29th Year Transitioning To Other Things- and Finding A Use For Old Beekeeping Equipment

After 29 years of beekeeping, I am moving on. I'll do my best with the 2 or 3 surviving hives, but I made the decision and have been giving away all my gear, books, hives, and tools. I'm keeping enough for a few hives, but otherwise, calling it quits. 

Here are some of the supers and brood boxes I had a month ago in my back yard:



And here's today after a month of Craigslist -just a few left , and a stack of tops and bottoms. Plus a ton of empty frames. which are likely destined to become kindling. 




I have all these extra frames as I used a whole bunch of boxes in a way that is helping me to organize my incredibly messy shop- packed to the gills with tools and materials and cans of whatnot 

At first I didn't get a response on CL (in part as I mistakenly listed them under "antiques and collectibles!"), so I thought about other ways I might make use of them, and realized I could easily make drawers for my shop. Its turning out better than I expected, and my shop is slowly but surely getting organized!

Here is what I am doing:

Its simple-  just cut off the top  on a table saw, cut off a sixteenth on the bottom (to clean off the propolis), and then install full  extension hardware (6 bucks a piece on Amazon if you buy 10).  I then figured out how to mount them under the counters (with the goal of only using scrap wood), built rails, and installed them. I think they turned out really great. I even made some banks of them, 5 tall, which worked great too. Plus- in a flash of brilliant insight (modestly said)!, I realized I didn't have to buy plywood for the bottoms, but could use all the queen excluders I had collected. They clean up really well with a torch and a wire brush. Here's a drawer- the excluder is a perfect bottom, not dirt or sawdust can settle in the drawers!

I just screwed them in with 1/2" lathe screws- super easy, super strong:



These are the rails with the hardware on them.  I screw from below into the counter top.



And the glide on the side, 

And put it all together. So- here's one of the banks of drawers on one side of the shop, which will have 16 drawers, plus the other side with 13, so a final total of 29. By chance the same years I've been beekeeping- so sort of fitting memorial. Plus-though it might not look like it to you- the mess is much better ( but still a ways to go for sure!).

And here they are starting  to fill up. I'll build dividers for those that need it of course. My good friend Monroe wisely advised me not to make the drawers too deep, to discourage mounding up stuff.  Western box is about perfect for that, and its very good advice, though I plan on extending the lowest drawers for taller tools.

Its been a great hobby, and I'll miss it. Maybe I'll be back at it someday, who knows. To anyone who reads thus blog (the very special few, some apparently in Russia, even if they are only bots), thank you and good luck!