Hi Thomas/All
 
As far as regards cheap goodies to make your beehives:
 
- I have used the following recipe for my 100+ hives which I have
built.
 
- Metal lid - contact your local newspaper and buy their aluminium
contact sheets - I get mine for R1 (US$0.15c) a piece. These will not
rust. You also get to read the news each time you open your hive. (I
have two apiaries with collections of pages I found interesting - I
ask the local printer to put any metal sheets aside with stories
about my University, old School, and anything about bees I put in the
paper)
 
- Inner cover and bottom board - corrugater plastic - contact your
local estate agents and advertising companies and ask if a bottle or
two of honey would secure all their old boards - they usually print
on boards about the right size for a bottom board.
 
Wood - go to your local saw mill and ask them if you can have
untreated wood - this is better - then treat by painting your
starting hive bodies with PCP wood preservative. Paint the inside
with PVC paint, and the outside with enamel. If you have a year to
wait you can paint the hives with creosote - leave them in the sun
for a year - after this the bees don't mind them and you have a hive
body that will last 20+ years apparently.
 
Frames - buy these - the time taken making your own is not worth it,
as well as the stress.
 
Foundation - buy this.
 
Wire for frames - many people use special bee wire. I live in an area
with high theft of comb, and have found that this is cut too easily.
I use .3mm fencing wire instead - this has the advantage that it
gives less blowouts - in my area I have worked out that if I get no
blowouts per ten frames, the increased honey harvested in the one or
so frames that would have blown otherwise pays for the slightly
higher cost of fencing wire.
 
Excluders - waste of money - if the bees want to go up but cannot
they will swarm instead.
 
Inner cover - corrugated plastic works quite well here, and has the
advantage of being flexible - if you want to get wax of it, replace
the cover with a new one, leave the old one out overnight in a cold
spot, and as the dew drips of it in the early morning bend it and the
wax cracks of, as does propolis.
 
Hope that helps
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)