Hello Tony - sorry for the delay in replying, I've been unable to access the forum with my usual computer due to a scrambled screen - probably due to a Forum software upgrade - but a temporary 'fix' has now been found.
A quick 'Stop Press' for yourself and any other British beekeepers reading this:
Simon The Beekeeper is packing it in and is currently running a closing-down sale. A lot of his stuff is being sold-off at heavily reduced prices so worth a look if you need any equipment or clothing.
Mesh (OMF
) along the centreline ? Yes, you'd have thought so ... that's what I thought too - but just look at the mould which developed :
The reason for this is water 'pooling' on the floor, which cannot escape.
Just look at the difference when that 'strip-OMF' is relocated to one side, and the hive then tilted by 10 degrees or so over Winter, so that most of the water escaped through the mesh:
There's still some mould high up in the corners which could probably be eliminated by a full-length 'strip-OMF', but it's a huge improvement.
Retro-fitting such a mesh can be awkward - so it's best to fit such a strip when initially making the floor (this being a different hive):
Then attachment becomes easy:
Ok - space at the sides ... The British National Frame width (i.e. across the side-bars) is 356mm, and the standard National box is 374mm across the inside, leaving 18/2 = 9mm at each side of the frame.
I've adopted 370mm (leaving 7mm at each side) without encountering problems, so you can see there's some latitude here. The reason I've adopted 370mm is because with that tighter spacing a perfect end clearance results with the thickness timber I use:
..., and then all that's required is to fix some planks onto the outside, and the rebates (rabbets in the US) are formed automatically:
Insodoing - one less thing to have to worry about.
Incidently - what I used in the past was a 370mm width template, to ensure accurate spacing:
But then I figured out a much better way:
So I made two of the above templates, which are screwed into position in the centre of a slightly oversized end-plate. The two sides are offered-up against each end template, with the whole caboodle placed upside-down on a flat surface.
When happy with the arrangement, the ends of the long sides are dressed with glue, and the whole assembly then clamped together. Screws are inserted to hold the end-plates onto the long sides, diagonals checked for equality, and the glue allowed to provisonally set. After about 15 mins or so (I use D4 glue from Everbuild - similar to Titebond 3), the two templates are unscrewed and removed. Next day the excess wood on the end-plates is removed. Job almost done - all that's needed then is a floor adding, entrances made, followed by a coat of paint.
And that's about it - feeder shell, roof etc need to be made of course if these are required.
LJ