I try to keep up with new information regarding bees and beekeeping as much as I can. The media is agog with news of pesticides and CCD. The social media activists are focused pretty heavily on pesticides as well.
Two articles recently caught my attention, One of them in Bee Culture magazine and the other in the American Bee Journal. Randy Oliver wrote the piece in ABJ and I'll start with that one. I'll cover the other one in another post.
First off, I want to say that I have a lot of respect for Randy and what he does. More often than not, I agree with him.In the May issue of ABJ, he wrote about something I can't say I found anything to disagree with at all, The article is about how beekeepers go about managing bees as "No Treatment" or "Low Treatment".
Now, admitting I am part of the "No/Low Treatment" crowd, I find it interesting how it has become such a buzz word in beekeeping (Get it? "Buzz word", "Beekeeping". That's funny stuff right there) so as to often polarize discussion among many groups of beekeepers. I notice that modern beekeeping is full of "buzz" words anymore.
Randy made a great point about how beekeepers make a mistake of expecting bees that have been bred to one group of behaviors to another group of behaviors instantly (seemingly).
For the most part, bees that are commercially sold as nucs and packages by commercial operators are bred for two primary behaviors. Those being high populations and high honey production. They are a result of their genetics and breeding. To expect those bees to adopt new priorities in terms of behaviors in one season is not realistic. He is also right though, that many beekeepers try it anyway.
I apply a different label to myself. I call myself a "conservation" beekeeper. To me, this means that I don't purchase bees. I catch swarms, set out bait hives in the Spring, I do trap-outs and cut-outs to keep bees alive that otherwise might be killed by homeowners and exterminators for having chosen the wrong place to call home.
These are almost always bees that have successfully over-Wintered in an un-managed environment. These are bees whose breeding has adapted or is adapting to their local environment via Natural Selection. Weak colonies die removing unsuccessful genetics and behaviors out of the local gene pool. I want these genetics.
Over literally millions upon millions of years, bees have made honey, I am not worried about buying bees bred to maximize honey production. They are going to make honey whether I want them to or not.
Bees raise brood. They always have. Colonies that don't raise enough brood are often, in feral conditions, Naturally Selected to be removed from the gene pool in their local environment. I, as beekeeper, can also make an impact on how successful a given colony is in terms of population by the type of hive I place them in and how I manage that hive.
I agree with Randy in that the so called Natural" beekeeper is setting up commercially bred and sold bees for failure because they are bred to succeed in a highly managed environment. If you don't want to insert yourself into the goings on in the hive then you need to start with bees who are bred to succeed without such heavy management.
Personally, I think that commercially packaged and nuc'ed bees should really only be used by commercial operators. The folks that do commercial pollinating, large scale honey production, etc...
Local hobbyists really should stick to locally raised bees and be more well versed in catching swarms and doing trap-outs and splits. The self described "Natural" beekeeper has no business purchasing commercially packed and sold bees at all.
That's just my two cent on the issue anyway.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Setting up an easy trapout
Got going before the bees on this cool May morning to set up a trapout.
This one is nice and low, easy to get to.
Next we close off the entrance with a screen and a funnel and set the hive box in place with the entrance near to the tree hole.
This one is nice and low, easy to get to.
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| Here's where our girls have made there home. |
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| Kind of blurry but we get a little bit of a view inside the nest. |
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| A little bigger picture of the tree. |
Next we close off the entrance with a screen and a funnel and set the hive box in place with the entrance near to the tree hole.
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| Used a strap to hold the hive box on the tree. |
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| The hive box entrance is right next to the hive tree entrance. |
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Warre and the People's Hive
I get a lot of calls lately from people who want to get help with beekeeping and they want to use the "Warre Hive".
First of all, I tell them, it's the "People's Hive", Abbe Emile Warre is the man who created the hive and the management method for it. As a matter of fact, he wrote a book detailing the making of the hive, how to manage it and the background of how he got to that point.
There are getting to be more vendors online who are building the People's Hive and selling them. They pitch the hive as a minimum maintenance hive that a beekeeper doesn't have to do a lot with except to add boxes to the bottom and harvest honey in late Summer.
I have to say, I have become disgruntled with some of these vendors for being misleading to these new beekeepers and not giving them all the information.
My first advice is if they are going to sell people this hive, then they should include a copy of Warre's book, "Beekeeping For All" as mandatory reading.
Another piece of advice I have is that beekeepers need to keep in mind that Warre made his hive, kept bees and wrote his book at a time and place where many modern beekeeping problems did not exist. He did not have to contend with CCD, Varroa mites, Small Hive Beetle, and many other problems that we face now.
The need to be able to inspect a hive at will is much more important than in his time, even though I agree with his rationale for minimal intrusion into the nest. This isn't to say that one necessarily must inspect the hives very frequently, but that the hive should be able to be inspected easily if the need arises. This means having more of a focus on frames and straight comb rather than the cross-comb top-bars that he prefers.
A beekeeper using the People's Hive MUST gain a knowledge of bee behavior and biology much sooner than the typical new conventional beekeeper will. Also, while I always recommend that people learn to "inspect" a hive by what is going on outside the hive and at the entrance, the People's Hive beekeeper also really, really should become familiar with those skills more immediately if they are going to be successful. I suggest reading Storch's book "At The Hive Entrance" which gives invaluable information to learning exactly those skills.
The ability to gauge what is going on in a hive by external observation will go a long way to minimizing unnecessary, intrusive inspections and preserving the nest environment.
Another thing I suggest to these new "Warre" style beekeepers is to understand the difference between a "hive" and a "nest". A "nest" is the wax comb that the bees live in. They store food in it and the queen lays eggs and they raise their brood in it. A "hive" is the physical container or void space that the bees build their nest in. To make the best use of and have understanding of Emile Warre's methodology, it is helpful to bear this in mind.
Can a new beekeeper use a People's Hive from the start? I would say the answer is yes with a single caveat, that the beekeeper read Warre's book first.
First of all, I tell them, it's the "People's Hive", Abbe Emile Warre is the man who created the hive and the management method for it. As a matter of fact, he wrote a book detailing the making of the hive, how to manage it and the background of how he got to that point.
There are getting to be more vendors online who are building the People's Hive and selling them. They pitch the hive as a minimum maintenance hive that a beekeeper doesn't have to do a lot with except to add boxes to the bottom and harvest honey in late Summer.
I have to say, I have become disgruntled with some of these vendors for being misleading to these new beekeepers and not giving them all the information.
My first advice is if they are going to sell people this hive, then they should include a copy of Warre's book, "Beekeeping For All" as mandatory reading.
Another piece of advice I have is that beekeepers need to keep in mind that Warre made his hive, kept bees and wrote his book at a time and place where many modern beekeeping problems did not exist. He did not have to contend with CCD, Varroa mites, Small Hive Beetle, and many other problems that we face now.
The need to be able to inspect a hive at will is much more important than in his time, even though I agree with his rationale for minimal intrusion into the nest. This isn't to say that one necessarily must inspect the hives very frequently, but that the hive should be able to be inspected easily if the need arises. This means having more of a focus on frames and straight comb rather than the cross-comb top-bars that he prefers.
A beekeeper using the People's Hive MUST gain a knowledge of bee behavior and biology much sooner than the typical new conventional beekeeper will. Also, while I always recommend that people learn to "inspect" a hive by what is going on outside the hive and at the entrance, the People's Hive beekeeper also really, really should become familiar with those skills more immediately if they are going to be successful. I suggest reading Storch's book "At The Hive Entrance" which gives invaluable information to learning exactly those skills.
The ability to gauge what is going on in a hive by external observation will go a long way to minimizing unnecessary, intrusive inspections and preserving the nest environment.
Another thing I suggest to these new "Warre" style beekeepers is to understand the difference between a "hive" and a "nest". A "nest" is the wax comb that the bees live in. They store food in it and the queen lays eggs and they raise their brood in it. A "hive" is the physical container or void space that the bees build their nest in. To make the best use of and have understanding of Emile Warre's methodology, it is helpful to bear this in mind.
Can a new beekeeper use a People's Hive from the start? I would say the answer is yes with a single caveat, that the beekeeper read Warre's book first.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
How do I plan for each hive?
Some beekeepers plan ahead how they will set up and work their hives. I am one of those. Sometimes things don't go according to those plans, but the effort is made.
When I first install bees into a hive, based on the type of hive I place them into, I create an inspection plan for each hive. For example, I will usually plan to inspect one of my Modified Warre hives about once every four weeks. However, I will set horizontal top bar hives to be inspected about every two weeks.
HTBH's require more attention to comb drawing and growth management, especially at the beginning. The MW's are meant to be left to their own devices as much as possible especially since the management plan calls for giving them most of what they need to succeed from the beginning.
Now, I might have anywhere from 1 to 6 hives in a given location. If I inspect the MW's about once every four weeks, I will only inspect maybe one or two each week, moving to the next one the following week. Yes, I do visit each of my bee yards once a week, checking a different hive each time, cycling back to the first one(s) on that 4 week schedule.
Of course, just because I only open the hive about once every four weeks doesn't mean I am not paying attention to them in the meantime. At every bee yard visit, I observe each hive for entrance activity and other environmental indicators such as odor and signs of pests and predators. If something indicates a problem, I may very well open that hive to inspect further.
Now I will say that I don't really consider adding a new box to the stack one of my MW's to count as opening the hive because I nadir the boxes. I add all new boxes to the bottom of the stack. The heat and nest scent are mostly retained in the upper boxes as they are lifted up to make room for the new box(es) being added to the bottom of that stack. No harm, no foul.
During the Spring especially, I might add a new box every week to a given hive because the bees in that hive are drawing comb like champs and need the extra room to expand the nest. Once the heat of Summer really kicks in and the bees stop drawing comb on a rapid scale, then no more boxes are added to the stack for the remainder of the season.
Somewhere between the third week of July and the end of August, I begin to harvest the upper boxes of the MW's as they fill up. By the end of August, the bees should be down to maybe 2 or 3 boxes on the stack. Two boxes is what they will overwinter in as they backfill the top box of the two with winter stores.
Do you plan your bee yard visits and inspections? Do you find it makes a difference in your beekeeping if you do compared to if you don't?
When I first install bees into a hive, based on the type of hive I place them into, I create an inspection plan for each hive. For example, I will usually plan to inspect one of my Modified Warre hives about once every four weeks. However, I will set horizontal top bar hives to be inspected about every two weeks.
HTBH's require more attention to comb drawing and growth management, especially at the beginning. The MW's are meant to be left to their own devices as much as possible especially since the management plan calls for giving them most of what they need to succeed from the beginning.
Now, I might have anywhere from 1 to 6 hives in a given location. If I inspect the MW's about once every four weeks, I will only inspect maybe one or two each week, moving to the next one the following week. Yes, I do visit each of my bee yards once a week, checking a different hive each time, cycling back to the first one(s) on that 4 week schedule.
Of course, just because I only open the hive about once every four weeks doesn't mean I am not paying attention to them in the meantime. At every bee yard visit, I observe each hive for entrance activity and other environmental indicators such as odor and signs of pests and predators. If something indicates a problem, I may very well open that hive to inspect further.
Now I will say that I don't really consider adding a new box to the stack one of my MW's to count as opening the hive because I nadir the boxes. I add all new boxes to the bottom of the stack. The heat and nest scent are mostly retained in the upper boxes as they are lifted up to make room for the new box(es) being added to the bottom of that stack. No harm, no foul.
During the Spring especially, I might add a new box every week to a given hive because the bees in that hive are drawing comb like champs and need the extra room to expand the nest. Once the heat of Summer really kicks in and the bees stop drawing comb on a rapid scale, then no more boxes are added to the stack for the remainder of the season.
Somewhere between the third week of July and the end of August, I begin to harvest the upper boxes of the MW's as they fill up. By the end of August, the bees should be down to maybe 2 or 3 boxes on the stack. Two boxes is what they will overwinter in as they backfill the top box of the two with winter stores.
Do you plan your bee yard visits and inspections? Do you find it makes a difference in your beekeeping if you do compared to if you don't?
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
A tour of the type of hive I use
I use all 5 frame hive boxes. I will let the stack get up to 5 boxes high. I use the Warre method predominately to manage the hives I run.
This is one of my hives in action. You might notice the hanging water pail in the background. This is how all my hives begin the Spring, a two box stack with a quilt box and an simple lid.
You can see ( I hope) the bottom board has 3/8" risers giving them a 3/8"x 7.5" entrance. Very easy to defend, even for a small colony.
Next is a more up-close photo of a box.
We see here that it is a 5 frame nuc box using deep frames. Notice that the end board is sandwiched between the side boards as I mentioned in one of the last articles.
This next picture shows the type of simple top I make for these hives.
Just a board cut to the dimensions of a box with blocks added on each side to keep it from easily coming off in the wind.
Next up is the quilt box.
The quilt box is largely in place for ventilation and absorbing excess humidity from the hive. As the heat and moist air rises in the hive, it passes up into the quilt box which is normally filled with wood shavings keeping the hive itself drier and allows the bees to have some bit of control of the ventilation in the hive as they close the holes with propolis or remove propolis.
Inside the boxes are five deep frames. The center is what I refer to as the "key" comb and has a sheet of foundation in it hopefully giving the bees a guide to draw the other, foundation-less, frames by.
This is a sheet of black plastic foundation as the "Key" comb in frame position 3.
Also in the boxes are 4 foundation-less frames. These are in frame positions 1, 2, 4 and 5.
Notice the comb guides placed in the underside of the top bar. This is the strip of wood that is normally in place there on frames that are referred to as "wedge" top. The guide is most exposed on the side of the top bar where the wedge used to be.
I have made what I consider to be an important observation about the placement of these frames in that the exposed guides should be placed facing the center "Key" comb. The bees seem to draw the new comb straighter than if the "wedge" side of the frame faces the center.
That's pretty much it. It's a simple hive. The inner dimensions are very similar in size to a "typical" void that bees choose in a tree in terms of total size as well as volume. This is an important consideration in the Warre approach to bee hives as he believed, and I agree, that bees need a space that is more easily maintained by them without being too confining or to spacious to properly maintain.
Boxes are added by "nadiring" them instead of "supering" them. That means adding boxes to the bottom of the stack instead of the top. This is to emulate the "natural" process of bees building a nest in a tree void in which they start drawing comb from the top of the void and as they draw and expand the comb downward, the broodnest is moved downward as well into the newer comb while the older comb above is back-filled with honey stores.
Another benefit the Warre method sees in "nadiring" is that by adding additional boxes to the bottom of the stack, the hive top is removed less often thus retaining natural nest heat and nest scent. This in turn seems to not disrupt the bees behavior and upsets them less than removing the top to add boxes and losing the heat and scent so important in honey bee society.
All the boxes need to be added by the end of Spring for the most part so that they can draw the combs out on each frame while the weather and available resources allow for them to draw comb freely. After roughly the end of June, the weather is hotter and forage resources tend to become more sparse causing the bees to tend to abandon drawing new comb in favor of storing that precious nectar for honey stores instead. I find myself with usually about 5 boxes in the stack by the end of comb drawing time.
At harvest time, roughly the end of July or even August, depending on weather and available resources, a five frame stack such as I mentioned will yield 3 boxes of honey from the top of the stack. The two remaining boxes are left to the bees to overwinter in as they backfill the upper box for their winter stores. That's the idea anyway.
Having 3 boxes gives a yield, on average, of about 35 to 45 pounds of honey per box with a total average yield of about 120 pounds per hive in good years.
I hope this gives folks a better idea of how I go about my beekeeping.
Enjoy your bees.
This is one of my hives in action. You might notice the hanging water pail in the background. This is how all my hives begin the Spring, a two box stack with a quilt box and an simple lid.
You can see ( I hope) the bottom board has 3/8" risers giving them a 3/8"x 7.5" entrance. Very easy to defend, even for a small colony.
Next is a more up-close photo of a box.
We see here that it is a 5 frame nuc box using deep frames. Notice that the end board is sandwiched between the side boards as I mentioned in one of the last articles.
This next picture shows the type of simple top I make for these hives.
Just a board cut to the dimensions of a box with blocks added on each side to keep it from easily coming off in the wind.
Next up is the quilt box.
Inside the boxes are five deep frames. The center is what I refer to as the "key" comb and has a sheet of foundation in it hopefully giving the bees a guide to draw the other, foundation-less, frames by.
Also in the boxes are 4 foundation-less frames. These are in frame positions 1, 2, 4 and 5.
I have made what I consider to be an important observation about the placement of these frames in that the exposed guides should be placed facing the center "Key" comb. The bees seem to draw the new comb straighter than if the "wedge" side of the frame faces the center.
That's pretty much it. It's a simple hive. The inner dimensions are very similar in size to a "typical" void that bees choose in a tree in terms of total size as well as volume. This is an important consideration in the Warre approach to bee hives as he believed, and I agree, that bees need a space that is more easily maintained by them without being too confining or to spacious to properly maintain.
Boxes are added by "nadiring" them instead of "supering" them. That means adding boxes to the bottom of the stack instead of the top. This is to emulate the "natural" process of bees building a nest in a tree void in which they start drawing comb from the top of the void and as they draw and expand the comb downward, the broodnest is moved downward as well into the newer comb while the older comb above is back-filled with honey stores.
Another benefit the Warre method sees in "nadiring" is that by adding additional boxes to the bottom of the stack, the hive top is removed less often thus retaining natural nest heat and nest scent. This in turn seems to not disrupt the bees behavior and upsets them less than removing the top to add boxes and losing the heat and scent so important in honey bee society.
All the boxes need to be added by the end of Spring for the most part so that they can draw the combs out on each frame while the weather and available resources allow for them to draw comb freely. After roughly the end of June, the weather is hotter and forage resources tend to become more sparse causing the bees to tend to abandon drawing new comb in favor of storing that precious nectar for honey stores instead. I find myself with usually about 5 boxes in the stack by the end of comb drawing time.
At harvest time, roughly the end of July or even August, depending on weather and available resources, a five frame stack such as I mentioned will yield 3 boxes of honey from the top of the stack. The two remaining boxes are left to the bees to overwinter in as they backfill the upper box for their winter stores. That's the idea anyway.
Having 3 boxes gives a yield, on average, of about 35 to 45 pounds of honey per box with a total average yield of about 120 pounds per hive in good years.
I hope this gives folks a better idea of how I go about my beekeeping.
Enjoy your bees.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Reviewing the updated Hive Tracks Website
I want to start out by saying I already liked Hive Tracks for the most part and I kind of want to like it.
There's a lot to like about the site. The presentation is great. The method of data entry is good.
Out of 5 stars, I will give it 3.5 though because where they go wrong, I think they really need to improve.
By default, they allow free users only the option of using conventional 10 frame Langstroth hives and equipment. They allow Pro users, that is paid users, to select from alternative hive equipment such as horizontal top bar hives, nucs, 8 frame equipment, etc.
So, if you use any of that equipment and want to use Hive Tracks, be prepared to fork over 60 bucks a year. My suggestion to them would be to allow free users to choose at signup from one of those types of hives and have only access to the one type they chose for their free membership and have to upgrade to a paid membership to use the others. Otherwise, it seems like they're saying use 10 frame Langs or too bad for you.
Another issue I have with the free version is that queen management could be done better. Currently, it seems that your only option when you replace a queen is to delete the old queen and create a new one and the process to do so isn't very intuitive.
Honestly, I have no problem with the fact that they charge for "full access" or how much they charge. For all the options they claim to provide for the cost, it seems a great value. I just think that they could do better than to leave all free users at 10 frame Langstroth only.
I personally don't use Langstroth 10 frame or 8 frame and I most certainly don't use conventional hive management methods or techniques either. It would be nice to limit me to the single option that best meets my use. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
There's a lot to like about the site. The presentation is great. The method of data entry is good.
Out of 5 stars, I will give it 3.5 though because where they go wrong, I think they really need to improve.
By default, they allow free users only the option of using conventional 10 frame Langstroth hives and equipment. They allow Pro users, that is paid users, to select from alternative hive equipment such as horizontal top bar hives, nucs, 8 frame equipment, etc.
So, if you use any of that equipment and want to use Hive Tracks, be prepared to fork over 60 bucks a year. My suggestion to them would be to allow free users to choose at signup from one of those types of hives and have only access to the one type they chose for their free membership and have to upgrade to a paid membership to use the others. Otherwise, it seems like they're saying use 10 frame Langs or too bad for you.
Another issue I have with the free version is that queen management could be done better. Currently, it seems that your only option when you replace a queen is to delete the old queen and create a new one and the process to do so isn't very intuitive.
Honestly, I have no problem with the fact that they charge for "full access" or how much they charge. For all the options they claim to provide for the cost, it seems a great value. I just think that they could do better than to leave all free users at 10 frame Langstroth only.
I personally don't use Langstroth 10 frame or 8 frame and I most certainly don't use conventional hive management methods or techniques either. It would be nice to limit me to the single option that best meets my use. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Building 5 frame boxes cheap and strong
Well now, it looks like it's time to build more boxes. Over the past
few years I have built boxes (5 frame boxes) in a variety of ways to
improve on lowering the cost of building, time to build and
strength/condition of box over the long term.
A frame full of honey can weigh anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds. So, a full 5 frame box can weigh anywhere from 25 to 75 pounds ideally. Most commonly, I find that my average "full" 5 frame box weighs somewhere around 45 to 50 pounds.
After glue and nails, that 5 frame box has to be able to hold, lift and carry that weight for multiple years (with proper care).
The weight in the box is carried entirely on the frame rests. Those same frame rests being cut out from the two end boards.
Finger joints are great but they require too much time in the wood shop and ultimately are too expensive in regard to time invested and necessity.
The weight is distributed across a smaller area in a 5 frame box. After having built a variety of boxes over the years, I have determined that a simple straight edge cut box with the end boards contained between the side boards is more than strong enough to carry the heaviest honey load while maintaining the strength, square and integrity of the box over time.
What we don't want to have happen in a box carrying a full load is for it to become unstable while being transported or while standing stationary in a stack under a load. The biggest problem in this is when the box corners become flexible and no longer keep square. When trying to move such a box, it can flex on you and break apart while being carried and consequently cause the frames to be dropped. Not what we want to have happen.
As any carpenter worth their saw knows, the real strength in any box is the glue. Nails do fasten the box together, but it is the glue that maintains the rigidity and strength of the bond. The fingers of the finger joint are primarily useful in maintaining structural stability on impact. In other words, should you drop a box, the fingers distribute the force of the impact through the joint to prevent the box from coming apart. Very useful, especially in larger boxes where the load is much heavier and must be distributed over a larger area.
However, in a smaller, 5 frame box, I find that by sandwiching the end boards between the side boards allows the handles to be attached to both the end board and the side boards simultaneously. The handles on my boxes are important because while the frame rests inside the box carry the weight of the frames, it's the box handles that must carry the weight of the frames and the box itself.
Consequently, I like a strong set of handles on my boxes and they are glued and nailed to both the end boards and the ends of the side boards.
The glue is responsible for maintaining the strength of the joints and keeping them square. I have, not always on purpose mind you, dropped a good many full boxes from about 6 foot height to the ground without breaking the box itself. The compactness of the box itself lends towards it's survivability.
A good outdoor wood glue is absolutely necessary to making this work.I've used Tightbond glue, Elmers Professional outdoor wood glue and Gorilla outdoor wood glue. So far, Gorilla glue has shown the most survivability. As always, make sure any glue that is used is thoroughly dried and cured before putting bees into that box.Yes, you would think that's obvious, but I have met a newbee or two that didn't seem to make that connection.
At this point, I have almost entirely left larger hives behind in terms of frame capacity. All of my greater success has come from using 5 frame box hives. I enjoy a horizontal top bar hive for the fun of them, but for my general bee work, 5 frame hives are it. (I said "almost" because I do have a couple of 8 frame setups laying around "just in case" though they are not my first choice.)
Some people find using screws to be more to their preference over nails. Screws are fine. For me though, I find that unless the holes are pre-drilled for them, screws tend to crack the boards more than nails do. Drilling holes then adding screws costs too much time for me.
Simple, straight cuts for the box sides and ends. No fancy equipment beyond my radial arm saw and table saw to do everything from the boards to the frame rest cuts (and yes, all these cuts can be done with a regular hand saw and a smaller, finer tooth hand saw).
I find it better for overall time effectiveness to make batches of 5 boxes minimum at a time. This way, settings on the saws are only made once each for a number of them instead of changing settings every time.
I believe beekeeping should be fun and relatively easy to do. Now, "fun" is a relative term and maybe what I should really say is "enjoyable". Something that you don't regret doing after having done it or something you dread doing in in looking forward to doing it.
The woodworking part of beekeeping is often not a "fun" part of the endeavor for many people. The woodworking part is undoubtedly the most expensive part of beekeeping. It's expensive in terms of money and time spent.
A frame full of honey can weigh anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds. So, a full 5 frame box can weigh anywhere from 25 to 75 pounds ideally. Most commonly, I find that my average "full" 5 frame box weighs somewhere around 45 to 50 pounds.
After glue and nails, that 5 frame box has to be able to hold, lift and carry that weight for multiple years (with proper care).
The weight in the box is carried entirely on the frame rests. Those same frame rests being cut out from the two end boards.
Finger joints are great but they require too much time in the wood shop and ultimately are too expensive in regard to time invested and necessity.
The weight is distributed across a smaller area in a 5 frame box. After having built a variety of boxes over the years, I have determined that a simple straight edge cut box with the end boards contained between the side boards is more than strong enough to carry the heaviest honey load while maintaining the strength, square and integrity of the box over time.
What we don't want to have happen in a box carrying a full load is for it to become unstable while being transported or while standing stationary in a stack under a load. The biggest problem in this is when the box corners become flexible and no longer keep square. When trying to move such a box, it can flex on you and break apart while being carried and consequently cause the frames to be dropped. Not what we want to have happen.
As any carpenter worth their saw knows, the real strength in any box is the glue. Nails do fasten the box together, but it is the glue that maintains the rigidity and strength of the bond. The fingers of the finger joint are primarily useful in maintaining structural stability on impact. In other words, should you drop a box, the fingers distribute the force of the impact through the joint to prevent the box from coming apart. Very useful, especially in larger boxes where the load is much heavier and must be distributed over a larger area.
However, in a smaller, 5 frame box, I find that by sandwiching the end boards between the side boards allows the handles to be attached to both the end board and the side boards simultaneously. The handles on my boxes are important because while the frame rests inside the box carry the weight of the frames, it's the box handles that must carry the weight of the frames and the box itself.
Consequently, I like a strong set of handles on my boxes and they are glued and nailed to both the end boards and the ends of the side boards.
The glue is responsible for maintaining the strength of the joints and keeping them square. I have, not always on purpose mind you, dropped a good many full boxes from about 6 foot height to the ground without breaking the box itself. The compactness of the box itself lends towards it's survivability.
A good outdoor wood glue is absolutely necessary to making this work.I've used Tightbond glue, Elmers Professional outdoor wood glue and Gorilla outdoor wood glue. So far, Gorilla glue has shown the most survivability. As always, make sure any glue that is used is thoroughly dried and cured before putting bees into that box.Yes, you would think that's obvious, but I have met a newbee or two that didn't seem to make that connection.
At this point, I have almost entirely left larger hives behind in terms of frame capacity. All of my greater success has come from using 5 frame box hives. I enjoy a horizontal top bar hive for the fun of them, but for my general bee work, 5 frame hives are it. (I said "almost" because I do have a couple of 8 frame setups laying around "just in case" though they are not my first choice.)
Some people find using screws to be more to their preference over nails. Screws are fine. For me though, I find that unless the holes are pre-drilled for them, screws tend to crack the boards more than nails do. Drilling holes then adding screws costs too much time for me.
Simple, straight cuts for the box sides and ends. No fancy equipment beyond my radial arm saw and table saw to do everything from the boards to the frame rest cuts (and yes, all these cuts can be done with a regular hand saw and a smaller, finer tooth hand saw).
I find it better for overall time effectiveness to make batches of 5 boxes minimum at a time. This way, settings on the saws are only made once each for a number of them instead of changing settings every time.
I believe beekeeping should be fun and relatively easy to do. Now, "fun" is a relative term and maybe what I should really say is "enjoyable". Something that you don't regret doing after having done it or something you dread doing in in looking forward to doing it.
The woodworking part of beekeeping is often not a "fun" part of the endeavor for many people. The woodworking part is undoubtedly the most expensive part of beekeeping. It's expensive in terms of money and time spent.
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