Volume 2 -------------------- January 3, 2010 --------------------Number 1
Happy New Years friends, this newsletter is quickly making its way through the beekeeping community
and we are excited at how well it is received. Some people are sending in information, pictures and other
interesting happenings about bees. So, keep us in mind when you find some fun or interesting facts to share
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Take A Look At Joy Markgraf's Bee House
by David Burns, EAS certified Master Beekeeper
Last week I wrote about bee houses, an enclosure to place bees in for the winter.
That article generated significant feedback. People emailed questions and wrote me about their
bee house experiments. I was really impressed with Joy Markgraf's bee house, in Klickitat County,
Washington State. Joy and her husband Frank did not just run out to the local home improvement
store for some plywood. Instead, Frank hand-hewn two large timbers, and the floor was made from
cobblestones that Joy's father gathered up years ago from a street in Portland, Oregon. What's even
more interesting is that Joy's bee house consists the traditional Langstroth hive, beautiful handmade
skeps and a top bar hive too, all under one roof. Let's let joy explain what motivated her and how she did it...
"In February of 2010 we began construction of our bee house. My research into ancient methods of
beekeeping had inspired me, along with the fact that I made skeps out of grass and wanted them to last
as long as possible under a roof. The investment in gathering materials and constructing these bee baskets was
immense. Determining the site was easy because I had been beekeeping one year and knew how much I
enjoyed watching the bees from my kitchen window!
Also my first hive was next to the dog kennel that was effective at discouraging bears and skunks that also
lived in our ‘backyard’. Having bees so close to the house isn’t an issue because I keep gentle Carniolans.
I drew a sketch of the imagined structure based on the criteria that was important for bees such as
light from the east and west and wind breaks on the north and south sides in our area. When I showed
it to my husband he liked the idea. His building expertise went right to work and he designed the building.
His design incorporated the use of heavy timbers that he had hand-hewn two years before. Since then he
had a serious stroke and was worried that the timbers would deteriorate sitting out in the weather. Another
thing that determined the design was the fact that I had inherited some old cobblestones from my father who
had rescued them when a street in Portland, Oregon was being torn up. Long ago they may have been ballast
from an old sailing ship and they were beautiful. The dimensions of the building were arrived at to be large
enough to house about a dozen hives.
We staked out the dimensions and I dug down to make a level bottom. Then we placed cement blocks where
each post would be, and filled them with cement to make them strong. Next our friend, and excellent rock
worker, built a foot wide rock wall around the perimeter incorporating the cement blocks. Now for the tricky
part: sawing and erecting the upright posts. I say tricky because my husband did not have the strength he used
to have before his stroke. He also had a pacemaker so he could only use a chainsaw wearing rubber gloves. Once the cuts were made I rolled/walked the posts into place onto the
cement blocks. They were not impossibly heavy since they were made from Cottonwood trees. Once standing we nailed cross braces to each one and spiked horizontal, two-by-six
boards onto the upright timbers where the top of the walls would be on the short sides.
The next step required the forklift of our tractor. My husband is excellent at operating it but his coordination has changed and he had
to concentrate intensely. Watching this part was not easy! (It’s amazing what we will do for our bees.) He picked up the long timbers
with the forklift and carefully took them up and over the upright posts gently setting them into place without knocking over all the braced
posts. The back timber was slid into place along two greased horizontal two-by-eights located on the short sides. Small stakes nailed to
the top of each post stopped the timber from going too far. Nailing angle braces into place completed this part and it was time to add
rafters. First each two-by-six had to be carefully notched to fit the timbers (plate), placed on twenty-two inch centers, then spiked into
place. Decking was added and sheet metal matching the roof of our house was added. It was actually leftover roofing and came out exactly.
Now it was time to complete the arduous job of making the stone floor. This took many pickup loads of gravel and sand for the coble
bed. It took me as long to complete this last phase, as did all the work of building put together. I settled on a circular pattern for the
cobbles since I didn’t know when I would run out. This worked out very nicely as I started in the center and when I ran out of cobbles
added ‘flat’ native stones to finish the floor."
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IN THE NEWS...
Honey Mead Is Making A Sweet Comback...Read More
Beekeepers In Australia Are Being Kicked Out Of Forrests & Public Areas...Read More
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Ask your friends to sign up for this newsletter FREE at http://www.honeybeesonline.com/ez.html
BEE SMART is free and comes right to your email inbox. We'll be relying on you telling your friends about BEE SMART and passing it along
to others.
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