- So I'm Martin,
I'm the supply chain manager here at Flow,
I'm very passionate about bees,
I've been a beekeeper for many years,
my brother's a queen breeder,
and I'm very happy to be involved
as part of this whole team.
Because of my role at Flow
I've probably had to build more of these
than anyone else at this company,
so they roped me into building this for you guys.
So we're gonna go over all the components
of the western Red Cedar Flow Hive classic.
So we've got the roof bits,
which we have the uprights,
the roof slats,
we've got the hardware kits,
the roof screw kit, bird box screw kit,
and the honey superflute screw kit,
as well as the accessory kit of all the nails, dials,
and everything else you need.
We've got the screen bottom board
strapped together with the queen excluder
and the inner cover.
We've got the bird box, honey super,
the observation cover and lid.
And we've got the standard lengths of eight bird frames.
So when I'm building the Flow Hive Classic,
I usually start from the bottom up.
And this screen bottom board
is strapped together with the queen excluder
and the inner cover.
So we'll get to the queen excluder
and inner cover later.
The screen bottom board
has an integrated pest management built right in.
It has a screen layer with a 3 mil gap
that allows Veroa and small hive beetles to fall through
and be trapped at the bottom.
Underneath your screen bottom board is your
core flute slider, and your assembly guide.
The screen bottom board has two locations
for the core flute slider.
This allows you to change the amount of ventilation
within the hive.
It's important to have the core flute in the upper slot
when installing your bees or extracting your honey.
By positioning the core flute slider
in the lower slot,
this allows you to make a simple
and effective beetle trap.
Click here to see how cedar makes a DIY beetle trap.
So next we're gonna build the bird box.
You know it's the bird box end bits
by that there's no cutouts.
So the honey super has a cut,
and that's where the door comes out.
So we'll set that piece aside.
So on the longer panels of the bird box,
you'll know what pieces to use,
as the honey super has spacers on each side.
So we'll set these pieces aside.
The way I like to start building my birdbox
is to set one of the end panels upside down,
make sure the handle is upright,
and then stack each individual piece
with the handle upright into the proper location.
Once everything is put together,
it's important to keep the boxes square during assembly.
If you find this difficult,
you can use the clamps as shown here
to hold everything in place.
The screw pack kit you're gonna wanna use
is the one that's labeled bird box screw packet.
Now make sure if you're using a drill gun
that you put your torque settings to a very low setting.
I'm using a setting of six here,
and you'll see it works out pretty well.
(drill whirs)
Despite being a hardwood, western Red Cedar is very soft,
and can crack easily.
Make sure you don't overtighten your screws.
(drill spins)
So that's the bird box complete.
And here is the honey super.
As you can see,
the end piece is in three separate components.
So when adding in the longer pieces,
make sure you line up the side
with the three pre-drilled to go into the end piece.
So the other side has no pre drills,
and that's to allow the rear window cover
to be removed on and off.
So make sure the end with the predrills
go into the blank end.
To help align things, you can set
the rear window cover into place,
just don't screw it down.
There's two sides to the end bar,
the side with the predrilled hole
goes on the outside.
Okay.
And now we just screw it in place.
For assembling the flow super
you're gonna use the full flow screw kit.
It's best to use clamps when putting this together.
(loud drill sounds)
Now the rear window you won't want to screw down,
because this is the panel you'll remove
to access your flow frames.
(drilling)
When installing your observation window,
it's best to remove the clear film first.
Now when installing this piece,
you should use a very low torque setting
to not crack anything.
And you'll be using the small screws.
These are all the different accessories
for putting together the flow super,
as well as the nails for the bird frames.
For the observation window cover,
we'll be using one of the small screws,
and the single knob.
For each of the latches you're gonna need
one of the longer screws,
and one of the supplied springs.
Set the spring in from the small side of the screw,
place it in your latch,
and then simply screw it into place
in the predrill location.
You're not gonna want to overtighten this screw,
just make it tight enough to hold the screw into place.
The spring just gives a little extra compression
on the latch to hold it in place,
and to keep the screw just tight enough.
So now you can see our observation window
can be kept in place.
Okay.
So the rear window cover also needs
two of the small knobs.
(drilling sounds)
Tool access panel cover
will need two of the small knobs.
The rear window cover and the rear access panel
are held in place by the hardware knob.
The hardware knob is secured by using
one of the longer screws and the spring.
Place the screw inside the spring
on the knob into the predrilled hole.
And the final part of assembling your honey super
is installing the metal bottom strip.
For this step I prefer predrilling the holes
to reduce any chance of splitting.
Now remember,
you have quite a short screw,
so don't predrill too deep.
(drill goes)
So that's a honey super fully complete.
And before we set it on top of the bird box,
we'll put on the queen excluder.
The tool access panel and the rear window
go to the rear of the hut.
On top of the honey super,
goes the inner cover.
The inner cover has a two inch hole
to allow for feeder access.
So now we're gonna assemble the roof.
The roof requires the side panels,
the front, the back, the ridgecap,
and the roof shingle panels.
You know it's the front because the logo
will be right upfront.
The side panels, you'll notice,
there's a slope, an angled slope that matches
the slope of the end pieces,
and that'll be the side that you want to connect up to here.
When assembling the roof,
make sure all pieces are square,
and the top of the sides,
and the top of the end pieces are flush.
(drill hums)
When assembling the roof,
make sure the back panel is flush to the side at the top.
This gives space for the rear tool access panel.
When assembling the shingle panels,
make sure the ridges go down.
One great way to ensure your roof shingle panels
are properly mounted,
is to set a screw so that the point
just slightly comes out,
make sure and line it up,
exactly perfect,
and get it right on center,
to just make a small dot.
Once you line it up exactly on center,
you can make a predrill hole.
When making a predrill,
ensure that your predrilled hole is perpendicular
to the front panel.
This helps ensure that you won't have any splitting
on your front and rear panels.
Line up your predrilled hole,
slightly get the screw in place,
and mark the rear predrill hole
by just pressing the screwhead in the hole.
Once you've set the first panel in place,
the rest of the panels will go in easily.
When setting the lower roof shingle in place,
make sure it slides into the lip of the upper roof shingle.
(drill sounds)
When installing the top ridge cap,
do it the same.
Set into place, and make a quick predrill.
(heavy drilling)
So that completes the construction
of the external components of the
western Red Cedar Flow Hive classic.
Western Red Cedar is an incredibly durable timber,
it has beautiful color variations and knots throughout,
and it will last a very long time.
It's one of the most weather durable
outdoor timbers available.
One feature you'll notice about the gabled roof
is the cutout on the back.
That cutout allows access to the rear tool access panel
on the back of the hive.
So now we'll go through the construction
of one of the bird frames to show you how it's done.
The bird frame consists of a top bar,
a bottom bar,
the end pieces,
and the comb guide.
We recommend using the comb guides
as a natural foundation,
however the frames are designed to be able to take
standard wax,
or a plastic foundation as well.
So when building your bird frames,
assemble the end pieces,
onto the top bar followed by the bottom bar.
Pretty straight forward.
Place one nail on the bottom bar.
(light hammering)
I'm placing the remaining four nails in the top bar,
some prefer to put two nails in the top,
I prefer to put one nail in the top,
and one nail in the opposite direction.
This can be a little bit tricky,
to make sure you align the nails up
so they don't hit each other.
The comb guide should be held in place
by a small bead of wood glue.
So there's your bird frame,
all eight will go into the box side by side.
So there we have it,
a fully constructed western Red Cedar Flow Hive Classic.
- [Voiceover] We're gonna be making lots more videos,
so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel,
and keep up with all the latest.