Hive specific stands. Necessary?

[MuswellMetro]

it is only your back that will notice, not the bees

i have seen hives on pallets, old tyres, breeze block, £30.stands, £10 stand, 3" high, 18" high etc etc etc

i raid a few skips for wood and make them up as needed, so mine are 18" high and cost pence for the nails or in an emgencey any bricks or old fence posts just under the hive

 

[snelgrove]

The higher the better for your back, but remember the higher more difficult it is to remove supers. I use several kinds the easiest is breeze blocks laid on edge and 3x2 timber on top. hives must be off the ground but alighting boards are. ot a necessity

 

[mjt68]

Not necessary but worth it in my opinion. Bricks/crates/breeze blocks all do the job but may not end up at the right height.

 

[Robbo8916]

Wasn't expecting this to become a debate but why not?

It is interesting to hear and I imagine there are a fair few hives sat on garden benches etc...

 

[user 6228]

Interesting to compare with U.S. practice. They only put hives 4" or 100mm off the ground.

Then they say they need top entrances because of deep snow and skunks.

a 500mm stand (~20") will put a UK bottom entrance at the same height as a U.S. top entrance.

Honeybees have good reasons to go high with their nests. It puts them well above the snow. And those threats that dare to venture up to them are exposed to the weather and the attention of bigger predators who cant get in.

 

[peterbees]

I have seen someone using car tyres laid on there side, one good thing about them is they will not rot.

I've had swarms settle in a car tyre under the hive floor. A car tyre full of wild comb, bees and brood takes some sorting out. Tyres are fine for the heather in August.

 

[BeeJayBee]

... or whether a solid base of breeze blocks or such like would be sufficient?

Not a solid base of anything, there needs to be a gap beneath the open mesh floor so that hive debris falls to the ground.

If you decide to use pallets it's best to remove at least the central board, so the hives are resting on the outer rails with a clear gap beneath OMF. Pallets can be supported on breeze blocks. A decent sized pallet will easily take two hives.

I've found the best height is to have the top of the brood box at the same height as my wrists, other people prefer slightly higher, some lower.

There is a debate about whether landing (alighting) boards are beneficial to bees or not. Lets face it they don't have them in trees!

I've never known a living tree that wasn't joined to the ground. The bees can land on the trunk and safely walk to the entrance. Landing boards resting against the front of a hive mimics this, and lessen the chance of bees undershooting the hive entrance and gathering beneath the OMF.

It's also handy to put an identifier or marker on the landing board rather than on the front of a hive. A landing board is unlikely to be swapped around in the apiary, whereas nicely painted brood boxes etc can be.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Not a solid base of anything, there needs to be a gap beneath the open mesh floor so that hive debris falls to the ground.

If you decide to use pallets it's best to remove at least the central board, so the hives are resting on the outer rails with a clear gap beneath OMF. Pallets can be supported on breeze blocks. A decent sized pallet will easily take two hives.

Totally agree with that. I made that mistake before and couldn't then figure out how to sublimate Oxalic under the OMF!!

I've found the best height is to have the top of the brood box at the same height as my wrists, other people prefer slightly higher, some lower.

The height of the stand tends to be to personal choice. All I would say is that you have to consider the years that you have an exceptional flow!

*Also illustrates the kind of weight that a stand must be able to take!

I've never known a living tree that wasn't joined to the ground. The bees can land on the trunk and safely walk to the entrance. Landing boards resting against the front of a hive mimics this, and lessen the chance of bees undershooting the hive entrance and gathering beneath the OMF.

It's also handy to put an identifier or marker on the landing board rather than on the front of a hive. A landing board is unlikely to be swapped around in the apiary, whereas nicely painted brood boxes etc can be.

I have hives both with and without landing boards. In terms of your tree analogy then I would say that the bees land on the front surface of the hive (more akin to the trunk of a tree) and walk to the entrance.

I have also attached landing boards to the front of the floor rather than the stand.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was wondering what people's views were on the necessity of buying these or whether a solid base of breeze blocks or such like would be sufficient?

Save your money - 3"x2" 'treated fence rails are cheap enough two will easily make a three hive stand with b18" legs, just use coach bolts to secure the legs to the rails (I put two hives on it and they are strong enough to hold hives with more than six supers on) either that or just a couple of hollow breeze blocks sat on an ordinary breeze block laid on the flat will give you a decent height and put a couple of 4" or 3"x2 rails on top held together with a couple of noggings.

Not necessary but worth it in my opinion.

I must disagree - gimicky and nothing more, they are exactly the same footprint as the hive so you need another stand alongside for any manipulations and only being 18" square can quickly become unstable with a few supers stacked on top. Alighting boards are unnecessary but if you're that concerned either just build them into the OMF or use underfloor entrances (which also means you still have a square footprint so they pack together nicey if you need to transport).
If you must buy a stand buy the standard trestle type stands for three hives.

 

[mjt68]

I must disagree - gimicky and nothing more, they are exactly the same footprint as the hive so you need another stand alongside for any manipulations and only being 18" square can quickly become unstable with a few supers stacked on top. Alighting boards are unnecessary but if you're that concerned either just build them into the OMF or use underfloor entrances (which also means you still have a square footprint so they pack together nicey if you need to transport).
If you must buy a stand buy the standard trestle type stands for three hives.

For goodness sake don't pay top whack for gimmicky stands, what I meant (but didn't communicate) was that something with a bit of thought and design is better than a heap of anything. Breeze blocks and lengths of decent wood and a great start. Improv stands are fine temporarily, but ergonomics makes a difference.

 

[Bob D.]

Four lengths of pressure treated studding from Wicks (under #20 total), a bucket of coach screws from the garage spares pile, 4 recycled half slabs and some time.

Gave me two sturdy parallel bars 180cm long and 50cm off the ground with cross braces I can strap the hive(s) to. Only thing hive specific was the space between the bars, just right so I can hang frames and dummy boards between them while working.

The hight and a single hive on one end gives me space to work and put things down without too much bending. There's room for two hives and still have some work space available.

If you can't stand on the stand with confidence then it's probably not strong enough. Note I didn't say jump, that would be silly.