Apiary Open Source Hub

Next, buy (or make) your woodenware (hive components). It is advisable to start with new equipment. Old equipment may harbor diseases such as American Foulbrood which could infect your new bees. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Elevated hive stand: A hive stand isn’t necessary, but you may find one useful because it elevates the hive off the wet ground. This improves air circulation and will require you to do less bending over when you’re inspecting your hives. In addition, grass growing in front of the hive’s entrance can slow the bees’ ability to get in and out. The stand alleviates this problem by raising the hive above the grass.

• Bottom board: The basic hive set up starts with the bottom board. There are two different types of bottom boards, solid bottom boards and screened bottom boards.

Screened bottom boards give better ventilation and are helpful with mites. They look like this:

When the bees clean themselves and remove mites, they will fall straight through the hive and the screened bottom board. This is good because it keeps mites from piling up at the bottom of your hive and creating more work for you and your bees to clean and take care of. If you’d like to build your own, here is an image with measurements to assist you:

Solid bottom boards help keep your bees warmer during the cold winter months. Because they keep the bees warmer, you will find that it also encourages your bees to brood (reproduce) earlier and more in the spring. A solid bottom board can also be a solution to bees clumping/gathering under the hive. Some people also say that they have better results at treating mites with solid boards. This would be because there is nowhere for the mites to run. It also means that you have less of an area you need to treat for mites because they won’t fall under your hives.

If you live in a warmer climate with fire ants, solid bottom boards can help deter fire ants from gathering under your hive too. This is because the solid boards catch all of the hive debris and keep it from accumulating below the hive. This debris, if not cleaned up, will attract ants to your hives.

Here’s what a solid bottom board looks like:

They are cheap to buy and also cheap and easy to build, even cheaper and easier to buy/build than screened bottom boards.

• Entrance reducer: An entrance reducer is a cleat that limits bee access to the hive and controls ventilation and temperature during cooler months.

The entrance reducer has two different sized openings and the wooden piece can be turned so that only one the openings is used at a time. The advantages of reducing the entrance are: 1) reduces the amount of area that needs to be protected by the guard bees, thus making their jobs easier 2) hive robbers and other invasive species have a harder time accessing the smaller entrance and 3) helping to control the ventilation and temperature in the hive.

That said, a larger entrance provides more ventilation and gives the bees more space to fly in and out. So you may want to remove it when the honey flow is highest and/or during hot and humid times.

• Deep hive bodies: These are sometimes called a deep super, hive body, a deep, and/or hive chamber.

Deep hive bodies usually house the majority of the colony’s brood, drones, and reserves of honey and pollen. The deep hive bodies are essentially boxes that contain frames of comb. For a Langstroth hive, you typically build two deep hive bodies to stack on top of each other, like a two-story condo. The bees use the lower deep as the nursery or brood chamber where they raise thousands of baby bees. They use the upper deep as the pantry or food chamber, where they store most of the honey and pollen for their use. The standard and common size for a deep hive body is: 19 7/8″ in length, 16 1/4″ wide and 9 5/8″ in height.

• Honey super: The honey super is a box that holds the frames where the bees will store their honey. Beekeepers use honey supers to collect surplus honey.

The honey supers come in different sizes, usually medium (5 ¾” high) or shallow (6 ⦝” high). It is recommended to use a medium or shallow size super for honey, instead of a deep, because honey is very heavy and the supers can be hard to lift when full.

• Frames: These are frames that fit inside the honey super and they hold a “foundation” for the bees to build wax onto. Because the frames are removable from the hive, you can easily inspect, manipulate, and manage the colony with them.

If you are using a medium super for honey, you need 10 medium frames per box. If you are using a shallow super for honey, you need 10 shallow frames per box. The picture above shows a box with 10 frames. Inside the frame is the foundation and there are plenty of different foundation types. The most common are wired wax or plastic. Pick one type of foundation for the entire hive and stick with that to start out. Bees prefer wired wax over plastic, but many beekeepers prefer plastic due to its versatility and ability to stand up against wax moth devastation.

• Inner cover: This is a wooden shallow tray that goes on top of the uppermost super. It has an entrance hole to the outside and a ventilation hole in the center. It also has two sides ” one for the winter and one for the rest of the year.

• Outer cover: The outer cover protects the bees from the elements. Like the roof on a house, you will benefit from ensuring that it’s waterproof and also extend the life of the wood by covering the top with a weatherproof material like aluminum flashing, asphalt tiles, cedar shingles, etc.

It should be telescopic and fit over the inner cover with sides that hang down over the top super. This provides maximum protection and reduces the risk of rain seeping into the top super. Plywood is most suitable. In colder climates, a 2″ sheet of styrofoam can be sandwiched between thin sheets of plywood. While the overall thickness of the hive cover will increase somewhat, the hive cover will provide excellent insulation for the bees.

• Bees: The general consensus among beekeepers is that it is better to start with at least two hives as the bees will behave differently. This will increase the novice beekeepers learning curve in a positive way. We plan to start with six.

Here is our cost analysis for purchasing all these woodenware components and the bees. You can click the picture or THIS LINK to visit the spreadsheet with the most current details:

 

BUYING YOUR BEES

There are many types of bee breeds available. Do your research so you can choose the right bees for your situation. Popular breeds include Carniolan, Russian, Italian, Buckfast, and mixed breeds. Their temperament, honey production, overwintering, and ability to fight off diseases and mites will vary by breed. Order your bees as soon as the bee suppliers start taking orders to make sure you get the bees you want.

The easiest way to buy bees is to purchase them locally. Talk to people in your area to find yourself a well-respected beekeeper and purchase your bees from them. You can also talk to local beekeepers about where they get their bees so that you can make sure to get quality bees. Buying bees on the internet is another option, but just be aware that you will not be able to inspect the bees before purchase. This means you could get a weak or really new hive.

For the more adventurous, you can also catch a swarm of bees in the wild and introduce them to your hive. These are bees that have outgrown their previous hive and are looking for a new home. Keep in mind though that swarms can typically only be caught in the spring and it takes skill and patience to populate a hive this way.

 

BEE PACKAGES

When purchasing your bees, you will find there are two main options. Bees can be purchased in either packages or nucs (short for nucleus). Packages include thousands of worker bees and one queen bee. When purchased this way, the bees are ready to be put to work in the hive and the package should come with basic instructions for getting them established. The summary of this process is to:

• Place the queen in the hive in the container she arrived in. Typically, she will come in a small box that has a small cover you remove. Under the cover she will still be blocked inside by a layer of “candy.” This candy will be removed by the worker bees over the course of several days, which will allow the queen and workers to get acclimated to each other.
• Once the queen is in place you can then introduce the rest of your bees. Gently tap the container of bees to loosen the clump of them. Then open the cover and pour the bees into the hive.
• Once the majority of the bees are in the hive between the frames, you then put the inner cover and the outer cover on the hive.

Here is a video:

 

BEE NUCS

Nucs are considered small hives usually comprised of five frames. In this case, the queen and her workers are already established and she will be laying eggs. In addition to the queen, your hive will include workers, nurse bees, and drones. There is also stored honey and nectar in the nuc.

• Nucs are very easy to install into larger hives.
• Once you arrive home with the nuc, the main hive is opened. The center five frames of the new hive are replaced with the frames in the nuc.
• The nuc frames are placed inside the new hive in the exact same order and direction as they were found in the nuc. The bees will now have more room and the colony will start to grow and expand.

 

MAINTENANCE: CHECKING ON YOUR BEES

Once you have your colony in place, it is important to keep an eye on how healthy your bees are. The amount you need to inspect the hives will change seasonally. They take more work in the spring and summer. These are their most active months and you should plan to check the hive(s) at least weekly. During their less active months though, fall and throughout winter, they take much less work and checking on them monthly should be sufficient.

When you check them, check for any damage to the main structure first. Next, inspect the frames and make sure that there are no other types of insects in the hive. Also check that the honeycombs are being formed properly.

As your colony grows, you will need to add more frames so that the colony can continue to expand. When the existing frames are almost full, you should add another box on top of the original box. In most cases, this new box filled with frames will be used to store honey and the older, lower box will be used more for reproduction.

 

BUILDING YOUR OWN LANGSTROTH HIVE

Here are construction details for a 10-frame Langstroth beehive. They were created by Barry Birkey. Here is the website and the direct PDF link.

Most beekeepers will assemble pre-cut beehive equipment at some time. Others go farther by manufacturing their own equipment. In either case, it is important to use standard dimensions and assembly methods to ensure that the equipment will be interchangeable, strong, and durable.

The species of wood used to make a beehive can vary depending upon what is available in your area. Pine or cedar is usually recommended though, except for the top cover and floor of the bottom board which use ½” plywood. This is because plywood is less affected by changes in temperature and moisture.

All wood pieces must be flat. Small knots may be acceptable, provided they are not close to the edges or where handholds are to be cut. Box nails (1⦺” in.) are recommended for nailing supers, bottom boards, and covers.

The minimum thickness should not be less than ¾”. If you are using standard dimensional lumber, you can use 1×8 (¾” x 7¼”) for both shallow and medium super, and 1×12 ( ¾” x 11¼”) for the deep hive body.

Start cutting the boards to length. For fronts and backs, cut them slightly over 16 ¼”. For sides, cut slightly over 19 â¦Å¾Ã¢â’¬.

Trim to exact size before assembling. Cut box joints on all the board ends. Rabbet joints are an acceptable alternative. You can find detailed instruction for box and rabbet joints on websites like this box joint tutorial from PopularWoodworking.com or this one from StartWoodworking.com.

Now that you have the joint cut and the boards cut to finished size, cut the ⦝” x ⅜” rabbet on the 16 ¼” boards, stopping just short of the box joint pin at each end. Chisel these square after the boards are assembled and note detail of the frame rest at left.

Pre-drill holes for nails in each pin.

Assemble boxes with glue and nail each pin with a 6d galvanized nail. Attach 1×2 handholds with screws and glue. Attach metal rabbets on the frame rest notch. Fill any holes and paint all exterior surfaces, both top and bottom edges, with primer and finish top coat.

For more detailed instructions, check out this article: “Building a Langstroth Beehive.”

 

RESOURCES OF INTEREST

• Click here for OpenSourceBeehives.net – they are AMAZING
• Click here or a great page full of interesting bee facts
• Click here for BeehiveHero’s Page of Beekeeping Articles – A Wealth of Information
• How to create a pollinator-friendly habitat in your yard
• PDF on how to choose the site for your apiary
• Sun Hives: Prioritizing bees as pollinators first and honey makers second
• Article: “Raising Honeybees for Beginners”
• Article: DIY Beekeeping – Beekeeping Equipment
• Article: “Beekeeping ” an Essential Part of Permaculture”
• Article: “How To Get Started In Beekeeping In 7 Simple Steps”
• Article: “Types of Beehives and their Functions”
• DIY 10-frame Langstroth Beehive Construction Downloadable (PDF) Plans
• DIY Plans for Constructing a Warré Hive – “The People’s Hive”
• DIY Plans #1 for Constructing a Beehive PDF
• DIY Plans #2 for Constructing a Beehive PDF
• PDF Article: “Setting Up Your Apiary”
• Article: “Building a Langstroth Beehive”
• Article: “How To Set Up Your First Beehive”
• Article: “How to Keep Bees”
• Article: “How to Pick the Ideal Apiary Location”
• Article: “The Parts of a Beehive”
• Article: “Beginner Beekeeper’s Guide”
• Article: “A Quick Guide to Starting a Beehive”
• Article: “Start a Back Yard Honey Bee Hive”
• Article: “Beeswax Rendering”
• Article: “Why Should I Teach My Child About Bees?”
• Article: “Honeybees Suffer Unnecessarily in Human-Made Hives, Study Finds”
• Paul Wheaton’s “Vanishing of the Bees Movie Review” Podcast | Trailer
• Paul Wheaton Podcast: Benefits of WILD bee genetics and building wild bee traps
• Paul Wheaton Podcasts: Keen on Mason Bees with Dave Hunter | Mason Bees Part 2 
• HoneyBeesOnline.com – A provider of online beekeeping courses, equipment, and more

Here is a short (6 min) apiary setup video:

Here’s an idea for collecting honey without disturbing the hive :

Here’s how to capture a wild swarm, and why you want to:

 

Books we’d recommend from Amazon (paid links*):

*As an Amazon Associate, One Community earns from qualifying purchases.

 

OPEN SOURCE CONTENT TO BE ADDED LATER

A huge additional volume of open source  information will be added to this page as we setup and maintain the One Community apiary infrastructure. We will also update the cost details with the exact numbers from our purchase. Open source resources that will be added to this page as we build include:

• Step-by-step video instructions for hive assembly
• Timelapse and instructional videos detailing hive evolution
• On-going results of our honey and wax harvesting experience
• On-going results of our experience maintaining and evolving our apiary
• Instructional videos and recipes including every way we use honey and wax

 

SUMMARY

We consider an apiary as part of the  one Community food infrastructure  and our  botanical garden model . Due to declining bee populations and the  volume and diversity of food we will be growing  (and teaching others to grow), we consider an apiary as an essential component of our sustainable teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities model . Our goal is to  open source and free-share  as much information as possible about setting up and maintaining an apiary so we can help promote community-sponsored rebuilding of the bee population, produce honey and wax on the property, and maintain the necessary density of pollinators to support our food supply.

Q: What is One Community’s stance on pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides?

If it is not safe to eat, we will not be spraying it on our food.