint or not paint. Hard to say which lasts longer. It probably depends on your climate.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stoppainting
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnotinve...tm#notpainting

> Something that will not harm bees but keep the natural wood look.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesdipping.htm

[Grant]

Thanks, MB. Looking foward to seeing you in St. Louis on Saturday.

Your link shows a homemade box. What are your dimensions? Thickness of material? Stainless Steel?

If I was to have one custom built, you thought yours was too shallow. Different size?

How do you heat yours?

Grant

[jdmidwest]

Anyone care to elaborate on the slotted rack system. I have seen plans for it. I assume it goes between the bottom board and the first hive body.

[jayoung21]

yes, the slatted rack goes between the bottom board and 1st hive body. It is used to encourage the queen to lay eggs closer to the bottom of the frame of the lower hive body. Personally, I've never used one

[Ddawg]

I was in your shoes this time last year. My personal experience with foundation was; My hive kits came with wax coated plastic foundation, so thats what I used. I sprayed them with sugar water and Honey bee healthy before I installed them and the newly installed package drew them out just fine. After the bees were established they didn't draw the the plastic foundation out as well until there was a full blown flow on. I later tried the wax foundation with the support wires, the bees seemed like those better.

I hope this little bit of info helps

[Moon]

Can't go wrong with naturally drawn frames. I use unassembled wood frames from mannlake. I started with ritecell everything, after my first season the majority of my ritecell foundation was drawn out. After reading up on natural cell comb I decided to have the bees start drawing out natural cell. Aside from all of the differing opinions about the effectiveness of natural cell on controlling diseases and how it's better for the bees my main motivating factor was cost. I simply couldn't afford to expand as aggressively as I wanted and at the same time put out the extra cash for foundation. I'm in the process of having all of my frames in the brood's nest drawn out as natural cell while using the ritecell frames in all of the supers. Natural cell without wires + full frame of honey + extractor = HUGE mess. I had so many blow outs trying to extract that I ended up just cutting up the frames and turning them into chunk comb honey. Blessing in disguise because my chunk comb honey was fetching $10.00 a pound at the local markets and was selling as quickly as my 3lb jugs and 1lb bottles.

EDIT

This is kind of an after thought. If you decide to go with wax coated plastic, RiteCell or something else it really, really helps to put an extra coat on yourself if you can find some untainted beeswax. I used a foam brush from Wal-Mart and bought 20lbs of wax off of a beek I know a couple counties over and coated 500 frames of rite-cell with an extra layer. It was tedious boring work but 3-4 days later and a bottle of whiskey to fight the boredom and I had some pretty stellar frames that the bees drew out quite a bit quicker then the ones without the extra coating.

My $0.02

[Ttankofish1]

Another question, I'm almost done . I still have to cover the outer cover and cut the hand holds I also think I'm going to make the slatted racks. The question is about paint, do you just paint the outside or do you paint the edges where they touch when stacked?

[psfred]

If you paint those edges, the boxes will last longer, but will also stick together much more, especially with latex paint.

Cornstarch or talcum powder liberally applied to the painted edges is supposed to help keep them from sticking.

I don't bother, as the bees will coat the wood with propolis fast enough.

Peter