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Post by ncgarden on Apr 12, 2015 7:48:38 GMT -5
As my husband's beekeeping stuff has increased, it is consuming a good portion of our garage. And after last year's honey harvest fiasco, we thought it might be a good idea to isolate our bee activities. And I happened to have a shed we previously used as a chicken coop. So, the Bee Room was born. After as thorough a cleaning as I could do, I laid a laminate floor down, and we are planning to put in one wall of shelves and line the rest with work table surfaces. I cannot decide if I should put paneling up on the walls, which would certain look nicer, cut down on cobwebs, and be easier to clean, or leave the open 2x4's because I love to be able to put up new shelves, etc. and it is easier to do with the walls open. Suggestions?   |
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2015 9:35:16 GMT -5
Like I said on another thread - what a deluxe bee house! I am envious of your floor.
Since it is an unheated space, I think that paneling would look really nice at first but it will absorb moisture and probably get wavy after a year or so. I have seen wavy paneling in many unheated houses that we have bought over the years.
I would leave the walls open.
I store my honey extractor, collection buckets, strainers, etc. in our basement on plastic shelving and when I process the honey I do it in our attached garage with the door shut to keep the bees out. I have 2 opening windows with screens for ventilation.
After I remove all of the honey from the frames I strain it and then I let the strained honey sit in a covered 5 gallon bucket with a spout at the bottom for a couple of days (in the warm/hot garage) to let the air bubbles come to the surface. Then I take the 5 gallon bucket indoors and bottle the honey in the air conditioned comfort of my kitchen.
Why did you have a fiasco last year? Did you try to extract honey in an area that the bees had access to and they came to take it back? That would not be fun. |
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Post by OregonRed on Apr 12, 2015 9:58:51 GMT -5
NC, I remember the story...
beautiful space you created there - oh to have your energy/vitality
love the "exit" door - my first thought is pet door?
seems practical to leave beams available at first to remodel, you may not know what you could need/use in the first few processings...
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Post by ncgarden on Apr 12, 2015 12:04:12 GMT -5
OregonRed - this was our first chicken coop. My daughter thought it was funny to label the pop door so the hens did not get confused!
Brownrexx - yes, the bees took back almost ALL of their honey. Lessons learned - this year they will not be invited to observe!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2015 18:42:06 GMT -5
I always put the frames and the extractor outside for them to clean up and they find it in a matter of minutes.
One year I put it outside, kind of close to the house and went back inside to do stuff. About an hour later hubby called me from his truck in the driveway and asked me how he was supposed to get into the house. I had not looked outside since I put the equipment out there but there was a cloud of bees coming and going all around the door to the garage which is how we enter the house so I unlocked the front door and he made a run for it but still got stung somehow. He was NOT happy with me.
Now I put the stuff for the bees to clean in the BACK yard. |
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Post by desertwoman on Apr 12, 2015 19:03:36 GMT -5
That is a beautiful bee house.
If you use dry wall, it won't buckle. We have an unheated workshop (well, wood stove when in there working) and storage rooms (never heated) and they have been (partially) dry walled for several years with no problems. It is nice to not have cob webs on those walls.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Apr 12, 2015 19:13:00 GMT -5
BR...you do seem to get in trouble alot over those bees...lol...but ya live and learn! You were trying to do good!
PS...nice bee house! I never seen a bee house. I thought the hive WAS the home!?
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 13, 2015 8:02:32 GMT -5
I thought the hive WAS the home!? It is. Some people call what NC is describing a HONEY house because it is where you extract the honey in a clean environment and keep the bees out! BR...you do seem to get in trouble alot over those bees... There are about 20,000 bees in a hive and we had 4 hives last year. That's a lotta bees! And then there are some people who have a panic attack when they see ONE bee in their car or yard. |
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Post by davidjp on Apr 13, 2015 18:48:46 GMT -5
Great looking honey house, I hope it serves you well I think in some parts of Europe they have dedicated bee houses that house the actual bees themselves, I think its a germanic thing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the documentary "More than Honey" there's some great scenes of an Austrian beekeeper in the Alps with his bee house. I believe some can be quite elaborate. I'm guessing it provides extra protection from their cold winters. www.morethanhoneyfilm.com/director.htmlHeres an image of a German bee house that's quite fancy, I guess each window is a separate bee hive, originally from stephanielevy.blogspot.com/2011/09/visit-to-historic-german-farmhouse.html I've seen what they call bee boles in the UK which are just protected alcoves within a wall, for original skep straw bee hives, most famously at the Lost gardens of Heligan which is where I saw them as well  from pithandvigor.com/diy-projects/materials/idea-walls-with-things-in-them/ |
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Post by gakaren on Apr 15, 2015 10:54:26 GMT -5
I like your bee/honey house! It is super neat. And I agree w/DW, use dry wall if you want to close it in..inside. I also like that EXIT sign! Cute! HoverBee
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