Week 19 - Design and label the super and build it

This week I am starting to design the super box of the hive and I will also label it as well. The super box is basically the same as the brood box in every way, the only difference being that it is smaller than the brood box. The main purpose of the super box is to act as an area or space for the bees to store honey and keep it there until it is needed, also in the Winter months it can also provide an 'extra area of space' for the bees. If there is no extra brood box (or there is one needed), the super box can be used to act as a brood box as it is exactly the same in every way, except that the brood box has far more depth.

My early designs of the super box of the hive are illustrated below and labelled:


Below are the photographs of me building the super box for the hive, at the different stages:


Firstly, I measured the length of the brood box I had just built, this is because the hive will have to sit on top of the brood box perfectly in flush. The only thing that I need to measure that will be different, is the depth on the super.

You can see in the picture that I have to cut along the plank as the super box is about 150mm wide, whereas the brood box is 220mm wide, the exact same width as the brood box. I am using the circular saw as well this time, as it is far better than the hand saw.

This is another photograph of me cutting the wood, you can see that the extra piece of wood that I am cutting off can be used to make the crown board later, this will help save me from using extra, unnecessary pieces of wood. 

This is what it looks like when cut, you can see what a good finish the circular saw leaves, as there is no fault in the cut and it is very straight and clean.

I am now cutting along the wood to the exact same measurements as the ones used to make the brood box. 

This is what the finished super box looks like when finished, I put it on top of the brood box to check that it was flush with and there was no inaccuracies. I haven't got any pictures of me applying wood glue or the screws as it is the exact same process that I used to make the brood box.

This is another angle of the super box on top of the brood box, it fits perfectly on top of the brood box with no areas overhanging. 

Now I have to put in the shelves for beehive frames for the honey, I again didn't take any photos as it is the exact same process used for the shelves for the brood box. I again had to put a double shelf in to minimize the gap for where the frame rests.

This is what the super box looks like from an aerial view, with the frame and shelves added.

In this picture I have added the beehive frames into the super box to check that they fit into the super and that there are no problems, and they did fit.


Now that I have made the frame and shelves, I now need to make the handles and an apply them to the side of the super box. To measure them I will get a slightly shorter length than the side of the super and I will use a depth that is half that of the super box, so around 60 or 70mm.

This is them after I cut them, this shows the difference in size compared to the super box.

I have now drilled the holes into the handles and they are now ready to be glued and drilled to the side.
You can see that I have drilled 4 holes on each plank, instead of the 6 holes I drilled for the super box. This is because I believe that 4 will be sufficient and there is no need for 6.

I have now put on the wood glue, I put on too much glue and when I stick it to the side of the super box it will trickle down the side and make a mess. This is not much of a problem as I can just wipe it off once it trickles.

Now I have glued and screwed the handles to the side of the super box. I screwed it like this on its side, as it is far easier than having to do it flat down.

This is what the finished super box looks like with the handles now attached to the side. It is now a complete super box that can be used in a beehive.







While building the super box I encountered several problems, I had to overcome these problems while building super box to make it perfect, these were:

1) I didn't make too many mistakes when building the super box, as I had learnt from       building the brood box, the only mistake I made was that I was too generous when        applying the wood glue 
    
  • The solution was that I improved this by making sure to use appropriate amounts of glue when gluing wood together.












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 24 - What I have changed and what I would improve

Image
In this blog post I will be talking about how different the hive is compared to the design I drew and what I have changed and for what reason and also what I would do differently if I made another hive. First off is the floor, if you compare it to my original design, you can clearly see that I didn't include a wired floor in my plan but I have now included this. This is because at the time when I drew my design I was still unsure about what to do - whether I wanted it to be wooden or wire, so I just didn't include it.  I also changed the hive entrance; in the design I had a block of wood that is different to the one in my hive. This is because I thought it would be to challenging to chip out a small piece of wood for the bees to enter and exit out of. So I found it easier just cutting the piece of wood in two, and it would allow more bees to get through the entrance. Another thing that is mentioned in my plan is the hive tray, which is underneath the wire floor. The reason why ...
Read more

Week 22 - Progress so far

Image
The current status of my hive build is as follows: This is the floor of the hive, it is obviously located at the bottom and it holds the weight of all the different sections of the hive. This is also where the hive entrance is, which controls how many bees can leave and enter; the hive tray is at the back which catches any unwanted materials like pieces of comb or unwanted pollen. It can also block any cold air from entering during the winter to keep the hive warmer for longer and make it easier for the bees to regulate the heat of the hive. It is almost complete now, apart from the hive entrance that I still need to finish off. This is the brood box and is where the queen bee and all the worker bees are born, work and live. It is where the queen bee lays the eggs in all the frames that are held within the brood box. This brood box sits on top of the floor of the hive and is below the super box. It is complete and there is nothing else I need to improve on it and it is ready to be used...
Read more

Week 1 - Different types of Hives and dimensions

Image
Learning to build a beehive For this project, I will have to research which types of wood and materials will be best for use and whether they will be safe to use with bees. I need to draw a detailed design of the hive, with correct measurements and then follow this through the construction process to completion. I may have to adapt and change the design as I go, as there will be certain factors I need to be aware of; such as the amount of room needed for the bees to move around and maintain the hive temperature, especially important during Winter when there is less activity. There needs to be adequate ventilation, for health and prevention of disease but the correct amount of space for the bees to work and be able to build comb etc. The joints are especially important as they have to be strong enough to support the weight of honey and also to withstand the frequent interruption of being opened up, propolis removed and frames lifted out and inspected on a regular basis, so there are lot...
Read more