# Wood estimate for 200 beehives



## johnwratcliff (Feb 24, 2015)

8 frame or 10 frame and/nuc? Also deeps or medium and are you also looking for tops and bottoms?


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Free estimates are estimates (free guess).
It's going to cost $10000 for the wood to build 200 hives. (that's $50 each roughly and again...it's a free guess)

Now if you live in Montana and have three Amish midgets in your basement that number would be much lower.


----------



## Munson (Mar 16, 2014)

If you have to ask this question you should consider buying pallets of unfinished commercial grade boxes.


----------



## Sapper (Nov 1, 2015)

Looking for mediums, 8 frames, tops and bottoms incl. Wanted to buy some pine lumber and plywood... and packaged bees


----------



## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

10 frame medium is about 75 inch off a 1x8 trimmed. That is about $12 around here. 

Mann Lake quote for 200 hives using 3 mediums 6K for just boxes. No lid bottom etc.


----------



## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

FOLKS~! LOOK AT THE LOCATION WHEN REPLYing........ He's not from the USA. Slovakia
I don't even know what currency that is. 

If your going to reply to help him out pleas reply many board feet it's going to take. Since pine and plywood sheets are 2 different measurements how about taking into consideration of how many bottoms/covers/inner covers he can get from a sheet of plywood. In edition how about being nice and converting this information all to metric for him.

This is why I won't be of any help to him. I have a suspicion that No Big Box hardware stores are like that of the USA. I imagine that they actually have a lumber yard they can go into and purchase.


----------



## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Linear feet of wood required to build Langstroth medium boxes is about 7 feet per box. Presuming use of 1 X 8's 8 feet long, you will need 600 boards to build 600 boxes. Note that you specified "200 beehives" therefore the minimum is 3 mediums per hive. I can buy yellow pine locally for $3.00 per board. That gives $1800 for lumber costs prior to any cutting and presuming little waste from wood defects. Check the price of lumber locally, it is likely your costs will be significantly higher.

Tops and bottoms take about 4 board feet per. Using plywood with 2 inch solid wood rails would require about 54 sheets of plywood at a cost of $21 per sheet for a total of $1134. Waste from the 1 X 8's used to build boxes can be used to make rails.

1 X 8 X 8 times 600
4 X 8 X 3/4 plywood times 54
Total price rounds out to about $3000 presuming the wood can be purchased for the above prices.

Then you have to consider additional costs such as for frames and foundation at $2 per frame for a total price of $12,000

Nails, glue, and wax dip will add another $1000 to the price.

Putting bees in the boxes will kick in about $15,000

All told, building 200 colonies will cost you about $31,000 plus several thousand hours of labor.


----------



## cheezer32 (Feb 3, 2009)

It will take you approximately 40 sheets of 4x8 plywood. There is 2400 linear feet in boxes (2per hive), plus whatever you scrap rate is added to that. If you are making your own frames, you could roughly figure 2 per board foot, plus whatever your scrap rate is and be fairly close. 

1 board foot per bottom board, and 1 board foot for lid rims should keep you safe.


----------



## Sapper (Nov 1, 2015)

It does not matter where I reply from; my interest is the budget for 200 hives in US. I was thinking about $30-40K. In terms of hive I am able to make everything by myself. Lot of work but it saves some money


----------



## tanksbees (Jun 16, 2014)

Sapper said:


> It does not matter where I reply from; my interest is the budget for 200 hives in US. I was thinking about $30-40K. In terms of hive I am able to make everything by myself. Lot of work but it saves some money


Hives cost nothing, you just need to cut the trees down yourself, catch some wild horses to make glue out of, and catch 200 wild swarms of bees. 

Horse meat is delicious as well, and the skin makes an excellent jacket, so you will have also be warm and well fed.


----------



## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

It depends on a lot of factors;

What length boards are you using? How many sides/ends can you get from one board to utilize the entire board, rabbit or dado the corners? What grade of wood; how much is unusable? What are you paying for the wood? Retail or wholesale? Any pine sawmills near you? Or are you going to Lowes?

Using US dollars and buying standard lumber sizes? Not only is the currency different but if your using metric, your board length and plywood sheets are different you may get more of less lids from a sheet of ply. 

For me 2" X 12" X 16' can make the most sides/ends and have very little left over. At retail 2 X lumber is cheaper and better quality than 1 X lumber. I hand select each board and it all get used, making deeps for about $6 in wood, most look like select grade boxes.


----------



## GregH (Aug 4, 2016)

Rough cut cypress here cost $1.25 per board foot if that helps you any. Pine is a lot cheaper.


----------



## Sunday Farmer (Nov 13, 2013)

Sapper said:


> Does anyone have kind of rough wood estimate for 200 behives (or 100, 50). Intend to build them by myself. Probably pine lumber and covers from plywood.
> S.


I figure 6 linear feet per box. And I just guess 10% waste. I make nuc boxes as well so FYI it's hard to have a lot of waste unless if the grade is really poor. 

I just scored cut offs for roughly 10 cents a bf. Before I was buying planer outs from a mill for 38.


----------



## Sapper (Nov 1, 2015)

Thanx for all your replies. S


----------



## emrude (Mar 23, 2015)

FlowerPlanter said:


> It depends on a lot of factors;...
> For me 2" X 12" X 16' can make the most sides/ends and have very little left over. At retail 2X lumber is cheaper and better quality than 1X lumber. I hand select each board and it all get used, making deeps for about $6 in wood, most look like select grade boxes.


Do you make your boxes from '2 by' wood, or do you plane it down? I am trying to cut down on weight so I use 1x12. 
Lowe's has a sale till 01-05-17. Their common 2"x12"x16' is less than $2.00. 
I want to build a long hive, so I may go shopping.

Mary


----------



## Jim_in_PA (May 17, 2016)

emrude said:


> Do you make your boxes from '2 by' wood, or do you plane it down? I am trying to cut down on weight so I use 1x12.
> Lowe's has a sale till 01-05-17. Their common 2"x12"x16' is less than $2.00.
> I want to build a long hive, so I may go shopping.
> 
> Mary


Using lumber "2-by" limber at full thickness wouldn't be my choice for boxes, so it would need to be re-sawn on a band saw and thickness planed smooth. (or planed down with great waste) The issue with that with "2-by" stock is you're starting at 1.5" (yes, 2" = 1.5" in the construction lumber world  ) and that doesn't leave you anything for smoothing. So re-sawing off center to 7/8" to plane to 3/4" and 1/2" is likely what one would end up with and unless there's a use for the 1/2" thick material, that's not any savings. That said, if one is willing to leave one side rough for the inside and is careful with the re-saw work..."2-by" can be very economical.


----------



## cowdoc (May 15, 2011)

Keep in mind that grade of wood will affect your output dramatically. Depending on the joints you use and the quality of product you are willing to accept, knot spacing can make or break your output efficiency. Better grades of wood may cost a lot more, but may be more efficient and may save work as you cut your pieces out. Take the time to learn the pine grading standards. The words used may all sound good, but the quality may not correlate to the English meaning. Premium is not the best...

http://www.nelma.org/wp-content/uploads/graderSheets_Part1.pdf

Chris Cripps
Betterbee
Humble Abodes

[email protected]


----------



## emrude (Mar 23, 2015)

Jim,
I agree with your points about the thickness of the wood and re-sawing or planing. 
I was asking FlowerPlanter if he used the 2 by 12's as 2 by 12s, or if he re-sawed or planed them to 3/4. 
I am a pretty good woodworker. I was a trim carpenter when I was younger, and then I moved into historical rehabs making doors, windows and period correct trim.
I don't have a real resaw bandsaw(like a rikon.) I have a Jet with a riser block. Most of my jet tools are blue, a little older like me. 
I have a pretty complete shop. And then I have my garage shop where I do most of my bee hive work. My shop is about 7 miles from me and I have to carry wood downhill and then parts uphill. I would dearly like to move my shop to my garage, but I have been held back with my bad back and life just happening. 
The other woodworking I do is on a lathe. I was juried into the Illinois Artist Program until this last governor de-funded it. 
I would not go to the extreme of re-sawing 2x pine for bee boxes. I also would not pull apart pallets to get "free" wood to make bee hives from. 
I want to build a long hive. The plans call for using 2x wood. According to the guy who builds these long hives, Langstroth's first hive design used 2-inch wood on the bodies. I would have a very hard time lifting a 2x box filled with 8 frames of honey. 

Mary


----------



## Jim_in_PA (May 17, 2016)

Mary, your 14" Jet BS with riser would re-saw pine no problem with the right blade. (1/2" 3 tpi Timberwolf or similar) if you wanted to do this. But there remains the issue of finished thickness...you'd likely need to use it "rough inside" or do the 3/4" and 1/2" finished as I mentioned. I personally wouldn't want to use the 1.5" thick stock for a hive body for exactly the reason you state, even with "standard" side Langstroth type boxes, let alone the long hive setup. I've been pretty much only building mediums for Alison for weight reasons, too.

'Glad to learn about your woodworking accomplishments. I'm also a serious woodworker since the late 1980s, although primarily just for personal enjoyment and an occasional small commission in my "copious free time" (not!) If you are not already a member and would enjoy a forum like this one for woodworking, message me and I'll link you up with SMC. I do the "spinny thing", too, although I haven't been turning lately because of other distractions with work, life, equestrian, cooking, photography, home improvement and flat work in the shop.


----------

