Bee Hive Stand, Inexpensive, Long Lasting, Do it yourself. Works on uneven ground, No Blow-Over!
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Fixing a tilting bee hive on uneven ground is easy. In this video, I swap out a leaning hive support for one that levels the hive and provides anchoring during high winds.
Flow Hive Discount Link for $50 off mbsy.co/hpFB2
Parts list is below:
1) 6 foot tall iron T-Posts: Available through Home Depot, Tractor Supply etc.
2) Large U-Bolts: amzn.to/2PIFHqj
3) 48" level: amzn.to/2XYwNb1
4) Socket Set: amzn.to/2Lghhps
5) 10 foot length of 1.5" diameter conduit: Home Depot
6) Ratchet Straps: amzn.to/2LgiNrE
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Thank you once again for sharing with us; great idea to use T-posts.
I'm across the Great Lakes from you in Ontario... and waiting for my 2 nucs to arrive this month... first year beekeeping :)
Thank you so much Marco! I hope your nucs arrive in fine shape and do well this year!
Well Mr. Dunn I am going to pick up my 2 Nucs on Saturday and install them on the roof of my Hardware Store here in NJ. This begins my journey into hobby beekeeping. I have been waiting for this moment to come for the past 6 months! Can’t Wait! 😀
Congrats! If you have any questions just ask Fred. He will take care of you.
This popped up in my feed today as I was thinking about what to put my new hive on.
Simple, easy and I already have a farm store trip planned.
Thanks! 🐝-Kirsten
Glad I could help!
I'm glad you mentioned the 2'/2 mile thing. When I got my packages, I was told not to put the hives right next to each other until the bees have a chance to orient themselves. I put them about 20' apart. It's 3 weeks now, the brood should be hatching soon, and I'd like to move the one hive before it gets too heavy with extra boxes and resources. It amazes me how much heavier an even just partially drawn-out frame is than an empty frame.
I did the same thing 3 yrs ago .... But I put 3" pipe in the ground and bolted angle iron across the top and angle iron across the 2 it holds 2 hives each.. I thought about putting black plastic down on the ground so it cover 3' around the hives easier to maintain around the hives and it helps to control unwanted insects and put some fine gravel on top of the black plastic
Excellent tutorial... Thanks for sharing Fred!
YOU are always welcome :)
That's a really great Idea. Thanks
Glad you like it! :)
Thanks Frederick. I'm keeping bees for the first time. Will follow your advice for give stands.
Excellent!
Thanks for another great Video Sir!!! I was thinking about cinder blocks and 4x4 posts, but this looks way easier for one person to handle!!! Thanks again!!!
Side note, my queen in hive 1 is already laying and I have capped brood on 4 1/2 of my 8 frames! Saturday, 27 Apr was the 2 week mark. Super excited! 😎
Hi Larry, that's great news! I do still like cinder/concrete blocks where the ground is nearly level, I also need to get my hives a little higher for Flow-Frame draining height.
I make my hive stands out of wood, and use dirt spikes to affix them. Overbuilt as all heck, I'd need a tractor or excavator to remove them... but that's how I like it.
Hi Hazel, that definitely sounds SOLID. It never hurts to overdo supporting structures :)
Very nice Fred! Now I have a use for my extra Beesmart hive stand that I'm not using.
Thanks Dan, they are so lightweight and handy for that, keeps everything off the ground and allows me to keep the stacks in order.
Just bought everything to get this done today. Little worried about it not holding once the hives get real heavy so I will probably also wire it just in case.
I recommend six posts for two hives. I've had them in use for more than 10 years and haven't had any fail, but more binding can't hurt :) you can also brace/support with short pipes running front to back under the long conduit segments. I've never had more than six supers on, circa 270 lbs. If one ever fails, please let me know.
@@FrederickDunn will do. I went with the heavy duty t post and some precut 6ft foot piping. I think I will add 2 more post though I think.
Fred. Can answer Friday. Have you ever had a hive beetle problem? You say yours falls through to the ground but that is where they want to go. Have you ever heard of using the beneficial nematode, Heterorhabditis indica? They say it is like a heat seeking missile for the larva that get to the soil and just a little dab will set you up for the entire season of no beetle problems even if you have a weak hive. At any rate I cannot wait for your pest treatment studies on the flow hive bottom tray this year.
Hi Carlos, I've talked about the nematodes in the past and yes, they actively hunt and kill the SHB larvae. My chickens roam the bee yard throughout the day and the larva stage of the SHB depends on getting down into the soil and finishing their metamorphosis there. I have seen as many at two SHB adults in my hives, normally way up in the top corner, or on the bottom landing board, also back in a corner. They have not presented a problem for me "yet", but I am watching! I'll mention that again today. Thanks as always!
Thanks Fred, Greetings from São Paulo...
Hey John, how bad are the AFBs in Brazil?
Dan Ski ... don’t know...I’m here on business. Missed the Farmers Market on Sunday!
Just bought the ratchets off your link. Thanks again for your great info!!
Awesome! Thank you!
If you put a few twists in the straps then they won't flap so much in the wind. Really enjoying your channel!
Thanks Lara!
I was just codjetating about coming up with a leveling, storm-resistant hive stand and badaboom, there yours was. What has been the biggest everyday benefit of these stands for you?
These remain my favorite stands. You can put them on uneven ground, and drive them down as deep as the soil requires for good support. So, the biggest benefit has been that they hold up for at least 18 years, handle substantial loads, don't rot, and you don't damage them when mowing or trimming. One thing I'd change is that I'd cut the T-Posts OFF just above the bolts by 6". At full height, they do sometimes get in the way of upper gear when supering. Paint them with Rustoleum and you're good to go :)
You leaned the hives to side to drain any rain water. Why not lean toward the entrance? Otherwise water would just accumulate along the long side of the bottom board. Or am I just seeing an optical illusion. I'm thinking of using a pipe that would fit in the lid hole of a plastic jar...cut....then turned upside down on the pipe about 10" off the ground. This would work simular to a rat guard on boats mooring lines. But hive beetles can fly. Maybe it would work on the mice. There are seven acres of meadow behind my house and I have a few chickens. The critters like to get into their feed and I'm sure they will find interest in the hives.
They are tilted toward the landing boards, not to the side :)
Thank you for great idea. What's the plan for Flow Hive harvest? No stand to rest it on - drag out a box to put jars on, or rig something to posts?
When I do the flow harvests, I always use my own shelf and put it on shop-stands, I show that in my video here : ua-cam.com/video/Veu6ooCzp7M/v-deo.html
Thank you
Awesome!
Update on my beeweavers Fred. They were ready for a second brood box after a week. Bursting at the seams with bees. They were going to swarm on me. The second box, did not even need a bait frame. They have moved up into the second box and built half of it out in comb in 4 days.
They are making my other bees look lazy.
WOW, that is GREAT news! Those are BeeWeaver Bees in this video, they really are excellent. Thanks for sharing Carlos!
@@FrederickDunn And they are SUPER gentle bees. I stopped using smoke on them because they are just chill and relaxed.
Wow guys, I didn't realize that they shipped them that far North. I'm in East Texas and ordered a queen from them for a handful of bees I was trying to save. They have excellent customer service!
@@danskisbees7348 My favorite line of bees so far :)
@@danskisbees7348 I had to fly down and drive my nucs back 20 hours to Maryland! Well worth the trip. Next time though I will probably get nucs locally and just requeen with weaver though unless the Saskatraz colony works out better. I doubt it though as these Weavers are insane.
Have you had any problems with the t-posts sinking further into the earth under a heavy honey load and causing the hives to topple over?
I have not had that problem, not even a little. But I do drive them well into the ground. Depending on your soil type, deeper would be better. About a foot or two down, we have gravel and clay, so the posts get lots of soil friction that holds them in place with no frost heave. Hammer them home Major Combs :)
Hi Jeff, I making my wish list and I want to include those white fully formed foundation/plastic that you talked about but I cannot remember the name. They are so the new queen bee has a place to start laying her eggs immediately, Thank you
I don't know who "Jeff" is, but those are the BetterComb by BetterBee :) ua-cam.com/video/74Ajg1chRqQ/v-deo.html
@@FrederickDunn I have no idea why I called you Jeff, lol, could have been connected to the time of day I asked, or old age haha, thank you Frederick!
Frederick, do you know anything about Stratiolaelaps scimitus predatory-mites to help control varroa-and how to use them? Thoughts???
I know that a lot of reptile keepers use them to control their mites. To date, I don't think they are a viable contender for the control of varroa mites in bee hives. They prefer temps between 60 and 75 deg. F, so the hive temps would be out of their active range. Not against them, but I'm not considering them over other control measures.
@@FrederickDunn interesting. Thx
Would you say I could put two full 10’ lengths of conduit across the same 6 posts and set 2 hives on each side? Trying to save space and materials, but I don’t know if it’ll support that kind of weight.
All I can say is that I've had 3 full size hives supported by six posts on the past. If you did it, I'd definitely do a physical load test after you've finished before putting hives on it. I'd use 300lbs/hive as the standard when performing the load test.
I assumed from the title you would show the swap and move.
Hi Terry, the swap was removing the concrete blocks and installing another hive stand design.
Quick question- @ 4:44 do you have to leave the T posts at full height or can you cut them down to make it easier to move the boxes around? Great idea thanks for sharing
Yes, you can cut them right off a couple of inches above the U-Bolts if you like.
I am wondering how you decide how many brood boxes to give your hive. I have watched some of your other videos where you talked about using two deep brood boxes year around, and a flow hive in the summer. Do you intentionally build up more brood boxes as they fill them knowing you are going to split? Or did I misunderstand, and it is normal practice to keep a mature hive with more than two brood boxes once they are ready for it? Possibly you cover this in one of your beginner beekeeping videos that I have not gotten to yet. I "inherited" a neglected bee hive from a family member and am trying to learn the ropes. Appreciate all the good content on your channel!
Hi Matthew, that's a great question! This hive is always by my spruce tree and it's my source for 90% of the splits I make each year for various reasons. I allow it to become a "supercolony" so that I can use it in spring. All of my other colonies are expanding to no more than 3 boxes each, and that includes the Flow-Super. In the fall, they are reduced to 2 or 1 box for wintering depending on the population of the hive. I also wintered a colony in a single deep - 8 frame box with the second box being used only as a feeding shim so it appeared deceiving. They also came through with flying colors and will be splitting stock this year also. I have no standard plan and each colony gets custom expansion/splits/or condensed, based on what I observe. Very generally, two brood boxes, the second brood box ends up being mostly honey - then as they fill up, I put a Flow-Super on for harvesting. As terrible as this past winter was, the bees used surprisingly low honey resources and I did not feed until late March. One hive that was a late season swarm (September), did receive feed well into fall and dry feed during winter, they looked good until the intermittent warmups when they went queenless and expired. I hope that helps clear it up? The hive in this video is always there as my NON-FlowHive genetic tester. BUT as with everything else, that may change.
Thanks, yes that makes perfect sense!
This was great thanks
Thanks Frances!
Wow T-post ! ^_^
We like to have two hives side by side for the winter as the two will provide better heating for both and we wrap the insulation around both hives. Would we be able to cut the center posts so that the hives could be moved together? You did mention that you keep one hive between the posts and not two in between the posts. On pallets we have four hives and they are all touching each other.
It's really about the load bearing of the fasterners. I think the conduit would handle that just fine.
You said move hives 2ft or 2miles. Ssssoooo would moving a hive in 2ft increments every week or even maybe 3 or 4 days to the desired new location? Theory is the 2 ft distance isn't far enough to disorientate and you give them time to settle in to new spot each time. Example would be needing to move a hive across the yard maybe 10-20 ft ,sure it may take a mouth or two but wouldn't have to worry about hauling and finding a place two or more miles away.
Yes, you can continually move them in 2 foot increments until they are at the desired final resting place :)
thanks for the video. was wondering if there is a weight limit? I run double deeps and get 2-3 medium supers before I harvest. Last year my wood actually started bowing. I used 4 inch treated landscape wood. have been thinking of switching to metal.
The short answer is that everything has a weight limit... BUT, this has been my method for 12 years and I've never had one give way under a honey load. If you're wanting extra load-bearing insurance, use high tensile strength bolts and never put more than one hive between each set of vertical posts.
Fred. How did you keep that hive from building comb all wonky? It is super leaning. I would have been worried it would tip over before you fixed it.
Hi Carlos, it didn't really start tipping until around February, by then, the comb was pretty much drawn out. I'm also glad it didn't dump over in the extreme wind events we had.
@@FrederickDunn It is amazing that thing survived the huge storm you had.
I was sweating it Carlos! I plan to go into this next winter with solid supports all around! We had two heavy wind events and of course that ridiculous hail! Lots to think about and plan for.
@@FrederickDunn You know your channel will have a riot on its hands if you dare install that Saskatraz colony without recording it. We have our pitch forks ready.
That said. I know you are modest, but your channel is the best for bee behavior, knowledge, as well as bee keeping community there is on you tube. Your content is superb and your subscribers love you.
@@FrederickDunn Yeah I noticed that my empty hives would wiggle a little in 25 mph wind gusts. I live on a hill and I have seen wind gusts up to 50 mph so a little bit of prevention is worth avoiding a disaster happening in the middle of a rainy windy night.
I know the hives get heavy once they are building up, but every bit of protection you can give is just being prepared.
I cannot even imagine your situation because you also have bears from time to time before you took action.
Mr Dunn what’s the safe distance on the vibration I can say 10 ft still to near . Is there a distance that is a standard ? Ty
That depends on the cause of the vibrations? I can mow very close and they don't seem to care, but electric shears seem to get their attention, yet the weed whacker doesn't seem to get them going. It's trial and error I'm afraid.
Do you still add pollen patties to your hives.
Nope... I did it one spring to evaluate them and I no longer put any feed inside the hives, save for dry sugar as an emergency resource in winter. OR... sugar syrup when starting a package or swarm capture.
Would you recommend Ratchet strapping to the T posts over the auger that goes into the ground? Cause I was wanting to ratchet strap my stuff better but was not sure what was better.
When you have the T-Posts, you no longer need the augers. You can even drive them deeper than shown if the soil composition is somewhat soft. Always nice to see your comments Carlos!
How do you deal with Ants? I have enough trouble keeping them off my kitchen counter, let alone trying to keep them out of a bee hive! No bees yet Fred but I'm workin' on it;)
Hi Sean, if you have hives on these T-Posts, repelling ants is very easy as you can just coat the verticals with anything sticky and ants will avoid it. Even rubbing the verticals with toothpaste will deter ants from climbing. Ants follow scent trails, so an thing that masks that scent will also work.
@@FrederickDunn Thank You for the quick response. Love your videos, particularly the nature specials;);) & the close ups on bees. I believe you 1st got on my radar w/ "Goats that stare at bees" Keep up the great work Fred!
@@seanb0wers514 Thanks Sean! "Goats that stare at Bees"... excellent!!!
@@FrederickDunnIve had good results with Diatomaceous Earth. Or you can put the actual posts or hive stand legs into little cat food containers with petro jelly in there to drown them. I have never had an issue with an ant trail going into the hive and stealing larve or getting into the sugar or honey though.
@@weasleoop In all of the time I've kept bees, I only had one hive get visited by ants. BUT, I know that in some areas they can be a real problem and people have made some very elaborate mote systems to keep the ants out. DE has to be refreshed after every rain or heavy dew. Ants avoid petroleum jelly and minty jell toothpaste. When I lived in South Carolina, fire ants were a fun challenge.
Did you get the new bees from Canada yet?
Hi SpiritBear!! I did receive an email stating that they will be shipping in the coming week! Next Friday's FAQ will be all about setting up a new beehive and installing package bees!
@@FrederickDunn Cool! I wonder if the Canuck bees will have an outrageous French accent.
Do you get stung through your nitrile gloves?
They certainly "could" sting through those gloves, but it's never happened.
I use steel cattle water troughs as my hive stands to get them off the ground more. It lets me monitor for ants, beetles, and pests better as well as preventive avoidance of skunk problems if I ever get any.
you'll have rats and mice under those metal things bad idea
and SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@theplaintruth4794 They are flush with the ground. And we have no poisonous snakes here.
Wow, that's a lot of cattle troughs isn't it Carlos? I've seen the photos and know that your setup is VERY nice!
@@FrederickDunn I dunno. I have nothing but space so never thought it was excessive lol. I never have to bend over anymore working them and always have a place to set the smoker and my tools and frames. I really love them. I really love the character of your camouflage hive. Its just super cool with a story.
Nice idea Fred. I used your design with one small improvement and used Korn Clamps vs. the U bolts which the backer plate tends to bend with once torqued. The Korns are contoured to a specific pipe diameter and will withstand plenty of torque. www.fastenal.com/products/details/0129202
Those are $12.95 each.... I'm sure they would hold nicely. None of the U-Bolts have failed, but it's nice to have options for sure! Thanks for sharing!
@@FrederickDunn Yes, I didn't buy from the link I copied but found them on Ebay for a quarter the cost.