Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: happybees on February 23, 2010, 02:31:06 AM

Poll
Question: 4way pallet - water.
Option 1: Answer 1 votes: 0
Option 2: Answer 2 votes: 0
Title: 4 way pallets question
Post by: happybees on February 23, 2010, 02:31:06 AM
I have my hives on 4-way pallets with strips, which create the entrance.  Two hives face the opposite direction of the other two. During the rainy season, a lot of water gathers at the bottom of some hives.
I guess, the rain gets mostly through the entrance, if the pallet is inclined  or through other cracks. Moisture stimulates the mold growth and is bad for bees. I had a case when bees bearably were able to get out through the entrance, because water was so high.  
I made some holes on bottom boards (pallets), but they got clogged with dirt.
Now, I want to reconstruct the hives to keep the water away. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you.    
Title: Re: 4 way pallets question
Post by: rdy-b on February 23, 2010, 03:04:38 AM
one thing i notice this year i had to buy extra pallets -the pallets i run dont have any decking between the hives -but the pallets this year had solid plywood deck -rain watter builds on the deck and runs under the beeway strip-so i made weep holes-inside the hive area and the deck between the hives-the weep holes had to be at least 1 inch (how big did you make yours)-so now the mice can get in but mice go where it is dry :) so if you have the pallets with the continuos deck  the problem is worse than the pallets with open deck-any way somtimes it is condensation-sometimes rain-but with pallets there are always two hive that the watter runs to- RDY-B
Title: Re: 4 way pallets question
Post by: MacfromNS on February 23, 2010, 06:41:55 AM
When I make my bottom boards, I make them to drain out the front so you don't have to lean the hive.Now for the ones you already have, put a piece of 1x1 under the back side.