It was disappointing to have to put my bees into a Langstroth hive last spring. I really enjoyed spending the summer with the bees, though, and I hope they make it through the winter. Either way, I plan to add at least another colony to the yard.
My plan is to somehow move my bees into a Warre hive, and put the additional bees also into a Warre.
Lessons were learned last spring. I won’t be relying on tung oil to finish these hives. And although paint, alone, seems to do fine, I’m not forgoing primer. For the boxes, I was going to use box joints this time, rather than simple butt joints. Instead, I decided on rabbet joints. Hopefully that won’t come back to bite me. It just seems like there is less exposed end grain with rabbet joints. I switched to Titebond 3 glue, rather than Gorilla Glue. The Titebond is waterproof, rather than just water resistant.
In other words, once the bees are moved and installed into the Warre hives, I don’t want structural disasters to strike. We’ll see what happens.
It took a good part of today to get a first coat of Zinsser 123 on all of the boxes and the three roofs. While that sets, I’ll be cutting handles and deciding what type of bottom boards to use. I think another coat of primer on the end grain and the top of the roof, and then a couple of coats of paint over everything should do it.
The hives will then have the rest of the winter to air out. The top bars can be made whenever there is time. I might be putting sides on them this time, to keep the bees from attaching comb to the sides of the boxes. That’s not for sure, yet.
It will be nice to get this project finished and out of the way. The basement is cramped to begin with.
