Honeybee_ Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - C. Marina Marchese [19]
Putting together my first hive might have been quicker if I’d been able to watch someone else do it first or if I’d had some experienced help. But I was surprised at how easy mine was to assemble. I was able to finish it using only a hammer and a little elbow grease, especially since the precut main parts simply locked together, tongue-and-groove style. I also used a little bit of wood glue to reinforce all the joints, which I knew would help the structure last longer.
TYPICAL LANGSTROTH HIVE
Each of my deeps held ten removable rectangular frames, which are referred to as deep wooden frames. The wood for the frames, like the wood for the deeps, came precut and the pieces locked together easily. The last step was to insert a beeswax foundation into each, like a picture inside a frame. Getting those sheets of beeswax foundation to neatly slip into the frames was tricky. A slit at the top and bottom of the inside of each frame held the sheet in place, and small clips called foundation pins held the sheets to the sides of the frame. Once in place, the sheet was secured at the top by a thin piece of wood nailed across the top of the frame. (I found that a brad driver came in handy here for the tiny nails.) As any new beekeeper will tell you, placing the wax foundation sheets neatly inside the frames without damaging the wax is a challenge until you’ve done it a few times. Fortunately, if you bend or crack the wax foundation by accident, the bees will repair it once it is inside the hive. They will fill in a beekeeper’s clumsy holes with their own beeswax to create a perfect honeycomb pattern. Bless these creatures!
The foundation sheets were embossed with a honeycomb pattern, and my honeybees would eventually add beeswax to the foundation to make their cells or comb. It was there that my queen would lay her eggs and the brood would be raised. A thin metal wire running through the foundation would support the weight of the honeycomb as the bees built it up.
My completed hive body had ten frames in each deep, for a total of twenty frames. Along the top of the deeps were edges called rabbets, from which the frames hung in a neat line. I nailed thin, L-shaped pieces of metal along both sides for protection. With the frames sitting on two of these metal guards, it would be easy for me to slide the frames in and out of the hives during harvesting or inspection without crushing the bees.
My beehive had an outer cover to protect the top of the hive and shield the bees from nasty weather. Sometimes referred to as a telescoping cover, this wooden board was covered by a thin sheet of galvanized metal that hung over the sides of the hive body. Underneath this outer cover was a flat piece of wood with a framed edge, called, cleverly, the inner cover. It would serve as extra insulation for the bees and prevent them from building honeycomb on the outer cover. On the front side of the inner cover was a small open notch and, on the top, an oval hole. Both openings acted as vents, so moisture could escape the hive.
PARTS OF THE HIVE
At the base of the bottom deep was a platform called a bottom board. This solid piece of wood had three edges for the bottom deep to sit on. Serving as the base of the hive, the bottom board, which stuck out a few inches from the rest of the hive, would also be an entrance or landing pad for the bees. (Later, I would learn about screened-bottom