'Cor, thats timely, I have literally just come in from the workshop 5 minutes ago, having built a Bee Hive this weekend (National - for those interested). I bought mine as a flat pack, on Friday afternoon and it probably took a day in total, even with all the parts ready made. Instructions would have helped however! Western Red Cedar is the stuff you are looking for - not just "any softwood".
, is it treated softwood?
Definately not. Bees and preservatives don't mix. The only one approved for use with bees (and this is on the outside of the hive - is cuprinol. I'd have to look up which if you are interested.
You'll find deal (a.k.a. any softwood), "rots" a lot quicker, the Western Red Cedar, however it's cheaper. I'd avoid anything like outdoor plywood, as a friend used this on his hive and it rotted in about a season.
Are you desperate to make one from scratch for
A) the fun of making one yourself
B) cheapness
I found (and I've got all the kit, tablesaw, router, etc) that they really are quite difficult to make well. Very easy to make simpler, but remember, the brood space needs to be pretty exact, although you can get away with less precise dimensions in the supers. So, I reckon it would be very hard work without a table saw, and for strength most have finger or other joints on the sueprs/brood. Even with it flat packed it took me a considerable amount of time to assemble, although, I did go the extra distance to check everything for squareness etc.
If you are making it for fun, that's different, as you can incorporate all sort of "extras", handles, transport clips, different entrances, larger roof etc.
To make mine cheaper, I bought a Thornes "seconds" quality. These have some knots, and other imperfections, but given bees live in all sorts of dead trees and other spots like inside house walls, I figured a few knots didn't matter. I got mine from my local beeshop "Paynes", in hassocks, sussex, but other places may have them aslo.
Even if you make your hive, I'd go with purchased frames. These are so fiddly, and have such complicated profiles, I can't see they could ever be economic to make in terms of time. It's fiddly enough assembling them from the component parts! I used Hoffman self spacing frames so don't need any plastic/metal ends. I'd recommend this if you are building the whole thing from scratch.
Fire away any more questions....
Adam
