Recent content by Cedar Field John

Thanks.

Finished the roof today. I made it from some old roof slats that had been behind my shed for years. I knew they'd eventually come in handy. Just the winter board to make and its finished.

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I haven't kept bees for 30 years since using TBH's. Thought I would try and start again with national, but its not for me. Do you prefer the horizontal to TBH?

So my first bees are now in my national hive, and I dont like the feel of it. Also, the horizontal hive I have made is beautiful, but took a solid month to make. So I have decided to go back to what I did thirty years ago and use Top Bar Hives. I managed to put this one together in three days...

Almost finished . Just need to fit an aluminium strip to the ridge of the roof and fit some rubber rings to the air vent bungs.

If anyone is interested in building a horizontal hive to fit deep frames, then in my calculations I found that three standard studwork timbers that you can pick up at wickes or b&q produce the exact depth required for the body. Two are 89mm x 38mm and one is 63mm x 38mm. The Three combined...

That would definitely help. You wouldn't want the legs closing like a pair of scissors.

That's a very nice idea. Would definitely need a couple of bolts through the crossover, as there will be a lot of weight on that point.

Yes, I have to make an adjustment to the follower boards top bars, so one side is flush to the face of the follower board. Other than that, they fit with a 1mm gap all the way round the inside of the box. There is also no gap at all to the cover boards on top.

Yes that's one thing I would change. I wish I had set them on a slope. I will definitely be doing that on my next build. It's incredibly heavy, so hopefully it won't blow over too easily.

Just finished painting the hive. Think it looks great.

Thanks for your nice reply. I'm not concerned at all by the comments on the vents. I have kept and painted the drilled out circles for when they may be needed to block the holes; just like the many other people who have made the hive in this design. The cover boards with the vents can also be...

I wouldn't have spent ten days building it and not taken bee space into account. There is exactly 8mm around the sides of the frames; 8mm from the frames to the cover boards and two thirds of an inch underneath the frames. The rebate is 17mm to take the 9mm thick top bar to leave the 8mm.

Before making this hive, I must of watched over a dozen videos on how to make them. Every video shows this same air vent construction. If the bees decide two or three holes is too many they may close one up. If it gets to hot, they will open it again. I have kept the pieces I drilled out for the...

So the air can come in through the bottom of the hive and leave through the top to prevent moisture.