How high should the bee stand bee?

flyboy · July 17, 2015, 06:29:07 PM

I am building a bee stand and I was wondering how high the hive should bee held off of the ground?

Plan A is 23.25" or just above kneecap height.

divemaster1963 · July 17, 2015, 08:04:29 PM

You can make any height you what. Just think about how high it well be when you add supers.also think about windload high winds and tall boxes don't mix well.

John

splitrock · July 17, 2015, 09:59:07 PM

Mine sit on a pallet and I had to take 2 supers off one today because it was getting way to tall. I wouldn't want mine any higher off the ground, those full supers are hard to lift when they are already way up there.

MikeyN.C. · July 17, 2015, 10:01:27 PM

What I've seen 4x4 post (legs) 14 inches, then deck boards,on top,and then band around outside .

Eric Bosworth · July 17, 2015, 10:18:19 PM

Quote from: splitrock on July 17, 2015, 09:59:07 PM
Mine sit on a pallet and I had to take 2 supers off one today because it was getting way to tall. I wouldn't want mine any higher off the ground, those full supers are hard to lift when they are already way up there.

You need a tractor with a bucket... Then you can raise yourself... Or have your wife raise you and then you can always be at a good height... Or... You can take my approach and use horizontal hives so it doesn't get tall.

BeeMaster2 · July 17, 2015, 10:51:12 PM

Flyboy,
You want the hives off the ground enough to provide a little air flow and not have too much ground moisture saturating the hive but you do not want to bee any higher than absolutely necessary due to handling the supers. If you have skunks, you need the entrance high enough to raise the skunks belly up so the bees can get access to it. If a skunk can keep his belly on the ground the bees cannot get access it to run the skunk off.

Wombat2 · July 18, 2015, 12:46:01 AM

If you were in Northern Australia you need to 18 inches off the ground to stop the Cane Toads eating them. But then the toads have been known to build a pyramid of themselves to get high enough for a feed. But that and insect eating birds are our only problem animals.

flyboy · July 18, 2015, 12:53:22 AM

Quote from: Wombat2 on July 18, 2015, 12:46:01 AM
If you were in Northern Australia you need to 18 inches off the ground to stop the Cane Toads eating them. But then the toads have been known to build a pyramid of themselves to get high enough for a feed. But that and insect eating birds are our only problem animals.

Wow 10 - 15 cm long is a fair sized frog!

mikecva · July 18, 2015, 12:32:22 PM

I started with 2 8"cinder blocks side by side so that my hives were 8" off of the ground and plenty of air flow. In fact in my area, just east of the mountains, there was to much wind (I have all screened bottom boards). I designed a simple stand using 2"x 8" lumber to make my stand. Two of the sides have several large holes cut/drilled into the sides that have screens, to keep ants and other crawling things out, but the holes allow for an updraft without wind gusts. My loses have dropped significantly since I switched to these bases but I credit the gains to cutting back on the strong winds that go through my hives, not necessary to my design. A word of caution, this stand works well for me but if you do not have regular winds you might be just as well with the cinder blocks. -Mike

Hops Brewster · July 18, 2015, 02:45:23 PM

My brood boxes rest on 2x8 lumber placed on cinder blocks. That puts them high enough to work on without back pain while sitting on a box and low enough to keep med. supers at a reasonable height.

Colobee · July 20, 2015, 11:42:08 AM

X2

BeeMaster2 · July 20, 2015, 12:58:29 PM

I often see hives sitting on 2-4x4's that are on a single cinder block on each end of the strand. Our club has 4 hives on this type of stand. I cringe every time I see it. As the hives get taller they can easily fall forward or backwards. I place 2 separate cinder blocks on each end of the boards. I space them so that the front of the hive is resting just forward of the hive body, under the landing board, and the back is about one inch forward of the back of the hive body. I do the back this way so that I can lift the back with just my finger tips to see how heavy the hives are. I try to keep the spacing the same for all of my hives to keep the balance standard for feeling the weight of the hives.
Hope this helps.
Jim

Sundog · July 20, 2015, 01:22:06 PM

One 2x4 each to make my stands. I run SBBs and I can slide a piece of plywood under to close off the bottom during the occasional Florida cold snap, or a pan of veggy oil for SHBs. Patio blocks keep the grass down.

Michael Bush · July 20, 2015, 04:42:15 PM

Mine are all 3 1/2". I'd go lower but then the bottom board would rot...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand

AR Beekeeper · July 20, 2015, 06:46:53 PM

I work my colonies sitting down, so my stands are 8 to 12 inches high. This puts the top of the box at a comfortable height for me to remove and replace frames. I break the deeps that form the brood chamber apart and place them on individual work stands, then work each one separately. Once the honey supers are on I do no inspections other than to arrange frames in the supers. My honey flow is usually worth no more than 2 or 3 mediums and I can reach that high to remove them when harvesting or removing to give to colonies for food stores.

flyboy · July 20, 2015, 08:05:53 PM

Wow lots of great ideas.

I just realized that I did not mention that the main reason for building the stand is that we get a lot of rain during the winter and the main idea was to make a roof over the hives. Last winter I lost one hive to what I am guessing was water damage. The hive I moved under my patio (where it is dry) came out of the winter very strong. We don't really get any snow in the winter. None last winter.

Eric Bosworth · July 20, 2015, 09:34:05 PM

I don't like to bend over much in the summer I use long horizontal hives about waist high then in the late fall I stack split boxes so I have 2 colonies right next to each other for warmth. Eventually I want to try splitting frames and splitting a box into quadrants. The problem is figuring out how to make mating nuc frames work in a regular box.

Michael Bush · July 20, 2015, 10:06:40 PM

I sit on a toolbox to work the hives. When I put them on tall stand they all blow over in the wind and the supers are put on with a step ladder...

Wombat2 · July 20, 2015, 10:29:10 PM

Quote from: Sundog on July 20, 2015, 01:22:06 PM
One 2x4 each to make my stands. I run SBBs and I can slide a piece of plywood under to close off the bottom during the occasional Florida cold snap, or a pan of veggy oil for SHBs. Patio blocks keep the grass down.

Like your idea- been trying to work out how to use vented bottom boards and catch SHB lava - my current setup with small oil traps under seem to trap as many lava as SHB adults so looking for ways to expand into vented bottom boards without loosing the grubs.Thanks.

PS My stands are 1.5 to 1.8 meters long to accommodate two hives - one each end with room enough in the middle to set the lid upside down and box you are taking off to work the one under

Dallasbeek · July 21, 2015, 03:46:36 PM

Sundog, how do you keep bees out of the pan?

Nice looking setup. I had been wondering how to get a pan under my SBB. I have one SBB with a built-in pan. I use mineral oil, so it never gets rancid.