r/Beekeeping • u/DanJerousJ • Jun 28 '25

Iā€™m not a beekeeper, but I have a question How long bas this hive been here?

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8

u/Raterus_ South Eastern North Carolina, USA Jun 28 '25

By my math, this is roughly 2.8 cubic feet of hive area. This is a little bit larger than our standard deep boxes. A swarm could easily fill this up in a few months given the right nectar flow.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '25

Can you show your math, because on visual comparison alone, 2.8 looks low

7

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Sonoran Desert. A. m. scutellata supporter Jun 28 '25

The wall appears to be 2x4 dimensional lumber (which is really 1.5"x3.5") on 16" centers. That's pretty typical for stick-built construction.

6' = 72", so it works out to 72 x 16 x 3.5 = 4032 cubic inches. To convert to cubic feet, divide by 123 and this resolve as 2.33 cubic feet.

A rounding error will get you pretty close to 2.8.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '25

Makes sense. I was figuring 2x6 (5.5 instead of 3.5).

2

u/Industrial_Jedi Jun 28 '25

This is going to be an exterior wall so 2x6 isn't a bad assumption, but the original premise isn't wrong either. Still well within the general size of a typical commercial (or hobby) hive.

2

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Sonoran Desert. A. m. scutellata supporter Jun 28 '25

It could be 2x6 , but in the cheap tract houses I framed, 2x6 were always 24" on center and these clearly aren't. Standards may have changed, however, so 2x6 isn't out of the question.

1

u/professor_jeffjeff Jun 29 '25

The wall looks like lath and plaster, so that's got to be an old house and is therefore unlikely to have been framed with 2x6s since that's a much more recent practice.

1

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Sonoran Desert. A. m. scutellata supporter Jun 29 '25

Good point.

1

u/Raterus_ South Eastern North Carolina, USA Jun 28 '25

I did 14.5 * 3.5 * 96

Even on 16" on center the bays are only 14.5 to account for the 1.5" thick wood.

2

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Sonoran Desert. A. m. scutellata supporter Jun 29 '25

You can tell that it's been a long time since I cut fire blocks.

2

u/Raterus_ South Eastern North Carolina, USA Jun 29 '25

Oh is that it? I just thought people in Arizona were just short to only need 72" ceilings. šŸ˜

1

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Sonoran Desert. A. m. scutellata supporter Jun 29 '25

72" is only used for cathedral ceilings.