This beehive was made out of scrap materials lying around.
These planks that make up the top bars are from an old closet door.
The wood came from the scrap pile scavenged from a few spots in town with mostly pallets and some cuts of osb.
a simple frame
sizing up the top bars on the frame
pallet boards and cuts of osb to cover up the sides and bottom
some screwing, some hammering
the box portion, finished
entrance for the bees
the box with top bars
Half of the top bars have sticks screwed or nailed in to help seed the combs in a good orientation, and the other half are spacers. Fancy top bar hives use triangle cuts of wood for this purpose. I will find out if my method has the intended effect.
Inside the box. I put gaps for the floor to breathe. Some hives go so far as to have a mesh floor.
painted with some paint we had lying around
the roof is 2 pieces of roofing scrap
the stand is all pallet wood
leaf litter, moss, and sticks to help create a floor more similar to a dead tree where bees would likely make a hive in the wild
the hive sitting on the stand with the roof on
Next I'll get a piece of comb from the neighbors to help seed this hive with a colony. There are lots of visiting bees in the garden already as we have a large quantity of flowering plants.