Oh, the Joys of Building

Why haven't I updated the website this weekend?

Well, I decided to take a couple of days off -- Eee, Gads! -- and work on building the bee hives.

I received my order back in early January from Mann Lake Ltd -- although they're a bit more expensive, I decided to go with these folks since they're Employee-owned... Something I personally appreciate!

WOW! Amazing what can fit into 4 boxes -- they only weighed 140-pounds in total. Yup, I finally opened up all those boxes to make sure everything was inside. YAY, all the stuff was there! -- Knew immediately this would keep me bee-zy for awhile... Yes, that's the sterling silver casting equipment in the background...


"Now why didn't I order these hives pre-assembled?", was my 1st thought upon seeing all these parts... Then I remembered -- I actually like a challenge!

Here's the outer boxes I assembled today -- They're Medium-Supers.
I ordered 10 of them to allow for future expansion, but only got 4 done so far -- Figure that's all I need to start 2 hives anyway:

Those were actually pretty darned easy to put together -- holes pre-drilled, had ordered the right nails, the hammer and my muscles worked pretty well...


Then came putting together the frames...

Uh-Oh!! How many nails do I use? Where do I put them? Should I use glue like the all the books say? I don't really want to as it adds chemicals into the hive...

I wasted a couple of hours searching & re-searching my books and the internet, and then all over YouTube....

Then I remember watching Fat Bee Man several months ago... I LOVE this guys attitude and decided to do as he does when assembling the frames...

Well, I don't have a pneumatic nailer (or a table-saw), but my arms were still up to swingin' -- I really need to get a different, smaller hammer for driving these tiny nails though... I hit myself a few times! :)