Crown board and clearer board

Time to get back to hive construction! First of all, cut a square of thin plywood 460mm by 460mm. I've used 6mm thick ply, but you could use 9mm if you want a more sturdy board. Then cut 8 pieces of 25mm by 6mm strip wood all 435mm long. Nail the pieces of strip wood around the edges of the plywood on both side using small 12mm long nails. The following photo shows the crown board with half of the strips attached. It's a good idea to stagger the joins in the wooden strips on either side of the plywood.

Nail the rest of the strips in place as shown in the following photo. That's the basic structure of the crown board finished.

You could use the crown board like this, but it is usually convenient to have a feed hole in the crown board. Check what size of hole you require - a 35mm diameter hole is what is needed for the rapid feeders that I use. Cut the feed hole in the centre of the crown board. I find that it is a good idea to place the empty feeder on the crown board making sure that it is lined up properly with the hole and then carefully mark a line with a pen or pencil around the outside of the feeder. When feeding this makes it easy to ensure that the feeder full of syrup is in the right place!

When using the crown board without a feeder, simply close off the hole by placing a piece of plywood (or any other flat solid object) over the hole. If you want to leave the hole open for ventilation you can place a small piece of wire mesh (the varroa floor mesh is ideal) over the hole and secure it in place with drawing pins if you wish.

Now, if you are making a clearer board (or escape board) you follow exactly the same procedure, except now the type and size of hole you require depends on what type of bee escape device you will use. If you are using Porter bee escapes you will need to cut oval holes (not easy!) and they will need to be a good fit. I recently bought some large circular escapes that I'm going to try (see photo).

The advantage of this type of escape is that the size and shape of the hole is not critical. I think I'll be able to use the same size holes as for the rapid feeders which means that all I have to do to turn the crown board into a clearer board if attach the circular escape using drawing pins. Incidentally the photo above shows the underside of the clearer board - the bees would come down through the hole in the centre of the board and then out along the spoke-like channels.