Escape Board for Bee Hives

[paulmon]

Don't know if there are any beekeepers here but this was a nice little project on a rainy morning. I made two escape boards which allows the beekeeper to clear a hive of all bees so that he/she can then get the frames of honey without having to deal with thousands of angry bees.

[Dumb_Polack]

Don't know if there are any beekeepers here but this was a nice little project on a rainy morning. I made two escape boards which allows the beekeeper to clear a hive of all bees so that he/she can then get the frames of honey without having to deal with thousands of angry bees.

Neat trick!  I might do that for my hives.

1 question though, you said after a few hours you were able to pull your supers, right?  Are the bees simply buzzing around trying to get back in?   Guess so because the queens still in the brood box, right?

(do you use a queen excluder as well?)

[paulmon]

In my case (in the video) I was just getting rid of some robbers. Not many bees compared to what's in a super. Normally, to clear out a super you would put the escape board UNDER the super, and upside down to what mine is in the video. Bees will go back down into the hive with no way to get back in to the super.

[Matt Swiderski]

Quick question, it’s just a little off topic. Do you make your own brood boxes and supers? I’ve thought about doing it but when I think about it, it seems like I need the boxes yesterday so I just end up buying them. They’re not complicated to build, I’ve just never done the math to see if it’s worth it when I consider my time and materials.
Matt

[Bob10]

Quick question, it’s just a little off topic. Do you make your own brood boxes and supers? I’ve thought about doing it but when I think about it, it seems like I need the boxes yesterday so I just end up buying them. They’re not complicated to build, I’ve just never done the math to see if it’s worth it when I consider my time and materials.
Matt

I did the math and buying costs more or less the same as building here.  I picked up 5 yesterday of CL new in box for $65.  I don't think I could have bought the wood for that.  Then again I saw an ad on CL today with a company 200 miles away that sells them unassembled  for $9.50 a piece they only sell #125 in a unit, no breaking it up into smaller amounts I know I can't get the lumber for that price.  I just need a way to sell off the extra 


https://sacramento.craigslist.org/grd/d/...41994.html

[paulmon]

Quick question, it’s just a little off topic. Do you make your own brood boxes and supers? I’ve thought about doing it but when I think about it, it seems like I need the boxes yesterday so I just end up buying them. They’re not complicated to build, I’ve just never done the math to see if it’s worth it when I consider my time and materials.
Matt

I don't buy boxes but I do by frames. 

If you want to make your own boxes as cheap as possible you would need to always be on the lookout for cheap lumber and possibly be prepared to glue pieces together to make them wide enough. So, a bit more work. If you want good boxes that will last then you need to do finger joints. But we have some boxes that have been around a while and they are only butt jointed with just 3 screws on each corner. Even rabbet joints would be better than that. The other thing you can do is use exterier plywood.

Besides the corner joints, the rabbet at the top ends of the boxes to rest the frames on takes a little work. Especially if you forget to make it after you have already assembled the box! (Don't ask me how I know this). 

So yea, it's a bit of work. But you don't have to do everything at once. Collect wood, glue up some panels and cut them to size, then stack up your pieces and do joint work and assembly later on. Also if you have a bigger operation it would probably pay to have a dedicated small shop with all the tools and jigs set up just to do boxes.

[Matt Swiderski]

Thanks for the reply’s. Right now I only have 4 hives and buy as needed. If I could find a good deal on lumber, and need enough boxes to make an assembly line type work. Then I think it would be worth the time and money. But right now I have 3 kids under the age of 5, so I have more money than time lol.

[Bob10]

I have to ask where did you get your bees.
So I have been lucky enough to get mine out in the wild. I have 4 now I had a queen less hive and a failing hive I combined Thursday so I may only have 3 next week hard to say.

[Bob10]

[paulmon]

I made one of those too.

https://youtu.be/2o1ApSij930