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Bee Hive building & a place to share howto's on equipment
 #6241  by rottijim
 08 Apr 2020, 08:46
Hello good people,
My first post on here so please go steady, especially when you read about the issue. As a potential new beekeeper, I've just assembled a 14 x 12 flat pack 'rock bottom' National hive from Maisemore. It's in cedar . The instructions were less than helpful, disappointingly, so I found some helpful videos online from Thornes showing me how to put it all together.

Anyway, the fatal error came when assembling the brood box. I knew to leave a gap at the top of the box and the instructions said a minimum of 7/16th of an inch. I carefully measured the gap, or so I thought, then nailed up the box and went on to assemble the 2 supers that come in the kit. As I did so, I realised that I'd misread my tape. Instead of leaving a gap of 7/16th in the brood box, I'd only left 7/32s! The result is that the frame lugs for the deep Hoffman frames sit a little bit proud of the edge of the box now. Doh! Obviously I made sure I'd got the gap right for the supers.

So my question is: what are my options? Do I need a new brood box? Should I try to un-nail it? Resort to a big hammer to try to knock the inside walls down a bit? Or just leave it and hope that the bees, when I get them, can have a quiet chuckle and cope?

Your thoughts most welcome.
 #6244  by Patrick
 08 Apr 2020, 09:36
Hi RJ and welcome to the forum.

Be of good cheer, most of us (well I have!) have assembled at least one box with incorrect spacing in our time. Particularly when you glued and nailed all the joints to be really thorough.. did you glue or just nail?

Unless my maths are shonky you have frames standing 5.5mm proud, which is just less than bee space. If you have a wired excluder it will have beespace on one side. If you smoke all your bees off the top bars before gently putting the excluder on, the wired excluder depending on its frame design may still fit over the proud frames- try it. The bees should still navigate between and round frames without issue.

If you are intending to use a flat sheet excluder it has to sit flat. Depending on how you assembled it, knocking apart may be an issue. You might be best off simply adding a 7/32 or thereabouts strip to the top edge of the box. Bit of a faff but possible answer?
 #6245  by AdamD
 08 Apr 2020, 09:56
I agree that some instructions are poor.
If you can dismantle the box, then have a go! If not, I would be inclined to put a 6mm strip of timber around the top of the box. As it will spend most of it's time on a hive floor, the extra 6 mm in height is not a problem.

Welcome to the forum!
 #6248  by NigelP
 08 Apr 2020, 10:58
Or Take a chisel and remove the required amount of wood from the lip the frames rest on.
Welcome to the forum BTW.
Don't worry about making mistakes everybody makes them....be very wary of beekeepers who say they don't.
 #6249  by Chrisbarlow
 08 Apr 2020, 12:08
Could you post a photo?
 #6257  by rottijim
 08 Apr 2020, 14:28
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TNKNQHnDaTmGcsAQbhLRihM_wXoHQI6r/view?usp=sharing

I'll repost this if necessary if I can embed a photo but here at least is a link to one.

Thanks for friendly comments! The box is nailed not glued. A plastic Q excluder came with the package so that obviously sits proud at the moment, but both the Q excluder and the frames themselves sit more proud in the corner closest to camera than in the opposite corner. So the measuring was certainly uneven.

I'm liking NigelP's idea of some chiselling but would welcome further thoughts.

Thanks again, all.
 #6258  by Cable_Fairy
 08 Apr 2020, 14:54
I would be inclined to go to B&Q when they eventually open and get some 5.5mm ply or look at some wooden strips that they sell, you might get some 6.0mm and sand them down a little. Cut them to size and nail/glue then down.

Dave.
 #6259  by Japey Edge
 08 Apr 2020, 15:10
Would it be difficult to remove the nails and start again? As long as they're not a type of nail that would destroy the wood that would be an avenue I would explore. Once it's dismantled and you have it the right way round stick some gorilla (or similar) wood glue in with the nails and you're sorted.
 #6272  by Alfred
 08 Apr 2020, 18:14
With regard to that pointed lip on Maisemore kit,on which the lugs rest,if you remove it(knife ,chisel ,router etc )it will allow the correct hight to install a metal frame runner if you want- they can be very useful if you discover that your bees enjoy welding .
Once you have separated the parts ,just reassemble so the frames sit flush- don't complicate things with measuring when you don't need to .
I suspect the diagram was derived from the machine shop plans rather than than a beekeeper.
Do a dry run then a proper one with waterproof wood glue like Everbuild D4
(Toolstation remain trading )

It's all a lot simpler than it seems at first
This time last year I was battling with assembly instructions.Got myself in a right panic.
Just about calmed down now ready for round two