Hi guys my bees come tomorrow and putting the finishing touches on their new home. I have a old wood shop table I was going to use for a hive stand and I was wondering how tall it should be? or how high off the ground do you recommend?
Thanks
Brian
16 inches if you have skunks in the area. Otherwise, lower.
I have mine at 16 inch's if a skunk try to get at the hive this will expose there under side so the bee's can get them and defend the hive.
My hives consist of two deeps, and some have 3 or 4 shallow supers on them right now. That's about 3.5 feet high with bottom board and cover. I have them on cement blocks, so that's another 8 inches or so, the top of the hive is a bit over 4 feet high. That's a comfortable height for me to work with when it comes to lifting off supers full of honey.
If you're gonna use an old table, I'd recommend cutting the legs down so that the table is only 12-18 inches high.
mine are at 14".
12-14 inches works well for me.
Mine is about 8 feet off the ground on a garage roof.
My stands are all 3 1/2" tall... either a two by frame on edge or four by fours laying on the ground.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand)
Check out what I found at work today...about a foot longer than a regular pallet it could easily hold 8 hives while getting full use of the SBB.
(http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/NasalSponge/MVC-032F.jpg)
I like those pallets.
They break down in sunlight...been there, done that, wasn't pretty.
Scott
Blah....always someone around to ruin everything with facts!! :-D
I set my hives on 2x10 ladder frames 16 inches high. I also set the legs in cutoff milk cartons filled with water to keep the ants out.
AND ants are bad this year.
Have fun!
Here's my setup...
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/9788/im000431.jpg) (http://img706.imageshack.us/i/im000431.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Now my ENTRANCES are higher... they are at the top because of the skunks...
Quote from: hardwood on June 28, 2010, 03:35:42 PM
They break down in sunlight...been there, done that, wasn't pretty.
Scott
Paint them white or yellow with plastic spray paint and they'll last much longer...