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Fancy Garden Hive

20K views 45 replies 16 participants last post by  kbfarms 
#1 ·
We've built an inital prototype of a fancy garden hive. This is a medium super. We're thinking of having a deep hive body with a banner in the center for a name or farm name. What do you think of the design?

 
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#5 ·
We figured it would need to be stained/coated or dipped heavily. The other way of making it would be to make the board thicker to accommodate the carving and then sloping it back into 3/4" so the main thickness is 3/4" solid. We may go a head and cut one of those to see how it would look. We were also a bit worried about the final thickness of the panel.

We were also thinking of making it from sassafras instead of pine for more durability, plus we can get the sassafras locally. I think red cedar would also be very pretty. We can drive a bit and get cypress. That would probably also help on the longevity of the boxes.

A box like this would be expensive, so you’d definitely want it to last quite a while.
 
#7 ·
Handholds on all sides except the front. Could put one in the front and do the carving around it.....do you think that would distract too much from the carving? Could do cleats on the sides and rear also. A cleat on the front I don't think would work well with the carving.......opinion?
 
#8 ·
KB.. i like it,looks great.
We also manufacture lots of cedar hives for sale,and already make a pretty hive for gardens with stand and gabled roof,but have been thinking of doing something similar to yours for a while now,but perhaps not quite as elaborate.
Have also been toying with the idea of making a few out of english walnut,have plenty of that at the moment. Obviously same as yourself,would not be selling them cheap,made for a select kind of market really,as opposed to the normal production hives. Love to see a picture of one of yours when all made up complete.
 
#9 ·
BeeUK,
We looked at the hardwoods, but they are tough on the carving tools, plus many of the hardwoods are dense making for heavy boxes. I'm going down to medium 8's right now. I have a few old boxes that are made out of oak. We cut them down to 8's and they still feel twice as heavy as the pine boxes.

You are correct that we are looking at a select market. These would be show hives, award/prize hives, birthday/christmas gifts and such. There are plenty of folks who can make the basic boxes significantly cheaper that we could, plus we really don't want to make that type of box.

Do you use the red or white cedar? How is the market for those boxes in the UK?

We are probably a couple of weeks away from assembing a complete hive. Will post though, when we get there.
 
#10 ·
Hi KB
we use nearly all western red cedar,it's the most popular timber used for hives in the uk,plus pine for the frames,we sawmill and kiln dry all our own timber,and we tend to concentrate on good quality finnished hives. Cannot make them fast enough,as there is rather a boom going on with beekeeping over here at the moment...seems everyone wants to be a beekeeper for the last couple of years,great for buisness, but cannot last at this level i'm sure...lol.
 
#12 ·
I would suggest using your carved panels (without handholds) to make three-sided displays for honey with shelves. Shelves could strengthen the assembly and a lightly built Garden Top could bee used. The display could "grow" by adding sections...

I think you might be able to come up with other uses for hive/bee themed carvings. Perhaps signs, or some sort of gift item. A HONEY sign with the bee relief could be nice.

Think beyond the box....:)
 
#16 ·
Instead of making the carving part of the front side piece why not make a free form plaque that would wrap around the handhold? Then just glue it on.
I'm not sure I follow on wrapping aruond the handhold....it would go above and below the handhold...we just have a cutout where the handhold is and the plaque fits over the handhold? If it is a plaque, then it will stick out from the box, so the sides should be beveled for water runoff......

Do I have the concept right? Would folks mind having a plaque project out from the hive box?

On signage, we can make signs currently up to 24" X 26". With an equipment upgrade we can go 24" X 56".
 
#15 ·
I think that most of the whining about bee boxes being to heavy is because folks only use handholds, and not cleats. Finger tips are not made for lifting, especially gloved finger tips. I have always had beveled cleats on all boxes. I am weak with MS and I only whine about deeps filled with honey.
To achieve cleats I would incorporate a twisted branch across the ends with a swarm hanging from it. Or a bench with hives on top.
 
#17 ·
I think that most of the whining about bee boxes being to heavy is because folks only use handholds, and not cleats.To achieve cleats I would incorporate a twisted branch across the ends with a swarm hanging from it. Or a bench with hives on top.
Instead of carving the box, we carve cleats? So one type of cleat would be a 1/1/2" to 2" wide cleat say roughly 12" in length. We would carve a branch into that rectangle and have a swarm hanging off one end of the branch, so the cleat blank would actually be like a short capital L turned sideways and the bottom of the L would be where the swarm was carved. Is this what correct? I'm not certain what you mean by a bench with hives on top...can you help me out here?
 
#26 ·
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.
 
#27 ·
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
 
#28 ·
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
 
#29 ·
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.
 
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