12x16 in SW VA

[Adam Roby]

First coat of primer/paint on, second coat will be on today...

Do you have a lot of experience keeping bees?  My buddy has a few hives and insists each should be painted a different color to help the bees identify their homes from far.  Not sure how true that is... maybe more of a family "wives tale".  Still, it makes for interesting looking hives.  He goes to the local paint stores and asks for whatever bad mixes were done recently.  He has pink and orange, yellow and blue... funky looking but it works.  He also had a lot of trouble with bears breaking into the hives and killing them off.  They thought they had lost everything 2 years back, so they just piled the empty boxes on top of an old trailer that had back there.  Last summer we went up and saw all kinds of action in the boxes... the hives came back and the bear could no longer reach them so that is their new home.  Imagine all these bright colored boxes on top of an old rusted trailer... funny sight.

[egf89]

Don, what's the point of a 10ft eave height other than to allow more headroom in a loft? I did state loft in my original post. 6x6 were as big as I could find without having to have something specially milled. I'm trying to do this with all stock materials. I've seen 16x20 storage buildings advertised with storage lofts that are built on 6x6 skids. Math may not work out, but I'm gonna give it the real life test.

Adam, this will be my first experience with bees. I've also read that having them painted different colors helps them find the proper hive. But at the same time the commercial operations have several hives on a pallet all painted the same color and may have dozens of pallets in an orchard or crop field and the bees seems to find their hives ok. I just wanted to get them painted and ready to go. May go back and decorate some of the hive bodies whenever they need to be repainted.  I shouldn't have any issues with bears. I have 6 strands of electric all the way around my place and it's done with alternating hot/ground wires. Packs quite a punch. I've accidentally gotten into it a few times trimming the fence line.

[pmichelsen]

I've seen 16x20 storage buildings advertised with storage lofts that are built on 6x6 skids. Math may not work out, but I'm gonna give it the real life test.

One question would be what are the approved foundation types for these sheds.

Also, remember you can always make different sizes using nails and adhesive.

[MountainDon]

I've seen 16x20 storage buildings advertised with storage lofts that are built on 6x6 skids.

Storage sheds and habitable buildings have different rules. What one can use for a general purpose shed often does not have the same standards.