# Honey House for hobbyists



## P&Y pallbearer (Jan 30, 2017)

I'm getting ready to build a dedicated honey house with running water, AC, and dehumidifier this fall. Is a 10x10 room too small? Also what are some do's and don'ts? I currently have 7 hives and plan on trying to expand to 10 to 15 next spring.


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## dr4ngas (Mar 19, 2014)

Think about storage room for extra equipment and future expansion.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

I built a 16'x16' shed to do my extracting in. I really wish it had running _hot_ water, and a concrete floor with a drain (would be really nice to hose it down). If you'll keep it AC cool, a hot room to heat the supers for extraction and a deep chest freezer are very helpful, but neither are required (I don't AC my shed, so our NC summers provide sufficient heat to avoid the need for a hot room, and it doubles as a sauna to blast off those extra pounds  ).

Additionally, talk to your bee inspector or the NC Ag Extension agent about what it takes to have your extracting set up "certified" so you can sell in stores (rather than just at farmer's markets). I don't know what those requirements are off the top of my head.

Aside from that, build larger than you think you'll need. If you think you'll eventually get to 30 hives, build a honey house for 60. 

I run about 40 hives right now (and will probably be going up in years to come) and my 16'x16' shed gets a little cramped at times (between storage of boxes, storage of "odd equipment", storage of honey, the extractor, the bottling tank, and a work bench, not counting the uncapper I need to get and the wax spinner I should have gotten a while ago).


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

My little play tent is 10x10. After all the bee equipment are in there isn't much
room left. So yes, definitely plan with room to expand on in the near future should your
hives got out of hands. I plan to go 20x30 with room to expand out of the existing 10x10 now.
Just a small play room!


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

Go as big as you can afford.

I buuilt my bee house when I had 20 or so hives, now I have up to 50 with nuc's - in season ans never enough space to store honey, beegear, supers.

I have a concrete floor and water very close to the shed. I had my floor polished - it makes it much easier to clean honey, wax etc


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I have never, ever heard anyone say, "this room/barn/shed/building is just too big for my stuff"


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

If you think you may ever want to sell honey, check the local regs. Some places require commercial kitchen specs. A few here have said they were required to install a triple stainless steel sink, with hot water.

A hobby honey shack may get by without this, but if it may be needed you might plan the layout to accomodate this.

I'm a big fan of coating concrete floors with epoxy ... Rustoleum makes this for concrete floors. On clean new concrete, it bonds well. Makes it easy to clean and keeps down dust.

We recently had a point of use hot water heater develop a cracked fitting. It still runs but can't work under full pressure. I'm going to fit it with a cable for my garage welder outlet so I can use it as a low-pressure hot water source to clean the extractor, etc. I only need it a couple of times a year. These things are not cheap, but they are compact. When planning the power, consider allowing for a 40 A 240V breaker to run one. They also make them for less power, but the flow will be anemic.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Brad Bee said:


> I have never, ever heard anyone say, "this room/barn/shed/building is just too big for my stuff"


The new garage/workshop is 28 x 32 ft, two stories. I'm not sure it is big enough.


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