Carry Box

Please note before going any further that I have not yet built this! These are my plans for the prototype. If it is successful (I'll update this later in the season provided some honey comes in) my plan is to make a further two.

Prior to this season, we've had to borrow an extractor from a friend, therefore the time of extraction has been determined by outside factors. Now that we have our own extractor, my plan is to extract frames as they become available rather than wait to take off a whole super at a time.

My reason for this is that we got caught out last year with a late bonus of ivy honey. Unfortunately it all set solid in the frames whilst awaiting the extractor, and I am now an expert at how not to get ivy honey out of the comb without the comb collapsing (soon to be subject of another page). Learning therefore from our mistakes, we plan to take frames as soon as they are sealed and there are enough to balance the extractor. Our extractor takes 8 frames, so 2, 4, 6 or 8 frames can all be balanced without problem.

We've taken off odd frames before, shaking and gently brushing the bees off back into their super and using a spare super to hold the removed frames draped over with a towel to keep the bees out and this certainly worked. We got them into the house without a single bee present. But I think it could be simpler. The idea of this box is that it will hold a convenient number of frames (8 in our case to fill the extractor), it will be insulated to help retain hive temperature, it will be easy to unload, and it will be bee-proof without the need for cloth manipulations. By building three we will be able to select frames for extraction at the hives, putting them into a box together with matching weighted frames and then carry them easily to the house for extraction - so much for the theory!

I'm making it out of 9mm ply to keep it light with internal framing from 12mmx32mm to add strength and rigidity. The floor (painted in gloss white) will simply rest inside the box on the bottom frame so that when the box is full, the whole contents can be easily removed by putting the box down on a brick which will force the base up, lifting with it the frames and box top. It will also be easy to remove the base to wipe off any dripped honey.