Having airflow is quite important for hives, without it condensation can build up and kill the bees. Having thousands of bees in a small area requires these openings so I can keep a healthy hive going. I drill two holes on each side of the feeder boxes and place some screen over to keep curious bugs out of the openings.
Cutting into the painted boxes I had to be careful, so using a sharp bit is recommended so the paint does not get damaged.
I use a drill bit and cut through where the handle is, this is done so the handle provides a little bit of a roof to keep driving rains from trying to enter the box. The screen I will be adding will help with the rain as well.
Going slow and careful I drill through the box trying to minimize any damage as its all built and painted. Maybe I should have drilled before painting, but oh well.. hindsight.
The screening used was the kind you use on windows to keep insects out, so its quite fitting to use it on my boxes. I attach the screen using a stapler.
Sorry about my head getting in the way of some of the video. Using this hand held staple gun required some force and had to move my body over the box to get the leverage I needed. Maybe next time I will use my air powered staple gun.
After adding a few staples all around the screen its set, I tried to make the screen as tight as possible so no little bugs like ants can squeeze around where the staples are.
Next up is to add the entrance reducer to the bee hives. Instead of using the wooden block the beehives come with I will use some wire mesh. I will post a video of how I did that soon. At this point the boxes are all done and installed, but I do have some videos left over I want to share with the community on how I built these. Some of these like drilling the hole and installing entrance reducers were done near the end of the beehive build so I will wrap up by posting those. I also have a video showing how I made the sugar water feeders and some video of me prepping the bee site where my hives are now installed.
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