Anyone built a zip line to bring honey frames up a steep hill?

[Wombat2]

I'm planning a zip line - 50 meters (150 ft) with an 18 meter (54ft) drop to haul the crop up to the house. Anyone done such a thing so I can pick their brains?

[OldMech]

wow, thats a lot of drop...  I think the ones I have done were about 6 feet per 100 foot of length, but those were meant for people......
    Make sure what you use as a retrieval rope is sturdy, and that your trolley can handle the weight. Are you going to pull up full supers or like one frame at a time?

[Eric Bosworth]

You might want to use a pulley system like a clothes line that can be used for a controlled decent. Maybe do it with some type of motorized crank that the speed can be adjusted. I kind of like the idea if I decide to put bees in my upper field I might be able to do something like that myself... Then again it would probably be easier for me to just go up with the tractor and put honey supers on a pallet and use forks for the bucket to load the pallet on the trailer. 

[Wombat2]

Thanks for the comments - our 1 and a quarter acre block has a 1 in 3 fall - so yes steep!. I have two spots to expand my apiary - along the wall of a small dam/large pond - the zip line will clear it by about 3 meters so will be a part way station, the bottom end will be on the edge of an area about 5 x 20 meters that runs around the contour that wont take much to level out a bit. Should be able to accommodate about 30 hives all up in the two areas. We back onto/blend with a couple of thousand acres of National Park and as far as I know the only beek in the area.

Initially I will look at a cradle to carry one super at a time but may look to two side by side at a later date.  Currently playing around with calculations of travel time. I have a winch that runs at 5 ft a minute and would be way too slow taking half an hour to cover the distance - looking at one that will run at 30 feet a minute which gets it down to 5 minutes which is better and the maximum I would consider - no wonder ski lifts have big wheels !

My son who is a fireman and certified swift water rescue person is suggesting a continuous rope and a capstan drive - its all coming down to travel time - the bigger the drive wheel the shorter the time - everything else can be made strong enough.

[BeeMaster2]

Do you plan on having the cable 54' above the ground? If so you will need 65' poles. Not sure you need that much height.
What ever the length of the poles are, set them at a depth of 10% of their height plus 2.5'. That is the standard for a telephone pole.
Use either 6m or 10m strand. Set your down guys at a 3/4 lead over height with 5/8" anchor shaft that are 8 ft deep.
Contact your local phone company to see if you can get all of this from their salvage yard.
Jim

PM me if you need more design info.

[Wombat2]

Thanks again - I have managed to get most of the info I need and the design is formulating- only thing I would like clarified is which is stronger 74mm diameter RHS or 70x70mm SHS (4mm wall thickness).

[Maggiesdad]

I would use a heavy 1/2" right angle drill motor w/ variable speed trigger and reverse, for the winch.

Taut cable for the load, and rope to pull the honey trolley assembly. Put it up w/ nylon lifting straps and tension it with a strap ratchet. take it down and stow it when not in use. Only draw back is it would take three guys to run it, one loading - one unloading and one running the drill.

[Michael Bush]

I would make the bees move the honey.  Put the hives where you can get to them... the bees won't care about the extra 150 ft.

[BeeMaster2]

What Michael said. What is wrong with having them on top of the hill?
Jim

[OldMech]

I would make the bees move the honey.  Put the hives where you can get to them... the bees won't care about the extra 150 ft.

   good point!

[Wombat2]

I would make the bees move the honey.  Put the hives where you can get to them... the bees won't care about the extra 150 ft.

   good point!

That's where the house is and a neighbour who is very allergic to bee sting and their son who also reacts - probably could get 5 hives on the other side away from them but planning up to 30 hives all up.

[deknow]

Easy.  Flow Hive supers at the bottom of the hill, a pump, some tubing, and you are pumping honey!

Or, you could have 5 hives at the top of the hill, and 30 down below.  When you have a crop, screen in the downhill bees, and let the 5 uphill bees rob out the supers.

[drjeseuss]

For someone with allergies, what' the difference in 150 feet?  The bees will travel 3+ miles...  If a bee is going to sing your neighbor, it could as easily come from as far away and do it...  That said, I understand perception and being neighborly.  I put my hives well away, and move just one up the hill near the house.  Outside a range of about 10-15 feet, you'd never even know they were there...  the bees are busy elsewhere working.  I do notice water collectors at the bird bath, and foragers in fall covering the neighbor's hummingbird feeders, but that happened even before moving one by the house.  After a year of that, I moved the rest up the hill and have noticed no more traffic than before.  Even my 'bug-o-phobic' wife allowed this.  We have a chicken coop about 15-20 feet from the hives, and my wife rarely even complains of seeing a bee.  You would certainly want to be careful about alerting people before popping the top to collect honey in late fall or other times the bees might get testy, but in day-to-day life they work too hard to care much about what we're doing.

With this plan, you can build the zipline just for yourself, much more fun that way! 

[Michael Bush]

>For someone with allergies, what' the difference in 150 feet?  The bees will travel 3+ miles...

Exactly...

[Eric Bosworth]

It has been my experience that the likelihood of getting stung drops exponentially as you walk away from the hive. Even when I had a nuc on my deck I didn't have a problem. The only times I have been stung I was ripping apart their home. I might get upset too if somebody ripped my roof off and rearranged my home.