After finishing the stand I had a stack of 10 frame pine boxes that needed painting so took care of them. Yes, the more I work bees, the more I like the external handles rather than the cut-outs from the sides. Plus they are better insulated because there is no thin spot. I cut two slots in each one of these 10 frame boxes so they could also work as 3 frame mating nucs. No picture but made up some bottom boards that will handle the 3 nucs in one 10 frame box. Bad part is if I fill up all 12 of these boxes, I could have 36 new colonies and not near enough boxes for all of them…That is a good beekeeper problem!
Also had some cedar boxes done so went ahead and varnished them. Even had a chance to mount one to an apimaye bottom board! Also had the local metal shop make me a couple lids but they are more than I want to spend so will only get these few.
Once most of my personal bee stuff was mostly done it was time to see if I could get ahead of the spring orders. I decided to get enough lumber for 11 long hives. Here you see them all cut and dimensioned and ready for the half-laps.
After spending half a day routing all these boxes, it was time to decide how many would be pine and how many would be covered in cedar. I estimated I had enough cedar for four more hives so that was the number. The other seven, I added the bottom and stacked mostly out of the way.
After the glue dried I removed the top screw and replaced it with a dowel as a pin. This will keep me from hitting these internal screws when adding the legs. I did come back after the pictures and add more screws below the pins. I doubt it will be needed but I would rather know it was too much than needed later.
Oh and knocked out a quick customer order of some cedar 10 frame boxes.
