You Aussie beekeepers are some of the greatest in the world. I wish I had met a few before I had to give up the little girls. Cheers, mate. Bob in Montana, USA
Like you, I made my deep boxes myself. Lumber is always easy to procur if a dude ( bloke) keeps his eyes open. Plus, wanting the boxes to last 25+ years, I made a jig to cut box joint corners. On deeps, I would secure hand grip bars to the ends. On supers, I would cut grips on the table saw as you did. Thanks, my friend.
Nice work mate , reclaiming timber and making your own boxes , the bees won’t care , how ever you save money and that’s a good thing , I like making my own as well from ply wood but if this is what you have and you can use it , that’s awesome. 👍
Thank you. I just treated these with copper Napthenate and painted them. They are sitting in my brothers shed waiting for spring. They should be aired out enough by then. I’m not doing the copper treatment again though. I will be wax dipping when I get the funds to set up the tank.
The issue you'll run into is that the glue line running parallel with the grain will contain places where heartwood is glued to sap wood. Sapwood absorbs moisture much faster than heartwood and since the EMC will almost certainly always be below the fiber saturation point, the wood on either side of the glue joint will expand and contract at different rates. This will stress and tear the wood fibers the glue is bonded too so the joint will eventually fail right next to the glue line (most likely on the sapwood side). Best to stick with one piece. 👍
Hey Thomas, thanks for your comment. In a few weeks time we will be wax dipping the boxes, baseboards and lids. It will stop any water ingress. I’m just waiting for the fire ban season to finish. I’d hate for the wax to boil over and I cause a bush fire. Eventually I will be using solid hoop pine but it’s not available in this state easily.
Those boards you cant use for the hive bodies can be your handles on the outside of the box or they can be used in the construction of your tops. They can be used to make nucs. I use pallets for so many woodworking projects and nothing goes to waste if i can help it.
i'd suggest next time to save you some time instead of cutting off 2 of the tongue-n-groove, pick out the pieces you want for your middle slot and only do the tongue-n-groove on it, with only a tongue on one, and only a groove on the other. i guess if you've got alot of time and access to that thickness of pallets in your area, and are looking to expand a bit, it could be worth the time. wish i could find that thickness of wood pallets around by me, most of them are thin half inch planks, sometimes 5/8", and very rarely are they 1x (3/4") like you found. i picked up some pallets that i intended to make into nuc boxes and, well.. it hasnt gone well. i'll probably end up seeing if i can turn them into swarm boxes instead.
Hi Dan. I did both sides so I could choose the best fit up when I put them together. I cut that out in editing. It wasn’t really relevant to the story and dragged on a bit in the detail. Those pallets were an inch thick. I trimmed them back to 7/8. Pretty rare to find them. I am really keen to get them wax dipped in the next few weeks and put some paint on them to see how they come up.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 yeah I'd say they are pretty rare to find. Also, if you are wax dipping them, then they won't need to be painted, not sure the paint would even stick to them after being dipped.
Thanks Dan, I want to paint them so they will blend into their surroundings. Where the hives are at the moment they have no one near them for days on end, so any way that we can help to keep them hidden.
Lol. When I can afford it I’ll buy a dato blade. I have a bit of side pressure on it there. So it was just rubbing and not cutting. Thanks for watching we appreciate it.
The only problem I see doing this, is when you take the nails out. It usually leaves a tiny piece of wire in the nail holes. Which makes it hard on the blades on the table saw, and planner, if you use a planner. These boxes look great though
Hi Apprentice Paul, I just found your channel and I really like it! I have also done videos showing using pallets to build beekeeping equipment on my channel. Keep up the good work Sir
Thank you Bruce. I was only looking at your videos about a week ago. I have been doing research on what people have been doing for hive preservation. I think that’s how I came across your content. I subscribed to it on my other channel. I’m heading out to see some bees tomorrow so there should-be some bees on the channel soon. Craig and I love how the channel is going. We’ve been doing a lot of research in the background so we can bring factual content to the channel. I’m researching varroa at the moment and Craig is working on queen rearing.
Varroa Destructor mites do not pose a risk for infesting wax or hive boxes. They do ride on honeybees they contact in the environment. Drones can share them from one hive to another, as they seem to have little loyalty from one colony to the next. Varroa raise inside the capped cells with pupae, and they have an affinity for raising with drone brood, because they pupate 3-4 days longer than worker brood.
Thanks DG. We’re learning about varroa here. Our department of primary industry is very worried about it and has taken the approach of destroying everything within a 10km (6 mile) radius of an infected hive. I’m currently inside the red zone so I’m just taking precautions so I don’t get a swarm into my hives. It means all my equipment would have to be destroyed. Thanks for the good information. Paul
@Thankyou Honeybee newest subscriber here. I watched all of your videos and appreciate the information in them. I find it interesting that you say that they destroy everything around an infested hive when there are much simpler ways to deal with mites. There are obviously chemical treatments available, but I prefer to go a more natural route. I simply make my own powdered sugar and sprinkle it over the hive twice a year. Once in spring and once before winter. It forces the bees to clean themselves, thus removing any mites within the colony. I don't use store-bought powdered sugar as they contain anti-caking agents that bees have a hard time processing and could potentially lead to bee death. Thanks for the information, and I am looking forward to more videos. Best to you and yours.
Thank you. I’m not worried about treated timber. Pallets are the cheapest type of timber to start with so I can’t really see any manufacturer using treated wood for just that reason. The pallets I do get have been used for carting floor tiles and doors etc. I am also going to hot wax dip them before painting so any chemicals that are in the timber will be sealed in or heated out.
Bees propolize the whole surface anyways..my bees eat outta my burn barrel so I doubt wood carcinogens would be as bad..if someone was really bothered though,pallets have codes sometimes and tells about them.
what is the final thickness of the wood after it is cleaned up? It would seem that pallet made boxes would be inherently different in dimensions than a purchased box or a box made out of a single piece of pine. This would seem to make it hard to mix boxes. If you made them the same outer dimension to make mixing work, it would seem to leave more room for bur comb. Perhaps the extra room is no more than the additional room in an 8 vs a 10, just not sure. Thoughts?
Hi Daniel, They are not treated, The pallets I have used are made for transporting roof tiles. Most of the treatments used on timber in my area is a plant based treatment used only to repel borers and termites. If you google timber treatments it should give you a guideline as to what treatments are used and there is now supposed to be a code stamped on the shipping pallet to say what treatment is on it.
A bit hard at the moment. I have thought about it but I’m renting this home while my new house is being built. I only have enough power to run the saw and the dust extractor at the same time. The workshop is pretty packed with all my belongings at the moment so it’s difficult to move around in there. When I move into the new place I’ll be putting more outlets in and there will be a mezzanine level for storage so I’ll have a lot more room. Plus I’ll have high bay lights over each machine. At the moment I’m just making do with what I have.
I would use bamboo skewers or chopsticks and a waterproof glue like expanding polyurethane, or titebond. It allows gap in the dowel placment, and the lap joints and butt joints all will have adequate locked in strength with 3 or more dowels. It would be entirely wood too, no metal bits, which is cheaper and actually easier when you get a routine going. Matthias wandel is a woodworker, he does very good work and reccomends bamboo skewers for fastening most if not all wooden joint types.
no its the same bit you just need to move the fence so that you route the corners off and not the center. Use a piece of scrap to dial it in that is the same dimension as your grooved boards.
I do agree but if you have the time why not. Ive made nearly 300 frames now and 10 boxes including bottom boards and lids. It beats sitting in front of the tv. I enjoy making them so it’s a win win for me. I think I will be buying stock timber in the future though. If I ever get too busy I’ll buy complete boxes. Most of the people watching these videos will be retired and looking for a cheap project to stay constructive or possibly just someone looking for a small project they can do on their equipment at home.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 🛫📖🛬 Hey Mate, I just subscribed after reading your comment here and being a DIY guy myself, I agree with everything you said. I really am grateful to see this video and it has inspired me to do more than just buying everything I need. TV and a recliner has put more guys on the sideline then you can imagine. My best to you mate and I hope you can get your mites under control and eradicate them if possible they are our worst enemy here in America for beekeepers. Stay safe on that table saw and may GOD make his face to shine upon you. 📖🛐✈️🇺🇸
Hey Chuck, Thank you, I had a bad accident with a table saw here a couple of years ago. Those things have my utmost respect. every time I hit the start button I have a flash back. I am so happy that you have been inspired it makes my eyes well up with tears a little bit. These comments are the best in my opinion and very humbling. Craig and I just want to share our experience with people. Its funny Craig is the school teacher and I'm just a blue collar worker (Boilermaker). Craig will be in the videos when I get out to the apiary to shoot some more video with him. We just don't have enough footage to explain what we were doing from when I was there last.
Im so glad I have found this video. I'm a bit tight for money atm but have access to a heap of pallets. Is there any concern for the wood being chemically treated? I'm just in qld.
@@marionorth6408 I found the timber treatment is mostly copper Napthenate which most the commercial guys are treating them with anyway. Just look for stuff around building sites that has had tiles or doors on them. Just steer clear of any that may have had chemicals on them I’d even give concrete ones a miss. The bees won’t care. They will cover it anyway.
I am pretty sure Sri Lanka uses US sizes and not Australian. You may need to google the size local to you. Australian hives are 508mm long x 406mm Wide and 243mm Deep
Lol. Angles on camera look worse than they really are. I’ve got no intentions of loosing any digits. I had a bad accident with a table saw and I went and did a safety course on using the saw. I actually recommend it.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 I nearly lost my fingers doing exactly the same as some of your cuts, no guard and no knife just like your table saw. Actually I did lose the tip of one of two fingers lol
@@cheryleesbees my knife is back on now. A friend of mine used the saw some weeks back and I misplaced it. I pulled the shed apart looking for it and couldn’t find it. All of a sudden it just showed up. It’s back on the saw now. The camera angles do make it look far worse though.
@@cheryleesbees oh my accident was my riving knife was ripped out of its holder and speared me in the chest. Only good thing about it was that I had a helicopter ride 😔
Thanks for the info, watching my hives inflammation fade day after day until they completely vanished was such a relief, I went with what I pointed out and within the first 10 days or so the urticaria/angioedema was barely visible! I just go'ogled the latest by Shane Zormander and after 20 days my skin has never been healthier!
You Aussie beekeepers are some of the greatest in the world. I wish I had met a few before I had to give up the little girls. Cheers, mate. Bob in Montana, USA
Like you, I made my deep boxes myself. Lumber is always easy to procur if a dude ( bloke) keeps his eyes open. Plus, wanting the boxes to last 25+ years, I made a jig to cut box joint corners. On deeps, I would secure hand grip bars to the ends. On supers, I would cut grips on the table saw as you did. Thanks, my friend.
What a great use for pallets. I think a planer/thicknesser would help but still, it shows what you can do with just a table saw. Great work mate. 👍🏼
I have a jointer (in the background) the will do the job and a thicknesser is on the buy list. Thanks for the compliment.
Excellent. Getting ideas for my DIY bee hive.
Go for it!
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 thanks. Just acquired a table saw and will start this weekend.
Excellent Job.
Excellent work. Very inspiring. Looking to expand my bee activities next year. This may be a possibility. Thanks for the video.
Nice work mate , reclaiming timber and making your own boxes , the bees won’t care , how ever you save money and that’s a good thing , I like making my own as well from ply wood but if this is what you have and you can use it , that’s awesome. 👍
Good job thank you
Nice job mate, I'm in my 3rd year and am hoping to expand my apiary. using pallets will keep my cost down. thanks for the fine work you are doing.
Thank you. I just treated these with copper Napthenate and painted them. They are sitting in my brothers shed waiting for spring. They should be aired out enough by then. I’m not doing the copper treatment again though. I will be wax dipping when I get the funds to set up the tank.
The issue you'll run into is that the glue line running parallel with the grain will contain places where heartwood is glued to sap wood. Sapwood absorbs moisture much faster than heartwood and since the EMC will almost certainly always be below the fiber saturation point, the wood on either side of the glue joint will expand and contract at different rates. This will stress and tear the wood fibers the glue is bonded too so the joint will eventually fail right next to the glue line (most likely on the sapwood side). Best to stick with one piece. 👍
Hey Thomas, thanks for your comment. In a few weeks time we will be wax dipping the boxes, baseboards and lids. It will stop any water ingress. I’m just waiting for the fire ban season to finish. I’d hate for the wax to boil over and I cause a bush fire. Eventually I will be using solid hoop pine but it’s not available in this state easily.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 oh, well wax dipping takes care of that problem pretty damn well! 👍
Those boards you cant use for the hive bodies can be your handles on the outside of the box or they can be used in the construction of your tops. They can be used to make nucs. I use pallets for so many woodworking projects and nothing goes to waste if i can help it.
i'd suggest next time to save you some time instead of cutting off 2 of the tongue-n-groove, pick out the pieces you want for your middle slot and only do the tongue-n-groove on it, with only a tongue on one, and only a groove on the other. i guess if you've got alot of time and access to that thickness of pallets in your area, and are looking to expand a bit, it could be worth the time. wish i could find that thickness of wood pallets around by me, most of them are thin half inch planks, sometimes 5/8", and very rarely are they 1x (3/4") like you found. i picked up some pallets that i intended to make into nuc boxes and, well.. it hasnt gone well. i'll probably end up seeing if i can turn them into swarm boxes instead.
Hi Dan. I did both sides so I could choose the best fit up when I put them together. I cut that out in editing. It wasn’t really relevant to the story and dragged on a bit in the detail.
Those pallets were an inch thick. I trimmed them back to 7/8. Pretty rare to find them. I am really keen to get them wax dipped in the next few weeks and put some paint on them to see how they come up.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 yeah I'd say they are pretty rare to find. Also, if you are wax dipping them, then they won't need to be painted, not sure the paint would even stick to them after being dipped.
Thanks Dan, I want to paint them so they will blend into their surroundings. Where the hives are at the moment they have no one near them for days on end, so any way that we can help to keep them hidden.
00:13:52 box building video is smoking, nice demo of building from scratch!
Lol. When I can afford it I’ll buy a dato blade. I have a bit of side pressure on it there. So it was just rubbing and not cutting. Thanks for watching we appreciate it.
The only problem I see doing this, is when you take the nails out. It usually leaves a tiny piece of wire in the nail holes. Which makes it hard on the blades on the table saw, and planner, if you use a planner. These boxes look great though
Hi Apprentice Paul, I just found your channel and I really like it! I have also done videos showing using pallets to build beekeeping equipment on my channel. Keep up the good work Sir
Thank you Bruce. I was only looking at your videos about a week ago. I have been doing research on what people have been doing for hive preservation. I think that’s how I came across your content. I subscribed to it on my other channel.
I’m heading out to see some bees tomorrow so there should-be some bees on the channel soon.
Craig and I love how the channel is going. We’ve been doing a lot of research in the background so we can bring factual content to the channel. I’m researching varroa at the moment and Craig is working on queen rearing.
Good idee 👌
Thank you! Cheers!
Varroa Destructor mites do not pose a risk for infesting wax or hive boxes.
They do ride on honeybees they contact in the environment. Drones can share them from one hive to another, as they seem to have little loyalty from one colony to the next.
Varroa raise inside the capped cells with pupae, and they have an affinity for raising with drone brood, because they pupate 3-4 days longer than worker brood.
Thanks DG. We’re learning about varroa here. Our department of primary industry is very worried about it and has taken the approach of destroying everything within a 10km (6 mile) radius of an infected hive. I’m currently inside the red zone so I’m just taking precautions so I don’t get a swarm into my hives. It means all my equipment would have to be destroyed. Thanks for the good information. Paul
@Thankyou Honeybee newest subscriber here. I watched all of your videos and appreciate the information in them. I find it interesting that you say that they destroy everything around an infested hive when there are much simpler ways to deal with mites. There are obviously chemical treatments available, but I prefer to go a more natural route. I simply make my own powdered sugar and sprinkle it over the hive twice a year. Once in spring and once before winter. It forces the bees to clean themselves, thus removing any mites within the colony. I don't use store-bought powdered sugar as they contain anti-caking agents that bees have a hard time processing and could potentially lead to bee death.
Thanks for the information, and I am looking forward to more videos.
Best to you and yours.
Great content, I do wonder about any chemical treatment on the wood though? I've just become your newest subscriber! 😃
Thank you. I’m not worried about treated timber. Pallets are the cheapest type of timber to start with so I can’t really see any manufacturer using treated wood for just that reason. The pallets I do get have been used for carting floor tiles and doors etc. I am also going to hot wax dip them before painting so any chemicals that are in the timber will be sealed in or heated out.
Bees propolize the whole surface anyways..my bees eat outta my burn barrel so I doubt wood carcinogens would be as bad..if someone was really bothered though,pallets have codes sometimes and tells about them.
what is the final thickness of the wood after it is cleaned up? It would seem that pallet made boxes would be inherently different in dimensions than a purchased box or a box made out of a single piece of pine. This would seem to make it hard to mix boxes. If you made them the same outer dimension to make mixing work, it would seem to leave more room for bur comb. Perhaps the extra room is no more than the additional room in an 8 vs a 10, just not sure. Thoughts?
Hi Eric. The timber I used was 25mm thick before stripping. I stripped it down to 22mm which is the same as a commercially made hive.
👍👍👍👍💯🇺🇸
Hi Paul
Hey John 😁
What ??? You have Varoe in Australia ?
we do now due to terrible management
Are they treated ?have u used them before and raised bees in them? I'm making my own similar but just worried if there is any poison in the wood
Hi Daniel, They are not treated, The pallets I have used are made for transporting roof tiles. Most of the treatments used on timber in my area is a plant based treatment used only to repel borers and termites. If you google timber treatments it should give you a guideline as to what treatments are used and there is now supposed to be a code stamped on the shipping pallet to say what treatment is on it.
A light over your table saw will help you
A bit hard at the moment. I have thought about it but I’m renting this home while my new house is being built. I only have enough power to run the saw and the dust extractor at the same time. The workshop is pretty packed with all my belongings at the moment so it’s difficult to move around in there. When I move into the new place I’ll be putting more outlets in and there will be a mezzanine level for storage so I’ll have a lot more room. Plus I’ll have high bay lights over each machine. At the moment I’m just making do with what I have.
❤👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙋♂️
Thanks. I’ll check some of your videos out today.
I would use bamboo skewers or chopsticks and a waterproof glue like expanding polyurethane, or titebond. It allows gap in the dowel placment, and the lap joints and butt joints all will have adequate locked in strength with 3 or more dowels. It would be entirely wood too, no metal bits, which is cheaper and actually easier when you get a routine going. Matthias wandel is a woodworker, he does very good work and reccomends bamboo skewers for fastening most if not all wooden joint types.
Is there not a corresponding router bit to make a tongue?
no its the same bit you just need to move the fence so that you route the corners off and not the center. Use a piece of scrap to dial it in that is the same dimension as your grooved boards.
You'd need to treat with copper napthenate or they will rot within 4 or 5 years. Pine pallets are rubbish
Going to hot wax dip then paint while still hot.
Time is money. I think I will stick to buying $25 box's
I do agree but if you have the time why not. Ive made nearly 300 frames now and 10 boxes including bottom boards and lids. It beats sitting in front of the tv. I enjoy making them so it’s a win win for me. I think I will be buying stock timber in the future though. If I ever get too busy I’ll buy complete boxes.
Most of the people watching these videos will be retired and looking for a cheap project to stay constructive or possibly just someone looking for a small project they can do on their equipment at home.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369
🛫📖🛬
Hey Mate,
I just subscribed after reading your comment here and being a DIY guy myself,
I agree with everything you said.
I really am grateful to see this video and it has inspired me to do more than just buying everything I need.
TV and a recliner has put more guys on the sideline then you can imagine.
My best to you mate and I hope you can get your mites under control and eradicate them if possible they are our worst enemy here in America for beekeepers.
Stay safe on that table saw and may GOD make his face to shine upon you.
📖🛐✈️🇺🇸
Hey Chuck,
Thank you, I had a bad accident with a table saw here a couple of years ago. Those things have my utmost respect. every time I hit the start button I have a flash back.
I am so happy that you have been inspired it makes my eyes well up with tears a little bit. These comments are the best in my opinion and very humbling. Craig and I just want to share our experience with people. Its funny Craig is the school teacher and I'm just a blue collar worker (Boilermaker). Craig will be in the videos when I get out to the apiary to shoot some more video with him. We just don't have enough footage to explain what we were doing from when I was there last.
Im so glad I have found this video. I'm a bit tight for money atm but have access to a heap of pallets. Is there any concern for the wood being chemically treated? I'm just in qld.
@@marionorth6408 I found the timber treatment is mostly copper Napthenate which most the commercial guys are treating them with anyway. Just look for stuff around building sites that has had tiles or doors on them. Just steer clear of any that may have had chemicals on them I’d even give concrete ones a miss. The bees won’t care. They will cover it anyway.
So thanks bro... i need bee box and frame sizes please i am Shan from sri lanka....
I am pretty sure Sri Lanka uses US sizes and not Australian. You may need to google the size local to you. Australian hives are 508mm long x 406mm Wide and 243mm Deep
Hope you don't lose any fingers 😬
Lol. Angles on camera look worse than they really are. I’ve got no intentions of loosing any digits. I had a bad accident with a table saw and I went and did a safety course on using the saw. I actually recommend it.
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 I nearly lost my fingers doing exactly the same as some of your cuts, no guard and no knife just like your table saw. Actually I did lose the tip of one of two fingers lol
@@cheryleesbees my knife is back on now. A friend of mine used the saw some weeks back and I misplaced it. I pulled the shed apart looking for it and couldn’t find it. All of a sudden it just showed up. It’s back on the saw now. The camera angles do make it look far worse though.
@@cheryleesbees oh my accident was my riving knife was ripped out of its holder and speared me in the chest. Only good thing about it was that I had a helicopter ride 😔
@@thankyouhoneybee6369 😯wow, this was mine and pales in comparison to your helicopter ride ....th-cam.com/video/b08---JHJ1U/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the info, watching my hives inflammation fade day after day until they completely vanished was such a relief, I went with what I pointed out and within the first 10 days or so the urticaria/angioedema was barely visible! I just go'ogled the latest by Shane Zormander and after 20 days my skin has never been healthier!