What timber to use when building a hive from scratch

I would ask your local hardware shop if they can supply either size and I would only buy metal wire mesh and not fiberglass or plastic.

I think the Flow hive Classic had ~3.5mm mesh, but I seem to recall that with the Flow hive 2 they went back down to 3mm again as the bigger mesh can easily distort and let bees through. Perhaps @Freebee2 can tell us what size mesh, and even give an idea of where to find it for Australia customers? She is very helpful, so if anyone can find out, she can! :blush:

I found this with a Google search, they are in Queensland but will ship anywhere in Australia and have both 3 and 3.5mm aperture sizes.

You won’t believe the price of mesh so why not buy a solid bottom board with the risers and cleats from a bee equipment supplier? After all mesh bottom boards is relatively new in bee keeping. It wasn’t that long ago that you had no choice, it was all solid bottom boards and it worked.

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I hear ya mate, I’m close to going the solid bottom route.
I will however try one thing first :grin:
I found this https://www.bunnings.com.au/whites-90cm-x-5m-x-6-5mm-x-6-5mm-mouse-mesh_p3040081 which is 6.5mm aperture with a wire thickness is 0.5mm or there abouts, I’ll overlap it when installing and should end up with precisely 3mm aperture…
Trial and error

Hi Rani, if you’re close to going the solid floor route, just go that way. I wouldn’t use anything else. I’m using solid floors as a strategy, more than a convenience. I’m also going for smaller entrances these days, even in hot weather.

Hi @RaniK,

@Dawn_SD is correct - our earliest hives had 3.5 mm mesh, which was then changed to 3 mm as we found that the 3.5 mm created bee sized gaps.

Here is a link to the spare bottom boards available from our online store in case it is of use… you should also be able to get just the mesh at your local hardware store or Bunnings (sorry if this information is redundant as I haven’t read the whole thread at this stage)

Please let me know if you need any further information or assistance :slight_smile:

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I was chatting to a chippie the other day and he told me that the balsa tree was in fact classified as a hardwood tree. Nah that can’t be right…
And it’s true…
Yeah well, just thought I’d share… May come in handy quiz night. :nerd_face:

OK, Brit joke… Does he make good fried potatoes and deep fried seafood? Chippy in the UK = somebody who works in a fish and chip shop. :rofl:

Ha, yeah forgot about that, you wood not want to eat this chippies chips though. :woozy_face:
So what is a carpenter called elsewhere?

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Eastern White Cedar is my preference as it is very lightweight and rot resistant, yet quite strong. The only downside I’ve had is when prying apart well propolised boxes the hive tool leaves quite a dent.

It is hard to come by in wide boards, so I’ve been saving any wide planks I can when milling lumber.

I’m not sure I really need anymore boxes, but I suppose if I have the wood…

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I thought a ā€œchippieā€ was a golfer…

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I frequently came across chippies, as well as sparkies while having smoko when I was a gyprocker.

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Our house started with grano’s laying the slab then the brickies then the chippies and the sparkies then the roofies (not a drug) and finally the huge holie in the bank balance.:wink:

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Busso, I’ve been racking my brains for a nick name for plumbers, I don’t recall one. I think they were called just ā€œplumbersā€. I got out of the building game in the early 80’s to go fishing.

There seems to be an influx of Tradie’s Utes these days.

I don’t think there is one. Although ā€œexpensiveā€ comes to mind.

Tradies utes I believe are a rough barometer of how the economy is going. Good times lots of utes, bad times less utes. One of the reasons that the cars sales figures are down at the moment is that the HiLux utes (along with other utes) are not selling.

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Damn straight, being a fridgie myself sometimes it seems like every second car is a refrigeration trade Ute.
There may be more on the road but that also means more bodgie tradies out there. There was a push here, and probably still is, for the TAFEs to pass all regardless so that’s what they’ve done, driving the wages down and giving the industries a bad name. Currently we’re being beaten in price by company’s buying work to keep their employees employed. Every week I hear of companies going under.
But don’t mention the ā€œRā€ word…

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Hey peeps, so far the beekeeping journey has been amazing!

I started with catching my own swarm and now I have 4 colonies (1 swarm, 2 splits and 1 cut out)
Unfortunately I had missed or killed the queen by mistake while performing the cutout so now they have 9 queen cells capped (1 week old), and so the ants in my pants are dancing pushing me to split the colony. I’d say it has 5 frames worth of bees plus some capped brood

I have tried the Barnyard bees 2 frame nucs with my 2 splits, while they’re good. They’re too much work to build.

That’s when I stumbled on the ā€œQueen castlesā€ like this or this

I would like to get your point of views on this and would love to see if someone has plans in metric measurements.

P.S Went all solid bottom board :smiley:

I use 8 or 10 frame brood boxes to house splits. Even if it’s only 2 frames of bees. I use a hive mat, propped up by an empty frame on the empty side of the super. Plus I’ll insulate the colony with another empty frame containing drawn comb, which they will expand into. Then greatly reduce the entrance.

I would split that cut-out, seeing as there are so many queen cells. That’s if you want more colonies. It’s still spring, so there’s plenty of time for the colonies to build up.

PS you could make a follower board if you want to insulate the colony further. I just feel that an empty drawn frame provides enough insulation in my area.

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I agree with @JeffH with his advice. When I do a split the split goes straight into an 8 frame brood box with no super till it is needed. The only difference between what Jeff does and me is that he works in 10 frame hives and I prefer 8 frames.
It takes little time for a split to build up in a nuc box to need a full sized hive as just a brood box hive only so for me a nuc box has no benefit.
Cheers

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Great advice as always guys, thank you for the fast replies!

I’ve always seen peeps on youtube saying to only give enough frames that the bees can handle and cover otherwise you get hive beetles and wax moths settling in?

I don’t know if its just my paranoia but I feel as though the 2 splits housed in the 2 frame nucs are very very slow to build, as though the queen will only lay a certain amount of eggs so it doesn’t overcrowd the space they have? Or maybe only lay enough eggs depending on how many bees there are in the colony to be able to take care of the larvae?
They do have plenty of space to build on the foundation (one side of a frame) but haven’t touched it
I’m also feeding them 50/50 syrup and they’re not really touching it much.

The ultimate goal for me is to be selling 5 frame nucs, so might build 10 frame brood boxes and put a divider in the middle to house 2 colonies…?

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