Well, I wasn't thinking and when I put my first 2 deeps and 2 medium supers together. I didn't square them. They are screwed and glued and will never again come apart. This also means that my hive will never sit quite right on top of each other. Oh well, lesson learned.
I bet they will settle into one another over time with weather and the weight of honey. What ever gaps there are will either be filled in with propolis or provide some useful ventilation.
I never do anything special to square up my boxes when building other than using some bar clamps (not all around, just on the side I am hammering nails into) - but only using those to compress the pieces together.
Although mine start with Dadant pre-cut material . . . If I was building from scratch I could see making bigger mistakes that might be more of a hassle to get close to square.
Hey, trust me, that will be only one of a number of mistakes you will end up making learning all of this stuff. As long as you learn from it, it's all good.
JC
don't worry about it. all things can be fixed with duct tape. i got some boxes that were used. some had some warps and some had holes. i used them for swarm catching and extra boxes. when there was a gap, i just backed some duct tape with duct tape so no sticky was to the inside of the hive, and covered the gaps. works great. lasts the winter. cheap.
Just how bad out of square are they? When you stack them on top of each other, how bad are the cracks? Bees seal up the small stuff and as boxes get used over the years, the corners all get rounded off from prying them apart.
You can always use shims or wedges. Besides, ever see a square, plum wild nest site or a perfect tree cavity? :-D Don't sweat the small stuff. It will work out!
They are just off a little. Enough that they don't stack perfectly. Your right though, not a very big deal. Just annoying.
First, take a picture so we all know how big the gaps are. The bees will fill a slight crack.
Second, I always nail, screw, & glue the boxes. Being a bee hive is a lot of work and hard on the furniture. I do use bar claps to square them at glue up. Plus they are set on the floor with weights on them to help settle the corners. Maybe I'm crazy but i hate warped boxes that rock back & forth. I have one bad box. It sits on the bottom board with another honey filled box on top of it. I cant detect or see any warp or misaligned space now. The boxes do conform to each other.
I know some people like to not use glue so they can replace single panels of the box if damaged. That's fine but to me it's like changing only one battery in a flashlight.
I was given some deeps like this. Leaves lots of places for SHB to hide but otherwise I think not really a problem in my warm climate.
QuoteThere was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
Tom
Put about three concrete blocks on top and it will settle in...