Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Fire17]

Hey new to the site. Wondering if anyone has plans for a top bar hive with the top bars that are 19 inches so they would fit in a langstroth hive. Also any cheap ideas on where to get wood for it. Would pallets work? Any info would be nice Thanks!

[WileyHunter]

Welcome!

I just did a little tweeking to the plans, as I built my TBH and adjusted it so I would have top bars that "could" be dropped into "standard" hives/nucs.

As to your question about materials... I'd steer clear of pallet wood, as the thickness isn't sufficient to provide good insulation. Just look for some good 1" x boards. I had started off with the intention of repurposing some that I had lying around, but plans changed and I needed much of that wood for something else. Ended up buying some new boards, total cost on the new lumber was $65. I used 1" x 6", to get the proper width, I butted 2 pieces together using a Kregs Jig. There are some pics of mine in the Photos section in a thread called "My distractions".

[Che Guebuddha]

All my hives are made from pallet wood and they fared well in the swedish winter. What I do is build the hive body and then screw one more wall onto the existing one so to get thicker side walls (end walls are not made ticker).

I even have a top entrance yet bees seem to get out of winter fresh n strong.

Pallet wood is the only wood I use for my hives as well as reused planks. I use only pallets marked with HT (heat treated).

Buying new wood means new forests being clear cut. Think about our forests. We depend on them.

[WileyHunter]

Che, I think there may be a difference in our pallet materials... The only ones I've seen (used to drive OTR and deliver to grocery stores) that aren't chemically treated, are super thin slats no more than 1/4".

[R Payne]

The most common pallets on this side of the pond are made with thinner materials, it could be run together to get a suitable thickness.

As for the clear cutting, again, on this side of the pond, most commercial lumber is cut from monoculture plantations (basically tree farming) instead of clear cutting healthy forests.

ron

[Che Guebuddha]

Off topic;

One first clear cuts an old forest (long ago very likely) then plants new trees and treats it like a plantation. The fact remains that the old forest is gone.

Plantations are clear cut when 60 to 80 years old. Many migrational bird species find home there and once clear cut they dont find their homes anymore and return to where they came from and dont breed. This is happening in Sweden.

Another thing which is happening in Sweden is next;
Lets say you and your neighbor have forest and he/she decides to clear cut theirs. Your forest is now exposed to strong winds and your trees aren't used to it and start falling down. You are forced to clear cut yours too otherwise they will anyway just fall like dominoes. This means the next neighbor of yours has the same problem now and thats how we create a detrimental domino effect of huge area of young forests being clear cut.

With forests gone the underground water changes and many life forms loose their homes.

Germans made a better method called Lübeck Model which is nature friendly and economy friendly in the long run.

[catchercradle]

I don't know the Lübeck Model but there are places in the UK where woodland is being managed with a mixture of some trees being allowed to grow to maturity and others being taken out at differing ages depending on what they are going to be used for. Unfortunately wood from these sources tends to be a bit more expensive than clear felled plantation wood.

[AugustC]

Isn't there also the fact that the pallet, now not being used as a pallet, would have to be replaced by a new pallet. Thus resulting in the same use of wood.
I am all for recycling the one that are thrown away though.

[Merinos]

Welcome,


It is always a pleasure to have a nice introduction to new friends.

[Fire17]

Thanks for all the info. I think I have a pretty good idea how I'm going to make it.