Looking at how others have set up their bee hives with cinder blocks, I decided to go with the same plan. They would lay the cinder blocks on their sides making them longer horizontally. I laid my vertically already and it made me question if that is stable enough for two hives. So I decided to redo the bee hive area and lay the bricks down side ways instead.
I also started digging a hole for a work table I will build right next to the hives. So I have a place to put my tools or other things while working on the bees
Since the slope is pretty steep I had to bury most of the first cinder block and the second one is above ground. This should be enough clearance to keep the hives off the ground and the wood 4x4 supports isolated. I plan to keep ants and other bugs off using tanglefoot applied to the 4x4 support beams.
The hole for the table is about two and a half feet deep. I think I may need to dig a little deeper, and then get a 4x4 cut to put in and add concrete. I think one pole should be enough, we shall see. Might need two but ill start with one and see how stable it is.
I am trying to keep the hole as narrow as possible, so the cement wont be too hard to move over to the bee site.
Using a 2x4 I check the leveling, its just for measurements. I keep it in the hole when im gone so nothing falls in or gets trapped in there.
Building a little flattened out area as well right in front of where the hives and feeders will be. So I can stand without being on an incline. Its alot of dirt to move but I will be glad I did when it comes to standing around where the hives are.
So next is to finish the table, cut a 4x4 post around 6' so half is in the ground and the other is above for me to mount some wood supports to. Then to add some plywood or some other covering to finish it off. At that point I just need my 8' 4x4s for my sugar water feeders and for my bee hives.
Not sure when I should bring the hives out to the site, I dont want to be battling insects trying to use the homes before I get the bees. So I may wait just a day or two before and bring them out then. I need to apply fresh beeswax to the trays inside so I will do that as well at the last minute.
Previous post regarding my hive stands:
https://peakd.com/hive-173511/@solominer/breaking-ground-at-the-honey-bee-site
Interesting. And I am following to see how the HIVE turns out.
Thanks much.. will post more about it as I have some more updates.
This is quite interesting!
Yeah lots of stuff going on with the upcoming honey bees.