When I was in my 20s I had several bee hives. In my mid 30s I hurt my back and working bees with large supers got to be too hard on my back. I gave up on having bees. I sure missed having fresh local honey. I liked having a bit of comb honey and didn’t find it for sale very often.
Now I am in my 60s when I found a bee swarm on a mail box. I decided to collect the swarm so I could have some comb honey. I built a box quick with some boards I had and put the bees in the box. If they stay in the box for a few days I would order some bee hive equipment.
When I was ordering I found that they had 8 frame hive bodies. I decided to go with the 8 frame size because they would weigh less to work with. I ordered two 9 5/8” hive bodies and one 5 11/16” super. A few days after the supplies came there was another swarm on the mail box so collected them as it is better to have 2 bee hives if you lose one over the winter you have some to work with to make more bees.
A full of honey 9 5/8” 10 frame super can weigh up to 100lb an 8 frame could weigh up to 80lb and the 8 frame 5 11/16” could weigh up to 35lb. I could handle the weight of the 5 11/16” moving and inspecting the hive at my age much better. I am even looking at making a 5 frame hive that would cut the weight down to about 22lb for when I get older. Also “the fat bee man” says bees like to build vertical better than horizontal so I thought I could give that a try.
I now had a little time to look in to making my own hive bodies and supers. This is when I found that 5 11/16” super was going to cost almost as much as buying them from the bee supply catalog. The 1” x 6” board at the lumber store is only 5 ½” wide, 3/16 short. I would need to buy an 8” board and cut it down. Please note these prices were what I found in spring of 2018. The prices have changed but it will give you an idea what you can save.
The 5 11/16” unassembled 8 frame super from the catalog cost $12.50
The 8” board 6’ long needed to make the 8 frame 5 11/16” super cost $10.50
Only a $2.00 savings for the extra work of sawing up the boards.
There has got to be a better way to save as I was thinking about making 10 supers if I was going to setup to make them. Then I remember about 2 miles away was a person who cut up wood and made shipping skids.
I went up to Top Notch Pallets and Boards and talked to him about having rough cut boards big enough so I could cut them down to make 5 11/16” supper. I told him what I needed and told him I would like to make up 10 supers.
A finished 1”board is about ¾” thick and he could cut it to that thickness. As the fat bee man on youtube said the bees don’t care if the hive is made with finished lumber or rough cut lumber.
Paul at Top Notch Pallets and Boards said if I was going to buy enough to make 10 boxes he would do it for $1.99 each. I told him to make the boards.
The 5 11/16” unassembled 8 frame super from the catalog cost $12.50 X 10 = 125.00
The boards from Top Notch Pallets and Boards $1.99 X 10 = 19.90 a saving of $105.10
Because I have the time and a table saw it is worth the extra work to save $105.10. They may not be quite as fancy as the ones from the catalog but they will work for me.
If you live near you could pick up some boards for your super from Top Notch Pallets and Boards or you could check with him on what shipping would be to your location http://westny.com/crates/
This lumber needs to dry after being cut. I stacked them in my garage with sticks between them and put some weight on top so they would dry straight.
After about a month of drying I sanded the boards with 80 grit just to knock off the high points. Then I cut the boards to length. Starting with the side boards (19 7/8”). Place the board with the straightest edge against table saw sled square edge. Then the same with the end boards (12 ½”) for the 8 frame and (7 5/8”) for the 5 frame bee boxes.
After that I set up the table saw fence to cut off edge just enough to make it straight with the side I put against the table saw sled. I cut all the boards to get one side straight. Then I flipped them over to cut the other side to the box height (5 11/16’).
The next thing was to cut the notch out where the frames sit in the box.(5/8” deep by 3/8”)
put vent holes in my boxes so ½ of the boxes I drilled a ¾” hole and put a # 8 screen over the hole.
I cut up some small boards to make handles for the end of the hives.
I put the boxes together with 2” x 8 screws and 1 ¼” 8 screws for the handles. I also used wood glue.
I finished by painting them white.
I also made up some 5 frame boxes.
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