How to make hive frames

A frame is an element of a modern hive designed to restrict the construction of honeycombs by honey bees. That is, this is a design that makes life easier for the beekeeper and streamlines the work of insects.

Framed honeycombs can be easily removed from the house for inspection, rearrangement, replacement and pumping of marketable honey.

The content of the article

  • 1 What the frame looks like
    • 1.1 Note
  • 2 Materials and Tools
  • 3 Assembly Features
    • 3.1 Under Dadans and multihull hives
    • 3.2 Under the sunbeds
    • 3.3 Assembly
  • 4 Location and placement rules

What the frame looks like

All honeycomb frames are assembled from four elements, fastened together:

  • side, parallel to each other, strips;
  • upper and lower bar.

The top bar also serves as a fixture for installation inside the hive. Its protruding edges create the so-called shoulders – comfortable projections resting inside the bee house on special mini-shelves (folds).

The following designs are distinguished:

  • low-wide (sometimes they write low-wide);
  • narrow-high (narrow-high);
  • half-frames for store extensions;
  • standard honeycomb frames.

They differ, as can be seen from the names, in size and design features.

The most common sizes are:

  • 435 by 300 (43,5 by 30 cm) – these are used in Dadanov, Ukrainian hives on a standard frame;
  • 435 by 230 (43,5 by 23 cm) – used in multi-hull structures, Ruta hives;
  • 300 by 435 (30 by 43,5 cm) – these are the so-called inverted 90 degrees or narrow-high frames for the Ukrainian hive;
  • 435 x 145 (43,5 x 14,5 cm) – are used in store extensions and are called half frames.

Note

In addition to nesting frames and half frames, two more types are found in beekeeping practice – these are:

Incubator frames – regular frames with standard combs filled with brood or printed queen cells. They are removed from the maternal family and placed in separate isolation boxes equipped with fine mesh walls. From above, the insulator is closed with a tight-fitting lid, and then it is installed in the nest of a strong bee colony and used for its intended purpose (bees of the same age are obtained, queen cells are grown, and so on).

Nursery frames – standard size nesting frames with additional slats on the side plates. Reiki is movable – between them cells for queen bees are placed, when at the same time they keep young “queens” in the bee colony and printed queen cells.

Materials and Tools

honeycomb in the hive

Suitable for the manufacture of soft coniferous and deciduous trees. The prepared boards must be dry (moisture content no more than 15%), free from defects, chips and knots.

You cannot use birch and pine. Pine boards give off a lot of resin, and birch is not strong enough. The best choice is linden or non-resinous spruce.

For work you will need:

  • roulette;
  • crayon or pencil;
  • saw with fine teeth;
  • a drill with a 1-2 mm drill or a durable awl;
  • a hammer;
  • boot nails;
  • glue, for example, PVA (when assembled in a thorn) or any adhesive composition for wood with the marking on the label D-3 or D-4;
  • pulling wire.

Assembly Features

Frame sides – these are two planks, which are mistakenly called bars, which have drilled holes for free pulling the wire. An artificial foundation is attached to the installed wire using the cold method or by heating it with electricity.

Top bar can be wedge-shaped or with a groove along the inner (lower) cut. The presence of the groove allows the foundation to be installed more tightly.

Bottom bar it can also be equipped with a groove or be flat. This part of the structure is always slightly thinner than the top side.

Everything is assembled with the help of small nails and glue. The adhesive composition, when assembled into a spike, gives the frame additional strength.

Brass bushings are becoming more widespread in beekeeping. These small pieces are inserted into the drilled holes in the sides to prevent wear on the softwood when the wire is pulled repeatedly.

Using bushings, it is possible to increase the service life of a set of honeycomb frames prepared for an apiary several times.

But at the same time, no one forbids abandoning their use in their practice. As the team noted, frames that have not been upgraded with bushings last more than 10-15 years without problems. The main thing is to properly tension the wire!

You can read about it here: We pull the wire correctly – homemade products for work

Under Dadans and multihull hives

Do-it-yourself frames for the hive are assembled according to the drawing:

drawing 1

Sizes of standard nesting honeycomb frames:

  • outside in length 43,5 cm (435);
  • outside in height 30 cm (300);
  • for multi-hull structures, the height is 23 cm (230 mm);
  • the width of the upper bars and sides – 2,5 cm (25);
  • sidewall thickness – 0,8 cm (8 mm);
  • the thickness of the upper bars is 2,2-2,5 cm (22-25);
  • lower bars – 1 by 1 cm (10 by 10);
  • or lower strips 1 cm (10 mm) wide.

For a root hive with a standard nesting honeycomb frame height of 23 cm (230), you can use the following drawing:

drawing 2

And the half-frames are easily assembled according to the following drawing:

drawing 3

Their width is standard – 43,5 cm (435), and the height is reduced for ease of placement in an extension.

Under the sunbeds

The size of the frame for the hive of the lounger can be standard – then Dadan’s honeycomb frames with external dimensions of 435 to 300 are used. Such bee houses are quite popular among beekeepers.

Another option is the so-called narrow frame for the Ukrainian lounger, which has a width of 300 and a height of 435 millimeters.

Drawing for her:

assembly diagram for frame

The width of the sides at the top is 3,7 (37), at the bottom – 2,5 cm (25 mm).

Another option for drawing a narrow-high honeycomb frame:

drawing 5

Assembly

Brief assembly diagram:

  • glue is applied to the sides at the top;
  • these parts are installed on the top bar with a hammer, and then pressed for better adhesion of the glue to the surface;
  • the workpiece is turned over and the lower bar is installed with the help of studs;
  • at the final stage, the structure is additionally fixed with nails (as an option, using a pneumatic pistol).

Location and placement rules

types of skid

The location of the frames in the hive depends on its design. If the body is square and accommodates 10 honeycomb frames, they can be installed parallel or perpendicular to the tap hole.

The order of placement is called skidding:

  • across the hive, with lateral plates to the tap hole – cold drift;
  • along the hive, in honeycombs to the entrance gap – a warm drift.

The location of the frames in the bee’s bed corresponds to a cold drift (across the bee house).

In order for the bees to work efficiently, a number of installation rules are followed:

  1. A street is left between the honeycomb frames – a free space for the movement of insects, 10-12 mm wide.
  2. At least 1,5-2 cm separates the bottom bar from the bottom. Ideally, there should be a “basement” here – a free space for cooling flying and young bees in hot summer.
  3. The gap between the walls of the bee house and the sides of the honeycomb frames is 0,8 cm. The absence of a gap leads to the closure of this gap with propolis! After which the frame is very difficult to remove from the socket.
  4. There is also a 1 cm free space above the top bars, separating them from the ceiling boards.

Assembling honeycomb frames with your own hands belongs to the simplest type of carpentry work in an apiary. Having mastered it, it is possible to significantly save money – after all, it is economically unprofitable to purchase this “consumable” in specialized stores. And you have to regularly replace old frames or add new ones in large quantities when expanding the apiary.

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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