# Lazy susan bearing



## Scpossum

How much weight should a lazy susan bearing be able to support? I am building a 20 frame observation hive. I am figuring 20 frames (at 5 lbs per frame) + hive = 200lbs at the most? So a 12" 500lb bearing should work?

This hive is four rows of 5 frames each.


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## whiskers

Of course, evenly loaded it's bombproof, you would want to check how much off center the load can be, just in case the bees decide to put the honey all in one side. Most likely fine there too.
Bill


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## Agis Apiaries

Depends on what you buy.

Here is one that will hold 1000 pounds, should be enough.

http://www.amazon.com/Capacity-Bearing-Turntable-Bearings-VXB/dp/B0045DV04I


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## DirtyLittleSecret

You planning to spin it like an extractor? Even a regular old school TV table at goodwill (probably $2) ought to work for decades so long as you keep under 20 rpm!


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## Michael Bush

If your observation hive weighs more than 500 pounds, you have other problems...


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## snl

Scpossum said:


> I am building a 20 frame observation hive. This hive is four rows of 5 frames each.


Now that I'd like to see when finished!


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## Scpossum

Michael Bush said:


> If your observation hive weighs more than 500 pounds, you have other problems...


You guys are funny. But, you have a point. Just trying not to have one of those uh oh moments after I get it finished. I went with a 12" circular 550lb from Lowes. I have it at the shop getting glass installed and then maybe this weekend I can get it put together. Will post pics when I get it put together. 

It is really two 10 frame observation hives put on top of each other for a total of 20 frames. There is one up the road from me and from what I understand it does quite well with minimal input from the user. It is going in a room off my garage since my wife would not let it go in the bedroom. :no:


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## Scpossum

Okay, so I am finished (minus two pieces of glass framing) and I am already seeing there is no way to easily move this thing. So I am thinking I shut the door to the small room it is located in, move the bees in, open the window and hope the flyers go right outside and find the entrance on the wall. Or, I could make a screen funnel and open the access port on the OB and see if a one way entrance would work. 

I was thinking when you load one outside, they don't all get in the OB anyway, right?


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## Michael Bush

>...when you load one outside, they don't all get in the OB anyway, right?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesobservationhives.htm#working

It seems as soon as you open the observation hive the bees start overflowing out onto the hive. You will need a smoker and a brush to get the door closed again. Try to smoke them back into the hive and then brush as many as you can out of the way of closing the door. Another advantage to the Von Frisch AFTER I put in the extra spacer is that the bees don't get crushed so much in the hinge or the door side because there is a 1/4 gap all the way around. I brush them off once, move the hive a ways, and do it again. Then I take the hive back in the house and put the two tubes against each other and remove the cloth as quickly as I can and reconnect things. If I do this with a minimum amount of time of the tube being open, I almost never have a bee get into the house. If they do they will just try to go out the window and you can catch them with a glass and a piece of paper. Put the glass over the bee and slide the piece of paper under the glass. You now have a bee in the glass. Take it outside and let it go.


Whenever I need to rework the hive or do a thorough cleanup, I just put the frames into a nuc with the entrance at the same place as the tube with the tube still closed. In my case the nuc is on top of an empty deep box to get it the right height. If the entrance to the nuc is the same place, they quickly find the nuc. This gives me several days, if I want it, to clean up the burr, the propolis, rework whatever things were frustrating me, like making a feeder, putting in something to maintain the spacing, a hole to feed pollen, more or less ventilation etc. Then when I'm done, I just put the frames back in the observation hive, remove the nuc and connect everything back up.


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## Scpossum

Thank you for reminding me. I have read that on your page before. Good info!


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## Scpossum

I think they accepted her.


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