Hive equipment is subjected to very challenging environmental conditions that accelerate the deterioration of the wood and fasteners. The varying temperature and wetness of the outside of the wood with the inside kept humid and warm by the bees makes for a most difficult environment for wood. The equipment will fall apart within a few years with fasteners loosening up and rusting off and wood rotting at attachment points with the equipment warping and coming apart. With some good choices on assembly fasteners and frequent maintenance hive woodenware can be assembled to last many years. With bad choices often you will see your expensive woodenware falling apart in 3 years.

The wood frames that provide the support for the honeycombs must be assembled to withstand the forces required to remove them from the boxes without them being pulled apart. The frames must be assembled to be square and true to the designed shape. This is best done by assembling the frame in some kind of jig that keeps the frame in its designed shape. Many jigs have been explained in the beekeeping literature.

Both nails and staples will work fine for fastening the frames together. Staple guns are preferred as they provide more holding power than nails and can be driven much faster reducing assembly time. Use cement coated galvanized 1.5-inch staples for the frames. Put two staples in each end of the top bar and one staple in each end of the bottom bar. I have used glue in the both the top and bottom bar joints but usually it takes too much time. I will have some staples that pull through the bottom bar wood but very seldom does a top bar come apart.

For those with a few hives, staple guns may not make sense and nails will work just fine. I like to use a 5d cement coated box nail for the frame. Drive two nails in each of the top bar ends and one in each end of the bottom bar. These nails can be purchased at bee supply houses and sometimes at the local hardware stores. Having the cement coating is essential without which the top bars will almost surely pull off after the box has been fill tight during a good honey flow or after a dry year with lots of propolis being plastered all over the frames. A nail placed in the end bars to the top bar will also help but is not essential with the cement-coated nails. Glue at all of the joints is desirable but not essential. Use Titebond II available at most hardware stores--this glue lasts longer than the wood and it is not expensive. The glue is a small additional time and for a small beekeeper easy to do providing additional insurance at maintaining integrity of the frame over the years.

The installation of the foundation has been the most difficult part of assembling the frame. However, with the new snap in beeswax coated plastic foundation this has become an easy task requiring dexterity of the hand rather than knowledge and skill at wiring the frame. I heartily recommend using the snap in beeswax coated plastic foundation that is available at most bee supply companies.

I have wired many frames and still like making my frames that way. However, it simply takes too much time and much more care until it is fully drawn out. If the honey flow is poor the foundation can be only partly drawn out and needs to be removed from the hive. If it is left in the hive it can easily be irreversibly damaged by heat, dropping it in cold weather or by the bees themselves chewing it up at the corners. It may be drawn out and repaired but usually is not the best comb. The plastic based foundation will survive better often withstanding several years of poor honey flows before it gets fully drawn out to a fine comb.

The boxes should all be made from pine. I have tried plywood and it works poorly compared to pine. Plywood is heavier and does not weather as well as pine. I have assembled nucs out of 1/2" CDX scraps from house construction. It always seems to be coming apart.

The corner joints for the boxes should be the box joint that you commonly see used. These hold the box together the best. Rabbet joints on boxes will work if the box is nailed tightly to a bottom board but will loosen up and be a pain for your supers and deep bodies. I use the rabbet joints on the nuc boxes as they are nailed and glued together and to the bottom board. These work quite well and never come apart.

Use a 7d box cement coated nail for assembly of the boxes. The boxes generally do not need to have drilled holes for the nails. The one nail that goes through the frame rest rabbet should have a drilled hole, as it will sometimes split. I have used galvanized nails at one time (western Oregon) but they kept coming out of the box. The cement coated nails will usually hold until the wood rots then will start coming out. The heads, if painted properly, will often not rust as the paint will stay on the nail head quite well. Sometimes I will have boxes that are destroyed with rot and the cement coated nails still have no rust on the painted side of the nail head!

Galvanized cement coated staples are excellent for assembling boxes as they are fast and hold very well. I use a 2" cement coated galvanized staple. If you can, adjust the staple gun to drive the staple just to the surface tightening the wood but not crushing the wood. When the staple drives well below the surface it is hard to get paint to protect the broken wood fibers in the recessed area of the staple. Both the staples and nails hold so well in the box joints that if you make a mistake it is impossible to un-assemble a box without doing big damage to the wood. I have never used glue in box joints only in rabbet joints.

Tops and bottoms assembled from old growth cedar or redwood are the best. They are light and will last a century. I have some redwood tops that I bought from a California beekeeper which are of unknown age. I have replaced the pine cleats twice in the last ten years and the redwood is just fine. However, old growth cedar and redwood are expensive and pine will work but not last as long.

Tops and bottoms should be assembled using the longest cement coated box nails possible. The same two varieties 5d and 7d cement coated box are what I have used. For the migratory type tops and bottoms I used 7d or staples and lots of glue (Titebond II). (No I don't work for Titebond!) The glue is essential as tops and bottoms are notorious for slowly coming apart. I will bring some examples of tops that have rotted apart leaving only the glue joint!

Now for the impossible problem---- PAINTING #@ %^&!!! I really don't have good ideas here. It seems all of the paint I have been using doesn't last like it used to. What I have been doing is putting on a good undercoat and then a semi-gloss water based acrylic paint. I have been seeing paint come off in 2 to 5 years. I sand it off down to well-adhered paint or wood and redo with the same combination. Recently my son-in-law, who is a painter, said I should spend the most on the primer, which should be an oil-based primer and then use the wa t e r -based acrylic on top of it. So that is what is next.

Take your time assembling your equipment, as it will pay dividends in many years of use. Make all of your equipment the same and standardize on proven sizes.