10 Free Bee hive Plans For Backyard Beekeeping

A bee hive is a sanctuary in which the honey bees live. Today many people are building their own bee hives in their houses or farms so that they can collect honey from bee hive box. Before you think about keeping bees in the hives, the first thing you need to do is make a research which involves the complete guide for caring of the bees and also getting involved with them so that they won’t sting you.

You should know how and what they should be fed, what are the risks, and what needs to be done. For a beginner, it is highly recommended that they start off with two bees hive only which allows you to interchange the frames when a colony becomes weaker with another one.

There are many local Beekeepers associations which give courses and training to the amateurs for keeping bees. Once you have enough information, the first step is to make a beehive and then keep it in a place which doesn’t experiences much fast winds and is shady.

The place should not be damp and the area should be somewhere the bees can be attracted so that they make their colonies, probably near some flower beds or trees, you can also purchase some bees. In order to allow the bees to have their colonies made, the most important is that you have to make your own beehive.

There are two kinds of beehive plans which are most popular, one is the langstroth and other is top bar beehive; the vertical top bar hive (known as warre hive) or horizontal hive (like a Kenyan Top Bar Hive). The langstroth beehive is very common and is used all across the world for keeping bees and is also very easy to be build. The biggest advantage of this beehive is that they make their honeycomb in the frames which allows easy movements.

The warre or the top bar has storied and modular design which is made from boxes which are stacked in a vertical position. They provide broad nesting and allow the breed to move through the sections. You can easily build your own beehive at your home with some simple tools and equipment.

There are many bee hive plans on the internet published by different designers; this guide will help you with ten of the best plans for building your own beehive:

1-Top Bar Bee hive Plan 

This is the top  bar bee hive plan in PDF by p j chandler which can help the beginner to build the best hive. The most important material you will need for building the beehive boxes is the Western red Cedar. They remain good for all the year and don’t require much maintenance; moreover they are cheap as well.

Other materials needed are timber, stainless steel screws, washers, nuts, bolts and other tools like saw, hammer and others. If you are a beginner then go for the 36” long box which will house two hives that is highly recommended for the amateurs.

2-Simple And Easy Bee hive Plan 

This is an easy design for building a beehive by city boy hens

. You can make a box which can be 6-5/8” deep with the wooden board width being ¾” thick in size. The cutting and the crossing of the lengths can be done with miter gauge or a table saw, anything which is accessible and available.

3-The people’s Bee hive Plan in PDF 

This is the bee hive plan for building a vertical top bar hive by david heaf. This design is in vertical section and has around four boxes along with floor, top bar cover cloth, roof, eaves vent and ridge vent. The wood used in this design is timber which can go well all around the year.

4- Top Bar Barrel Bee hive Plan

This is a Top Bar Barrel Bee hive Plan by food plot survival which is very simple to make. The first item which is required, as the name suggests is the 55 gallon barrel or drums which is going to be the foundation. With timbers the frame of the beehive should be made, and then the roof and top frame.

5- Shift Top Bar Bee hive Plan

This is a simple Warre bee hive plan by indigo88 which can be made with less investment. The basic materials needed are the polystyrene boxes, bamboo canes, pocket knife, measuring tape and secateurs. This is a simple makeshift beehive in the vertical design which is perfect for amateurs.

6- DIY Bee Hive made from Tires

This is a design of a diy beehive made by old tires by nathan nash which you will enjoy to make. One should first make a vertical frame, install tires and then with the help of the hay make some insulation. Some pieces of wood will also be needed for making portions and the roof.

7-DIY Bee Hives and Supers

This is a simple top bar design by chris beeson for the beehive and requires some pine wood instead of those chemical treated woods. According to the number hives to be made in the top bar, you should select the size measurements or just go with the dimensions present in the bee hive plans PDF.

8-Warre’ Bee hive Plan

This is a building bee hive plan by David Heaf for the warre or vertical top bar bee hive. The length of the top bar is 315mm, the floor board can be measured from 15 to 20mm, the floor boxes should be 1mm and the entrance notch in the floor should be 40mm to stay rigid.

9- KISS Langstroth Bee hives

This is the simplest plan for building a langstroth hive by bbe-tech. It has the basic floor, cover, boxes, quilt and the roof. The simple instructions will help you in making the best beehive. They require the basic material for wood which one can select from cedar, pine or timber and simple tools are needed for the construction of the hive.

10-Ten-Frame Langstroth Bee hive Plan 

The diagram can show a very simple way to make the bee hives like this one by howland blackiston at your home without any problem. For making a langstroth bee hive, select woods which can be timber, cedar or pine. The hive body should have length of 19 1/8” and depth of 9 ½”, similarly the floor and the roof should be taken in the exact measurements. The roof however should either be of metallic or other material which should be waterproof.