Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[RuthK]

Hi, can anyone help? The sides of my hTBH have warped a bit since last year, and now the follower boards don't fit as well as I think they need to; their top bars are now a little proud of the sides instead of lying flush alongside the comb top bars. As advised, I used 1" thick Douglas fir for the sides, and thick exterior grade ply for the follower boards, so I'm now wondering if I should change the spec for the next hive I build. Meanwhile, how can I make the follower boards fit better? Bearing mind that they need to be movable? I don't want wasps etc to find a way in.

[rays]

I've got a similar problem this year. I've used strips of fibre board which I'm just pushing up against the outside edges of the follower board to block the gap when I'm closing up. Pretty straightforward if a bit "make do and mend".

[Adam Rose]

You can also get pond liner and attach slightly over sized strips to the sides that no longer fit. Then as you slide the follower in the pond liner just rubs along the sides or bottom and make a reasonable seal.

[Barbara]

As long as you have top bars in place to cover the whole of the void end of the hive, wasps should not be able to get in any way. I don't think any of my followers are bee/wasp proof fit but I always make sure that the whole hive is fitted tight with top bars and shims as necessary to close it completely.

[RuthK]

Thanks for the suggestions! Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's had this problem. The worst bit of the not-fitting-ness is the gap where the followers stick up above the rest of the bars. I think I will try and get them to seat down level with the rest so the hive as a whole is 'tight', and not worry too much about the internal snugness where the followers lie against the sides.

I'm thinking of using kiln dried timber for my next hive as it's going to be a four-footer, which will obviously have even greater potential for warping.

[Barbara]

Yes, you are right about it being important for the follower top bar to sit down tight and that should be reasonably easy to sort with a bit of judicious planing.

I'm no expert on timber, but my concern with kiln dried timber would be that you are going to use it in a moist environment and it may well absorb moisture from the hive and environment and twist more as a result.

I used some thin tongue and groove panelling and made it double thickness with the exterior skin having the wood running vertically and the interior, horizontally and they are screwed together, so that any twisting is very limited. It was actually reclaimed timber, so cost me nothing but pine panelling is cheap enough to buy. It was also quite easy to fit a window as the Perspex was the exact thickness of the tongue rebate, so it just sat flush with a bit of sealant to hold it in. It is into it's second year and still really happy with it at the moment.