I’m a beekeeper and I was going to try and make frames for the bees once I get my glowforge. I’m worried the bees won’t like the burnt wood smell since those girls are very particular about smells. Is there anyway to get rid of the smell after cutting hardwood/plywood? The girls are also very particular about chemical smells.
I would think that sanding the cut edges might do wonders for that. Alternately, sealing it, but you mention particular about chemical smells, so not sure what there. Could always try washing with natural cleansers or using essential oils. Then again, not sure how they’d respond to essential oils, where the fragrance can also get rather strong.
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There are a few essential oils that they respond well to, mainly lemongrass and lavender
Could you do some experimental cuts and place the items near the hive to observe their behaviors with specific pieces? It might give some clues.
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Love that bees do well with those. They drive mosquitoes nuts with loathing.
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It will be fun to play around with the frames I can make. The bees are Nature’s 3d printer. Perhaps I can get the bees to make a glowforge logo out of honeycomb.
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THAT would be something to see. Naturally, share if you do.
Former beekeeper here (got allergic. 
)
In your place, I’d:
- Sand lasered edges.
- Seal those edges with hot propolis or maybe a coat of beeswax.
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It will probably have to be next spring, by October they are getting ready for winter and stockpiling up honey instead of turning it into comb. But I will put pictures forth once it happens.
There was a girl in my Beekeeping club that got allergic, then cleared that up with bee venom therapy. She can get stung now and only has a normal reaction. I do however understand that idea is kind of scary at the surface though.
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I’d really love to do that, it’s just a question of hobby priorities for me right now.
What’s worse for me is orchard fruits. I love pears, but can’t have them (or apples, or peaches, or a handful of other stuff) raw.
Once a year I Benadryl myself up to the gills and then crack out on Harry and David pears for a day.
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So glad that you asked this! I was just thinking about this yesterday … beekeeping is probably not an option for me, but someone here (forgive me, I forgot who) suggested orchard bees + bee boxes.
I was also pondering glowforge’d “bug hotels” … there may be a formal name for these, but I don’t know it. Basically, a structure for beneficial insects, like so:
Edited to add: also wondering about this same issue in regards to bird houses. Would the charred smell be a deterrent to them?
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we call them bug or insect hotels, too. we hung one out on our garden early in the year, and i noticed the other day that most of the tubes are filled with egg sacs by now.
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Saw a post the other day (online, not here) that really made me think, it essentially said:
“That moment when I realized that they cut down Birds houses in order to make Bird Houses”
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I think those are for Mason Bees which happen to be some of the best pollinators there are, they just don’t venture more than an acre away from their house.
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you could make a bunch of things that they could build tbeir combs on for artwork. Bees are amazing.
Yes, mason bees but also solitary wasps, butterflies and ladybugs too. Looks like there are different types for different bugs. I don’t know, it’s something I’ve considered but not yet tried.
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I see how it is! 
kidding. Orchard bees are a type of Mason bee.
I’m thinking the GF could be used for a number of different types of small fauna habitats. I’m currently putting together a number of CAD designs for bird houses but habitats for bees (both colony and solitary), bats, etc should all be viable via a laser cutter.
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I’d buy 'em!!!
Laser cut bat houses…another thing I have to look into making for sale.
The big deal would be making a bat house with the exterior shaped like the house there. I’ve seen mailboxes like that.
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