Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[silversage]

Would there be any advantage to putting an eco floor in a Perone hive? I'm making an octagonal perone style hive just as fun experiment and was thinking about an eco type floor, but then it seems like it just may end up rotting things out in a few years. I'm using rough cut 1 inch by 6 inch oak boards since that is what is available at the moment. Thoughts?

[AugustC]

I considered the idea of an eco floor with a perone.
My thoughts were that, provided you weren't in an area of flood risk, you stand a bottomless perone on firebricks/breezeblocks which you fill up with woodchips. The bricks won't rot the same way as a wooden bottom would and any excess water can just drain into the ground.

[Broadwell]

I've thought about trying a wood chip filled sump like this too. What I'd add is maybe sitting the wooden part on strips of damp proof course, or slate tiles, above the bricks, so water couldn't travel up through the bricks to rot the wood base.

If the main body of the hive overhung the brick base then that would help keep the wood base dry too. To really do a good job you could cut a drip groove into into or above the sill. Probably best to use a good wood for this lower part too if you can get it. Black Locust is easy to get in the States I think...?

Also thought some mouse proof mesh beneath the wood chip might be an idea. Not fine enough to keep out the good beasties though.

[biobee]

If I were adding an eco floor to a Perone-style hive, I think I would make a brick/block stand - as Andrew suggests - directly on the ground, so soil-living creatures can access the cavity in the same way that they can walk into a hollow log.

[Adam Rose]

Or staple pond liner around the bottom of the hive to prevent the wet eco floor coming into contact with the sides of the hive.

[andy pearce]

Not a great fan of plastic re-cycled or not (although it does have its uses) but the bottom of the hive made with something like this...

http://www.filcris.co.uk/products/product-details/grl505024pksbr?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=GoogleShop&gclid=COPSrP2wpcMCFW3ItAodgxIA7Q

with an open bottom to the soil would hopefully give no rot and a decent damp proof course.
A

[Adam Rose]

In my defence :

A small amount of plastic is probably no better or worse than a large lump of concrete. Concrete production is a pretty major factor in CO2 production. And is a layer of plastic covered by organic material better or worse for the bees than a concrete brick covered by organic matter ? Making plastic and throwing it away is one thing. Making plastic and leaving it in a hive for 20 years is something else. Probably a better use of oil than burning it.

[andy pearce]

Adam, I could not agree more. Good uses of oil....things that last (in a good way...) like kingspan insulation or ground control membrane or compost bins and water butts etc rather than fuel. Pondliners are great...more ponds. Bad uses of oil....going thirty feet to the shops in the car.
I thought of the plastic posts sometime ago...I come across this type of stuff more often now, I suppose the re cycling technology is improving...you see benches and bollards made out of the stuff too. Not done anything myself.
A

[silversage]

Thanks for the thoughts everybody. I've got some ideas now!