It being Weekend Wednesday yesterday, I worked on the bee shed project again.

The task of the day was to build the shelving supports — 2×4 boards onto which plywood sheets will later be mounted to make U-shaped shelves in the back half of the shed.

The framing for the back shelves are mounted to the wall boards with screws from the outside, so I unscrewed and lifted the existing side corrugated panel to access that board:

Here is one of those supports, for the front edge of the middle back shelf; I used clamps below the board to rest it on while I screwed it into the wall boards:

These boards are 2’ from the back — or more precisely, positioned so that the distance from the back of the back wall board to the front of the front support board is 2’. The plywood sheet will span that distance, resting on the wall boards on three sides, and the above board on the front, with cutouts around the poles. 

2’ deep shelves is a convenient size, as it’s just perfect for beehive boxes, plus I can get two shelves out of a 4×8’ sheet of plywood. (The shed is 8’ wide.)

Looking from the front of the shed towards the three back shelf supports:

Then I started on the side shelves; here you can see the middle shelf done, and working on the bottom one:

All three right side ones done:

The side shelves are 2×4’, also a convenient size, to get four shelves out of each 4×8’ plywood sheet. I’ll need exactly three sheets to do all of the shelves. Almost like I planned it. (Narrator voice: he did.)

While the corrugated panel was lifted, I took the opportunity to add extra bits of wood to the corner post, to help fill in the gap between the post and panel. I have some gap filler bits that match the corrugated pattern to fill in that last little bit, too, that I’ll add next time:

The completed U-shaped shelf framing. These will be topped by plywood sheets after the wall cladding is in place:

I had considered adding a vertical board to help support the front corners of the side shelves, but the shelves seem plenty sturdy without that, so I decided it wasn’t needed.

A closer look at the left side:

This extra board on the side shelf has a dual purpose: it makes the shelf stronger, and more importantly will support the edge of the plywood of the side shelf:

Looking from outside:

The right side:

I stacked a couple of deep beehive boxes on the top shelf to see if they’d fit; yep:

We mostly use mediums, so they’ll fit even better. But there’s plenty of shelving space, so we probably won’t need to stack them anyway.

More corner post gap-reducing additions:

A couple of outside angles, with the side corrugated panel temporarily anchored down again; I will need to lift it again to install other panels below it:

That’s it for now. The next step is to add the corrugated cladding. It’s expected to rain for the next few days, so I might not get back to it for a week or so; we’ll see.

Yesterday I did more work on the bee shed project. I was supposed to be working on Dejal stuff, but I decided to take advantage of the sunny weather instead. A benefit of being self-employed. (I still got what I needed to do done last night.)

The activity of the day was adding 2×6 boards onto which the corrugated panels will be attached.

Here are two 12’ boards clamped to the posts:

And screwed in place, along with an 8’ 2×4 board below the bottom one to fill a gap:

They are attached with deck screws; I like them as they’re self-drilling, corrosion-resistant, and have a square hole (apparently called a Robertson drive type) that doesn’t slip as much as the more common Phillips style:

The boards at ground level follow the slope of the ground (dug in a little; this is treated wood, designed for ground contact):

More wall framing:

I made the middle two (almost) level, since shelving will be attached to them:

That’s done:

Next up (today): shelving supports.

On Sunday I started work on the bee shed project. See the first post for the background and design of this project.

Here’s the old potting shelter, along with a cart load of materials and tools:

It being a warm day, the beehives were active for the first time this year, busy with their cleansing flights, where they clear out dead bees and poop a lot:

My first step was to straighten some of the posts that weren’t quite vertical, using my post level, a mattock, a soil scoop, and a rubber mallet to knock them into position:

I did that for three of the posts:

Next I cleared out the debris and smoothed the ground to be somewhat more level, using some boards and a shovel; it still has a slope, but less lumpy than before:

Then I adding some weed mat, both as a barrier against weeds (not very likely once enclosed) and against burrowing animals:

On top of that I added some interlocking rubber flooring panels:

Finally, I trimmed the weed mat to fit around the posts, and anchored it in position with metal stakes:

Next up, I will mount the 2×6 boards for the walls. The bottom boards will go over the weed mat to avoid having a gap. Stay tuned!