Sunday, December 25, 2016

New hive stands

I was not satisfied with my old hive stands for two reasons.  Firstly, I was uncertain about their weight bearing capacity.  Secondly, in order to keep the ants out, the legs were in cans holding motor oil.  Bees would get into the oil, when it rained the water/oil mix was disgusting, oil would leak or spill into the soil and also soak into and up the hive stand legs. 
At the UC Davis apiary, the hive stand legs were metal pipes and they kept the ants out with Tanglefoot  protected from dust and bees by upside down cans.  I decided to replace my old stands with ones similar to those at Davis.
I decided to use 2x4's and some sort of pipe for legs.  Initially I planned on bolting the legs to the wood, but then realized it would be better and more aesthetic to bore holes in the frame for the legs.
I found some inexpensive electrical conduit pipe at Home Depot.
Pipes and wood before cutting



I found pvc end caps for the ends of the pipe, lag screws to hold the wood together and old tomato cans to protect the tangle foot.
Parts ready for assembly (not all wood or cans shown)
I had to be careful to line up the pilot holes for the lag screws and had only one small error.
An assembled stand, sans cans
I put the cans onto the legs using duct tape to hold the loose ones in place.  Then I painted them with spray on enamel.
A finished hive stand
Today, with the good help of Mihir, after putting Tanglefoot onto the pipe, the old double hive stand was replaced.

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