Project description
Please use dry lime or pine with no resin pockets and no loose knots, moisture around ten to twelve percent, seasoned boards rather than fresh timber off the yard. Walls thirty-five millimetres thick, inner dimensions held exactly, and bee space of seven to eight millimetres kept at every gap: if it is wrong the colony glues the joints with propolis or draws burr comb, and the frames stop coming out cleanly. Corners on box joints, rebates for the frame lugs with a metal strip on top, hand grips cut into all four walls rather than screwed on. A lower entrance across the full width and a round upper one, each with a wooden entrance block with a three-position slide. The floor should be removable, with a mesh bottom and a slide-out tray so I can count mite drop. A flat roof covered in galvanised sheet folded over the edges, an insulated inner cushion under it, and small screened ventilation openings. The stand is separate, made of timber, lifting the hive about forty centimetres off the ground so the damp does not reach it, with a slight tilt forward towards the landing board.
One more thing that shapes the drawing. Keeping bees next to neighbours means following the local rules: the set distance from the plot boundary, a solid fence or a hedge tall enough to push the flight path above head height, and entrances turned into the garden instead of towards the footpath. Someone next door may be allergic to stings, and that is something I am asking about beforehand, before any bees arrive. So the height of the stand and the direction of the entrances are not free choices, and I would like to agree on everything before you cut a single board.
Scope of work:
— a drawing with inner dimensions and gaps, approved before cutting;
— two full sets: two ten-frame bodies, floor, roof, inner cover and stand each;
— rebates, entrance blocks, screened ventilation under the roof;
— removable mesh floor with a slide-out tray;
— galvanised roof and an insulated inner cushion;
— paint on the outside only, safe low-odour products, bare wood inside;
— twenty frames with wire, if you are willing to take that on;
— everything finished by late winter so the hives can air out before spring.