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Step 2: Build the Floor
Take both floor halves and lay them on a flat surface. We will attach these together to make our floor. Make sure the hive entrance you just cut is facing outward.
Butt the edges flush together and lay the two short pieces measuring 21cm by 3cm (8 1/4″ by 1 3/16″) pieces crossway over the two floor halves about 1 cm from the edge. Center each piece on the seam formed by the edges of the two larger boards. Fasten the wood together. Be sure to hold the assembly straight as you fasten it.
Now it is time to add the landing board. Rotate the fastened assembly 90 degrees and lay the 41cm by 16cm (16 1/8″ by 6 5/16″) board on the floor. Measure from one edge of the floor and mark a line at the center of the floor. The mark should be made at 16.75cm (6 5/8″). Now, mark the center of landing board. Align the two boards as shown below.
Now measure in from the edge of the floor about 1cm and make a mark with your pencil. Align the edge of the landing board with the mark. Add a fastener to hold the landing board in the center of the floor.
Now flip the floor assembly 180 degrees and measure the distance from each edge of the floor board to the side of the landing board. Nudge the landing board left or right until the distances on each side are equal. Use a fastener to hold the board in place.
Fasten the landing board to the floor assembly. Make sure that you do not put any fasteners where you cut out the wood to create a hive entrance. Here is a picture of the landing board fully fastened.
Congratulations on completing the main floor assembly! Go on to the next page where we will add the legs.
9 responses so far ↓
john // February 18, 2009 at 9:53 am |
What is the angle of the hive entrance?
Nick // February 18, 2009 at 2:58 pm |
john – Good question! I don’t cut my hive entrances to an exact angle, but my average is about 45 degrees.
Bees can crawl up a 90 degree angle, so you can do away with the chiseling altogether if you want.
john // February 20, 2009 at 1:25 pm |
thanks for the answer nick i can work
abit of a slope in now, another question is , can you or would it be adviseable to make the landing board a little bit wider for the bees to land on? saving afew misses.
Nick // February 24, 2009 at 6:07 pm |
john – You can add another inch or two if you want to. I don’t usually make any changes to the landing board. Just more adds more work.
Logan MacGregor // May 11, 2009 at 5:53 pm |
The legs are sure fancy, but I just use concrete blocks for my hives. This means no wood-t0-ground contact so I don’t have to deal with rot. Also, my hives get closer to the ground. According to Warre himself (and I have witnessed this myself), bees laden with pollen or honey may land on the ground and need to get back up because the weight of their load. The taller the floor from the ground, the harder this is for the bees. Besides, you can usually find some concrete blocks or bricks laying around somewhere and they are easy to level — just dig the dirt around the bricks until you get it the way you want. Put the floor (sans feet) on the bricks or blocks and you are good to go.
Nick // May 28, 2009 at 9:10 pm |
Logan – Actually, the legs on the beehive are not that tall…in fact they are the exact height Emile Warre recommends on page 46 of “Beekeeping for All” Concrete blocks can transfer moisture to your beehive, so I don’t like to use them that much. They do provide a very solid base though.
Logan MacGregor // July 25, 2009 at 6:39 pm |
It doesn’t matter. I built two Warre’s like you mentioned, and both refused to build down when I added a new box underneath according to the Warre method. I even baited one by bringing a comb down and they still wouldn’t go. My Kenyan Top Bar Hive is performing beautifully, so I’m sticking with Langstroths and horizontal top bar hives. Sorry, but in my experience Warre isn’t worth the effort. I’ll be giving away my Warre boxes with the observation windows. Nice site, I hope others have better luck but I don’t want to do Warre boxes any more.
chris // September 13, 2009 at 12:30 pm |
so will the bees build their comb down on to the bottom board?
Denise Chevalier // January 19, 2010 at 9:03 am |
A small group of us are building 4 hives and it’s going very well, thanks for the plans. About the entrance — the chisel cut is 90 degrees on our floors, how did you get the angle at 45 degrees? It’s a nice detail. Did you rasp it away to 45 after the initial wood removal? Exact description would be appreciated! (Even though it doesn’t matter to the bees…)
Also, do we need a queen excluder? And are there construction plans for the bee feeder? thanks!