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Author Topic: Top bar hive built with concrete?  (Read 8019 times)

Offline bluegrass

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« on: August 08, 2006, 01:49:52 pm »
I have a free source of concrete and am thinking about casting some top bar hives with it. I was wondering what others peoples thought are on concrete hives and what kind of problems should I expect to run into?
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Offline Finsky

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Re: Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2006, 02:06:23 pm »
Quote from: bluegrass
what others peoples thought are on concrete hives ?


At least hive is heavy. I have stryfoam hives.

Offline Mici

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2006, 02:22:46 pm »
ermm, i'm not an expert but wouldn't bees be cold/hot?? concrete is i think too good temperature transmitor, i think you'd have to insulate them

Offline Finsky

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2006, 03:07:09 pm »
Quote from: Mici
ermm, i'm not an expert but wouldn't bees be cold/hot?? concrete is i think too good temperature transmitor, i think you'd have to insulate them


That is bad feature. And concrete absorbbs moisture from rain an inside from colony. It will be ice block in winter and hot in summer.

Offline bluegrass

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2006, 04:22:27 pm »
I live in a pretty good climate for bees. winter temps rarely drop below 30 F. and summer temps are up in the 90s. I think the concrete will help keep the hive cool in the summer, but the winter and moisture issues may need to be addressed.
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Offline Mici

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2006, 04:46:20 pm »
look at the houses around you. are they made from plain wood, plain concrete, or insulated concrete?
make their house as if you were building your own.

Offline Finsky

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2006, 04:52:06 pm »
Quote from: bluegrass
I think the concrete will help keep the hive cool in the summer, but ..


When sun shines to concrete it will be hot and it stansmit hot iside hive. Contrete must be very thin.

But if you think normal bees in nature, I think that they do not live in stone pot or caves. They prefer to live in wooden tree trunks. In Australia many colonies live in rabbit holes.

But I have thinked over Leca conctere. It is used as insulating walls in Finland. It is foamed clay and burned to tile.

http://www.claytek.co.uk/leca_home.htm

But what about the concrete. It is poisonous because it is very alkalic. When bees lick water from surface what happens to them?

The pH of new concrete is 14.  The acidity of honey dissolves concrete and so it make lime mixed liguid..

.

Offline randydrivesabus

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2006, 06:03:18 pm »
concrete would help keep the hive cooler because it absorbs heat. for the same reason it would help keep the hive warmer on cold sunny days.
but it does readily aborb moisture unless you waterproof it.
i would think the biggest drawback is the weight.

Offline Mici

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2006, 06:08:53 pm »
Quote from: randydrivesabus
concrete would help keep the hive cooler because it absorbs heat.


yeah it would, if it would be 15 inches thick, less than that would be like putting them into oven, or in the freezer

remember, if it absorbs, it gives away

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2006, 11:39:16 pm »
Well I sure as heck am not going to try to move one regardless of how thick or thin it ends up.  I have enough problems handling concrete blocks in the flower garden.
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Offline wayne

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« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2006, 01:55:38 pm »
The bees for development site talks about the use of cement hives. And a great many areas use pots and earthenware for hives. Mostly to prevent theft and termite damage.


http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/info/info/topbar/better-beekeeping-in-topb-5.shtml
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Offline bluegrass

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2006, 07:53:51 pm »
The weight will not be an issue with the top bars as I will not have to move supers, also the walls will only be an inch thick so they will only be a few pounds heavier than wood hives. I am wondering how the bees will take to the smell of the concrete.
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Offline randydrivesabus

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2006, 09:23:10 pm »
i think you would have to let the concrete cure for about a month.
one inch thick concrete sounds like a crack waiting to happen.

Offline wayne

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« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2006, 03:20:14 pm »
I've been called several times to get bees out of concrete block walls. I'm guessing that the bees won't care about the walls as long as the inside suits them.


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Offline Finsky

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2006, 03:37:12 pm »
is it easier to make hive from bricks?

First you make your own bricks.  Mix clay and saw dust  or starws. Then dry them and burn to brick.

Lay bricks.

When hcolony grows larger, it is easy to make higher walls.

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #15 on: August 11, 2006, 01:02:06 am »
>>one inch thick concrete sounds like a crack waiting to happen.

In my opinion the concrete isn't the only thing that might have a crack in it.  This is like trying to re-invent the wheel.
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Offline bluegrass

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #16 on: August 11, 2006, 02:57:53 pm »
I work in concrete so I know how to keep the walls from cracking. There have been some major evolution in concrete within that past few years and it is now the most versatile building material. Several colleges across the USA build canoes every year out of concrete and race them in canoe competitions. Countertops are being made from concrete and when done they look like granite. Houses and other buildings are being pre-cast in concrete and then set up in a day. It can be insulated, painted, waterproofed, decorated, stamped, and dyed. It can be made to withstand as little as 1500 psi and as much as 15,000. It can be designed to weigh 4000 lbs per yard or as little as 400. It can take 28 days to cure or 24 hours. I could build one form and pour hundreds of hives for pennies each, saving time and money over conventional hives. I do not see it as re-inventing the wheel as much as it would be revolutionizing beekeeping.
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Offline randydrivesabus

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #17 on: August 11, 2006, 04:12:08 pm »
can you post pictures of the construction process and completed hive?

Offline wayne

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« Reply #18 on: August 11, 2006, 06:53:39 pm »
You may have a money maker there. If you can make them cheap enough, there may be a market in some areas. Or license the process to countries where termites are a real problem.


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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Top bar hive built with concrete?
« Reply #19 on: August 11, 2006, 11:53:04 pm »
Gee, that sounds fantastic.  Now all we need to do is figure out how to make concrete honey comb.
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