Vertical hives for bees manufacturing drawings. Self-made hive

A simple summer resident or a villager, whose hands start where they should, can only be prevented from becoming a real beekeeper by a lack of theoretical knowledge. To get started, we offer step-by-step instructions for creating a hive with your own hands. And for starters, here is the main detailed drawing of the product.

For convenience, all parts are numbered here and their exact dimensions are indicated. Design features are:

• Plywood roof with holes made in it for feeding bees;
• Availability hinged sections, which, if desired, can be easily removed and hung back;
• Protective part sheltering bees from bad weather.

In addition to simple tools like a hammer, we will also need equipment for welding. Stock up on everything you need in advance. Here is the list:

• Measuring tape measure;
• Paint brushes;
• A simple pencil and black marker;
• Drill and screwdriver (or two in one) with a set of drills;
• Bulgarian;
• welding tool;
• Tabletop.
• Having obtained the tools for work, we begin to stock up with all the necessary materials and spare parts provided for by the drawings of the hive:
• Nails 2.5x50;
• Screws with countersunk head 4x25;
• Board 32x18 (about 20 linear meters);
• Plywood sheet 12 mm thick;
• 2 m of mild steel corners and 0.7 m of aluminum (50x50x3);
• 4 sheets of mild steel (80x80x3);
• Linen insulation;
• Facing material;
• Glue and paint.

And now a detailed plan of how to make a beehive. Consider all the steps in stages.

Cutting and marking planks

The width of the slats is 32 mm, the thickness is 18 mm. We cut them in length in accordance with the list presented:

• 600 mm - 10 pcs.;
• 564 mm - 12 pcs.;
• 564 mm - 2 pcs.;
• 564 mm - 1 pc.;
• 486 mm - 4 pcs.;
• 424 mm - 2 pcs.;
• 154 mm - 4 pcs.;
• 424 mm (cut at an angle of 45 °) - 2 pcs.;
• 392 mm (also at 45°) x 2

Drilling pilot holes in planks

Nails should be driven in at an angle, as shown in the photo. To do this, using a cylindrical drill, carefully make small holes.

Now we drill holes in plank #2 in accordance with the image shown.

You can proceed to the next stage of the production of the hive with your own hands.

Assembly of the main node

We carefully assemble the main parts of the structure with the help of glue and nails. Carefully follow the order of the strips and do not make mistakes in the sequence of their connection to each other.

Manufacturing of steel legs

We make 4 structural supports from a steel corner (50x50x3). In accordance with the image, we make holes for the screws. Make sure that they are opposite each other in opposite legs.

If it was not possible to get welding equipment, then you can make a beehive from wood completely, including the legs. But such a design greatly loses in reliability and durability.

Mounting supports

The screws are screwed into the holes in the bottom of the frame. Footboards (80x80x3) should be welded to the corners.

Facing

First of all, we cut out the lining and fasten it with screws, partially overlapping the sections of the hive. For this purpose, it is best to use wood or chipboard.

make a beehive with your own hands. Photo

Taphole device

Letok or the entrance to the hive we make with a jigsaw and a saw. To do this, we cut a hole 460 by 70 mm. We save the cuts, they will be used later.

front view

We fasten the door hinges in such a way that the wooden sections are under them. Using a screwdriver, we install a special heel under the exit. The next step, in accordance with the drawings of the hive, is to install the landing board.

landing board

We mount it taking into account the tray, which will be located on the frame. In no case should the board interfere with the tray. We clean the surface with sandpaper and a grinder, then apply a thin layer of paint.

Final build step

We fix insulation and insulate structures. It remains only to securely drive the supports into the ground to prevent the structure from tipping over.

We are sure that everyone can make a hive. It will become a comfortable home for the bee family and will bring many benefits to you and your household.

do-it-yourself beehive step by step instructions. Video master class

How to make a beehive with your own hands in the garage?

The boards, which are a key material in the production of a beehive at home, have certain requirements. First, the wood must be good dried. Secondly, it is not allowed to have knots, resin. Thirdly, the surface of the board must be even. If the material is ready, then you can proceed to the manufacture of the clamp, with which we will carry out gluing. A device measuring 60 by 30 cm will suffice.

The outer size of our hive is 53x53 cm, the inner one is 45x45. Begin cutting boards of the right size

do-it-yourself beehive step by step instructions. Photo master class

If there is a jointer, then it will be easier to make a hive.

Using a circular saw, we trimming boards, and with the help of a jointer we adjust them to the desired thickness of 37 mm. Now you can select the grooves (20 mm) for connecting the elements to each other.

gluing We carry out using ordinary PVA glue. We tighten with a clamp and let the structure dry. This will take 12 hours.

As a result, we should get 4 shields.

For frame hangers we will need to select grooves 10 mm wide from the inside. Most conveniently, this work is done using a milling cutter. To secure the lid and magazine, the same groove (10x10 mm) is also selected from the outside. In all four panels, a groove is made (20x20 cm). This will be needed to fix the floor. As you can see, the design is quite simple, so we do not need any complex drawings of the hive here.

We will need another stencil but a slightly different size (45x47 cm) for a more accurate fit of the corners in the upper part of the hive, which will be installed in the coat hanger.

Now let's move on to assembly of shields. We perform the operation using screws 60 mm long. It is more convenient to work with a screwdriver. As a result, we have a finished body of the hive.

The front part of the body with a cutout for the notch and hangers for the frames.

Side wall.

Rear wall of the structure.

And this is what the assembled body looks like.

how to make a beehive out of wood. Photo

We cut a hole for the notch with a size of 10x120 mm, this will be enough.

We continue to collect the hive with our own hands and proceed to bottom installation. We collect it from the boards. The size of the shield should be 490x530 mm. Then you should fix the bottom on the body. You can use nails or screws if you wish. To finally fix the bottom of the hive, it is necessary to install bars measuring 50x50x500 mm on it.

The store is assembled in the same way, which is then attached to the body.

The cover of the hive has a size of 530x530 mm. We make it and do not forget to make a pair of ventilation holes (15x150 mm) on the sides, closed from the inside with a mesh.

For a tighter closure of the lid, it is necessary to choose chamfers (10x10 mm) around the entire perimeter. We install plywood (10-12 mm) on the cover, and we attach insulation to it. In our case, this is the ceiling tiles. It will not allow the hive to overheat sharply. We install a fiberboard sheet on top and, for strength, we fix the entire structure with a sheet of galvanized iron.

We almost managed to make a beehive. It remains only to upholster the corners of the structure with an iron or aluminum strip. So we will add a fortress hive and it will last longer.

Production of various types of beehives

For manufacturing, we need a standard set of tools, if available, a woodworking machine, glue and paints and varnishes.

Hive of Dadan-Blatt

The most popular type of hives. To make it as a material, we recommend using lime or willow boards. Here is a step-by-step guide to making a beehive with your own hands.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

The first stage is the preparation of the material. Cooking board 40 mm thick. She will go to the production of the body and bottom of our hive. To install the walls, it is necessary to sample the grooves. A cutter will help with this. We carry out channels 5 by 10 mm in the middle in the place where the boards will be connected.

We make planks 18x4 mm. We will need them soon.

We use PVA glue to assemble the shield. We lubricate the grooves and slats with them and tightly connect them. After that, let the shields dry well. The result should be 4 shields for the hull and 1 for the bottom.

We connect the shields with screws or nails and glue. This is the single-hull hive of Dadan-Blatt. Now you can cut the notch and paint the structure. The next step is to make the cover.

For the manufacture of a cover and a liner, a board with a thickness of 15 mm is best suited. We process it with something moisture resistant and paint it. Be sure to make a couple of ventilation holes with a diameter of 15 mm.

We give the exact dimensions of all parts of the hive (cm):

• Internal - 45x45x32;
• Selection of a fold under the frame - 1.1x2;
• Fold under the body and stores - 1x1.4;
• Front shield - 53x32x4;
• Back wall - 53x32x4;
• Side shields - 48x32x4.

Here are the design drawings.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

Hive Boa constrictor

This type is very simple, compact and easy to transport. The design of the Boa constrictor provides for a combined bottom, lid and as many as 10 cases.

Here are the exact dimensions of the hive (mm):

• Housing from the inside - 335x300x135;
• Frontal and rear walls - 30;
• Side part - 20;
• Planks for a frame 5 thick;
• The width of the upper and lower bars - 25;
• Side planks - thickness 35;
• Groove on the top bar - 2x27;
• Frame size - 110x28;
• Board for the cover - 20x8;
• The thickness of the air space under the cover is 30;
• The height of the bars for strapping the bottom is 110;
• Side beam - 20;
• Rear and front bar - 30;
• Letok - 335;
• Fold for the frame - 15.

And these are his drawings.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

Hive Varre

One of the easiest options for hives that you can make yourself. The body is drawer with 8 rulers. The interval between them should be 12 mm. The ends of the boards are connected directly. The case turns out to be quite rigid due to the grooved connection. In the production of handles, bars of 300x20x20 mm are used. First, they should be glued, and then finally fixed with three nails. In order for rainwater to drain faster, you can slightly bevel the top edge of the handle.

The main feature of the Varre hive is liner. Its size is 5 mm smaller than the size of the case itself. This is a great advantage, as the cover is very easy to remove, which means that the work of the beekeeper is facilitated. The gap can be increased up to 10 mm. Most often, moss or straw is used as filling for the roof lining, but leaves and shavings can also be used. A fabric made of dense material will help to fix the material.

The cover is made of boards no more than 20 mm thick. Be sure to arrange ventilation.

For the production of the bottom you will need the same boards. The size of the bottom should be narrower than the main body to protect the hive from moisture at the joints.

Detailed drawings of the Varre hive.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

Hive Ruta

The main feature of the design of this type of hive is the same size of the extension and the nest box. A drawing of the Dadan-Blatt hive can help in production. The only difference is the height nest box.

For the normal development of the brood, two bodies are needed. A spacious hive will significantly increase the egg production of the queen bee.

A diaphragm is provided between the bodies. It is necessary for the formation of layering. Layers will be placed in the upper part, and the bee family will be placed in the lower part.

Below are detailed drawings with which you can make a beehive from Ruta wood.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

Universal hive Kuznetsov

The design consists of:

• Foundations (2);
• Cases with a bottom and a pallet (1, 3, 11 and 4, 5 respectively);
• Grids for the main body (10);
• Caps (12).

The body is equipped with a special dust collector(6). It consists of several pairs of plates fastened in pairs, which are installed at an angle above the grid. This design feature is very useful for collecting pollen by bees.

A few drawings that will help you make such a hive with your own hands.

do-it-yourself beehive drawings. Photo

Beekeeping - in itself and increases the productivity of household plots. A purchased hive without frames is not so expensive: up to 4 thousand rubles. But they need a few. If you want to organize on a site or cottage on your own and at minimal cost, you can make hives yourself. Other, more expensive beekeeping equipment (,) can be rented or donated for honeycomb processing.

The hive is the dwelling of a bee family or several families. The amount of honey that you can collect from it is determined by many circumstances: the method of beekeeping, the density of honey plants around, the weather, the experience of the beekeeper. An important role is played by the design and order of manufacture of the hive.

has existed for thousands of years. But only two centuries have passed since the design of the hive was invented, which made it possible to truly "domesticate" bees. At the same time, the bee colony did not die and was not exhausted after collection. This (framework) was first proposed in 1814 by I.P. Prokopovich. A little later, he formulated the principle of building a house for a bee "superorganism": each bee colony should receive an amount of living space that corresponds to its strength. And the hive must be designed so that this space can be increased. In 1851 he proposed a hive with vertical frames. And this design still prevails in professional beekeeping.

For beginners, it is very important to choose the right proven type and accurately reproduce it, according to the drawings. There are not so many reliable designs that allow experienced beekeepers to collect 20 kg from one hive even in non-honey years. All these samples are presented below, with drawings and explanations. Making bee hives from video is also easy to learn.

• The stand or bottom limits the design from above. It often has a sloping front wall on which the bees sit. Sometimes there is another "false" bottom between the hull and the bottom. It facilitates garbage collection and other maintenance.
• The body is a box with no bottom. It contains frames, a permanent habitat for bee colonies. Sometimes vertical retractable partitions are arranged in the body. Sometimes several buildings are placed one above the other. If there are more than 3, then such a hive is called a multi-hull.
• Shop - a box, slightly less height than the body. It does not have a notch and is located above the frames. The shop serves for selection of honey. Between it and the body there is a dividing grid, which is called a separator. The cells in the separator mesh should be of such a size that the worker bee can freely pass into them, and the queen could not leave the body and lay her eggs below, in filled combs. A magazine with a separator is a distinctive feature of a hive designed for aggressive honey collection. Naturally, this technology is designed for honey years and strong bee colonies. If you just need to separate two families in one hive, then a blank board is used.
• The liner is a section-box above all cases. Its function is to ensure the correct microclimate and air circulation in the hive. It can be with ventilation holes or deaf. Often a feeder is placed in the liner or a heater is laid.
• The lid is, in fact, the roof of the hive, protecting it from precipitation. It is arranged pitched or flat. To make it easier to transport the hives, they are made flat. But single or double slopes are better ventilated.

Removable frames that slide into the body of the bee house are needed as a basis for building honeycombs. The combs themselves are for brood, nesting and single (intended for stocks). If the colony has too much space, the strength of the worker bees will be wasted on building unnecessary combs. Therefore, it is so important to correctly limit their living space. Frames for nesting cells are placed in the body, and frames for idler cells are placed in the store. So it will be possible to select honey without disturbing the bee colony.

Depending on the design of the frame, the hives are low-wide, square and narrow-high. The swarm "grows" vertically. Therefore, a narrow-high design more often than a low-wide one leads to the release of a nucleus (new swarm). And spending on it stocks of honey.

Most often, standard frames 435X230 mm in size (for a nest) or half-frames 435X145 mm in size (for a store) are used. Their empty opening is filled with galvanized wire with a diameter of 2 mm and wax sheets. These sheets with depressed bottoms will be the basis for the honeycombs under construction. The frames slide from top to bottom into the grooves and hang on hangers - extensions in the upper part.

The step with which the frames are located in the box is 37 - 38 mm. The very width of the frame (shoulders) is slightly smaller - 36-37 mm. The difference is needed so that the package of frames does not get stuck in the box due to thermal expansion and propolis gluing them together. This provides the so-called "bee space".

To successfully make a hive, you need to know that the structure of the frame, like the hive itself, depends significantly on the climate in which the apiary is located.

• In sharply continental and mountainous areas, it is necessary to make frames 36 mm wide and their pitch is 38 mm,
• In temperate continental areas - 36 mm wide and 37 mm pitch,
• Terrain with minimal temperature differences (near the sea, in the steppe, etc.) - 37 mm, in increments of 37.5 mm.

There must also be a precisely set gap between the walls of the hive and the extreme frames. It is 9.5 mm. If you make it large, they will fill the space with honeycombs, and if it is smaller, then the extreme frame will be glued to the box with propolis. The distance between the bottom of the hive and the bottom of the frames should be 2 cm. The bees should move freely along the bottom, and air should flow from below. And even with this rule, bee colonies need regular care so that the frames do not stick to the bottom.

In order to make high-quality and identical frames for hives with their own hands, beekeepers use special patterns. Collect them on nails. Making frames with your own hands is justified. After all, even for a small apiary, they need hundreds.

Common types of hives

This is the oldest type of bee house with standard vertical type frames. Everything that has been said above, for the most part, applied to these vertical hives. In practice, in a "multi-storey" similar hive, 3-5 buildings are always used, 10 frames in each building. This simple design greatly facilitates apiary work. Both weak and strong families live in the hive. Strong provide sufficient honey flow.

Langstroth's wooden hive is best made from a flat and dry board up to 4 cm thick. Box dimensions - 462 mm x 400 mm x 240 mm. Each body is equipped with 2 identical diaphragms made of thin boards or plywood. In height, they should be the same as the frame, and in width - such that a bee cannot penetrate through them.

sun lounger

The figure shows the device of a simple wooden beehive-bed. This type (without a magazine, with an elongated frame) is called Ukrainian. It looks like a chest in appearance and is often made with a hinged lid. Such a hive arrangement is suitable for warm climates with a large number of flowering honey plants. It's kind of "lazy" beekeeping.

In the following figure, you can see the device of a more complex sunbed, with a store and for two families. A diaphragm is certainly located in it, bee colonies can develop upwards and it is easy to observe it.

The sunbed is a great design for wintering. In professional beekeeping, it is used to save weak families in the winter, and such a hive is easy to make with your own hands.

Charles Dadant in the century before last developed his own hive design for areas that are not too rich in honey plants. This type is not suitable for industrial scale honey production. But the hive itself and beekeeping are quite simple, and fully meet the needs of a small farm.

This hive with 12 high frames (height 300 mm) can provide overwintering for a pair of bee colonies. The uneven body and the store make up one hive module. Modules can be installed one on top of the other. The classic material for the manufacture of Dadan hives is moisture-resistant plywood or pine board.

Delon's Alpine hive

The inventor of this hive, Roger Delon, adapted this deck-like structure in order to use the huge potential of alpine meadows. Flowering in the mountains is short-term, short-term and stormy, the distances between groups of honey plants are large. And the daily fluctuations in temperature are very large.

Delon decided that the design of the hive for mountain conditions should bring their life closer to the conditions of the existence of wild bees. To do this, he developed a low frame made of wire, on which the foundation is stretched without metal threads. The alpine hive itself consists of low (108 mm high) in terms of square buildings, which are compiled into high decks. You can arrange up to 12 boxes in one hive.

Beekeeping and caring for such a device is quite complicated. Labor costs for maintenance of mountain hives are 3 or 4 times higher than for the Dadan design. And it’s not so easy to make such a hive for a mountainous area with your own hands.

In addition to these main types, there are less common hives of Ozerov, Varre, Khomich, etc., each of which is "sharpened" for certain beekeeping conditions.

Wood is a classic material for building beehives. Conifers are most suitable: spruce, fir, cedar, etc. From hardwoods - poplar, linden, aspen. All these types of wood are characterized by low thermal conductivity, which is very important for the hive. Boards should not have wormholes, cracks, knots. Plywood, especially moisture resistant, is an excellent material for a beehive. It is drier than wood in the product and has no worse thermal insulation properties if the walls are insulated with expanded polystyrene foam.

You can also make a hive from foam. It must be painted to protect it from external destructive factors. Recently, materials such as polycarbonate or. The so-called Finnish Styrofoam hive seems to beekeepers to be very simple to manufacture. It has negligible heat loss, it is lightweight and inexpensive. But it is unreasonable to fasten PPS with self-tapping screws, and it is impossible to mold it in non-factory conditions. It cannot be mechanically cleaned. And if you remove the stuck frame, you can damage the walls.

How to make a beehive with your own hands: step by step

Wooden or plywood: frame hive drawing

Take boards with an overlap of 1 cm on each side. They should all be perfectly dried, non-resinous, aged for at least a year.

According to one of the proposed drawings, it is easy to calculate the amount of materials and cut out all the blanks. Then:

• To fasten the side walls, the edges are cut out on them using a circular saw. Also, the walls are fastened with self-tapping screws or nails. There should not be any gaps in the assembled product.
• At the top and bottom, you need to choose folds that provide a tight assembly of the hives on the outside and a place to support the frames on the inside. If there is no milling machine, then you can cut the folds with a sherhebel - a folded planer.
• The recommended depth of the inner fold is 17 mm and the height is 11 mm.
• The bottom must be upholstered with galvanized metal. Fastening - on self-tapping screws. You can make it double-sided: make a frame out of three bars, and make a groove around the perimeter for a retractable bottom.
• How to make frames, described above. The best raw material for them is spruce.
• It is good to make a feeder for the hive. It is usually placed on a false bottom or wall. On the front wall of the case, a notch is required to be cut. Most often it is round in shape in diameter - 2.5 cm.
• The roof should be heavy enough to close the hive tightly. You can also upholster it with galvanized metal.
• All boxes must be fitted carefully. A galvanized anti-mite net should be provided.
• In some hives, a heating device with a power of up to 10 watts is installed. It is advisable to attach carrying handles to the side walls.

On the Internet there are a lot of videos with videos on making hives with your own hands. With the help of them and the given drawings of multi-hull and frame hives, this work will be simple.

Both beginners and experienced beekeepers come to the conclusion that it is better to make a hive with your own hands. You are sure of the quality of your own product, if you need development, you can quickly make the missing parts. How to make hives on your own will be discussed.

Popular hive designs

Before you build a hive with your own hands, you need to choose its design. Basically, novice beekeepers use two types of hives:

• Dadanovsky for 12 frames. Has a vertical design, builds up. If necessary, one more standard case or store is set on top (an additional case half the height of the main one, in which half-frames are installed).
• Sunbed - for 20 frames and more. Differs in size - has a greater width than depth. The number of frames used by the bee colony is regulated by rearranging the partition.

Both of these designs use standard 470*300mm frames which are widely used. These two types are the most common among beginner (and experienced) beekeepers. Sometimes they use Ruta hives, but they have frames of a different format - 470 * 230 mm and are not so easy to find. It is also more difficult to work with Ruts than with Dadanovsky or sunbeds, more experience in beekeeping is required. Therefore, choose from two options - Dadanovsky or sunbed. What exactly - it is better to find out from the beekeepers in your area.

Hive blueprints

Since the Dadanovsky hive and the sunbed use standard frames, they differ only in width: one should fit 12 pieces of frames, the other - 20 or 24 pieces. The rest of the parameters remain the same.

Changeable parameters for hives with different number of frames are shown in the table. Substitute them in the drawing and get the option that you need.

What you need to know before you start making a beehive with your own hands

Even before the start of independent production of hives, it is necessary to know the requirements for materials and technology for the construction of evidence for bees. A lot of them. Let's start with the requirements for the material.

What are they made of

The most common material is wood. Both non-tarry coniferous wood (spruce, fir, deresined pine) and loose hardwoods - poplar, linden, etc. can be used. Dense wood should not be used - the hive will be heavy and cold.

Wood requirements are strict. It must be dry - no more than 16% moisture, without falling knots, rot, wormholes, redness. Blueing is acceptable (it does not affect quality indicators). If there are knots, they can be removed, sealed with corks from the same type of wood and puttied. Do not use wood with other defects.

Today they make beehives from plywood, preferably birch. In this case, the walls are made double with a gasket between the layers of insulation - foam. These hives are warm in winter and cool in summer. Their minus is that the walls are vapor-tight, moisture does not escape through them. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the ventilation system of the hive (make an additional notch at the top, and, if necessary, open it for ventilation).

Sometimes hives are assembled from polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam and polystyrene foam. The most successful option is polystyrene foam. Even some fasteners can be installed in it, neither bees nor other insects gnaw at it. The remaining two materials are collected on glue, and bees also sharpen them, and ants and other neighbors undesirable for bees can settle.

Handling and assembly requirements

When assembling a hive with your own hands, you must strictly maintain the internal dimensions of the body and extensions. Then increasing the volume will not cause difficulties. Parts of the hive - bodies, extensions, stores, roof - must be connected to the castle and the castle parts must also match. This is necessary for a reliable connection without gaps and drafts, which bees do not like very much. In this regard, the maximum tolerances during processing are 1-2 mm.

There are also requirements for the quality of material processing. Most of them relate to wood, but they can also be applied to other materials:

• Boards and bars should be smooth, without burrs, scuffs and chips.
• It is necessary to cut materials strictly at an angle of 90 °, avoiding deviations.
• The hive bodies must be knocked down from solid boards with a thickness of 40-45 mm or using a tongue-and-groove connection, glued for reliability.
• To pair the parts of the hive in detail, choose a quarter - for a reliable gapless connection.
• On the front and back walls of the hive, a fold is made - for hanging the frames. The depth of the fold should be such that there is a distance of at least 8-10 mm from the top edge of the plank to the cover or extension. If the distance is shorter, the frames may stick to the lid, which creates maintenance problems.
• If the walls are made two-layer (with insufficient thickness of the boards), the outer ones connect them in a quarter, making sure that the seams in the layers do not match. It is better to connect the inner parts and the bottom into a tongue or groove.

Structural elements and their features

Most often, the hive has a modular structure - it consists of several detachable parts. This is convenient, as it allows you to increase the volume as needed. Each of these parts is made separately and the manufacturing accuracy must be high - all parts must be interchangeable.

Frame

This is the central part of the hive, in which the nest of bees is usually located. By the number of housings, hives are single, double-hulled or multi-hulled (3 or more). Corps are instructed as the family grows.

Roof

The roof of the hive can be single-pitched (tilted backwards) or gabled. In the forehead case, it should be with overhangs - to protrude beyond the geometric dimensions of the hive and protect the walls from the effects of bad weather.

The roof consists of a liner - a flat body for accommodating insulation or feeders for feeding bees - and the actual roof planks nailed to the liner with nails or screwed with self-tapping screws. The height of the armpit depends on the thickness of the insulation, and this value depends on the region. Usually the height of the liner is 80-140 mm. Ventilation holes are often also made in the liner - to remove moist air from the hive.

In the manufacture of the roof, the boards are laid either in two layers with overlapping seams, or from thicker boards in one layer, but the seams must be closed with thin strips. Roofing iron, roofing felt or roofing material can be laid on top of the wooden roof of the hive.

In the manufacture of the roof, pay attention to the fact that it "sits down" tightly, without gaps. To seal the connection around the perimeter of the body, you can stuff a felt strip or nail a plinth outside the body to cover the joint.

Bottom

The bottom of the hive can be nailed to the body (deaf) or can be pulled out or pulled out, that is, it can be detachable. The detachable bottom makes it easier to maintain the hives - it allows you to clean the bottom without disassembling the entire hive. Structurally, the bottom happens:

• cold - from a single board;
• warm - from two layers with a warming backfill.

Also, the bottom is double-sided - with protrusions of different heights on both sides, which allows you to adjust the internal volume. They knock it down tightly, without cracks, connect the boards in a quarter or in a groove with additional sizing of the joint with moisture-resistant glue for wood. The cracks must be carefully sealed (putty on wood), as wax crumbs are poured into them, and then the wax moth starts up. Therefore, from time to time they prefer to replace the bottom, knocking together a new one.

Video about the manufacture of beehives from different materials

• 1. Requirements for the house and materials for installation
• 2. Types of hives, design features
• 3. Structure and installation of individual parts of the hive

In the wild, honey bees build nests in hollow trees, the ground, and other places. In this situation, it is impossible to get a significant amount of honey, so people invented a house for bees (in other words, a beehive). The described design can be done by everyone with their own hands, but first we will deal with the main types of such houses.

Modern beekeepers are accustomed to using hives of the following designs:

• vertical, consists of several cases with frames, a roof, a liner, a bottom and a stand;
• more horizontal, resembling a box due to external similarity.

Requirements for the house and materials for installation

Before carrying out work on the installation of the hive, you need to make a drawing. When drawing up sizes, it is necessary to take into account all the nuances of keeping bees. Despite the fact that the insects in question are considered unpretentious, it is desirable for them to create the most comfortable living conditions. The bee house should protect from adverse weather (rain, cold wind, hail). The last point that should be taken into account when constructing a hive is the beekeeper's unhindered access to the home of honey insects.

Housing assembly for a multi-hull hive

For the construction of cases and bee frames, pre-treated wood brought to a certain humidity is used. Boards are fastened with nails of the desired length and diameter.

The overall dimensions of the hive should be selected in such a way that the beekeeper can expand the volume of the house when the offspring of honey insects appear. When drawing up the drawing, the place of entry of the bees is noted, the dimensions of all the constituent elements are indicated. In order for the product to last as long as possible, periodic inspection for damage is necessary. After defects are identified, minor repairs should be carried out.

At the preparatory stage, several drawings are made, the finished hive is drawn on the main one, and the dimensions of individual parts are indicated in additional drawings. Also, one of the documents should describe the construction technique and the assembly process.

In the design of the hive, it is necessary to provide compartments for adult insects and larvae. It is noticed that bees take good care of their offspring.

Types of hives, design features

According to the design features, the house for bees can be divided into the following varieties:

• Alpine. This type is quite compact, it consists of several buildings. There is no ventilation system here;
• Dadan hives are considered the most popular among beekeepers. The bodies of such bee dwellings are built from boards of coniferous wood;
• a budget option is a house made of plywood. Such construction takes little time, but it can be operated for many years;
• cassette dwellings allow insects to regulate the temperature regime on their own. This design is not recommended to be painted, but can be covered with a protective layer of melted wax;
• plastic hives are easy to install, light weight and tight. Such dwellings can be quickly moved from place to place, they are also conveniently transported to the field with honey plants;
• the so-called northern houses for bees have insulated walls, which allows insects to survive during severe frosts;
• Asian - specially designed for small bee colonies.

And that's not all, we wrote detailed information about these and not only hives in our special articles.

Construction and installation of individual parts of the hive

Let's start, perhaps, from the buildings. As you know, the walls of a bee dwelling can consist of one or more sections of various sizes and designs. Grooves are provided for the installation of frames in each such structural element. If it is planned to make a removable bottom in the house, then the notch should be drilled a little higher from the middle of the body, its diameter is 2.5-3.5 cm. If the bottom of the hive is fixed, then in the lower part of the body the entrance door for insects is made in the form of a slot up to 2 cm and 10 cm long.

According to experts, it is better to make a removable lower part in the bee house, which will simplify the work of caring for the bees. But in the case of an integral bottom, this part of the structure is protruded beyond the edges of the house, thus creating an arrival area.

One of the varieties of the hull are stores that are used to accumulate honey. These structural elements are installed on the hive during the main bribe. Shops are especially needed in weak bee colonies, because they are not able to collect a lot of product.

The roof liner is the same store, but it does not have grooves for installing frames. The specified part is placed between the upper body and the roof. It is used to improve the living conditions of insects. Insulation is laid on the liner, and a feeder is also installed.

The roof is made of boards or plywood, which are fixed with nails in the form of a frame. To protect the bee nest from atmospheric moisture, a sheet of metal is nailed to the top of the roof.

The bee frames deserve special attention, having a standard size of 43.5 * 30 cm. This constructive part is created by hand from wooden planks in accordance with the indicated dimensions. To fix the frames on the body, the upper bar is extended by 1 centimeter on each side with respect to the lower fastening element. After mounting the frame, stretch the wire and install dry (voshchina).

How to make a beehive with your own hands? Such a question cannot but interest a novice beekeeper. Of course, you can always buy ready-made houses for bees and simply install them in the chosen place. However, this is expensive and does not always suit the beekeeper. Making them yourself will help to build structures that optimally fit into the size of the site. A hive of your own design may appear after gaining experience in breeding bees, but at the initial stage it is better to use standard designs, the drawings of which are not difficult to find.

The essence of the task

At its core, bee hives are an artificial home for bees in the form of a house. In order for insects to develop normally, providing a person with beekeeping products, appropriate conditions must be created in such dwellings, close to the natural environment.

To make a hive with your own hands, you may need various materials. You can assemble the houses using drawings already tested in practice or by developing them yourself, taking into account personal experience. Their design primarily depends on how exactly it is planned to breed insects: it can be a stationary or mobile apiary, several beehives near your own home, etc. When choosing an option and size, the following circumstances are taken into account: the number of bee colonies, taking into account the nearest perspectives; features of the terrain and local climate; the size of the apiary and the number of attendants.

When making evidence for bees with your own hands, you need to remember to ensure their normal maintenance. The following requirements must be met: sufficient strength to withstand any possible mechanical stress, including strong winds; ensuring the constancy of the temperature inside, regardless of its fluctuations outside; full protection from atmospheric precipitation and wind; dryness at any time of the year; sufficient space. Bees are considered quite unpretentious, hardworking insects, but inside their house the necessary arrangements must be made for a full-fledged life.

Design principles

Bee hives can be of different designs and sizes, but they all contain the following main parts:

1. Body or structure walls. The hive may have one or more buildings. Inside the house, the case has grooves for installing frames. It forms entrances - inlets for bees. The letok can be made in the form of a hole with a diameter of 22-36 mm or a slot about 1-2 cm high and at least 10 cm wide. The dimensions of the body depend on many parameters and, above all, on the number of insects.
2. Bottom. There are 2 main types - removable and stationary (non-removable) bottom. The first option is the most preferable, since the separation of the bottom from the body makes it possible to clean or carry out therapeutic measures without affecting the framework, that is, without interrupting the normal life of insects. The stationary bottom is attached to the bottom of the body, and this design is characterized by increased strength, which is important in the manufacture of mobile hives. In this case, the integral bottom has a protrusion in relation to the front wall, which forms a platform for arriving or departing bees.
3. Roof. It is most often performed in the form of a flat shield. It is important that the coating reliably protects the hive from precipitation.
4. Frame. This critical element is installed inside the housing with the appropriate slots. It is intended for creation by bees of honeycombs in which honey is deposited. In practice, the frames perform the function of a honey collector.
5. Score. This is a version of the case with a reduced height. It is designed to accumulate honey during the period of its active collection. Another direction of its use is the resettlement of weak bee colonies.
6. liner. It is an additional room installed between the main body and the roof. There are no grooves for frames in it, but it is intended to increase the comfort of keeping insects. For example, additional thermal insulation can be installed in it. Sometimes the liner is mounted under the body. In this case, it helps to create a microclimate in the hive.

Varieties of designs

Bee hives have the following main varieties:

1. Vertical hives or risers. Such a house is built in height, that is, it has several tiers (most often 2-3). Usually 10-12 frames are installed in each compartment (tier). The design is good in that, if necessary, the roof is removed and an additional “floor” is built on.
2. Horizontal hive or sunbed. This house grows horizontally. These are several buildings mounted in a row under a common roof. It is recognized as an advantage that such a design allows the store and the main body (socket) to be located side by side.

Depending on the size of the bee family, the hives differ in the number of frames. The most common options are with 10-12 and 20-24 frames. Structures are also divided according to the shape of the framework. The following division is accepted: narrow-high, low-wide and square frames. Structurally, single-walled and double-walled hives are distinguished. The second variety is especially interesting for cold areas, as it allows you to place additional thermal insulation between the walls.

Dimensional design

The design of the hive is primarily associated with the optimization of its dimensions. They also depend on the number of frames, their size and shape. The thickness of the walls also plays a certain role in the dimensions, since during the installation of thermal insulation it can be significant. The thickness of the walls without insulation is usually dictated by the thickness of the board and is selected in the range of 30-40 mm. In two-layer structures, the wall thickness increases accordingly.

The dimensions of the house depend on the size of the frames and are selected from the following calculation:

• width - the number of frames multiplied by 37.4-38.2 mm;
• frame length with a margin of 13-15 mm;
• height, taking into account the size of the folds and the total height of the frames.

Bee hives can be equipped with frames of different sizes and types. The following framework classification has been adopted:

• according to their intended purpose, nesting and magazine frames are distinguished;
• the standard frame has a length of 43-44 cm and a height of 22.5-23.5 cm;
• nesting frame of medium size: length - 43-44 cm, height - 29.5-30.5 cm;
• narrow-high type frame, reverse: size - 30x43.6 cm.

Frames should be placed inside the hive, taking into account the following recommendations:

• the thickness of the frames is most often chosen approximately 25 mm;
• distance between adjacent frames - 37-39 mm;
• distance to the body wall - at least 7 mm, from the bottom - 16-22 mm;
• a gap of 10-14 mm is left between the frames in a multi-tiered system.

The choice of the number of frames depends on a number of factors:

• 8 frames: recommended for beginner beekeepers and hives with young bees;
• 12-16 frames: standard layout, and at first the hive is planned for 12 frames, but with the prospect of gradually increasing their number to 16;
• 16 frames: for large bee colonies;
• 24 frames: for keeping several large families with a farm planning with a beekeeping bias.

Beehive making

When making beehives for bees with your own hands, you will need the following tool:

• circular saw (with a significant number of houses);
• Bulgarian;
• hacksaw;
• electric drill;
• screwdriver;
• jigsaw;
• planer (preferably electric);
• milling cutter;
• hammer;
• chisel;
• screwdriver;
• pliers;
• grinding machine;
• scissors;
• file;
• metal scissors;
• paint brush;
• metal ruler;
• roulette;
• plumb;
• construction level.

You can distinguish the following stages of making hives with your own hands:

1. Case manufacturing. The most common technology: assembling a frame from a wooden beam, which is then sheathed with a board 3-4 cm thick and 20-25 cm wide. Wood of such species is most suitable: linden, poplar, willow, cedar, fir, spruce. From above, the boards are covered with paint, and white, blue and yellow tones are recommended. A notch (round or slit-like) and slots for installing frames are formed on the front wall. On the inner side of the walls, grooves are mounted in which the frames move and are held. It is recommended to provide handles for lifting the structure on the side of the case. The body is insulated with foam plastic or mineral wool. In addition to wood sheathing, plywood, polycarbonate, polyurethane, polystyrene can be used in lightweight versions.
2. Bottom. The bottom does not carry a power load, but should not let moisture through from below. It can be made from boards, plywood, chipboard with waterproofing sheathing.
3. Roof. It is flat and must have reliable waterproofing. Roofing material, thick polyethylene is usually used. Most often, for reliability, the hive is covered with a metal sheet.
4. Framework. The most common wooden frame construction. Its assembly begins with the connection of 2 side strips, the upper and lower beams. Holes with a diameter of 1.5-2 mm are drilled in the side strips, through which steel wire is passed. Similarly, a wire row is formed between the upper and lower beams. As a result, a wire mesh with a mesh size of 4-6 cm is formed inside the frame. Instead of wire, you can use a nylon fishing line with a diameter of at least 0.5 mm. After the frames are made, the mesh must be thoroughly disinfected and waxed. It consists in the formation of hexagonal honeycombs from wax, which are laid on a wire mesh. To facilitate this process, you can use a wooden pattern.

Beekeeping on your own site is well-deservedly popular. The right amount of honey, and good quality, can be obtained only with the proper organization of beekeeping. You can make hives for them with your own hands, but for this you should take into account some features of breeding these beneficial insects.