Warre Hive Construction

This post journals my efforts to build a Warre' Hive.  I am using the online guide at The Bee Space.

Yesterday, January 12, I began acquiring materials for the build.  These include the following:

1. (1) 1″x12″ pine shelving 
2. (3) 1 x 10" pine shelving (total 30 - 60 board feet p/hive)
3. (1) 14″x14″ 3/8 inch plywood
4. Flathead wood screws, guage 4 or 5, length 2 inches; 
5. 5d galvanized nails (pins for bars; barely longer than the 3/8" thick top bar)
6. 4.5 to 5 square feet of cloth (or 1.5 yards of canvas when cut from a 60″ roll)
7. Linseed Oil

Couple notes on the materials.  First, the size of the Warre' boxes are 210 mm (about 8 1/4 inches) tall. Therefore, the 12" shelving recommended is a bit long so there maybe some scrap wood. 

Second, it looks like I will need a table saw or router to cut the bevel for the top of the boxes in the hive, or I will need to cut the rebate with a circular saw. This bevel is on two opposite sides and is where the top bars are placed.  I don't have a table saw or router so the circular saw is the tool of choice.  

January 17: Over the past few days, I tryed to hone in on some of the practical decisions associated with the first two Warre' hive builds. 

Frames: The Warre' hive construction above does not contain foundationless frames, only the top bars.  The disadvantage of building the hive with only top bars is that it is much more difficult to inspect. 

In North Carolina, if we at our homestead ever progress with beekeeping to the point of selling bees, we would need to obtain a state certification. This is only issued after a hive inspection. Thus, a lack of frames would impede the needed steps needed for certification.  

Frames take up additional space in the cavity of the hive. Thus, frames in a Warre' argue for enlarging the dimensions of the hive body by a few inches in all directions to accommodate the frames.  

One solution would be to build slightly larger Warre' hives than the specs suggest.  Later, should we decide to introduce frames into these two hives, we could do so.

Alternatively, we could just build these standard.  If expanding our beekeeping is later advisable for our homestead considering the potential bee predators (skunks, european hornets) here, then we could make all the new hives modified Warre' hives or build medium Langs.  Considering everything, at this point, we are going to use the standard dimensions for these first hives.

Screened Bottom Board: The guide above uses a solid bottom board.  There are two disadvantages.  One, the possibility of verroa mite infection is increased with a bottom board because the mites that fall off bees can jump onboard a new host.  Second, it is impossible to see what is happening in the hive.  Without the screened bottom board, your evaluation of colony growth is limited to the density of bees at the front entrance of the hive.  With a screened bottom board, one can crawl underneath and peer up and into the hive to see if the bees are building comb in the bottom hive box.  

Some argue that Warre' did not include a screened bottom board in his design because of the environmental impacts.   Wind might displace the warm air in the hive. Others argue that the wind cannot displace the warm air because of the quilt.  Moreover, since heat rises, the relatively colder air underneath also will not displace the warm air by convection.  

Considering all elements, I will try to use a screened bottom board.  This link shows how one person designed it.  

Front Porch Project

Started the front porch project this afternoon.  The project is carpentry-oriented.  The existing concrete porch is perfectly level.  This causes water to pool on the concrete and run down a crack at the joint between the porch and the wood outside the house.

The porch is built on cinderblocks.  There is one window that leads through to a root cellar dug out under the porch and connected to the basement.  If we can get it dry and ventalated, the root cellar should be real nice for storing food, wine, beer, etc.

The current state of the concrete is crumbling.  The edges of the pad, which is four inches thick, are breaking off.  It is possible water is actually penetrating through cracks; although I suspect the incursion is due to the water running through the joint and accross the ceiling.

First order of business is repair of the wood at the joint of the existing pad and the house.  I will pull off the facie boards and see about shoring up any rotten wood inside the house.

Second, repair the concrete pad.  I intend to pour new concrete over the existing pad and make sure that the water runs down and away from the foundation.

Third, I will build posts and make a small simple porch.

Today, I measured and cut three boards.  These will be used to frame up the pad.  I left a little space between the edges and pad (assuming correct measurements).  When I get the concrete, I will start on ripping out the facie boards, checking out the carpentry work inside that needs to be done, and then pour new concrete.

Garage Shed Roofing Project Finished

Added the facia boards to the north and east ends of the garage shed-roof project.  This work completes this carpentry project with the exception of some bells and whistles.

In the second picture, you can see where we added some storage connections for our rakes and sundry outdoor tools.

The shed makes a nice parking spot for my little tractor and the motorcycle.  This freed up a lot of space inside the garage where we plant to establish livestock feed and dairy areas.

Flat roof project

This week we finished up the flat roof extension project off our garage. We mostly used milled wood. However, for the posts we used pine trees. These we notched at the top so that a 4x4 could be placed between the posts.

The top edge of the roof was secured to the garage with two 12 foot sill boards.  The sill boards were connected to the garage with 5/8 inch lag bolts.  The bolts were screwed through the siding and into 2x4 studs on the inside wall.  The studs were not uniform.  The bolts went into the wall about every 18 inches.

Rafters were cut with a birds mouth notch on the high end side.  Each rafter notch fit over the sill and were bolted in place to the wall using metal hardware and screws.  The down hill side of the rafters were cut to slide over top the 4x4.  We used 2x4 studs to connect the rafters one to another and stabilize the roof rafters.

On top of the rafters we screwed 1x6 and 1x4 nailing boards.

We finished the structural pieces with metal roofing panels.  Our roofing material came from Eagle Metals.  The folks there set us up with custom cut pieces of 4x12 metal roof panels.

The connection between our roof and the existing roof was made with transition flashing.  The horizontal piece of the transitional flashing slid underneath the last set of existing roof shingles.  Hopefully, that will function to keep our structure nice and dry.  This link has a good summary of the types of flashing needed for roofing construction projects.

Learn from mistakes.  The following were errors made in this project.  First, we did not achieve a sufficient pitch.  It would have been much better to get at least a three inch drop every foot.  We probably have only 2 at best.

Second, it is important to get your roofing set square on the first piece.  Every piece afterward fits into it.  If you are off a small amount, then your roofing ends up slightly off kilter.  Here are some other pictures:

The project is not completed. Still need to add the facia board.

Carpentry Links

Plans

• Bat House Plans

• Warre' Hive Construction Guide

Research

Technical information about fastenings