Modern beehives - how to build and where to place them. Do-it-yourself hive: how to make a high-quality “house” for bees without mistakes Construction in stages: algorithm of actions, useful tips


In nature, wild bees are content with living in natural shelters, which most often become crevices and hollows in tree trunks. Life in apiaries is much more comfortable, because here each family is provided with its own hives for bees.

How does a man-made house differ from a primitive deck? What is the structure of a bee hive and is it possible to build it with your own hands?

Common types of bee hives

Beekeeping is one of the oldest species human activity. Therefore, it is not surprising that over the past time many types and varieties of hives have appeared all over the world, which are conventionally divided into horizontal, or beds, and vertical, or risers:


  1. Vertical structures increase upwards due to extensions. Among the most common options are the multi-hull house and the Dadana bee hive.
  2. Horizontal hives are built up with frames parallel to the surface of the ground. These varieties include beds designed for 16–24 frames, as well as hives of Ukrainian design, which differ from the standard ones in the perpendicular arrangement of the frames.

Today, beekeepers hold many types of hives in high esteem, but the most popular are sunbeds, multi-body structures and hives with 12 frames. The price of bee hives depends on the size of the house, its design and the materials used for manufacturing. In addition to traditional wood and plywood, all kinds of plastic and textiles are often used when arranging hives.

Construction of hives for bees

Structurally, typical hives consist of a body, a lid, a bottom, store extensions, and frames for bees.

The main element of a bee hive is a body that accommodates honeycomb frames and the bee colony itself. Appearance The body is very simple. This is a box without a top or bottom, equipped with holders for frames.

For the flight and return of bees, a hole is provided on the front wall of the hive body - a notch, which can be round or slit-shaped. For convenience, the taphole can be closed with a special valve. Its size can be easily adjusted using special inserts. And with outside, a landing board is installed below the entrance.


From below, the housing covers the bottom of the hive for bees. This part of the structure can be either removable or tightly attached to the main part. Externally, the bottom of the hive resembles a shield with a border around the edge.

A magazine extension is provided for attaching the half-frames. It is half lower than the hive body and can be used during the period of mass honey collection. If necessary, not one, but several magazines are placed on the body.

Beginning beekeepers are justifiably concerned about the question: “How much does a hive with bees cost?” The cost of such an important purchase can vary greatly. At the same time, the choice of a specific beehive structure for bees depends on the individual preferences of the beekeeper, the volume of honey received and the size of the families.

If the costs of ready-made hives seem too burdensome, the beekeeper decides to build hives for bees with his own hands; drawings for this can be found in open sources, as well as take advantage of the experience of colleagues.

DIY evidence for bees: material and assembly features

Whatever design of the bee hive is chosen, you should know that to build the house you must use only materials that are safe for insects.

If wood is chosen as the base, it is better to give preference to species that do not emit viscous, odorous resin.

The boards and bars must be thoroughly dried, otherwise, already during operation, deformation and failure of the hive is inevitable, it will lose its tightness, and the frames for the bees will no longer fall into place. For the same reasons, it is better to avoid wood with an abundance of knots, which tend to fall out when dry.

For gluing hives, use natural moisture-resistant compounds that not only high strength, but also help to seal joints.

When connecting parts of the bottom, body, cover and others components When making your own evidence for bees, it is important to avoid gaps, and in order to avoid deformation, 2-3 fragments of the board are used for each of the parts.

External treatment of a bee hive should include not only decorative painting, but also a mandatory two-time treatment with drying oil, which ensures the wood’s resistance to moisture, temperature changes and the penetration of pests. It is recommended to paint with white, yellow or blue paint, which is well perceived by insects. It is useful to cover the hive cover with metal, and at the edges the sheets are tucked in such a way as to protect the cut points and ends.

Evidence requirements for bees

When planning to make a bee hive with your own hands, the drawings for construction are chosen in such a way that the new house is completely comfortable:

  1. A high-quality house fully protects insects from seasonal changes in temperature and humidity in all weather conditions. For this reason, the hive is equipped with elements of ceiling and side protection, which are effective both in winter and in summer.
  2. The family located in the bee hive can expand without hindrance, for which a system for increasing the volume of the house is provided.
  3. The design of a bee hive should be convenient not only for insects, but also for the beekeeper. That is, the structure must be easily cleaned, disinfected, ventilated and inspected.
  4. It must be remembered that the hives must be moved, assembled and disassembled.

Before you make a hive for bees, you need to decide on its size. Although many experienced beekeepers have their own preferences and practiced options, it is better for beginners to focus on the accepted universal dimensions.

Based on the drawing of a beehive, they make elements of the housing, bottom and lid, frames and other parts of the structure with their own hands:

  1. For the manufacture of the body, dried boards with a thickness of 20 mm are taken. At the same time, it is better to take the same boards for frames not from coniferous species wood, but from deciduous trees, for example, birch or dense aspen.
  2. The distance between the frames for bees at standard solution is equal to 37.5 mm, and a gap of 20 mm is left between the bottom of the nesting frame.
  3. The width of the passages for insects is 12.5 mm.
  4. An indent of 20 mm is made from the bottom to the bottom bar of the frame.
  5. From the front or back surface of the bee hive body to the frames is 7.5 mm.

When making a hive, do not forget about insulation. For this purpose, insulating pillows with a side of 455 mm are prepared, which are stuffed with well-dried grass and moss.

The diaphragm serves as a barrier between the living space of the hive and the unoccupied area. This removable element of the bee hive device is also made with your own hands from a durable 10 mm plywood sheet.

The assembly of a homemade hive begins with the body parts, then it’s time to attach the frames for the bees. After checking the compliance of the dimensions, the hive receives a bottom. The last thing to be installed is the roof. Assembly is carried out on a flat surface so that the structure is stable and durable.

How to make a beehive with your own hands - video


A hive with bees can decorate the area kindergarten, ecological corner in kindergarten.

Material:

  • Plastic bottles
  • Kinder surprise egg
  • Self-adhesive paper (black)
  • Threads
  • Decorative eyes
  • Glue moment
  • Hay (dry grass)
  • Scissors

Step-by-step instructions for making a bee house:

1. Take a 5-3 liter plastic bottle and cut out a window oval shape. We put honeycombs on the bottom of the bottle (you can use hay), and use an awl to make a hole in the center of the bottle for thread for hanging.

2. We make a haystack, cover the top of the bottle with it to form a roof, strengthen it (we tie it at the neck with a rope). The hive is ready (the hive can be decorated decorative leaves, flowers).

3. Cut from plastic bottles wings, antennae for bees to match the size of the kinder eggs.

4. Open the egg, tear the strip until it stops (from most of the kinder egg).

5. In the place where the stripes were torn, insert antennae, wings, and close the egg.

6. Cut out strips 0.5 cm wide from black self-adhesive paper. Glue the strips around the Kinder eggs in three rows. Glue on the eyes and mouth.

Among the elements of modern landscape design A special place is given to the use of a variety of decorative hives, which can be made with your own hands or purchased ready-made.

Artificial dwellings for bee families have been adjacent to humans for many centuries and rarely cause surprise to anyone. The appearance of funny and fancy shapes hives as a decorative element are just becoming widespread on the territory of Russian personal plots.

The main purpose of these unique decorative structures is not to accommodate families of honey bees, but rather to decorate the surrounding landscape space. The summer residents who install them are far from apiary knowledge, and their main goal is not to care for bees and consistently obtain bee products.

Most types of decorative hives fit very harmoniously into landscape and design features country garden and are able to give it an individual and pastoral look. Depending on the gardener’s imagination and budget, this type of hive can be made from various materials and using a variety of design solutions.

Hive options

Based on the main purposes, hives can be populated by bees or be an ordinary garden setting. It is possible to use both a ready-made decorative bee house and homemade version.

Depending on the material used in construction and the history of beekeeping, two types of hives are known:

Polyurethane hives appeared in Russia relatively recently, but a number of advantages have made them quite popular and well-known.

Polyurethane hive

The main advantages of this type of decorative hive are:

  • variety of shapes and wide choice color solutions;
  • fully collapsible design;
  • resistance to temperature changes;
  • design features allow you to easily change the size of the decorative bee house if necessary;
  • can be easily transported and moved to a new location;
  • environmental friendliness of the source material;

  • interchangeability of almost all parts;
  • durability and resistance to damage and adverse external influences.

These ready-made ones are easy to assemble and disassemble. Self-respecting manufacturers attach drawings of hives and assembly diagrams to finished product.

Caring for these decorative designs minimal maintenance is required and consists of periodically cleaning the internal surfaces. It is allowed to wash the hive with warm soda solution. Subsequent disinfection is carried out only with drugs approved for use.

When choosing a polyurethane decorative hive, you need to ensure the quality of the source material and check for a certificate. This hive is a completely budget option and comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Except ready-made options beehives, most gardeners have an excellent opportunity to make a hive with their own hands. Most often, improvised materials are used for homemade bee houses. For such a creative process, you can use completely different components or use special publications that contain a variety of drawings of hives.

How to make a hive from wood

Any decorative type The hive must not only be suitable for a bee family to live in, but also be a harmonious component of the surrounding landscape. For this purpose, you can use a wooden block, from which the core is removed using a hammer and chisel. Then a hole is made that will allow the bees to freely fly in and out of the hive. An approach board is attached under the entrance.

Various hive designs allow the use of a variety of materials as top cover. A wooden round hive with a high thatched roof looks most impressive. Using wood to make a hive is very justified. If such a hive is for the greatest decorative effect coated with a special varnish, then it will look very organic against the background of any garden plantings.

How to make a hive from improvised materials

Quite often, plastic five-liter bottles are used for decorative purposes, which can be found in almost every household. Decorative bee houses made from this material look very original and fun. In addition, such hives are not populated with live bees, which is very reasonable if there are small children or people suffering from allergic reactions to bee stings in the house.

In addition to empty five-liter bottles, to make such charming decorative houses you will need next material:

  • various small plastic bottles for making bees;
  • spray can with yellow paint or a yellow can acrylic paint+ brush;
  • black electrical insulating tape;
  • four wash brushes;
  • glue for plastic;
  • decorative eyes and beads;

  • a small ball of twine;
  • synthetic white or colorless thread.

For more long-lasting color and impact protection ultraviolet rays small bottles need to be painted yellow several layers of paint. It is advisable to apply at least three layers of spray paint. After the paint has completely dried, stripes are made using black electrical insulating tape. The eyes and noses of future decorative bees are attached to the blanks using glue. The wings are cut out of transparent plastic bottles and attached to the bees using synthetic thread.

A square hole is marked on a five-liter bottle and then cut out. The future hive is covered with multi-layers of yellow paint. Four washcloths are fastened with twine, and they are attached to the lid of the bottle as a roof.

The improvised decorative bee house is ready, and all that remains is to place it on the branches of the tree. The composition is complemented by bees, which must be placed around the decorative hive.

Beehive (video)

Any garden decorations And decorative elements have become very popular, and their prices are unreasonably high and inaccessible to most summer residents. Homemade decorative bee houses are very budget option landscape decor. They will give the garden originality and will long years delight not only the owners, but also the guests.

I don't remember when I started liking bees, but over time they sort of became my personal thing. I know it's a little quirky, but who doesn't understand you, who can't ever say that this isn't the cutest thing?!

IN Lately I really fell in love with these large decorative bee hives,

which can be placed on the porch or in the garden.

Here's what you'll need:

Metal bowl (I used my kitchen faucet bowl)

Thermal gun and hot glue

Marker black

Start by wrapping the rope around the base of your metal bowl and hot glue where the two pieces meet. Make sure this part is completely cool before continuing.

Apply hot glue around the bowl while twisting the string. Don't miss a joint - you want the connection to be strong. Continue until you reach the top.

At the end of the top, leave enough rope to form a loop at the top, and also insert 2-3 cm inside before finishing. To remove your hive from a metal bowl, place it in freezer for 20 minutes, and then gently move it in free form. Leave the hive on the table until it becomes room temperature before moving on to the next step. Hot glue the tip of your rope from the inside top beehive, leaving excess rope on the outside to form a loop on the outside.

I would have liked to make a hole, but I decided to just paint with a marker rather than make an actual hole. Hot glue your ends together and then glue your entrance to the front of the hive.

The article discusses the main issues regarding how to make a beehive for bees with your own hands; the key points and tips for creating decorative beehives with your own hands have been clarified, which (that is, the hive) must fulfill larger number functions compared to conventional bee nests.

Bees are very well-organized insects that survive only in families with a functional division of responsibilities. Each such family needs its own home or nest, without which good organization becomes useless. The nest is used by bees as a nursery for new brood, a shelter from rain, winds and cold, a storage place for food supplies, a place for the queen to lay eggs, etc.

That is, a bee's nest performs many important functions, so its parameters must correspond to their more efficient implementation. In apiaries, the role of bee nests is played by hives, which can be combined into mobile pavilions. But sometimes in various places You can find funny, whimsical and unique decorative hives.

The main purpose of decorative hives is not to accommodate the maximum number of bees and promote their vital activity, but to be a decoration of the surrounding interior.

As a rule, decorative hives are installed for people who are not beekeepers and who have no particular desire to dig into them and care for bees.

The main need for decorative hives arises to decorate gardens and summer cottages, where you can drink tea with your family on weekends summer playground and admire the blossoms fruit trees. Such an idyll can be complemented by a decorative hive (with a small number of good bees), the appearance of which harmoniously fits into landscape design garden

You can make such a bee hive with your own hands from ordinary and common materials. The most popular were decorative hives in the form of wooden logs, covered with straw hats.

A decorative hive must at least perform two functions: be more or less suitable for bees to live in and harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape, decorating it with itself.

In order for a wooden block to be used by bees, it is necessary to make it hollow inside. To do this, from one side of it, which will be the top, you should remove the core using a chisel and a hammer. You can also use a drill with long drill for making many holes in the core from the top side of the deck. This type of evidence needs a hole, a hole for bees to enter, which should be located on the side of the deck. Moreover, such a hole is located on the visible side. If there is a protruding knot on the deck, then for beauty, a hole is made with a drill above such a knot. The diameter of this hole should ensure the entry of bees, but exclude the possibility of other living creatures entering. From the inside just below drilled hole attach a small board, which should serve as a landing board. On top of such a deck is covered with a waterproof covering (a round wooden or tin plate), which for camouflage is covered with a thatched roof (a bunch of straw that is tied at the top and spreads evenly along the edges). Top cover: both thatched roof and waterproof cover - should be easy to remove for carrying out necessary work in the hive.

To improve the decorative effect, such a deck can be varnished to match the color of the tree or tinted to match the color of the surrounding trees in the garden. Often such a one-eyed house is placed on “legs”, the role of which is played by wooden blocks. small sizes different shapes(the deck should be level). This is done both to insulate the hive and eliminate dampness of the ground, but also to improve the decorative effect, when the result is a one-eyed stump with legs. The edges of the hole (holes for bees to enter) in the shape of an eye are often tinted with paint. Also possible additional elements of this hive according to the taste of the designer.

In addition to the fact that you need to make a decorative hive beautiful with your own hands, you need to populate it with bees. You can call on experienced beekeepers to help them share their bees, or you can try to catch the swarming bees yourself. This is easier to achieve when decorative hive there will be bait: empty honeycombs and honey.

To exclude bee diseases, it is better to use a freshly cut tree, and also to disinfect the completed hive both outside and inside. Before you make a decorative hive with your own hands, you should look on the Internet for its possible variations. After which the initial plans can be significantly supplemented and improved.