Building your Top Bar Hive - Learning Beekeeping — Transcript

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1. 0:00okay today I'm going to cover uh the
2. 0:03manufacturer of top bar hives how I do
3. 0:06it
4. 0:08uh I'm a little overdue uh for doing
5. 0:11some cutouts there's five cutouts I have
6. 0:14to do so it's five hives I've got a hive
7. 0:17so let me go through the process of what
8. 0:19I'm doing uh first I'm starting with a
9. 0:221x10 store bot I've got a lot of fence
10. 0:26planks that are left over from a
11. 0:28neighbors fence that had their fence
12. 0:30done that's my main Lumber source and I
13. 0:33take these I
14. 0:38cut the end piece from the 1x10 drill a
15. 0:432-in hole and start putting the fence
16. 0:47planks uh about 44 in to 48 in on the
17. 0:50side and the bottom there is uh eight uh
18. 0:55number eight hardware cloth which is8
19. 0:58squares to the inch
20. 1:00uh this is part of my Vera Mite IPM
21. 1:04integrated Pest management system uh
22. 1:07from here we cut top bars the top bars
23. 1:11can be either made from the fence post
24. 1:14uh the fence planks that I've cut into
25. 1:16the right size I tend to like 1 and 1/2
26. 1:18in because the brw nest tends to be 1
27. 1:21and 3/8 to 1 and 1/4 in and then once
28. 1:24they get past the brood Nest they on
29. 1:26their own widen out their Combs to 1 and
30. 1:291 half to one and and 58 uh for the lids
31. 1:33of the top bar Hive I have been drifting
32. 1:36towards uh these political signs uh it's
33. 1:39just sign board it's Hollow it's light
34. 1:42it's fairly weather
35. 1:44resistant and um if you can get your
36. 1:48hands on it you can pick them up after
37. 1:49an election and they're fairly
38. 1:53cheap now these
39. 1:55lower uh hives are untreated wood uh
40. 1:59what I'm going to try to do today is uh
41. 2:01take some boiled linseed oil and some
42. 2:03wax heat it up and paint these things up
43. 2:06so they can get treated so they can last
44. 2:09out the elements uh the fence planks
45. 2:11have already been painted so that gives
46. 2:13me some protection I just have to make
47. 2:15sure the ends are painted uh this one I
48. 2:18had fun with I just painted it with red
49. 2:20paint uh we'll see what I can do with
50. 2:22the rest okay here I'm about to start up
51. 2:26the uh preservative concoction boiled
52. 2:29linseed oil on its own will preserve
53. 2:31wood but it's better if you add beeswax
54. 2:33to it I just got uh some beeswax uh I've
55. 2:37not used the beeswax before in the lined
56. 2:39oil but I've read about it so I'm going
57. 2:41to use it this time supposed to be about
58. 2:435 10 or
59. 2:4415% um by weight I'm going to throw it
60. 2:47in there uh melt it under low heat and
61. 2:50when it gets melted I can then start uh
62. 2:52painting the stuff on the the wood part
63. 2:55of the uh top bar hives and the ends I
64. 3:00am not painting the inside of the hive
65. 3:02at all for any
66. 3:04reason and I got to get to it okay under
67. 3:07low heat most of the Beeswax is melted
68. 3:11with uh very low heat with a fire
69. 3:13extinguisher nearby and at this point
70. 3:16I'm about to get ready to start painting
71. 3:17with this so hang tight and I'll get
72. 3:22back with you when this thing is ready
73. 3:24okay I'm back it didn't take even a
74. 3:27court to paint uh uh four of these
75. 3:32really only painted four ends and two
76. 3:35sides you can see how it's still wet and
77. 3:39shiny um again this is just for
78. 3:42weatherproofing it's not to be pretty
79. 3:44it's not to be Aesthetics it's going to
80. 3:46be globby it went on fast it's going to
81. 3:49dry in a few days uh you can see
82. 3:54here that uh it's still wet to the touch
83. 4:01uh I'm going to give it m probably a
84. 4:03week to cure Lin seed oil is supposed to
85. 4:06dry within 24 48 Hours boiled linseed
86. 4:09oil wet linseed oil is going to take
87. 4:12weeks
88. 4:13apparently but I'm pleased with how it
89. 4:15happened I'm pleased with how it applied
90. 4:18we'll see how well it weatherproofs I
91. 4:21also painted the edges of cut boards
92. 4:24back in Focus edges of the cut boards to
93. 4:25make sure that uh they're going to be
94. 4:28protected from absorbing moisture
95. 4:29rotting on the edge because that's where
96. 4:32you're going to have failure is where
97. 4:33the nails apply stress to the boards if
98. 4:36you ever if I ever move these hives
99. 4:39which I suspect the hives in the course
100. 4:41of their life will be moved once or two
101. 4:44times and and probably 6 seven
102. 4:47years uh and I didn't do anything in the
103. 4:50tops uh that's
104. 4:53it okay uh there some people have been
105. 4:55asking about the top bar Hive
106. 4:57construction how I do my bars uh my bars
107. 5:00are done very simply I've done them two
108. 5:03ways the way I like is I cut the bar to
109. 5:08exactly uh Dimensions I need and then I
110. 5:11use a soldering iron and I melt beeswax
111. 5:15along a fairly decent line uh down the
112. 5:18middle Center and what that does is it
113. 5:20gives them a guide as to where to go uh
114. 5:23also if I had more time and I wasn't
115. 5:25trying to build so many so fast I'd
116. 5:27actually uh melt beeswax soak a string
117. 5:30in it and line the string along this and
118. 5:32that will improve their ability to uh
119. 5:35build a straight comb along the top bar
120. 5:40but I'm a little short on time I've been
121. 5:42out of the country for a half a month
122. 5:45and um I need to get this stuff built
123. 5:48and build it quick uh also it's swarm
124. 5:51season so I could have a swarm any day
125. 5:53now since I volunteer with the local uh
126. 5:55fire department and that's all