I am thinking of making some home made boxes from timber that I have on hand. Why is it necessary to have the sides 22mm thick? Would 19mm suffice? I would not think bees would care that much. Also, does anyone have some good plans for making bee hives?
Many go with 22mm simply for the extra durability that it provides - 19mm is fine... There are some good plans online - as well as a few links to plans on here - have you done a search? i can't remember any posts/sites off the top of my head - sorry
Beesource forum home page has a good list of plans etc in their DIY section, they'll all be in inches though :?
Paul.
Just make sure the internal dimensions are the same to ensure bee space is OK
Thanks guys. I'll do a search for some plans. I will use my current hives for dimensions but I'm not that happy with the design.
The landing board is small and bees coming in with a full load often land on the edge and then fall off so have to fly up again and crawl in. I intend on using large tapered landing boards which I think will work much better.
The hives I have also have a large airspace in the lid. Is this really necessary? Why wouldn't a flat piece of timber work?
The other point is ventilation. My hives have no ventilation at all (apart from the entrance which isn't all that big) and I have had problems with mould during winter in small colonies. I'm looking for ideas of how to get around this too.
My lids which also have that empty space in them have two vents on each end, I'm guessing that the extra space above the frames aids the ventilation.
http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/ (http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/)