# Hive stand plans?



## localwhale (Apr 19, 2009)

I dig things out level and lay down some old roofing tiles to keep weeds from growing up. Then I stack some concrete blocks, two blocks high and two blocks wide, and put the hives on top of that. One block works well too but I like having my hives just a little higher up. This has worked really well for me so far and cost me zero dollars because I used spare blocks I found laying around.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

There is nothing to them. Dimensions are the same as your hive body. Make the height of the base about three inches with an angled front that suits your fancy (45-60 degrees).


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## BonnieBee (Jul 29, 2007)

If you're referring to the wooden frame thing with the sloping front (hive stand) that the bottom board sits in, I don't have any on my hives. The few inches of bottom board seems to be plenty for my girls to come in for a landing. My view is that it's just another hive part that's not really needed.

Now if you're referring to a stand that the hive as a whole rests upon, what I use are concrete blocks with wooden shims to give the hive a little slope towards the front.

Terms interchangability within beekeeping can get really confusing at times.
Hive stand
Frame rest
Super
etc.


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## Elwood (Apr 8, 2009)

I just used this plan and added a front slope then made 25 copies. Took about a day. I'm very happy with them. It is listed right here in Beesource. I think the sloping entrance might help at the end of the day as they sometimes seem very tired and miss the bottom board then end up sitting on the ground until they get their second wind and make the final push to the entrance. Their landing skills are somewhat lacking compared to takeoff.

http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/ipm-screened-bottom-board/


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Here is a quick drawing I did. I assume this is what you're talking about?


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## MikeJ (Jan 1, 2009)

Yes, I wasn't sure how much the landing board extended above the wooden frame. Is the landing board expose to come up flush with a standard bottom board?


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

Never used them either. just something else to take your money.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

The standard bottom boards I use create a 3/8" gap on one side and 3/4" gap on the other. The top of the angle of the sloped front board comes about even to the top of bottom board landing on the 3/8" side, and a little lower on the 3/4" side. The bottom board dimensions are in this plan:
http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/


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## MikeJ (Jan 1, 2009)

Ok thanks.
It sounds like most people don't use this type, though it appears to be simple to make.

Those who use stands.... you prefer the type that is more like a table without a top?

Mike


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Mine are two four foot treated two by fours and four eight foot treated two by fours for rails. The spacing is such that I can slide the hives back to the center and have them huddled together for winter and slide them forward and have more room to work them in summer. I level the stand up and I put 14 eight frame hives on one stand.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand


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## Tony Teolis (Jun 27, 2011)

http://todolisthome.com/protect-beehive-from-ants/ Around Memorial Day weekend I kept noticing ants crawling in and out of honeybee hive B which was installed at the beginning of May. Ants can become a problem pest for bees if left unchecked. Usually bees can handle as they do most pests but for a small hive just starting out ants can be ruinous. It could get as bad as the bees having to abscond the hive and leave it to the ants. Well not on my watch.

If you have viewed the last couple of episodes you have noticed the format is changing to more of a “show me don’t tell me” pattern. I believe that doing episodes in this fashion with PowerPoint presentations captured with SnagIt from TechSmith and published on YouTube help to show rather than tell how to do things for a better life. Such is the case when it comes to explaining a to do list item from May.The video for today’s episode presents the problems posed by ants and my building plans for a bee hive stand with moat. Since this was installed at the end of May I have not noticed ants on or in the hive at all. I am still vigilant checking for pests and although there are some such as the small hive beetle they do not thrive nor survive for long. Have a watch and let me know what you think and how you control pests in the beehive. My e-mail is [email protected] See "How to manage honey bees by my favorite advisers".


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## stan.vick (Dec 19, 2010)

Michael Bush said:


> Mine are two four foot treated two by fours and four eight foot treated two by fours for rails. The spacing is such that I can slide the hives back to the center and have them huddled together for winter and slide them forward and have more room to work them in summer. I level the stand up and I put 14 eight frame hives on one stand.
> 
> http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand


 Good idea MB I use foundationless which need to be very level, and doing a few one at a time is not so bad but doing several dozen is a pain. Thanks to you sharing this idea I will be buying a load of 2x4 lumber tomorrow.


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## KPeacock (Jan 29, 2013)

I don't use the sloped front hive bases at all. I do have my hives elevated on what I refer to as hive stands. I made them out of 2X4s. they are 8' long and what, about 20" wide. I made them so that i can place three hives on them, and in the space between the hives, i put a couple more 2X4s spaced so they act as frame holders. i usually pull 2 or three frames from one side of a box and set them in the built in frame holder and then just slide the remaining frames as i manipulate them. If i had a need to, I could put 5 hives on each stand, but i like to have some space between them.

The stands have legs on them that are about 18" long and those sit atop CMU blocks. last year, one hive was being tormented by ants, so i placed the legs in small plastic trays filled with oil. I used aluminum flashing to cobble together a rain guard for these.


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