Hive parts. Dovetailed corners

So after reading M Bush and T Rowe and a bit of Lusby I have decided on having all medium hive boxes (except the Flow box) and all 8 frames wide. I used dovetail joints on the hive boxes/supers as they were easy to do and seemed sturdy.
I built a screened bottom with an under hive entrance. Should be harder for mice to get in and mites can fall through the screen.
I ignored Tim Rowe and put a hole in the top board in case the bees need feeding as I think they will. The feeding bottle is from a Costco nut container and it seems to hold liquid well even with small holes in the lid.
That’s my stack of six supers under a tarp for the winter with a lid on the top. I left the interiors rough as it has been shown that bees surrounded by propolis are healthier. Hopefully they will propolise the rough surfaces.

I’m not sure if it’s my glasses or my computer, however your photos appear very fuzzy:(

I had the same problem, @JeffH, but if you click on each picture, it sharpens up just fine. :blush:

Hi Dawn, thanks. Now I have lost them altogether. @Obas maybe in the process of editing the thread.

PS, they re-appeared, then I lost them again after clicking on one.

Strange, they are still fine for me. Visit to the optician this week? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Click on the photos and they sharpen up. They are blurry on my computer too. Not sure why.

on mine they were blurry- then they sharpened- and now they disappeared… weird.

Nice looking heavy duty boxes though- well done. I haven’t seen that type of joint before.

Hi Dawn, it must be my computer. I opened up a new page & the images are still missing altogether. Doesn’t matter…

They were blurry when I first opened the link, then OK when I clicked and now they have all gone. I wanted to see if they really were dovetailed joints and they are indeed. Personally I prefer the castellated box joint because it has a much greater area of contact. I glue and nail my boxes with polyurethane glue and galvanised flathead nails. Each corner gets cramped into place and secured with 10 nails. Before the glue sets, I “bump” the boxes into square.

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by the looks of the photos- his boxes are around 2 inches thick- I would think being that solid there is no need for more finger/box joints. Those boxes would be incredibly solid. It also looks as if he has used giant screws- judging by the size of the screw holes.

The boxes I have made are from Ontario white pine sawn to what the trade calls 4/4". This means 1 inch thick. I smoothed one side with a planer - the outside. Pine is a soft wood and has about the highest insulation value and rot resistance of our local woods. Buying direct from a sawyer is also the cheapest way of getting wood.

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Thanks for posting Obas. It’s really difficult to see your pics for some obviously computer related reason.

is that really only 1 inch thick (25mm)? They look a lot fatter than my hoop pine flow hives which are 21mm.

es
Assembling dovetail joints on bee box. After glue and assembly the box is clamped to a flat surface and the diagonal clamp allowed squaring the assembled box. The dovetails are easy to make using a table saw for the pins and a bandsaw for the tails.

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