Scavenger Lumber for Beehives

[dpence]

The saying one mans junk is another mans treasure rings true.  On my way to work I had noticed some remodeling going on and a huge pile of 1 by lumber being thrown in a pile.  I inquired at the house and sure enough they were going to burn it, so I offered to take it off their hands.  After I pull a few nails and plane some of it, it will be (clear, no knots) hive material.  My wife has agreed to let me purchase 10 new packages come January.  None the less the woodenware expenses will be lower.  So far I have built 4 hives from recycled lumber not including this latest find.   

David

[danno]

I do the same thing.  I have a 13" planer and have used pc's of 2 X 12 and 2 X 8 that I plane down to 3/4.   All the chips go for smoker fuel and chicken bedding. If you have any large box stores, Home Depot or Lowes check with them for cull lumber, its 50 - 70% off.  Costruction sites always have stuff in there dumpsters.  Pc of OSB are often big enough for telescoping covers.  The local news paper sells aluminum sheeting for .25 each that works great on the covers.  Its always has old news print on it but this wears off in time.  Point is I've built alot of stuff with others junk

[dpence]

Exactly Danno, nothing wrong with being resourceful.  I use OSB for hive tops also.  Haven't found a good source for hive top covers but I will check around. 

[Nate]

That's great!  Scavenging isn't for the poor man, but rather for the smarter man.   Saves a lot of money using scrap lumber for beehives.  My dad works construction so I get real good access to scrap lumber whenever I want it.   

[danno]

Exactly Danno, nothing wrong with being resourceful.  I use OSB for hive tops also.  Haven't found a good source for hive top covers but I will check around. 

Give the local newpaper a call.  The sheeting that i get from them is used in there presses and actually has one page of the paper printed on it.  It about the same as aluminum flashing

[rast]

 Anything kept from a dump or an incinerator is good for the ecosystem, therefore good for the bees (and you and me). So, thank you. I am always on "curb alert". Just this past week I found a great piece of glass from a small table top for my solar wax melter. I have no pride if I see some thrown out wood that looks 1"X?. My local HD's 1"X4"X8' are $1.56 for culls. $4+ for the pretty stuff.
 Hmmm, are we hurting the economy by doing this? If helping my personal economy is hurting the major economy, we are in deep dodo .

[contactme_11]

Give the local newpaper a call.  The sheeting that i get from them is used in there presses and actually has one page of the paper printed on it.  It about the same as aluminum flashing

It's funny. I had never seen or heard of this before and I just found some sheets like this in a dumpster. Tele. tops were my first thought.

[contactme_11]

Hmmm, are we hurting the economy by doing this? If helping my personal economy is hurting the major economy, we are in deep dodo .

Not being thrifty and recycling is worse for the eco system.

[dpence]

Hmmm, are we hurting the economy by doing this? If helping my personal economy is hurting the major economy, we are in deep dodo .

Not being thrifty and recycling is worse for the eco system.

Exactly,   

I'll check the local newspaper Danno.  I think beeks are ecologically minded as a whole.  Certainly nothing wrong with being frugal. 

[danno]

Our news paper sells it in 3 X3 sheets or by the roll.  Dont get the roll stuff.  I has memory and is harder to work with

[Brian D. Bray]

I keep telling my wife not to throw things out just because we don't have and immediate use of it or only part of it's broke.
I found 5 well pumps, 3/4 hp, in the basement after my Dad passed away.  A little investagtion shows I can build 3 workable pumps out of them.  The impeller is trashed on 2, the automatic switch (relay) is gone on another, and the motor is gone on 2 more.  But that still leaves me with 3 motors and 3 impellers and 1 auto-switches.  I plan to rebuild them and use them to pump water from the rain barrels into the water troughs and other storage containers for watering the livestock.

I think I've mentioned before about having built a pigeon and rabbit pens out of throw away lumber from the lumber yard and other places. 

Re-using things is just the smart way to do it, it saves money and reduces waste. 

So the Motto is:  Going Green Saves Green.   Need a bumper sticker on that!

[poka-bee]

Brian, your ability to fix things amazes me. Not my strong suit for sure! Reusing is great BUT I'm more with your wife on some stuff..Bruce has so much junk lying around I can't hardly vacuum...the garage is stuffed full...we have a gazillion & 12 LP's...crates & crates & boxes of em in the garage..do we have a turntable??? NO!
Does he DO anything with any of it???  NO!! He still had the reply cards to his wedding reception to the B&%#! oops, I mean Chels's mom... I do reuse woodscraps till they are too small to do anything with, then into the woodstove.  Wire fencing & chix wire too!  J

[contactme_11]

I'm at my wife's friend's house and there's a bunch of wood here 1x10s that would be great salvage stuff but it's 2 hours from our house and we took the car 

[Brian D. Bray]

Brian, your ability to fix things amazes me. Not my strong suit for sure! Reusing is great BUT I'm more with your wife on some stuff..Bruce has so much junk lying around I can't hardly vacuum...the garage is stuffed full...we have a gazillion & 12 LP's...crates & crates & boxes of em in the garage..do we have a turntable??? NO!  

Tell Bruce to take the stuff outside.  I store my stuff in the garage, shed, and barn, not it the house where the wife has to vacuum around it.

Does he DO anything with any of it???  NO!! He still had the reply cards to his wedding reception to the B&%#! oops, I mean Chels's mom... I do reuse woodscraps till they are too small to do anything with, then into the woodstove.  Wire fencing & chix wire too!  J

I keep telling my wife I'd use the stuff a lot faster if she didn't keep changing the priorities on the honeydo list.  There a few exceptions, like when the plumbing breaks.  Like to day, I found out my younger brother had failed to glue the drain pipe on the Sump pump he installed several years ago for my parents.  Rain in the basement is not good.  But I went through the PVC fittings my wife has been wanting to throw away and repaired the drain.

[Jerrymac]

If you haven't been to the "trading post" we have been compiling ideas about finding wood...

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,18319.0.html