Hive Stands

I'd been procrastinating on making stands for the beehives (for the bees who are arriving this weekend!). Half of it was being unsure that we had the right material, and half of it was my perfectionism rearing its head.

But finally we got to this weekend, and it could not be put off any more: the bees will be here on Saturday and their hives will need something to sit on to keep them off the wet ground. Moreover, work is supposed to get suddenly hectic this week (and it did, the moment I walked in the door today), so I knew I shouldn't count on being able to do something one evening.

We had some extra materials from the deck, so I snagged a couple of the 8' 2x6 boards and cut them in half. I also used a couple of 4x4 posts we had in the basement, and some of the short end cut-offs from the deck.

Cutting the wood to size with our neighbor's saw went very fast. I like not having to worry about straight and square and plumb while cutting. I think having the saw made the project come out much better than I was expecting.

The design I used was very simple: four legs with boards for the sides and long edges screwed into them. You can get more complicated and more structural, but there didn't seem to be any particular need, to me. In the past I have put my hives on stands made of random wood and cinder blocks, so this is a real step up.

I made up the four leg units first, because they screwed together fast and easily.

Apart from the setup and planning, the actual assembly time on this project was under an hour. Each of these stands has enough room for a hive to sit on it, and for me to take off boxes and set them next to it while working. They're 18" off the ground.

I still need to get them nice and level, so the bees built their comb straight. And Noel suggested moving one of them to the other side of the tree.

posted by ayse on 04/16/12