# Just built my second hive for $10, Photo!



## DrDoorlock (Mar 5, 2013)

They tore down a house on my block. The siding is 100 year old cedar. The rest is from a fence someone replaced. I bought 1/4" hardware cloth and doubled it to make 1/8" squares for the bottom. Not shown are the 1" thick (1 3/8" wide top bars. I used string welded on with beeswax for the top bars and made two into partitions. Since there are thirty bars, I plan to put the brood in the middle. The roof will be three old political signs. I have a home for it just three miles away. As usual, I need bees.

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s663/DrDoorlock/SalvagedTopBar_zpscab687fe.jpg


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Nice looking hive. I really hope that isn't lead paint on those boards. I think they banned lead house paint in the 70s.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Looks good, and I wouldn't worry about lead paint...it's only hazardous when airborne, or when eaten...and there's precious little paint there anywise 

One recommendation, though...it's best to leave the brood at one end of the box, or the other; if you put the brood in the middle, then during the winter the cluster will slowly work their way towards one (and only one) end where, if you don't intervene, they'll starve to death with the other end full of capped stores :/


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## rtoney (Apr 20, 2011)

The bees won't eat the paint:no: You can pay alot more to build one but the bees don't care, home is home.
Good job


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## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

That is cool! The fading paint add character to it. Kind of like a patina on an older car with a bit of surface corrosion.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Sorry DrDoorlock, I didn't mean to make this about paint! The hive really is beautiful and I agree the patina is charming, I was just thinking if it were mine I would manage to get some into it somehow. I'm talented like that. I love that you gave a new life into something that would otherwise have been thrown away.


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## DrDoorlock (Mar 5, 2013)

robherc said:


> One recommendation, though...it's best to leave the brood at one end of the box, or the other; if you put the brood in the middle, then during the winter the cluster will slowly work their way towards one (and only one) end where, if you don't intervene, they'll starve to death with the other end full of capped stores :/


I'm in East Texas - we don't have winters here, but since this hive is 32 bars, I wanted to try having the brood in the middle. Why wouldn't it work if I left enough combed honey on each side to carry them through our brief winter. We have natural sources of nectar and pollen out here for more months than not.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Lol, I'm actually about a 6 hr drive SSW of you...compared to my coastal climate, you have TERRIBLE winters up by DFW 

In all seriousness, though, if you have enough honey on EACH side for them to "make it through" the winter, such as it may be, then you shouldn't have any real problem. I just recommended leaving the brood at one end (where all of my bees have put their brood chambers, anywise) so yoru bees can "put all their eggs in one basket," with all the honey at the other end, so you can safely harvest more, they don't have to "decide" which way to move the cluster, and you don't have to check on/manage them quite so much while they're wintering. All that said, I had 2 4-frame nucs make it through the 1.5 months of "winter" down here (actually, it never got below 38F last winter, here) just fine, I hived them in full-sized boxes last week, after having waited too long to do so... both of them had already swarmed on me.


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