Pete, you could make slatted, entrance boards to go above the brood nest.

 

Ain't called cheap,It's called creative, maybe make some hive top feeder's.You can look them up,But they are simple to make & useful,
Hope someone else will help.

 

A few years ago I purchased an adjustable finger joint router bit --> CMT 800.606.11 Professional Finger Joint Bit.

I've only just begun using it, this past week, for the first time. It works wonderfully for assembling collections of scraps, especially all 3/4" thick pieces. It works both edge to edge and end to end, or even edge to end. It also works superbly to eliminate knots from pieces of lumber containing them. It costs round about $100, so I'm wondering why I waited so long to put it to use. I no longer look at scraps the same way. I may never look at scraps the same way again.

I recently cut the components for sixty, foundationless, deep frames. And most of their 17" long Bottom Bars were cut 7/16" thick x 3/4" wide, from a piece of lumber, assembled from five pieces of scrap, glued together using this finger joint bit to create glue joints, that I glued and clamped together.

I've even reconstituted some larger, usable dimensional pieces -- to length and to width, by patchwork piecing them together, using the joint wherever the edges of one board, meet the edges of one or more other boards. I can even see using 1" x 2/3/4" lumber to build up boards wide enough for building supers. This bit could likely also be used to create the edge joints of supers.

The only question I can think of; is why didn't I start using this bit, sooner? It is very easy to set up, and also very easy to assemble. Since I only have one router table, which I like to use for other purposes, I plan to create a homemade router table, dedicated to this finger joint bit. It wouldn't even need a fence, since it is guided by a bearing, and the cutters are added or removed, depending on the thickness of the lumber being joined.

 

It wouldn't even need a fence, since it is guided by a bearing,

Joseph if you mount the router in a table please use a fence. You will notice that the photo that has the router in a table shows a fence. That is because it is dangerous not to. The bearing is for hand held.

 

I've made frames for robber screens, frame holder that I can put up to 5 frames when doing inspections, 2 1/2" shims so I can feed dry sugar in winter, need to make a few entrance reducers.

 

I've used scraps to build cheap shims, some with screened vent holes in the them. I've made "sifters" which are nothing more than frames with a recessed edge and screen for when I want to apply powdered sugar. Entrance reducers and cleats for boxes are other items I've used scraps for. Oh, and slatted bottom boards. Oh, and I glued up a bunch of odd sized scrapes once to make the top for an outer cover which I covered with galvanized metal.

I LOVE Joseph's idea and it's next on my "to buy" list!

 

Sounds like just what I need to make more covers and bottom boards. The one by is sliced into 1/4 or 5/16" pieces and used to put on three sides of a 22" X 16 1/4" piece of plywood with 1/2" slices of two by scraps for the stiffeners across. Covers are 5/16" rims on plywood with 3/8" stiffeners front and back.

 

3ft lengths? Ooooooh.........there is a lot you could do with that. For instance, entrance reducers, rims for outer covers, top bars, shims, mouse guards, hand holds, bottom board rims, jigs for making Woodenware, that's just off the top of my head.
Utilization of scrap lumber is one of the essences of beekeeping.

 

Brian,
Don't worry, I will. At the least a fence will put something else between me and unfettered access to the spinning router blades. I can visualize me, stumbling and falling into the spinning blades. With or without a fence in the way. Worst case, either way, always has a better outcome, with a fence.

Also, I will need a fence, if I'm going to try cutting these profiles into the vertical face edge of super boards, to see how this joint is for making supers. I have a nice piece of white ash that I've been using for router table fences - it should suffice, and is about 8" wide (good to keep my hands away from the cutter as I feed stock, standing on edge).

I think I'll also build a dust collection box, behind the fence cut-out for the bits.

 

I use "scraps" for all sorts of things. 3/4" can be jointed fair and glued up to make supers, can be use to make the frame for ueen excluders and inner covers, solid bottom boards, and outer covers. No reason not to use them for telescoping tops since you are going to put metal on there anyway.

I only toss stuff to short, and if I get jiggy someday and get that finger joint cutter, might quit that too.

Scrap 2 by stuff, so long as it will go through the planer, gets used to make end bars. Gotta be 17 3/4" long to make bottom bars, but since I use divided ones, anything knot free goes there.

Peter

 

Not bee related, but I made my grandkids a crate of wooden blocks carefully sized with all dimensions being multiples of 3/4". Despite all of the high tech electronics they all have + leggos and duplo blocks and things like that - they love the simple wooden blocks. I suspect that when they grow up one of them will snag the crate of blocks for their kids.

If that is too low tech, I made some matching marble run blocks that have grooves in them to roll a marble down. Great fun building Rube Goldberg like marble runs. Search for marble run blocks or marble machines on YouTube.

Bee related - robber screens are made from small pieces of wood as are slatted racks. Queen cages made for a cell to emerge into could be handy. Cell bar frames, queen bank frames. Removable box dividers. Systems for containing the queen on just a few frames.

 

I'm too cheap to throw small pieces away, too, but there comes a size when they're too small to be worth saving for any project.

Scrap pine, not pressure-treated, preserved or finished, just clean untreated wood, makes good kindling. Shavings from a planer or from using forstner bits make good tender for starting fires. I'm saving small bits to shave up and use as smoker fuel.

 

Ahhhh...scraps

When I was a little girl, My grandfather told me to always take the time to clean up your shop at the end of the day...But I keep almost every scrap I generate. I HATE cutting a full size piece of lumber into small pieces. And I HATE wasting any natural resource like good wood.

I will use EVERY scrap at some point. But keeping them organized and tidy is difficult. The more standardizing I get in my equipment, the more standardized I get with my scraps. It IS getting better. I use even very small pieces to make mini mating nucs, and the inner covers to top them..I burn very little.

Trying to get some one to come get scraps to burn in their wood stove is like offering produce out of the garden. If you deliver it, cook it, cut it up and feed them they MIGHT take it.

I often get small units of shorts from my local cedar mill. Here you see some 3/4" x 3 x 24" shorts I ran on the router to make bottom boards.

In my wet climate I generally make my botttom boards flush with the hive to aviod catching rain. In my opinion they don't need a landing board. But I was cutting off and throwing away 4" of this cedar...I also just happened to have a roll of #8 hardware cloth scrap left over. I just left the sides full length and made a screened landing area. No waste. It wasn't too time consuming and was a good way to use up scrap materials.

 

'Cheap' is now called 'green.' Nearly everthing in my beekeeping arsenal is made from freebies and project lrftovers.

 

Thanks everyone, I do appreciate your ideas. I knew that there were plenty of things that could be built, but for some reason I was stuck on entrance reducers as the only idea. Starting today I'll start working on putting together larger pieces and work my way down in scale. But, I'll save some good scraps for making marble runs (thanks for that, David!). Joseph, I'll keep that bit on my wish list, but will have to wait for a 1/2 router to come my way first; my current router only has a 1/4" mandrel.

I am a habitual scrap saver, and the only limitation I keep in mind is the need to work safely.

 

Here is an idea I came up with this morning. Since practically all my wooden ware is made from scavenged 1x4 I have a lot of small pieces. After I made a dado jig for bottom boards like Cleo Hogan makes, while looking at the dado cut I thought about Lincoln Logs that I had as a kid and how much I loved them. So I made a set for my grandson. I used the 3/4" rabbet of the jig and set the blade height at 3/16", cut my 1x4 8" long and ran each end through, flipped it and did the other side then cut them 3/4" wide on the table saw. Took all of 1/2 hour to make the amount shown and then made the 9"x8-3/4" box to store them in.