Hive Construction
Making a Cavity in the Second Full Sized Log Hive
After removing so much of the log’s outer layers, the space left for the cavity and walls was smaller than what I had intended. This meant that the dimensions of my cavity would have to different than that of a commercial Langstroth hive, like I had intended for frames. The volume of this cavity will be approximately 36.6 liters (13.25″x9.5″x”x17.75″).
Because the depth of cavity I needed to cut was longer than the bar of any chainsaw I had to work with this week, I had to use I different strategy to remove the material instead of doing plunge-cuts. I used the small electric saw to carve the outline of my cavity, then, I used a hatchet and mallet to break up the wood and remove it in small pieces. I removed about two inches of material this way before the larger gas-powered saw was available to use.