A buzzing new business

Sounds like you may have found a niche!

-- Hutch - North Dallas, Tx - Safety First

Many years ago my faily kept bees. We used the ‘regular kind of hives’. Success on your new found niche!

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

The hive looks interesting. Are those handles on the side,r bee entrances or air vents?IS the lower part of the hive divided vertically. I would like to know are the differences from it to regular hives.

Very pretty hive!

Sam Livingstone

-- Sam, upstate

That looks like a professional job . I like the look of it.I don’t know much about beehives but I have a dear friend of mine August from Germany who is an avid bee man, he has even written books about it.I never realised until he and his family visited me recently after 25 years apart that bee’s make different tasting honey according to what fields they are allowed to fly around .yes a very different taste from sharp to very mild which I prefer.Good luck with your new hobby and much fun with the hive making ecuse typing.P S My wife told me today due to a poor climate this year we are about to have massive shortage of honey this year have you heard about this or perhaps it’s just within Europe?? Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Looks like a winner to me.

-- Bruce from Central New York

Samel: yes, there are handles on each box. The round holes are doors that can be closed. There are also ventilation shafts inside that aid in cooling in the summer and keeping the inside dry in the winter (humidity is a problem in the winter). When this hive was first invented, and still when the factory closed, there was not the same mite problem as there is now. So the original Kirkhoff hive didn’t have a screened bottom board, which is used to inspect for and remove mites. This one does.

Yes, the lower section is divided vertically. There are 6 separate lower brood chambers (hatchery) in 2 sets of three. These 2 sets allow for 2 separate hives each with it’s own queen. On top of the brood chambers is a queen excluder which allows the workers to travel vertically but not the queen (the queen is bigger than the others). Above that are common honey supers (boxes). The whole arrangement allows the workers from both hives to have access to the supers, where the 2 hives actually mix, but doesn’t allow the queens to get at each other. Usually, one queen will kill the other unless separated. This seems to set up a competition between the 2 hives. Where normally you would harvest ~60 pounds of honey from a single hive, with a 2 queen hive you can normally get 140 pounds or more instead of 120 as with 2 separate hives.

The primary difference though, is the ventilation. It helps the bees winter over better and you end up with a stronger hive come spring, which, in turn, gives the hive a head start.

Scotsman: yes, honey can taste very different depending on where the bees get the nectar from. And weather can have a dramatic effect on honey harvest since the weather affects how well the plants do (how much they flower) and the bees depend on the flowers. Sick plants, either from a drought or from too much rain, don’t flower as much.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com

Thats real nice.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

I’ve been an avid beekeeper for several years (and build all my own supers and hive bodies) but I have never seen this type of split setup. How many supers do you leave on over winter.? Are these bottom split supers medium or full deep supers? I would appreciate any other information/plans/measurements you have on this split body design I may try this next season.
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/DocK16/blog/1525

-- DocK, WV

Nice job on the “falling in!”

Hope you sell a million.

-- - Real men read directions

very nice! do you know where i can get some simple hive plans? i donate a lot of wood to local schools and am always looking for projects the kids might build that will help society and give them training. thanks

-- rob

Amazing. My stepson raises bees and I’d bet he’d wet his pants over these. Any chance of finding plans/specs?

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Awesome. Congratulations.

-- Jason

Sweeeet!

Ha!

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

This project should keep you buzzing for awhile. Sorry Nice hives.

-- Ron Central, CA

Sweet project! had to do it, sorry. very nice, and congrats on the order for 10, hope you enjoy the project!

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

Thanks for all the interest guys. Unfortunately, I’m one of those nightmare woodworkers who keeps everything in his head and never writes anything down. So I can’t give you plans. I guess I should make up some plans one of these days.

I couldn’t find any info on the web about this hive other than the original patent and the updated patent . These aren’t very helpful but I managed to borrow a super from the guy I’m selling to and got some of the measurements from that. The local dealer has a complete hive in his store (not for sale) so I took it apart in the store and took several pictures. Then I took the fact that this hive uses standard frames inside, added a few touches of my own and extrapolated the rest.

For plans for a standard (Langstroth) beehive can be found here, here and here. As you can see, I had to do a lot of research for this project.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com

That is one honey of a project. Thanks for sharing.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Thanks for the post, I am going to ask our local beekeeper if she has ever heard of this type of hive. We had a problem last winter and lost two of the hives in the garden where I work.
Good look in your new niche.

CtL

-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."

Very interesting project. Nicely done too!

Add me to the list of those who would like to have plans.

-- There is nothing in the world more dangerous, than a woodworker who knows how to read a micrometer...

That is pretty cool… I like it how you stumbled into it, I hope you make more money than you can spend…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Wow! I’ll bet your workshop is a hive of activity! Well, it’s no worse than the other guys’! Please add me to the plan seekers list!

BUZZard

-- What am I making? Who said I am making anything?

Very nice, Congratulations.

Woody.

-- Woody, UK

very impressive!
congrats on your “new business”.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- Look great, get your TTK merchandise now! http://www.printfection.com/thetimberkid/ Check out my site http://thetimberkid.blogspot.com/

I have a friend that lives up north and raises bees, (Houghton Lake) so of course they also have a bear problem as well. The Michigan DNR has given them permisson to shoot the bears if they come to close to their house as they have young kids and animals. The DNR has also set up traps to try and live trap the animals rather than have them killed.

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Very good business.
Beside honey, beeswax is also useful to woodworkers like us.

-- Regards, Woodworm

Mike, a very important role you are playing there. Nice job.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

glad to hear of so many people getting into the bee biz. I’ve also heard that local honey helps prevent allergies from whatever the honey is made from – great for seasonal allergies!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Woodworm: you can get many products from a beehive. Honey, wax, propolis (mostly tree resin bees use to seal cracks and sterilize foreign objects) and royal jelly (food for bee larvae, especially the queen). I don’t know how to harvest or use the last 2 but I use the wax in the orange wax that I make. I think I know how to use the honey ;).

Thanx for all the positive comments guys.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com

Absolutely amazing Rustic! I love to see stories about people discovering a need and being able to fill it. Not knowing a thing about bee keeping, I’m curious as to what wood you use to build the hives (due to constant exposure), and if there is any kind of finish on it.

-- last night I played a blank tape at full volume - the mime next door went nuts!

I’m just using #2 pine (carefully selected). I would like to use poplar because it’s better quality and local but that would add over $100 to each hive.

Hives are typically delivered unfinished. Most people paint them, usually white, and some people use spar varnish/urethane. I used my own blend of beeswax finish on mine. Only the outside is finished, the inside is left unfinished,

BTW, I like your tag line.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com

very nice work and congrats on your new “bees”ness! lol. ok, it wasn’t that funny..

Speaking of that tag line you mentioned above… that sounds a lot like Stephen Wright am I (w)right?

-- If it ain't country, it ain't music!

Yep! Gotta love that slow, monotone delivery, which is how I am typing (w)right now…...

-- last night I played a blank tape at full volume - the mime next door went nuts!

How did I miss this! Good luck on your new venture.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com