so today i'm going to talk to you about the layin's hive setup but i like to try new things
so i thought i would introduce a different style of hive support system this hive stand
comes from better b of course it's actually designed for the polystyrene style hives
and uh they cost quite a bit 99.95
but they're galvanized they're heavy duty they have a great capacity the two stands together
with a two by four between them although i used a four by four will support eleven hundred pounds
and these are pressure treated four by fours to cut them down on the ends like two by fours and
even though the terrain here is very uneven each of the legs can be adjusted individually so it
actually levels up and has the approval of my five-year-old grandson even weight tested it
holds him but anyway close up there are also these bolts that you screw tight to hold
on to the wood that you've put in and there are retaining chains on the pins that allow you to
adjust it so even down the line if they sink in a little they can be adjusted how high is it off
the ground 19 inches well above skunk reach so we're all set to put our lance hive on there
and before we put the lance hive out there we have to put the frames together and this whole kit
comes from horizontal hive.com from dr leo cherishkin and i'm going to show you how to
put the wax foundation in there we're going to use this battery powered remote starter which
works really great for oxalic acid vaporization as well psj222 something was the model number there
i don't even know if you can get it anymore and i'm also using these hive butler totes
to carry things around in people want to know hey fred did the hive butler totes handle those
lands frames no they don't they're too the frames are too deep also i have this old 2x4 uh
2 by 12 blank that i cut off i'm going to use that to support the frames off the osb board here
i'm going to show you two different methods for installing the wax foundation
i bought the wax foundation from the horizontal hive website and the stuff is pretty expensive 45
for 14 no 49 for 14 sheets that makes it 3.50 cents per sheet
they come from spain because dr leo says that that wax from spain has less pesticide residue
in it so i wanted to test the unit test the system so i'm using what he recommends
and this little roller thing is called a spur embedder it's made out of brass got
it from better b 9.95 for that and you can just force it in here some people like to heat it up
set it in boiling water use a torch to heat it and then supposedly you can use that heat
to embed it into this wax foundation i'm just pressure setting it which by the way
did work so if you're looking for a cheap way to embed the wire foundation
just get this diagonal spur in better for under 10 bucks
there's probably other designs out there this particular one has a groove through the middle
of it so it will ride on the wires and the wires come already embedded in the frames
and it comes with 20 frames when you buy the system so the hive itself is 598.99
and then when you add 49 for the frames 14.99 for the foundation you're already at 762. and 93 cents
if you bought the stand too so the other thing is you can also heat it up and embed it that way
which is going to be my favorite method but it is an added expense but i'm just showing
you time wise how much time would it take you to use this little roller
and embed all the frames i mean all the wires so when you do that you're under a minute per
frame so it's pretty easy but it does of course flatten out the embossing here
so the little frames are interrupted but it does really cling to this wire pretty good even without
heating the spur in better probably could improve it a little better if
i put some wax paper between the wax foundation and the board underneath
also would be better if my board were just a little wider and came all the way up to
the edges there but you're just moving around and everything seems fine there it is smooth on the
back side but it looks like it's going to hold its place all we want to do is hold it on there
enough for the beast's workout here's a close-up of the sperm better wheel
and it gets a little wax on it so if you heated it up it would melt that down
i like that cheap solution fast it works no electricity necessary use it anywhere
put in your b kit now i also have the wax embedder that comes from better b and i have a new method
that i'm going to connect that with and that's because one of the viewers wrote me and said hey
just get some awg 12 household wiring hook that on your wire embedding system and then stick them
in the holes instead of using the little clamps so i decided to take these braided pieces off
and this system costs under 30 bucks from better b but i'm modifying it you can make your own very
easily you can see that it's the corner of an old bee box it comes with those wing nuts and a little
washer on the back side there so we hook up the awg 12 which is standard household current for
outlets and now we're going to stick those into the frames that have the wires on them you must
put them in at the bitter end of each of the wires because it's only going to heat up the wires
between the conductors so if you ran this to the middle for example the outer wires would not be
in the flow and therefore wouldn't heat up and wouldn't melt into the wax
so here we are connected to my emergency starting system here psj2212 that's it
pro series lasts a long time auto dealerships use it to start batteries on cars that have been
in storage for a long time things like that so we did a quick test run there it sure did work
embedded nicely did it right away and i was pushing down on it a little bit so i'm going to
try this again and just see what happens if i just lay it on there and let the wires heat up get the
mat wax to a melting point there and then watch it sink right in on its own pretty easy stuff you can
do a whole bunch of them in a short amount of time this is backyard beekeeping we have lots of time
just want to make sure everything gets set up these frames as i said before did come from
horizontal bee keeping let's take the wires in the holes
and then we're just going to turn it on here there it goes and immediately the wires warm up and can
slide on the foundation look at that so i want to put a little bit towards the top bar i'm thinking
if not the bees will just fill that gap but i thought it'd help them out
and you can see i'm pushing down it a little bit so the ends actually melt in quicker i found out
later after doing several of them i don't have to push down on it you can just set it on here
and then it will sink in on its own and you decide how far you want the wires to go into the wax and
just turn it off hold it in place let it cool and then the wax cools around the tops of the wires
and it's going to stay there you can see on the ends the wires came through because i was pushing
down and in the middle uh just the raised edges of the hexacels actually hold on so let's take
a close-up view of it seeing it heat up see the wax next to the wire starting to heat up
and then we're gonna see it sink in
and now the wax closes in over the top of the wire
and this by the way is steel wire that is nickel coated and then we're going to turn off the power
and watch the wax cool down and enclose the wire so it's embedded how easy is that and of course it
does all the wires at the same time so we're ahead time wise so if you're in a hurry and don't want
to use that sperm batter just go ahead and run some electricity through it this is 12 volt system
so i like that now here it is outside i painted this thing on this side with acrylic
artist acrylic from liquitex non-toxic stuff and then i clear coated it with liquitex clear coat
here's the inside here this thing is thick and insulated with sheep's wool notice that there is
no space above the top bars of these frames so i'm going to put them in with foundation
and then i'm going to have foundation lists in between so i'm using the foundation as a guide
so when the bees start to draw down their wax comb they will be able to follow the guides set
by these wax foundations you could also cut these in half and put a short starter strip on every one
of the frames if you wanted to but i like to see the comparison of no foundation and foundation
we're going to be putting a swarm in here because the frames are a different size than
the langstroth frames and rather than full with that i'm going to let them start fresh
we're held up here today is april the 22nd and of course this sequence was filmed before that
because today we have snow and cold in 20 degrees and 29 degrees and 30 degrees and
this little divider board follower board goes right up into the cover and all it has
to do is meet up against the top bar of these frames and the bees can't get out through there
there's also a plastic feeder that comes with it that i purchased that plastic feeder
is not cheap it's 14.99 it also came from spain and i marked each frame foundation
no foundation nfn fn and the good news is we can store everything right here there's no
room for that feeder so i have to pull out frame number 20 and then i will put the feeder in there
and i have to make a little wooden cover for the feeder part this is the other side of the hive
comes with three entrances i closed off two out of three and we're going to open it here at the end
because that's where we're going to start the bees and this is household paint on this side
so i just decided to flip a bunch of paint on here and make a little scene out of it i'm going to see
how the liquitex paint on one side compares the regular household acrylic on this side
exterior and uh that's pretty much the setup and look at today this i filmed this morning
april 22nd we have snow and of course i put a piano hinge on it stainless steel it's three
feet long so the hive itself is three feet long and i'm anxious to get started with it here again
is the other side with liquitex liquid text non-toxic paint with liquitex clear coating
and we're going to see how that goes so i just wanted to give you a little primer to show you
the stand that i'm using that i'm trying out also to see i've put together the hive and
of course that piano hinge show you the weather situation we have which is put our bees on paws
although i do have colonies that were building up really fast doing fire drills and things like that
so watch later the next video involving the lens hive we'll have the install
of a swarm hopefully and uh we'll see how the bees use it thanks for watching
so
you