Bee Hive Plans - Some Design Options You May Want to Consider
If you are looking for bee hive plans or considering getting into the hobby of beekeeping, here are some designs you may want to consider.
The most commonly used hive design worldwide is called the Langstroth bee hive, named after its inventor Lorenzo Langstroth.
Prior to his invention, it was difficult to keep the bees from cementing the entire hive together, making it difficult to extract the honey & manage the hive.
By designing the hive with interior frames with space he called "bee space" between the frames, he was able to come up with a hive that allowed for easy removal of the frames to manage the hive & collect honey.
It is estimated that 75% or more of all hive designs now in use are built according to Langstroth's design.
They can be constructed with a number of different frames.
There are 3, 5 & 10 frame bee hive plans available.
Some other pieces of equipment you can build yourself include: A Bee-Vac-This is a wooden box with a small shop vac attachment.
It can be used to suck bees out of an existing hive for repair or other work.
It also works great for harvesting bees from wild or feral hives to get your colony started.
Care should be used to adjust the amount of suction to keep from killing the bees.
A Honey Extractor-This will help use centrifugal force to spin the honey out of your frames.
A kit is available with the bearing assemblies you will need.
Solar Wax Melter-This will allow you to render the wax from your hive.
Should be painted black for maximum heat retention.
Swarm Catcher Frame-This will allow you to harvest wild or feral bees from their hives.
Miller Type Feeder-Designed to place on top of a Langstroth type hive to allow large quantities of bee feed to be given without disrupting the bees or subjecting the keeper to stings.
The most commonly used hive design worldwide is called the Langstroth bee hive, named after its inventor Lorenzo Langstroth.
Prior to his invention, it was difficult to keep the bees from cementing the entire hive together, making it difficult to extract the honey & manage the hive.
By designing the hive with interior frames with space he called "bee space" between the frames, he was able to come up with a hive that allowed for easy removal of the frames to manage the hive & collect honey.
It is estimated that 75% or more of all hive designs now in use are built according to Langstroth's design.
They can be constructed with a number of different frames.
There are 3, 5 & 10 frame bee hive plans available.
Some other pieces of equipment you can build yourself include: A Bee-Vac-This is a wooden box with a small shop vac attachment.
It can be used to suck bees out of an existing hive for repair or other work.
It also works great for harvesting bees from wild or feral hives to get your colony started.
Care should be used to adjust the amount of suction to keep from killing the bees.
A Honey Extractor-This will help use centrifugal force to spin the honey out of your frames.
A kit is available with the bearing assemblies you will need.
Solar Wax Melter-This will allow you to render the wax from your hive.
Should be painted black for maximum heat retention.
Swarm Catcher Frame-This will allow you to harvest wild or feral bees from their hives.
Miller Type Feeder-Designed to place on top of a Langstroth type hive to allow large quantities of bee feed to be given without disrupting the bees or subjecting the keeper to stings.
Source...