Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: BeeMaster2 on May 18, 2018, 10:05:21 am
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Yesterday I bought home a cutout hive and had no place to put it. I look around and pulled out 2-12? 4x4s and an 8? long piece of galvanized iron pipe.
I cut the pipe into 12? sections and drilled 4 holes, the same size as the pipe, 2? deep in each of the 4x4s.
I then found a 4? piece of 4x4 and drilled 8 holes, 2? deep, in it to make the feet and cut it into 6? sections. Note: the Fostener (so) drill bit is the same size as the pipe. After I drilled the holes, the pipe will not fit in the hole. I had to ream out the holes by swiveling the drill motor around to enlarge the holes. I tried pounding them in. The large 4x4s would not allow them to go in and the small ones split open.
I then cut 8-2x4 boards to 18?. This is the width of my stand. That makes it so that the hives hang over the back of the hive for weight testing.
I found 8 Dixie cups and drilled the same size hole in the bottom of each. I destroyed a bunch of cups to figure out how to drill them. The only way to do it was to just barely touch the cup and drill at high speed to melt the hole through.
Here are all of the pieces laid out.
Continued.
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Here is a close up of a cup and after it is installed.
Here are all of the pieces screwed together. Note: the 4x4s were quite twisted. I did not think I was going to be able to straighten them out but with just the 2 end 2x4 they straightened right up.
Here is the stand turned up side right. Notice the pipes sticking up. I drilled 2 of the legs and drove them into the ground to keep the whole stand from being blown over in high wind. On my other stands I have to add a strap to hold the stand down. Problem is that the carpenter ants think they make great ladders.
Also note: the 2x4 are located so that I can strap each hive to the stand when needed.
Here is the final results. Look closely on the level and you will see my dousing rods. Tom located, during Beefest 2018,this site as a good hive location but I re doused it to get the exact spot that he found
I still have to do a little leveling with some paver wedges.
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Looks good. Do the cups keep ants out?
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Dallas,
Most of the ants yes. Micro ants can craw around the lip. They are not a threat. The carpenter ants have a hard time. They look for grass bridges. That is why I made this one higher than my other ones.
Jim
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Looks nice.
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As a little improvement to this design I?ve seen pvc caps used instead of cups. Would last forever compared to the cups. I believe I?ve also seen some sort of high temp grease of sort shoved into the pvc cap. Ants can?t crawl through it.
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Bush,
Good ideas.
I built this one from all items that I had on hand with a hive waiting in my truck for its new home.
I greased my first one and not the he second or third stand. It seems the only time the ants get on them is when there is a bridge of grass or a strap to craw on.
Jim