Contents
Both beginners and experienced beekeepers come to the conclusion that it is better to make a hive with your own hands. You are sure of the quality of your own product, if you need development, you can quickly make the missing parts. How to make hives on your own will be discussed.
Popular hive designs
Before you build a hive with your own hands, you need to choose its design. Basically, novice beekeepers use two types of hives:
- Dadanovsky for 12 frames. Has a vertical design, builds up. If necessary, one more standard case or store is set on top (an additional case half the height of the main one, in which half-frames are installed).
- Sunbed – for 20 frames and more. Differs in size – has a greater width than depth. The number of frames used by the bee colony is regulated by rearranging the partition.
Both of these designs use standard 470*300mm frames which are widely used. These two types are the most common among beginner (and experienced) beekeepers. Sometimes they use Ruta hives, but they have frames of a different format – 470 * 230 mm and are not so easy to find. It is also more difficult to work with Ruts than with Dadanovsky or sunbeds, more experience in beekeeping is required. Therefore, choose from two options – Dadanovsky or sunbed. What exactly – it is better to find out from the beekeepers in your area.
Hive blueprints
Since the Dadanovsky hive and the sunbed use standard frames, they differ only in width: one should fit 12 pieces of frames, the other – 20 or 24 pieces. The rest of the parameters remain the same.
Changeable parameters for hives with different number of frames are shown in the table. Substitute them in the drawing and get the option that you need.
| Number of frames in the case, pcs | Case width B, mm | Width of the inner opening of the housing B1, mm | External installation size of the body fold B2, mm | Internal installation size of a fold B3, mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 455 | 375 | 419 | 425 |
| 12 | 520 | 450 | 494 | 400 |
| 14 | 595 | 525 | 569 | 575 |
| 16 | 685 | 615 | 659 | 665 |
| 20 | 880 | 810 | 854 | 860 |
What you need to know before you start making a beehive with your own hands
Even before the start of independent production of hives, it is necessary to know the requirements for materials and technology for the construction of evidence for bees. A lot of them. Let’s start with the requirements for the material.
Of what do
The most common material is wood. Both non-tarry coniferous wood (spruce, fir, deresined pine) and loose hardwoods – poplar, linden, etc. can be used. Dense wood should not be used – the hive will be heavy and cold.
Wood requirements are strict. It must be dry – no more than 16% moisture, without falling knots, rot, wormholes, redness. Blueing is acceptable (it does not affect quality indicators). If there are knots, they can be removed, sealed with corks from the same type of wood and puttied. Do not use wood with other defects.
Today they make beehives from plywood, preferably birch. In this case, the walls are made double with a gasket between the layers of insulation – foam. These hives are warm in winter and cool in summer. Their minus is that the walls are vapor-tight, moisture does not escape through them. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the ventilation system of the hive (make an additional notch at the top, and, if necessary, open it for ventilation).
Sometimes hives are assembled from polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam and polystyrene foam. The most successful option is polystyrene foam. Even some fasteners can be installed in it, neither bees nor other insects gnaw at it. The remaining two materials are collected on glue, and bees also sharpen them, and ants and other neighbors undesirable for bees can settle.
Handling and assembly requirements
When assembling a hive with your own hands, you must strictly maintain the internal dimensions of the body and extensions. Then increasing the volume will not cause difficulties. Parts of the hive – bodies, extensions, stores, roof – must be connected to the castle and the castle parts must also match. This is necessary for a reliable connection without gaps and drafts, which bees do not like very much. In this regard, the maximum tolerances during processing are 1-2 mm.
There are also requirements for the quality of material processing. Most of them relate to wood, but they can also be applied to other materials:
- Boards and bars should be smooth, without burrs, scuffs and chips.
- It is necessary to cut materials strictly at an angle of 90 °, avoiding deviations.
- The hive bodies must be knocked down from solid boards with a thickness of 40-45 mm or using a tongue-and-groove connection, glued for reliability.
- To pair the parts of the hive in detail, choose a quarter – for a reliable gapless connection.
- On the front and back walls of the hive, a fold is made – for hanging the frames. The depth of the fold should be such that there is a distance of at least 8-10 mm from the top edge of the plank to the cover or extension. If the distance is shorter, the frames may stick to the lid, which creates maintenance problems.
- If the walls are made two-layer (with insufficient thickness of the boards), the outer ones connect them in a quarter, making sure that the seams in the layers do not match. It is better to connect the inner parts and the bottom into a tongue or groove.
Structural elements and their features
Most often, the hive has a modular structure – it consists of several detachable parts. This is convenient, as it allows you to increase the volume as needed. Each of these parts is made separately and the manufacturing accuracy must be high – all parts must be interchangeable.
Chassis
This is the central part of the hive, in which the nest of bees is usually located. By the number of housings, hives are single, double-hulled or multi-hulled (3 or more). Corps are instructed as the family grows.
Roof
The roof of the hive can be single-pitched (tilted backwards) or gabled. In the forehead case, it should be with overhangs – to protrude beyond the geometric dimensions of the hive and protect the walls from the effects of bad weather.
The roof consists of a liner – a flat body for accommodating insulation or feeders for feeding bees – and the actual roof planks nailed to the liner with nails or screwed with self-tapping screws. The height of the armpit depends on the thickness of the insulation, and this value depends on the region. Usually the height of the liner is 80-140 mm. Ventilation holes are often also made in the liner – to remove moist air from the hive.
In the manufacture of the roof, the boards are laid either in two layers with overlapping seams, or from thicker boards in one layer, but the seams must be closed with thin strips. Roofing iron, roofing felt or roofing material can be laid on top of the wooden roof of the hive.
In the manufacture of the roof, pay attention to the fact that it “sits down” tightly, without gaps. To seal the connection around the perimeter of the body, you can stuff a felt strip or nail a plinth outside the body to cover the joint.
Bottom
The bottom of the hive can be nailed to the body (deaf) or can be pulled out or pulled out, that is, it can be detachable. The detachable bottom makes it easier to maintain the hives – it allows you to clean the bottom without disassembling the entire hive. Structurally, the bottom happens:
- cold – from a single board;
- warm – from two layers with a warming backfill.
Also, the bottom is double-sided – with protrusions of different heights on both sides, which allows you to adjust the internal volume. They knock it down tightly, without cracks, connect the boards in a quarter or in a groove with additional sizing of the joint with moisture-resistant glue for wood. The cracks must be carefully sealed (putty on wood), as wax crumbs are poured into them, and then the wax moth starts up. Therefore, from time to time they prefer to replace the bottom, knocking together a new one.