|
Drainage of Water from Beehives |
Many years ago I made some supers with side panels that were
made of waterproof plywood that was skinned on both faces with
"Formica laminate". This material was very strong and was available
at the time at zero cost.
When these boxes were in use, a slight
problem arose in that the Formica faced parts did not expand or
contract with variations in moisture content but the natural wood
parts did. The result was that in wet weather (very common in UK)
gaps would open up between supers of this type and admit a small
amount of rain.
This was also at the time that I first introduced the non overlapping
insulated roof and I was concerned that this may be a source of more
water ingress. So I decided that I would place drain holes in
strategic places so that any water that did get in (for whatever
reason) could drain away regardless of any tilt that was deliberate
or accidental.
I first tried groups of three holes, each 2.5 mm in diameter, spaced 10 mm apart in the
rear corners of the floors... My reasoning was that a single hole may
be blocked by a leaf but a group would retain some degree of
porosity. When in use this method was not very succesful as the holes
were small and rough fibres inside the drilling would expand with
moisture causing particles of dirt to lodge in the holes and
ultimately block them.
I increased the number of holes
to four and increased the diameter of each hole to 3 mm. This system
did not block and I now automatically put this set of holes, using a drilling jig, in every
place where water could collect on a horizontal surface. I do this on
every piece of new equipment that I make and any S/H parts that come my way.
Several years later I noticed some hives where water had collacted in
the space under the frame lugs and I resolved to sort this out. This
was achieved by diagonally drilling 3 mm holes from the corners of the
recess downwards and outwards so that any water in any lugspace would
drain outside the hive body through on hole or the other, no matter
which way the hive may be leaning.
When I first thought about drilling these holes I was concerned that
the bees would defeat my object by propolising the holes. I was wrong,
this has not occurred, the only blockages have been from swollen wood
fibres or the occasional wax moth grub crawls into a hole and spins
its cocoon. A run through with a 3 mm drill bit in a
battery powered drill sorts this out!
From time to time my equipment is returned to my
workshop for scrubbing, flaming and an application of linseed oil
and petroleum jelly where needed. At this time I run a 3 mm drill
through each hole to clear it out.
Revised... 16 October 2001
