Hello hello neighbors!

[ryanissamson]

My name is Ryan and I'm new in town. I've been looking forward to joining a beekeeping community and start beekeeping for several years now and I think the stars may finally be aligning. In fact, when I typed in the address for the meeting tomorrow, I saw that I am two minutes away from the meeting place!

So much looking forward to learning all that I can and contributing how I can - I am completely new. I'm just looking to have a backyard hive and keep bees mostly as a hobby, to promote pollination in my garden, and of course to enjoy honey and be able to share it with friends, neighbors, and family.

I'm particularly interested in the possibility of building a custom solution for a hive to keep it out sight and out of the way. I have a large backyard and a large shed that isn't being used. My idea is to build shelves inside of the shed and place the hive on a shelf and an exit from the hive through the side of the shed (towards the top?). My idea is to use pvc pipe for exits and entrances. I'd work on the hive from inside the shed.

Feel free to shoot down the idea if it just won't work.

I look forward to meeting everyone tomorrow! I know that I'm late in starting and probably won't get a hive going this year. If I do, fantastic, if not, I'll be ready for next year.

Ryan

[bill_janczak]

Welcome Ryan! Make sure to introduce yourself tomorrow night!

[ryanissamson]

Thanks Bill, it was great to be at the meeting and get a lot of great info. I actually went home last night and read through an entire book on beekeeping. So, I'm getting through what I can. I also got a book on building beehives so I hope to start that soon to have a hive up and running as soon as I can.

[bildge]

"I'm particularly interested in the possibility of building a custom solution for a hive to keep it out sight and out of the way. I have a large backyard and a large shed that isn't being used. "

I saw a documentary that had a a guy in the Swiss Alps with a "bee" shed. It held like a dozen hives that he could work from the inside. I think it is a great idea if done right. I have my own future idea for a bee shed on wheels that would allow to move several hives at once with no lifting required. I would suggest a few things when designing it: Large wide open ventilation near the roof (too let stray bees out and keep the shed cool in the summer), design it around standard Langstroth frames (trust me, you don't want to get stuck having to make 100s of custom frames plus it will make buying bees easier), hinged doors on your boxes with frames coming in/out of the boxes through those doors in a horizontal direction instead of from the tops of the boxes (you don't want to be stacking/unstacking boxes full of bees in the tight confinement of a shed).

[ryanissamson]

[ryanissamson]

So, I just spent about 30 minutes looking around for any sort of cabinet hive plans. It appears that Swiss bee houses are something that might be a good fit. My shed is about 8x12 and is completely empty. Seems like I could make something like this happen. I found quite a few forums where people mentioned that they did it, but they didn't link to or share any plans. I'll keep an eye out.

[bildge]

"More Than Honey" Yep that was it. Looked like a sweet setup. A lot of work and expense up front, but designed to maximize convenience, built to last a lifetime, and provides extra winter protection.

http://mainebeekeepers.org/the-bee-line ... e-and-out/