My floorplank top-bar hvie

[ugcheleuce]

Hello everyone

Here are the particulars of my self-built top-bar hive. I've used the "floor planks" again -- they're cheap and readily available, and I'm getting experienced in using them. Plus I can cut them to size without having to haul out my table saw (if I had a better table saw I might have hauled).

First, the plans, in Microsoft Paint format:

While nailing, one of the planks moved a bit without me noticing it before it was too late. Not a big problem. Avoidable if you have a friend.

I haven't drilled the flight openings yet. The holes you see under the varroa mesh aren't the flight openings (in case anyone would think that). They are for ventilation (if needed) and for the varroa checks. They can be closed off using those special short planks.

And finally, the hive itself:

The planking requires 9 floorplank planks (8 if you're willing to re-use short off-cuts, or make the front/rear walls taper off a bit). A six pack of those planks cost EUR 13.00. I'll add a few more strips of wood on the sides to re-enforce it (just in case) and of course I have to build the legs (unless I decide to just leave the thing on the ground, on a couple of bricks). The top-bars will set me back an additional EUR 22 (it's a ten-pack of planks from which I can get about 50 top-bars).

Your thoughts?

Added: I wonder if I would be able to do an under-floor inspection by opening both ventilation holes, and sliding a camera (with flash enabled) underneath the varroa mesh. Could make for an interesting film... if the camera focuses right.

 

[Madge]

How are you going to remove the debris from the floor? With a very long-handled brush?
Kitta

 

[ugcheleuce]

How are you going to remove the debris from the floor? With a very long-handled brush?

I'll have a long piece of paper in there (possibly also a piece of thin triplex for the paper to rest on).

 

[Tom Bick]

Much better if the solid timber floor under the mesh was removable and acted as a tray. Also the same applies to tbh as with conventional hives you are recommended not to preserve the inside of the hive.

 

[ugcheleuce]

Much better if the solid timber floor under the mesh was removable and acted as a tray.

Making it removable would impact the structural rigidity of the design (I think).

Also the same applies to tbh as with conventional hives you are recommended not to preserve the inside of the hive.

I'm aware of the arguments and reasons, and on the balance of that I decided to paint the inside. If it was a better quality wood with more precise joints, I would have left it unpainted. Even if I left it unpainted I would have painted it with propolis tincture, because the side-wall is sloping and not vertical.

 

[Tom Bick]

Providing your joints at the ends are good removing the bottom board should cause no problems. You can always strengthen the end joints with triangular or square blocks glued and screwed into the corners. I think your set up with that permanent board will cause you problems in the long run. I know of a tbh without a mesh floor just solid and to me that is slightly better than your design.

 

[pargyle]

Much better if the solid timber floor under the mesh was removable and acted as a tray. Also the same applies to tbh as with conventional hives you are recommended not to preserve the inside of the hive.

I agree but a piece of Correx the size of the solid floor that will slide in and out will sort the problem. I've just made a new non-sticky inspection board out of a peice of white melamine faced hardboard with some thin softwood strips round the edge to keep it rigid and prevent warping. Goes in the 'drawer' under my mesh floor which is not that dissimilar to your arrangement - but detachable with hive clips holding it in place. Works a treat ...

 

[pargyle]

. Also the same applies to tbh as with conventional hives you are recommended not to preserve the inside of the hive.

Yes, I'd have left the inside unpainted as the bees would then have 'varnished' it themselves or I used a varnish made out of propolis and other debris from the hive dissolved in meths. Gives it a lovely 'bee smell' and saves them the effort of decorating the inside of the hive themselves ... not to mention sealing the surface of coiurse !

 

[Tom Bick]

Perhaps it may save them some time but did you ok the colour first!!

 

[pargyle]

Perhaps it may save them some time but did you ok the colour first!!

No - but I checked with SWMBO who makes ALL colour decisions in our household ! She said it was OK as long as she didn't have to look at it !! Sort of bee brown ... bees obviously like it as they are decorating the frames the same colour ...

 

[ugcheleuce]

Perhaps it may save them some time but did you ok the colour first!!

I specifically went for the green because they can see green. My other hive is red, and they can't see red, so I'm going to have to paint the flight opening green or white or something.

 

[ugcheleuce]

Providing your joints at the ends are good...

Joints... what are those?

You can always strengthen the end joints with triangular or square blocks glued and screwed into the corners.

Good point, I'll keep that in mind for the mark II. Using such blocks would also make it easier to get the angle right and to avoid the sloping walls from ending up slightly off position after the glue has set.

 

[Madge]

I specifically went for the green because they can see green. My other hive is red, and they can't see red, so I'm going to have to paint the flight opening green or white or something.

They can see red, but it appears black.
Kitta

 

[ugcheleuce]

They can see red, but it appears black.

No-one can see black. Black doesn't exist. Black is simply the absence of any colour that the eye is capable of seeing. Red looks like to the bees what infra-red looks like to us. They can't see red.

 

[drex]

Looks rather complicated, especially the floor. I have made TBH's according to plans on natural beekeeping site.

I have a mesh floor with solid board hinged under that. Leave it open all summer and close for winter with couple of hooks and eyes. If you want distance between the mesh and solid board floor, then it is easy just to put a rim of 1x1 round it.
My bees seem to have no complaints.

 

[Madge]

...They can't see red.

Yes, it *appears* black to them.

 

[ugcheleuce]

Looks rather complicated, especially the floor.

Oh, I thought it was dead simple. Perhaps I must clarify something -- the overriding criterium is materials cost, and the cheapest planks that I could find are these tongue-and-groove planks. This means that I have to combine some of them to make larger planks. The second criterium is that I must be able to build it with practically no tools... and I tried to design it so that I don't have to do any rip saw cuts (because my table saw is junk). That is why the floor is exactly 3 planks wide and the walls are exactly 3 planks tall, and the hive is exactly 4 planks high, and if you wanted to make a roof that fit exactly, it would be exactly... 5 planks wide, etc.

After glueing the sloping walls and the floor into larger planks, I built the floor separately. Then I added the front/rear walls to the floor, and lastly I added the sloping walls. I made an A4 print-out of a "70 degree" angle so that I could position the sloping walls correctly. Then I just glued and nailed them down.

One reason for the doubled vertical "wall" in the floor is to help me know exactly where the sloping walls should meet the floor, when I build it.

I have made TBH's according to plans on natural beekeeping site.

Yeah, some of the designs that I've seen on the web are pretty simple, if you can get the right size planks to begin with. Both Chandler and Crowder have some very simple and easy construction methods for closed-floor designs.

 

[Tom Bick]

Joints... what are those?

Yes I spotted the nails coming through the side

 

[ugcheleuce]

Yes I spotted the nails coming through the side

The nails are in the right place... it's that plank that shifted.