The replies are appreciated. Time will tell I guess.
I will have help for sure lifting hives. I am hiring for next season and am setting interviews next week.
Thanks again.
For moving bees around the yard, a lifter is great. For lifting them up onto the truck, it's probably easier to lift them by hand. Both ways take two people.
Very helpful with heavy hives that have to be carried a ways especially if stairs are involved. Like MP said, once you get to the truck sometimes it is easier to remove it and load without.
We used a trailer towed behind a pickup for moving bees. We simply put down the rear tailgate on the trailer, and walked up it with the hives for loading. Works great.
If you have them stapled together you just go up one or two supers, some do get a little tipsy but still better than doing it by hand, to put them on the truck we stack one or two deeps below the tailgate, put them on the deeps then pick up by hand. One person I help has bad shoulders(can't lift them very high) this method works well.
we use one very similar to that in the photo. It's great, particularily for moving a hive in an area where there is no possibility of getting a vehicle. At our house before we moved, ground was to steep, but with two of us, using that gadget, easily carry a double deep up the hill to the vehicle.
We've never tried to move a hive with more than two deeps. When we intended to do that, we always pulled the supers first, them moved the resulting double deep with that carrying gadget.
To use this carrier, do you slide it down from the top?
The hive carrier that I have, has a cleat that goes into the hive handle to keep it from slipping, and for positive grip. Do you plan to add it.
If not, wouldn't it slip if either man gave slack while holding the hive.
Yes it slides down from the top. The way it is designed, it "pinches" the hive with the cross bars. The heavier the hive the stronger the pinch.
IF the hive slipped out it was because the other helper did it on purpose. In which case they would be sent packing. lol
>The hive carrier that I have, has a cleat that goes into the hive handle to keep it from slipping, and for positive grip
I agree, you are missing an essential part if you have hand holds only. Yours will work on a hive with cleat handles, but will slip on a hive with cut out handholds only. The commercial ones have a swollen area covered with a black stiff hose to fit into the hand holds.
odfrank... Mine has that black stiff hose that goes in the hand hold. It came from Kelly Bee Co, I think, 1998. I don't move more than double deeps very often. But, occasionally someone calls and wants a double deep with 3 honey supers moved, in that case, those movers are nice.
I will go out to the shop and see if I can snap a photo of mine also.
EDIT..... I went out and took a photo, but, I have recently changed computers, and I cannot get this one to downsize a photo enough so that beesource will allow it. I will see if someone will show me how to do it with this computer. No problem on the old one, but, I can't do it on this one.
O.K. Let me see if I can post this photo. Yes, I believe it is going to work. Now you can see the part odfrank talked about.
You beat me to it. My shop is a 20 minutes drive. And my piece of hose is black, circa 1975.
Good to see your shop is as big a mess as mine. Actually a lot less of a mess.
Ok... here is the completed hive lifter.
I didn't like the single ribber gripper on each crossarm idea. From a engineering standpoint (and common sense) it is an accident waiting to happen.
With this set up you have 4 points of contact on the hive body at all times. The contact will be at the corners where it is the strongest.
Mr Beeman Not to belabor the point, but, that rubber gripper is set at an angle and goes into the hive hand hold .
If you don't have a hand hole then the rubber grip is centered and the weight of the hive is what holds it, much the same as yours.
cchoganjr
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