# Fancy Garden Hive



## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

I can't quite tell what I'm looking at. Is that a side of a box with the fingers of the box joint on either side? Is it wood? Pretty impressive.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Sorry,
Should have had more detail, it's an 8-frame medium, the front of the box. It takes a bit to cut out and we run mediums, so I thought we would start with that before moving on to deeps. That way, I get to use the prototypes!


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## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

looks nice - id just worry about decay - looks as thought you carved out about 3/8 or so of the wood to get the honeycomb cells ??? 

id be upset to order a box that would only last 2 years in the weather ???

maybe if you dipped the whole thing it might last 

but great job on it


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

We figured it would need to be stained/coated or dipped heavily. The other way of making it would be to make the board thicker to accommodate the carving and then sloping it back into 3/4" so the main thickness is 3/4" solid. We may go a head and cut one of those to see how it would look. We were also a bit worried about the final thickness of the panel. 

We were also thinking of making it from sassafras instead of pine for more durability, plus we can get the sassafras locally. I think red cedar would also be very pretty. We can drive a bit and get cypress. That would probably also help on the longevity of the boxes. 

A box like this would be expensive, so you’d definitely want it to last quite a while.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Handholds, cleats?


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Handholds on all sides except the front. Could put one in the front and do the carving around it.....do you think that would distract too much from the carving? Could do cleats on the sides and rear also. A cleat on the front I don't think would work well with the carving.......opinion?


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## beekuk (Dec 31, 2008)

KB.. i like it,looks great.
We also manufacture lots of cedar hives for sale,and already make a pretty hive for gardens with stand and gabled roof,but have been thinking of doing something similar to yours for a while now,but perhaps not quite as elaborate.
Have also been toying with the idea of making a few out of english walnut,have plenty of that at the moment. Obviously same as yourself,would not be selling them cheap,made for a select kind of market really,as opposed to the normal production hives. Love to see a picture of one of yours when all made up complete.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

BeeUK, 
We looked at the hardwoods, but they are tough on the carving tools, plus many of the hardwoods are dense making for heavy boxes. I'm going down to medium 8's right now. I have a few old boxes that are made out of oak. We cut them down to 8's and they still feel twice as heavy as the pine boxes. 

You are correct that we are looking at a select market. These would be show hives, award/prize hives, birthday/christmas gifts and such. There are plenty of folks who can make the basic boxes significantly cheaper that we could, plus we really don't want to make that type of box. 

Do you use the red or white cedar? How is the market for those boxes in the UK? 

We are probably a couple of weeks away from assembing a complete hive. Will post though, when we get there.


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## beekuk (Dec 31, 2008)

Hi KB
we use nearly all western red cedar,it's the most popular timber used for hives in the uk,plus pine for the frames,we sawmill and kiln dry all our own timber,and we tend to concentrate on good quality finnished hives. Cannot make them fast enough,as there is rather a boom going on with beekeeping over here at the moment...seems everyone wants to be a beekeeper for the last couple of years,great for buisness, but cannot last at this level i'm sure...lol.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Thanks to everyone for their comments so far. We really appreciate the feedback.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

I would suggest using your carved panels (without handholds) to make three-sided displays for honey with shelves. Shelves could strengthen the assembly and a lightly built Garden Top could bee used. The display could "grow" by adding sections...

I think you might be able to come up with other uses for hive/bee themed carvings. Perhaps signs, or some sort of gift item. A HONEY sign with the bee relief could be nice. 

Think beyond the box....


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

Instead of making the carving part of the front side piece why not make a free form plaque that would wrap around the handhold? Then just glue it on. As mentioned above the plaques would make nice signs for folks selling at flea markets, farm shows etc.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

I'd buy a 10 frame med with all 4 sides done for my wife. She'd really like that.
A guy at our club has been making some with the word honey on all 4 sides. She already has one of those.

Nice Job


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I think that most of the whining about bee boxes being to heavy is because folks only use handholds, and not cleats. Finger tips are not made for lifting, especially gloved finger tips. I have always had beveled cleats on all boxes. I am weak with MS and I only whine about deeps filled with honey. 
To achieve cleats I would incorporate a twisted branch across the ends with a swarm hanging from it. Or a bench with hives on top.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

fish_stix said:


> Instead of making the carving part of the front side piece why not make a free form plaque that would wrap around the handhold? Then just glue it on.


I'm not sure I follow on wrapping aruond the handhold....it would go above and below the handhold...we just have a cutout where the handhold is and the plaque fits over the handhold? If it is a plaque, then it will stick out from the box, so the sides should be beveled for water runoff......

Do I have the concept right? Would folks mind having a plaque project out from the hive box?

On signage, we can make signs currently up to 24" X 26". With an equipment upgrade we can go 24" X 56".


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

odfrank said:


> I think that most of the whining about bee boxes being to heavy is because folks only use handholds, and not cleats.To achieve cleats I would incorporate a twisted branch across the ends with a swarm hanging from it. Or a bench with hives on top.


Instead of carving the box, we carve cleats? So one type of cleat would be a 1/1/2" to 2" wide cleat say roughly 12" in length. We would carve a branch into that rectangle and have a swarm hanging off one end of the branch, so the cleat blank would actually be like a short capital L turned sideways and the bottom of the L would be where the swarm was carved. Is this what correct? I'm not certain what you mean by a bench with hives on top...can you help me out here?


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Ok, here is our second effort in which we framed the panel to help strengthen it and for nailing. Please note that we are using hive body parts we have on hand which are not select grade. These are just prototypes.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Here are a couple of more designs we've produced. We have one more that we are currently working on and that will complete our intial set of designs.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Very nice, I'm tempted to buy one of those machines.


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## foxden (Dec 2, 2010)

Very nice, I would love to see one assembled and perhaps polyurethaned. With an A frame copper roof, too. Definitely would be a show piece in the garden.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

The CNC is great, just not kind to your wallet. We will need to sell a lot of these


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## slickbrightspear (Jan 9, 2009)

hey KB 
have you tried using that thing on any sassafrass yet. I know when we are cutting them your chain saw will throw sparks and that is just the wood no metal or rocks. we used to cut a lot of sassafrass for barn poles and teir poles.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Not yet, we had to glue boards to get a deep size. I'll post when we use it. Wonder what caused the sparks. Our understanding is that this is a "soft" hardwood. What do you think about the wood as far as it's use for bee boxes?


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

2 questions-
What kind of equipment are you using? 
Ball park on what you would charge per box? $50, $100, $200????


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Kingfisher Apiaries said:


> 2 questions-
> What kind of equipment are you using? A CNC machine. We build the models, load them up on a laptop and have the CNC carve them out.
> 
> Ball park on what you would charge per box? $50, $100, $200????


 We are still trying to figure that out---ballpark probably somewhere between $60-$80 per a box. Our biggest issue so far is machine time. Right now each design on a deep or medium spends about 6 HOURS on the machine. I don't know if we can cut down the machine time and still get that quality. We're still working through the process. This is actually the hardest part of the process, pricing the boxes so folks can afford them, but yet covering our costs of making them. We're not trying to get rich making these (good luck to us) but we do want to cover our expenses and make a bit of profit. 

Would welcome comments on the price range.


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## slickbrightspear (Jan 9, 2009)

sassafras is a very hard and very brittle not sure how it will work for bee boxes. If you cut it yourself be very care full about 2 years ago I cut a sassafras about 18 inches around about half way thru it split in half and started to fall over top of the split which left the log about 12 feet in the air and then it immediately fell of the side just missing me as I tried to get away happened very quickly


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

For those of you who are developing these projects, please keep us posted. Especially if you consider producing signs... I am interested! Both in signs, and a hive body for decorative advertising purposes.
Regards,
Steven


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Once we are ready to go into production, I will most certainly post in the for sale section.

We'll produce signs, boxes and probably a shelf that will sit on a table so you can rack up your honey bottles and bears on it for sales. We are also going to produce a prototype pair of cleats that looks like a branch with a swarm on one end. That was a suggestion by one of the folks on this thread and we are going to try it out to see how it looks.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Here is our deep honey comb and flower&comb design. We have a bee medallion design yet to cut and that will finish our initial designs. One again, please note that we are using bee box parts on hand to cut these. Our production will be select lumber.


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## Mark in Kansas (Dec 10, 2009)

I really like that. I'd buy a couple.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Here is our final bee box design, a bee medallion. The farm name in this one is engraved instead of raised. We like the engraving, but we are going to look at a couple of different fonts, we are not certain we like this one as a final font. This box will be the least costly as it is around 3 hours of machine time. This one can also go on mediums and supers with very little modification, so all the boxes can match. I think this design would also go well with the other designs if you wanted this for honey supers and use another of the designs for deeps.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

You're really getting good detail in the veins of the wings, & other places.
Very nice.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Actually, this is the one design we bought. But it is still nice . Probably should have stated that. Sorry about that!!


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Just wanted to update folks on how our carved bee boxes are going. We have completed all our designs. We will have all the designs I've posted to date also in a medallion format similar to the large bee. Before too long, I hope to get those designs up on the website. 

Our only hitch to date has been finding clear pine at a reasonable cost, and we need clear (select grade) pine for these boxes. It does not seem that we can get that lumber in KY for a reasonable cost. We did find a supplier for cypress and made a lumber run today to try our carvings on that wood. 

For us, the cypress is cheaper than clear pine (go figure). Every cypress board we bought is perfectly clear. So if the carving turn out well on this lumber, this is probably what we are going to use at least initally.

We have our website up at www.kbfarms.com and we are also on facebook. If you would like to contact us, please either PM me here or send an email through the website or facebook. 

Once we are up and running, I will also post in the for sale section here on Beesource. Thanks again for all your interests in the bee boxes.


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## slickbrightspear (Jan 9, 2009)

have you tried poplar


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Just wanted to post a final update in this thread. We are ready for production. For now, we have settled on cypress wood for the hive bodies. If you are interested in getting a quote from us, just go to our website at www.kbfarms.com, pick out the design you'd like and send us an email with the size of box you'd like (deep, med, 10 frame, 8 farme) and we'll send you a quote for the box. The same for a sign, send the size, desired design and information you'd like on it and we'll send you a quote. In the quotes will also be a file with the way the sign or box will be carved so there is no misunderstanding on what exactly you will get. We want to ensure that you are happy with your order. I'll be posting in the For Sale section in the future on Bee Source. I appreciate all the feedback from the folks who participated in this thread. It really helped us to nail down what folks would like.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Looks like it would make a great gift!


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

slickbrightspear said:


> have you tried poplar


We looked at popular, but because it sometimes has a green color when finished, we decided some folks may not want that tint to the wood. We've planed the Sassafras wood and I really like the color. We are going to try a sign with that wood. The only drawback to that wood is that it has to be glued up to make anything beyond a medium size. 

Some other folks have suggested Cherry for signs. My understanding is that is a very hard but pretty wood. I don't know how fast bits would dull using that wood. 

I think cedar would be a very pretty wood for signs. We are going to look around for red cedar and try that wood. Has anyone worked with red cedar? Do you like it?


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

I would go with Mahogany -durable and able to take differences in humidity.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

One wood to consider, if you think bright yellow / dark brown would sell, is Osage Orange (Maclura Pomifera), also known as Bowdark or Bois d'Arc, if you can find a piece large enough. The stuff lasts a LONG time out in the weather. It is an excellent choice for someone who does not want to paint their hives. Watch out for those 2" thorns, though. Also, if you find any straight grained, unblemished, knotless staves over 72 inches long, please inform me via private message. I build Native American replica bows with it. Thanks!


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

Sounds interesting. Where does the tree grow?


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## Dunkel (Jun 12, 2009)

I saw some when I was deer unting up in Owen county and over in Indiania. I think they may also go by the name of hedge apples here in Ky. Alot of they guys I know up that way use them for frnce posts.


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## Dunkel (Jun 12, 2009)

I saw some when I was deer unting up in Owen county and over in Indiania. I think they may also go by the name of hedge apples here in Ky. Alot of they guys I know up that way use them for fence posts.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Osage orange grows in the central midwestern states - Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, I would imagine Kansas and Oklahoma, and I've heard it grows in north eastern Texas. Like Dunkel says, it makes a good fence posts. Ask a traditional archer if he knows where to get a piece that is short but wide enough. The trunks probably don't grow big enough, or they'd already be popular for beehives. I'd consider joining it with a finger glue joint router bit, as you don't have the bending loads that archers deal with. It might prove impractical due to size.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

I figured it must be a small tree like sassafras or persimmon. I’ve never run across it and I did a lot of backwoods running while growing up in the eastern part of KY. I haven’t seen it in central KY either.


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