New ant proof hive stand

When I installed the screened bottom board, I also moved the hive onto a new ant-proof stand.  I hadn't gotten a picture of it until now, so here it is.

It is based off of a design here, or at least the idea of using high-temp grease in upside down cups instead of vaseline is.  I don't trust pounding a single pole in straight, and my wife doesn't want anything pounded in at all, for fear of hitting a sprinkler line, so even two per end wouldn't work.  So I welded a full frame up.  I originally tried it with an oxy/acetylene welder, because I was out of gas for my mig, but the welds just wouldn't hold.  They looked fine, but broke when I pounded on them.  I  finally remembered that I had some flux core wire laying around and used that.  1.5 hours per joint per attempt, several attempts over 3 days with the oxy welding, vs 15 minutes tops per joint with the flux-core.  So even if the oxy welds held, I wouldn't use that for something I really needed done soon unless I absolutely had to.


Anyway, only the far corner is a pvc cup-style cap.  The others are "test caps" from Lowe's.  I just happened to see them when I went to pick up three more of the cup style.  They don't have much of an inset area, but it doesn't really take much grease anyway, so I think they'll be fine.

The original post talks about "hanging" the caps, but doesn't say how.  A 1 1/4" drilled hole won't go over the pipe, so I suspect he actually twisted the caps down over the threads before threading his T connections on.  I went with 1-1/2" holes, which are too large.  I have a forstner bit somewhere that would work better if I could find it, but the markings are worn off.  I suspect it is actually 1-3/8".  I was using it on the fence posts to set my galvanized pipe cross braces, and the hole ended up just the right size to set the pipe into.

To hang these, I have large zip ties wrapped around the legs.  What I wanted to do was drill a hole through the leg and put a pin through, but I decided not to make the effort.

Off topic, but the syrup is really low in this picture.  But it's raining, and I don't want rain to go in the feeder while I am refilling it, so I'll wait until tomorrow for that.