Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[00buzzbee]

I am about to start constructing a replacement TBH as one of my original hives is in need of some minor repairs and maintenance.

It is my intention to replicate the hive needing repairs and transfer the bees across in the Spring of 2016 before they start expanding too much.

I have been looking at some "redwood" in B&Q which I was going to buy along with some "sash clamps" to join the sections of wood together but I was quite surprised to find a lot of the wood bowing, which would make it useless.

Can anyone give me some tips on where I could buy wood which is not bowed and is unlikely to bow in the future please?

[ingo50]

I have bought red western cedar sawn planks 15 cm wide from my local timber merchant. I have used wooden dowels to join the boards, glued and clamped for 24 hrs. I followed Phil's instruction from his book, jigs made of scrap pine came in handy. No bowing so far. The cedar is not cheap, but requires no treatment and I have made some supers for my Nationals out of it too. 3 for the price of one cf buying from the leading UK supplier. Try sourcing from a local sawmill, can be a lot cheaper. I have asked a local tree surgeon to offer me any cedar or larch logs he has. Happy building.

[AugustC]

any wood can bow. All you can do is ensure the wood is well-seasoned and much of the bowing it going to do will be done. Changes is heat, moisture etc will causes some additional flexing but it will be minimal compared the initial seasoning.

[ingo50]

August is right, well seasoned wood is best and should not bow if construction method is good and if a softwood used, you would have to seal the exterior somehow. I have used pine to build a Warre and used raw linseed oil on the outside. This will need annual exterior re-application.
The second advantage of seasoned wood is that the new wood smell will be gone and your bees less likely to abscond.

[Barbara]

I personally don't think it's all that important what you use for the hive as long as the roof is water tight. The beauty of the Kenyan TBH shape is that the sides don't really get exposed to the weather at all.

I have one hive that is an up cycled old veneered chipboard corner cabinet. It hasn't been treated with anything and is now 4 years outside as a beehive and still solid.

Last year I made a hive from pine tongue and groove panelling that had been ripped out of a shop that was being refitted. The panelling had been varnished when it was in the shop and didn't strip it or reapply. It was only half inch thickness though so I made it double thickness and put the inside horizontally and the outside vertical, so it really cannot warp. I used sterling board for the ends and I did give that a good coat of wax and linseed oil. The sterling board was off cuts from another job and the pine panelling was free to a good home so the hive cost me almost nothing and the bees are very happy in it.