In the area i live in, there are many skunks. That in itself doesn’t bother me in the least, since i view skunks as beneficial animals. They eat all kinds of insects and small creatures i can do without. Thing is, they will also come up to a beehive, scratch at the entrance, and eat the bees that come out to see who’s knocking.
Since I like bees and skunks (though i do prefer bees), and want to keep the bees around and the skunks away, i knew i had to do something about the skunks liking to eat the bees. Also, at my advanced age and frail condition I prefer to not have to bend way over to tend the hives. It made sense to raise the hives above skunk level. I could put a couple planks across some blocks like the last time I kept bees, but since the front porch is the apiary, i thought something a bit more aesthetically pleasing would be preferable.
It also gets very windy here on the hill. One day a few weeks ago on a nice day i thought i would assemble hive frames (where i want the bees to put comb) sitting outside on my front porch. After my hammer blew away for the third time i moved the assembly line into the living room. Since it does get so windy, i wanted a way to hold the hives down so they do not blow over.
So i figured the solution to both issues would be to build boxes to raise the hives, and weigh the boxes so they don’t blow away, and give me something to strap the hives down on the boxes.
I am not going to go into complete construction details here. The idea was originally to use concrete pavers to weigh the boxes down but whilst in the masonry area of the big box lumber store i noticed that for the price of a single paver i could buy a 50 lb bag of sand. So the plan changed right then. The bag of sand could go into a bucket that fits on a frame inside the box. Honestly, i now think it would have been easier to simply make a floor inside the box and set the sand bag on the floor. But that was an after-construction epiphany. If i build more boxes that is what i will do. Photos follow
Finished boxes. 
Merlin likes to help with projects! 
Bucket in place. I placed the bag of sand in the bucket after this photo. 
Inside of box showing blocks to keep the bucket in place
So there you have it, now we wait for the ladies to become available to fill the hives!
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