# Building one for the heck of it.



## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I am already past my second day of building and still not done.










I still have the roof and all the top bars to do and I believe I will make some kind of inner cover rather then use cloth. With only one warre hive it isn't worth making a feeder for it so with an inner cover I can use jars and feed on it.

I am always surprised at how much lumber it takes to build stuff. I thought I would try the warre and just see how much easier it might be to build compared to langs. It is still hard. 

It is made out of oak and I work by myself and so believe I will lose some benefits of the warre cause I am sure that due to weight I am going to have to break open the brood nest to add room cause it is already so heavy that I can only move 3 empty boxes at a time. Anyway, I thought I would share and take comments.

In zone 5b will I need to winter with three boxes?
Thanks
gww

Ps I used window screen for the quilt bottom. Will this cause any issues?


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

I hear you. I've been working on my plans for splitting my hives next spring to increase my numbers. I started building boxes this week. So far, I've used 6 1x12x10' pine boards. I have four deep bodies, four medium supers, two 4-frame deep nuc boxes, four 1 1/2" shims which I'm putting 1/2" hardware cloth on and will use for candy boards, four 4 1/2" shims which I am putting 1/2" hardware cloth on and will use for quilt boxes, two 1 1/2" nuc shims, and 4 telescoping covers. 

I just came in from putting the metal on the tele covers and said to my wife, "Making beehives is a lot of work!" 

I think this is about a third of what I'll need for next summer, and I still have not made any bottom boards. Will also need at least one more divided deep for nucs, and some swarm traps.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Gumpy
If you made all that this week you are much quiker then me. I put all my dried boards in my garage for this winter and it is not going to make much. It might last pretty long into winter though cause I am slow slow slow.
Cheers
gww


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

That was about four days worth of work. I didn't say it was pretty, but it was efficient. Rabbet joints, not box joints. #2 pine boards from Menard's and Home Depot. Titebond III smeared with a piece of scrap and pneumatic staple gun. I'm trying to be as efficient as I can with my limited tools. Basic 12" miter saw, not compound, so I have to make a cut, flip the board and finish the cut from the other side. Portable table saw. My garage is so cluttered I have to set up sawhorses on the driveway, so I'm limited by the weather. Cleanup is easy, though. Sweep the big stuff. Let the wind and rain take care of the rest. I build everything to full width of the 1x12s and then cut them to size, which gives me the shims as a bonus. The tele covers were made from 1x6 and cut in two. I got four tele-cover frames out of a single 8 foot 1x6. I use scrap to make handles rather than milling that fancy moon shaped recess into the box sides. Glue and staple it to the ends using a 1x3 to space them from the top. Slap a coat of paint on. Done. Like I said, they're not pretty, but they're really not difficult to make, and they work quite well. My goal is to add 4 hives and 4 nucs next spring and summer and build them to 3 boxes each. I'll eventually need more boxes, but this should get me started, and now I have my candy board and quilt box shims and a tele-cover for my double nuc for winter. 

Your hive looks pretty nice in your photo. That will look great in the back yard.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

gumpy
Thanks for the compliment. I do almost everything on the table saw. My stuff is always a mess. I cleaned my garage this spring. It took 3 days to carry most stuff out and digg out sawdust and mouse poop and burn it all. Time to start making another mess. I also build and then cut down. I do some fancy handles and some cleets. I make mostly medium stuff cause I cut my own boards and my logs won't usually be big enough to get wide board and wide boards of oak are hard to keep from warping. I probly have the heaviest hives ever due to there being no pine around here.

The warre I butt jointed and used a ton of nails but on the langs I have rabbit jointed and finger jointed. I like the finger jointing better cause my boards are not always 3/4 inch thick and if I put the fingers 3/4 inch the inside measurements always come out right with out math.

My stuff is not pretty either but my three hives are living in them so I guess it is ok. My first year.
Cheers
gww


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## bee keeper chef (Nov 1, 2015)

Nice looking hive I build a lot of my own stuff myself that way I can build a lot of extra bee furniture that would just cost to much to buy out right. Looking at your legs not real sure about them they will be holding a lot of weight. Maybe some cross bracing a toppled hive is no fun trust me I know FYI


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## jbraun (Nov 13, 2013)

gww, have you looked into keeping bees in the Warre hive? It's plenty different in the frames are not movable. You don't get to reuse the comb! One of my neighbors gave me a Warre hive and I gave it away at our monthly meeting.

Gumpy. I get 10 deeps out of 7- 1 x 12 x 10's. You have almost no waste! Use 7 - 1 x 8 x 10's for you supers and again you will have almost no waste. If you rip the boards on your table saw first then you have a good sized board to use for inner covers and outer covers. Of course you will have to get 1/4" plywood and 1/2" plywood for them as well. The first couple of years I just made what I guessed I'd need. Then I started to make batches of 10. It's a better use of time that way.

Good Luck to you both!


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

jbraun said:


> gww, have you looked into keeping bees in the Warre hive? It's plenty different in the frames are not movable. You don't get to reuse the comb! One of my neighbors gave me a Warre hive and I gave it away at our monthly meeting.
> 
> Gumpy. I get 10 deeps out of 7- 1 x 12 x 10's. You have almost no waste! Use 7 - 1 x 8 x 10's for you supers and again you will have almost no waste. If you rip the boards on your table saw first then you have a good sized board to use for inner covers and outer covers. Of course you will have to get 1/4" plywood and 1/2" plywood for them as well. The first couple of years I just made what I guessed I'd need. Then I started to make batches of 10. It's a better use of time that way.
> 
> Good Luck to you both!


I'm taking my quilt boxes and feeder shims off the bottoms after I construct the boxes with full width 1x12. The quilt box comes off the bottom of the medium super, 4 1/2 inches. The feeder shim comes off the bottom of the deep, 1 1/2 inches. I used a 1x6 to make the tele covers. I got 4 cover frames from an 8 footer, with a little left over which I ripped for cleat handles. Any leftover 1x12 gets ripped for cleat handles, too, so very little waste. 

I agree that making 10 at a time is an efficient way. Cut all the pieces, the set up the table saw and run all the ends through at each setting. The slowest part for me is clamping a stiff board across each piece to take the crown out before cutting the end rabbets edge cuts. I'm not using a dado blade, just a single blade and make two cuts for each rabbet or dado. 

I have to measure up a screened bottom board and figure out the best way to make them. Maybe I can get 4 or 5 out of the width of a 1x12.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Beekeeper
I just followed the plan on the legs so I hope it holds.

Jb
I like the langs, I have two long langs built also. I may never use the long langs or warre, but I might. 

I figured if I caught a swarm, I might throw it in the warre and let them go for as long as they would and not really inspect and just add space.

I just wanted to see if they were any easier to build and if they took less wood. I didn't see a real differance. 

I figured that if I run it like warre did that prodution compared to a lang would be way down but that I have swarm traps everywhere and if it did live a couple of years I might catch a swarm form it. I was thinking it might go three years before the mites took it out and as long as I have nothing in it, including inspections, that if I got anything out of it, it would just be the cost of a swarm.

Again though, I might be too greedy to waste any bees on it. If nothing else, I will put some lemongrass oil in it and set it out and see what happens. 

That hive sitting like it is weighs a ton cause of the kind of wood I made it out of.

I don't know what I am doing, I am just playing.

I intend on building more langs this year and haven't got enough bees to fill what I have built. They do get used pretty fast though when you start adding extra supers to feed in and stuff.

gumpy
I think the slowest part for me is making the frames.
Cheers
gww


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

gww said:


> gumpy
> I think the slowest part for me is making the frames.


Confession time. I cheated on that part. I bought 100 unassembled frames from Mann Lake last year. Something like $0.86 each. I plan to do the same next spring for deep frames and medium super frames to go in the boxes I'm now building. 

I did have to modify them, though. My bees refused to draw comb on the foundation that came with the first two hives I purchased. Not having any wax to paint on them, I cut strips of 1x and glued it into the foundation groove in the top frames to give them a guide. It worked great. They really pulled a lot of comb after I did that. I've decided to abandon all the foundation for the time being. I may try it again when I get some wax I can paint on it, but for now, it's going to all be foundationless on a wood starter strip.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I cut my top bars at 45 degrees to make a "V" for my guide. I have a couple hundred made and so guess I am committed to it. I am not experianced but believe it is working pretty well for me. eighty nine cents is cheep compared to what I do but I like not buying things. If the bees ever give back I may change on this. I figure I am not that smart doing it my way, time wise, but am half enjoying it anyway, I think.
Cheers
gww


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## herbhome (Oct 18, 2015)

I use v-guides on my top bars and it has worked very well.


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