Mug up from Central NH...Can you wish my sis in St. Joe happy T-day, I won't make it for Thanksgiving! I've made some different wood hive stands that look pretty cool and function well, but I must say I found a better stand. The Lyson hive stand brackets, around $130 a pair, are meant to be used with 2x lumber for rails is a very good deal for an apiary with unlevel ground. By incorporating 2x4s for rails it gives you the option of matching the length of your stand to the length of your hive of hives as the case may be. Personally I like to have room to put an empty swarm box next to my bee containing hive to isolate any frames that I may want to isolate during inspections or for honey frame removal. In looking at your new hive stand I see one area of concern; and that is if you use a strap to secure your hive to the stand by running the strap under the angle iron rail, the strap runs over the sharp edge of the rail. Probably not an issue in areas that don't have large pests that can push the hive off the stand, but here in NH we got both bears and big raccoons. Thanks for posting Monty and have a great Thanksgiving, peace to all, Brice
Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't thought about strapping down the hive, even though I do strap down my remote hives, but it does appear that this was considered. In the middle of the side and end rails is an oval opening and, in the photo shown at 5:49, this opening is used as a place to attach the hooks for a tie-down strap. I kind of like this approach as it's a little simpler than running a strap all the way underneath the hive. TBH I didn't really notice that strap when I included the photo in the video so, at the time of recording, didn't know what those holes were for.
Yes, I do like to watch your videos to learn or have things explained better. A couple of ideas for the stands: First, I'd like to see some sort of foot/pad for the legs. 2nd, I'd like to see the legs adjustable. For me, I'm out in the country and have very little flat land to put them on, both suggestions would help out a lot. It would keep the legs from sinking down and making the hive unstable. Thanks for the video. 👨🌾
Good suggestions on the adjustability. I actually recorded a little bit about adjustability, but cut that due to microphone issues. In general I concluded that putting blocks under the legs and leveling those would be simpler than my current approach of leveling ground for cinder blocks. But you're right that having adjustable legs with foot plates would be a nice add-on. Thanks for the feedback - I appreciate your contribution and participation on this channel.
Saw a video recently with Dr. Leo where he had his hive stand in pots or buckets of water. He said it keeps ants and roaches away from the hive. Also, would that stand benefit from cross-bracing?
