Episode 4

Hello again

I haven't posted for a few days because I've been building more cartridges, not much new content involved for that.  However, I completed the exit housing yesterday - this is the piece which will fit in the window.  I cut all the parts before putting this together, below you can see the top and bottom, along with the much smaller side pieces.  I also cut the plexiglass to fit.  When I was designing this part, I decided I wanted to see the bees exiting the traversal tube and leaving the hive.  Therefore, this piece will have a window through which the exit pipe mounts.

After gluing and clamping the end pieces to the bottom piece, I test fit the plexiglass windows.  Because this piece will be mounted in my windowsill, I decided to include two panes of plexiglass, so there is a layer of air between for insulation.  I also decided to seal these panes of plexiglass with glue.

Next I measured the halfway point in the plexiglass and drilled a 1.5 inch hole through both layers.

After some tweaking of the housing, I mounted the 1.5 inch sink flange through both layers of plexiglass.

Then I glued and clamped the top bar, and rested some random tools on top to make sure the whole assembly stayed tight while the glue dried.

Lastly, I attached the 90 degree elbow to the sink flange.  I will be adding some strips of wood and weather stripping to the outside of this housing so it locks into the window and seals tightly, but functionally this piece is complete!

In the next episode I'll be building the queen excluder and possibly beginning assembly of the cabinet which will hold the hive.

-Tim

Episode 3

Over the weekend I had plenty of time to work on my project, and I made great progress.  I started by completing the beelock I was working on during episode 2.

While the glue dried, I started cutting parts for the bottom piece.  This piece will be the entrance to the hive, and since I want to keep the bees from building inside the entrance it will be limited to a bee space of 5/16 inch.  I started by cutting and slotting the two top pieces.

Next, I cut two end pieces.  These are 5/16 inch thick - this component will not be very tall.

The base of this component is solid, because I don't want bees crawling out into my house.  It's slotted to fit the window front and back, and you can see the next step in the project - I'll be moving to PVC for a short time.

Luckily I've become quite good at cutting flange mounts - all it takes is a 1.5 inch and a 1.75 inch forstner bit.  I drill out the 1.5 inch hole about a half inch deep, then cut a 1/8 inch deep lip around the whole using the 1.75 inch bit.  This allows me to mount a sink flange perfectly in the wood.

Because I need the hose to aim towards the window the bees will be leaving the house through, I'm using a 90 degree pressure-fit elbow.

This mount really went together well, I'm very pleased with it!

Unfortunately, it does mean some difficulty during assembly, because the pipe is in the way.  Even so, the component fit together very well - it's not clearly visible in this picture, but there is a thin plexiglass window between the top and bottom pieces of wood.  I'll be able to watch the bees exit the hive into the pipe.

Similar to the beelock, I shored up the middle of this component with a spacer.

Having completed the base of the hive, I moved on to the second beelock.  This beelock is different from the other ones in the hive because I chose to incorporate a feeding station into it.  My choice of feeders for these hives is an inverted 1/2 gallon mason jar with holes drilled in the lid.  Due to atmospheric pressure and surface tension, the sugar water mixture in the jar will stay in the jar until the bees drink it, and boy do they drink it.  My bees can go through a half gallon of sugar water in as little as a week.  I also medicate the mixture to keep them healthy.

The feeding mount is a pretty simple structure, but I chose to wrap the outside of the mount in plexiglass so I can view the bees feeding.  Therefore, I cut two 5 inch squares and slotted them for plexiglass.  Then I cut two spacers for the outside edge and slotted them as well.

Because this mount will need to hold up against about 4 pounds of water, I'm attaching it with pocket-hole joinery instead of glue for strength.  You can see the holes drilled for the joints in the picture below.

For the top square, I need to drill a 3 inch diameter hole using a holesaw.  I clamped the piece and measured the exact center of the piece, then drilled the necessary hole.

Next up, test-fitting the plexiglass windows.

For this beelock, I needed to install all the risers as well as the top bars before continuing, because the top of the feeder mount needs to mount to one of the top bars.

I did a test-fit of the plexiglass windows before installing the top bars.  It's difficult to see from the picture, but the windows on the near-side stop on either side of the feeder.  This means the bees will have access to the feeder.

After installing the top bars, I mounted the top of the feeder with more pocket holes, then installed the plexiglass to the sides of the feeder and glued the risers in place.  Not shown here:  I decided I wanted more than glue holding the risers in place, so I installed more pocket hole screws top and bottom for strength.

Because I have several of the hive structure components built, I decided to start laying them out on the floor of my workshop to get a feel for the size of the project.  Below you can see the bottom of the hive with pipe fitting installed, the first beelock, and the second beelock with feeding mount.  I added the first cartridge I made to see how the cartridges will fit.

After I finished the feeding beelock, I next built the last two beelocks for the project.  I did not take pictures of their construction because they're exact duplicates of the first beelock I created.  I've laid them out as I did the others on the workshop floor, and sandwiched them in some of the pieces I will be using to build the cabinet for the hive.

My current task is building a half dozen more bee cartridges, so again I will not be taking pictures of their construction.  In my next episode, I will be building the exit for the traversal pipe which will mount in the window.

Thanks for reading!

Episode 2

Hello again!

I've made good progress on my project over the past few days; time for an update.  When I left off I had glued and clamped the last of the pieces for the first "bee cartridge."  In this episode I've finished construction of the cartridge and also started construction of the first "bee airlock" which will allow bees to travel from one cartridge to other cartridges without getting loose in the house.

For starters, here's a picture of the assembled cartridge after the glue finished drying.

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To make sure the cartridge was build correctly and my measurements were sound, I test-fit a Langstroth frame into the cartridge.  This frame will hold a sheet of beeswax, on which the bees will "draw comb" to build their hive.  I've built a 5/16 inch bee space on all sides of the frame so the bees can navigate their home.

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Next, I cut the first plexiglass window and tested to make sure it fits.  The plexiglass slides smoothly into the 1/8 inch slots I cut and fits flush on all sides.  The bees will do the rest of the work - when they make themselves at home they'll glue the windows in place, or "propolize" them.

Because I've decided to vent the cartridges, the vent holes must be meshed over.  To this end, I've cut and stapled a narrow-gauge aluminum mesh to the handle side of the cartridge.  I may secure the mesh further with a bead of wood glue, but for now it appears to be sufficiently well attached.

Finally, I attached the handle to the cartridge.  One cartridge done, 11 more to go!

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The next step in my project is to start building the frame which will hold the cartridges.  Since this project is going to be fairly large, during the design phase I quickly identified I would need to build it as modules which can be put together as I go.  With this in mind, the next part I decided to build is the "bee airlock" which I'll call a "beelock" from now on.  The beelock's main function is to provide a path for the bees to travel between two frames, and its secondary function is to allow me to close off a section of the hive so I can remove a bee cartridge for maintenance or inspection.  Finally, I wanted to be able to see the bees as they move from one part of the hive to another, so I decided to incorporate plexiglass windows into the beelock.

As always, I designed the beelock in Sketchup before I started cutting wood.  You might notice in all my designs there's no plexiglass included - I find it's easier to just plan the slots where the plexiglass will fit without going through the trouble of drawing it in the design.

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The first step of building a beelock is to cut long pieces which will hold the plexiglass windows.

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Since these pieces will hold plexiglass on two of their surfaces, I next cut 1/8 inch slots with my table saw.

Next up, end pieces.

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Since plexiglass will be joined with these pieces, I slotted them on their interior edge to match up with the top and bottom pieces.

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Then I cut and mounted the first piece of plexiglass to see how the pieces will fit together.  Everything is fitting together almost as perfectly as Legos!

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Next, a mockup with both pieces of plexiglass and both endcaps installed before I start gluing.

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On to gluing - the first encap is the most difficult to glue because there's nothing holding the pieces in the correct position but your clamp.  To help make sure the proper spacing is maintained I again used 5/16 inch spacers to keep things aligned.

Next I glued the top pieces to the endcap.  Again I used spacers, and the plexiglass pieces already installed helped keep the beelock further aligned.

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At the midpoint I decided to shore up the design so there wouldn't be too much pressure on the plexiglass, so I cut some bracing spacers.

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Then I glued and clamped the spacers in place.

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There will also be bracing spacers in the horizontal slot - these spacers will provide reinforcement and also prevent bees from escaping when they move horizontally through the beelock.

Horizontal spacers installed, glued, and clamped.

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I had to wait for the spacers to dry before I could continue on to the last endcap, so the completed beelock will be featured in the next episode.  I will also be building the base of the hive in the next episode, including fitting the hose assembly the bees will use to venture outdoors.

Thanks for looking!

Episode 1

Hey everyone!

Some of my friends know pretty well that I've picked up beekeeping as a hobby lately and am enjoying it plenty.

The news that not everyone knows and might surprise you:  I have bees in my house!  This probably brings up thoughts of pest removal services and infestations causing thousands of dollars of home property damage.  Luckily, that's not the case - the closest comparison for my "indoor bees" is an ant farm.  Several months ago, I designed and built a hive able to fit in one of my upstairs windows like an air conditioning unit.  The bees can fly outside through a slot on the back of the hive, and the main hive is made up of two sheets of plexiglass with a wood frame.  This means I can check up on the bees from the comfort of my home without having them loose in the house.

I had a lot of fun building my hive, and the bees have thrived in it - so much that they're starting to run out of room!  So, I've decided it's time to build a new hive with the lessons I've learned from the first one.  I'm hoping the improvements will make the bees even more successful, and unlike my current hive I even plan to harvest honey from the new one!  One of the things I'm hoping to do is fully document my build to share it with everyone, especially my grandfather - hi Papa Paul!

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My first step was to design the hive I plan to build in SketchUp, which is a program that lets me draw in three dimensional space, complete with measurements.  I've saved a lot of wood by planning out what I'm going to build very carefully because I can make sure everything is going to fit and make improvements before I start cutting wood.  Just like my current hive, the new hive will be modular, meaning I can pull out a frame full of bees inside the house without any bees getting loose.  I call these frames "bee cartridges" and they work great, although they are time consuming to build!  The design for these cartridges is very similar to the ones I've been using, but I'm making some improvements.  Below you can see the design for the cartridge and the different cuts of wood I need next to it.

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Last night I started building the first cartridge - I'll be making lots of these, because the hive will hold 10 of them.  I'll also be making a larger cartridge for the top two slots that will hold "Flow" frames, but that's a story for another day.  The first piece I cut is for the handle end of the cartridge, and it's the biggest piece.

The plexiglass windows will slide into this piece on the inside of the cartridge, so the next step is to use my table saw to cut a 1/8 inch wide slot on either side.  Luckily my table saw blade is exactly 1/8 inch wide!

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Next, I need to cut out the receiving hole into which the frame's hanging lip will fit.  I did this with my chisel set - in the past I would use a screwdriver for this kind of cut, but the chisels make the job MUCH easier!

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This is the first time I've used a proper set of chisels, but it went very well!  The hole is perfectly rectangular and exactly 5/16 inch deep, just what I needed.

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One of the things I noticed with my old cartridges is a lack of proper ventilation.  To fix this problem I'm putting two mesh-covered vent holes in each cartridge.  To make these holes, I'm using a 1.5 inch forstner bit.

I like forstner bits because they cut very quickly and leave a clean hole without the fuss of removing the cut blank from a holesaw.  These holes turned out great.

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​Next, I cut the piece for the other end of the cartridge.  It's a little narrower than the first piece, because this side will not have slots for plexiglass - the window will slide next to this piece.​

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This piece needs a half-inch wide, 5/16 inch deep lip cut into​ it which will hold the other side of the frame's hanging lip will rest.  To do this I put my dado blade on my table saw.

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To finish the cuts for the cartridge, I cut 4 pieces of long 3/4 inch wood.  Two of these each will make the top and bottom of the assembled cartridge.
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These pieces will hold the plexiglass windows on either side, and also will hold a strip of plexiglass used to close off the frame so the bees are locked inside the cartridge when I need to remove one.  That means each of these pieces needs two 1/8 inch slots cut length-ways - I'm so glad I have a good table saw!

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Now that I have all the pieces cut, I can start assembling the cartridge.  Since there are so many small pieces of wood, I don't want to put this together using nails or screws.  Instead, I'm using wood glue and clamps to make sure the cartridge is strong.  To make this easier, I've secured a length of 2x4 on the tabletop which I can use as a brace when clamping glued pieces together.

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This method of construction requires patience, because you have to wait at least a few hours after gluing each piece to make sure it cures in place.  However, you don't have to worry about a screw torquing the pieces you're attaching around.  With a flat surface and a good set of clamps you can join pieces very accurately

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Another bonus of this method - if you run out of clamps you can screw 2/4 blocks right to your work table to keep pieces aligned while they dry!

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To put the last two pieces in place, I cut several 5/16 shims to space them out properly.  This means I could clamp everything in place while it dries and everything will be aligned properly.

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One more picture of the last pieces glued, clamped, and drying:

In the next episode, I'll be finishing up the cartridge including plexiglass windows, venting mesh, and handle.  After the first cartridge is done, I'll need to make about 11 more of them!