Building bee houses

When we got our first hive we had bought the hive bodies from Craigslist. A hive body is the box that the bees live in. We decided for the safety of our new bees to fire the insides of the hive, to kill off any mites that may have been infecting the last colony. So, instead of using old frames, we decided to purchase these new from the bee company. The frames are the wooden sleeves that hold the comb and wax in the hive bodies. They hang like folders in a filing cabinet from the top of the box and are specifically designed to observe "bee space" (we can talk about that later... just know that bees have their personal space, too).

In order to have all new frames and foundation we had to purchase the parts and piece them together ourselves. This made for a very busy afternoon.

James nailing together our frames.

 The first thing that needs to be done is nailing and gluing together the frames. This is pretty simple since the bee company designed these with pre-drilled holes. It takes wood glue and four nails for each frame. Remember that these get awfully heavy when they are full of baby bees or honey.

Sliding the foundation into the sleeve created by the frame.
You can see some completed frames next to me.

The next step is to place the foundations in the new frames. Foundation is beeswax that has been pressed with their honeycomb pattern. This just helps the bees to have a starting point when they move in and keeps the hive organized and easy to work with when pulling the frames out later. 

Adding the foundation nails to the frames.
You can see how they hold the foundation on each side.

Thanks to the pre-drilled holes, this job is pretty easy!

Next, you slide foundation nails into the sides. We opted for two per side at first, but after have since removed some frames to add two more for extra support. They are nails split in two so they pinch the foundation in place. Once they are all finished you just set them in your hive and let the bees take over!

What's great about working on our hives is that we always have supervisors. The bees can smell that these supplies came from the same place they did, the bee company. It smells familiar, like it is "their's" and so they check it out. One will come up and watch what you are doing, crawl over your work and inspect it, then go and find a buddy to show it to. One or two at a time they will fly up to what you are working on and watch. While I was building these frames I had a bee sit with me for almost 20 minutes, just making sure I was doing it right, I suppose. Wouldn't you watch over the contractor putting an addition on your house?

My supervisor, inspecting my work. Also, a close up of the wax foundation.