i was never into bee sheds untill a few years ago, myself and a guy called John, both decided to try chemo , ( very over rated)
any way due to John being wheel chair bound and skint we decided to set him up as a bee farmer. i needed a place with wheel chair access all year round, a dry area to work in, bees as well as equipment and so on. the bee shed idea came forth, knowing a few people in eastern europe helped as they sent me loads of pictures.
also so knowing several people whole bee farm with converted trailers holding the hives, helps with ideas so does artic lorry trailers, popular in the middle east and romania too.
i built in the end ten bee sheds in brum each one was set up to hold a single tier of hives, a 20 frame version of the darlington hive basically this allowed John to work the bees horizontally rather than vertically
supers were five frames wide and sat on top of the darlington version brood box, supers were only a single lift with a simple little and often removel and emptying and replacement
each shed is a standard by 3metres (8foot by 10 foot) and 2.1metres tall (7 foot)
this allowed a clear centre space for wheel chair works as well as a row of bee hives around the external walls all venting bees outside and a single window for light
look for "hedgerow pete " on you tube to find my channel and the videos there in, theres about 50 or so, all or most are filmed inside the Bee Shed Studios, BSS!!
i find it hard to start with as the bees i keep are more than the standard levels of aggression and they do get a little full on,
when i used to teach , i found it fantastic as with a smaller gentler hive the newbees can work the bees no matter what the weather and also in the winter time with a load of snow on the outside hives mine were able to be worked,
the downsides now, first up yes ther are warmer in winter but also insulated from the spring warm up so , some times slow to start to build up, which suits my lazt lot as when every posible they miss the build up to the OSR season.
next up , on a bad day you and ten thousand upset bees share the same 8 foot square room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thirdly, great to store every thing in but a pain to move bees from inside to out etc.
no way to use a slengrove board and or other swarm prevention controls etc
construction , mine is main from 50mm by 75mm timbre (3" by 2" old money)
with a ply wood internal skin and a steel sheet outer or ply wood face, insulated with polystyrene sheets 50mm thick, floor is scaffold board frame and 18mm ply with a wheel chair ramp to it ( now removed)
this is me stood a foot away from three very very large hives inside the shed
