Horizontal Hives
- Thread starter Prue47
- Start date
how long have you been beekeeping?
horizontal goes against bees instincts so they require manipulation to work.
also keep in mind that you can also pull honey out frame by frame on a vertical hive, just like a horizontal.
I had one for a couple of years. Got sick of constantly fiddling. Do yourself a favour and don't consider anything other than a conventional 3/4 deep Langstroth. I currently have a little bee family in a 6 frame 3/4 nuc. I intend supering this, so I'll probably end up with a skinny skyscraper. Because I too do not like wrestling heavy boxes. I'm not built like magilla gorilla and even a box of brood that's glued down really annoys me with unwieldiness..
Welcome to the forum by the way @Prue47 ! Why does the first responder always never notice a first post ??
Welcome to the forum by the way @Prue47 ! Why does the first responder always never notice a first post ??
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Why do you say it goes against bees instincts? Wild hives are horizontal
Wild hives in trees are vertical, just like conventional hives. The Auckland Bee Club has a 40 frame long hive that they can add suppers onto, and inspite of having had an AP 2 managing it several years ago, it always failed to thrive like the other full depth and 3/4 hives. It is entirely possible to manage hives by only ever lifting one frame at a time, and having spare boxes to put the frames into. For removing honey, have the container in a barrow, so no need to lift. I have a ramp onto my deck, so can bring barrow to the door at extraction time.
Where do you get that idea from. All the cut outs that I have ever done are vertical. Either in trees or buildings. Bees natural tendencies are to go up they do not like horizontal.
Bees naturally have to have vertical space to hang comb. They build up & down rather than sideways. Horizontal beekeepers have to keep inspecting & moving frames backwards & forwards to keep the bees from building themselves into a cram & swarming. Bench hives in my view are for experienced beeks who have a couple of season's experience with "conventional" hives...
I've linked a couple of @Trevor Gillbanks videos on long hives below:
also, looks like a horizontal hive might go for a very good price here if you're able to get someone down there to pick it up for you:
www.trademe.co.nz
also, looks like a horizontal hive might go for a very good price here if you're able to get someone down there to pick it up for you:
Used Horizontal Beehive with queen excluders | Trade Me Marketplace
Used home built (spring 2020) horizontal hive box with legs, stainless steel screen base, good for 2 colonies, 2 queen excluder included. External dimension...
www.trademe.co.nz
They don't build frames above existing frames as they are forced to do in a conventional hive, though do they
Umm, they build comb, and yes, kinda. Temperate bees operate in a vertical plane. It's physics, of gravity and heat.
Lots of us have used, and work with various different designs of horizontal hives, including me. We do know how they work and don't work, and we know novices struggle with them, for a variety of reasons.
Tell us more about what you are trying to achieve.
Lots of us have used, and work with various different designs of horizontal hives, including me. We do know how they work and don't work, and we know novices struggle with them, for a variety of reasons.
Tell us more about what you are trying to achieve.
Thanks for that link. Though that hive seems to open from the bee's entrance rather than from the back. Could just turn the lid around I guess. Good hive otherwiseI've linked a couple of @Trevor Gillbanks videos on long hives below:
also, looks like a horizontal hive might go for a very good price here if you're able to get someone down there to pick it up for you:
Used Horizontal Beehive with queen excluders | Trade Me Marketplace
Used home built (spring 2020) horizontal hive box with legs, stainless steel screen base, good for 2 colonies, 2 queen excluder included. External dimension...
Trevs hives are not an example of a horizontal hive though as it extends vertically. It's just two hives side by side.
Well what I'm asking is what are the reasons you've struggled with them. Other than having to switch frames around a bit which I've had to do with vertical hives anyway.
@Prue47 I should have asked earlier, what do you mean exactly by a horizontal hive?
People on this site have run all sorts of hive, it sounds as though you're thinking about a specific configuration? If so, it might help giving advice if you describe that configuration. It might match something I've run before, it might not. If it does match something I've run then I might be able to give some useful advice.
Regardless, if you haven't already watched it, I recommend investing six minutes in watching the first of those two videos I linked, you'll likely find some useful information irrespective of the configuration you're aiming for - he describes what he'd built and speculates on how it will run. Subsequent videos show how it runs once there are bees in it. At the end, it links into a subsequent video on moving bees into the hive
People on this site have run all sorts of hive, it sounds as though you're thinking about a specific configuration? If so, it might help giving advice if you describe that configuration. It might match something I've run before, it might not. If it does match something I've run then I might be able to give some useful advice.
Regardless, if you haven't already watched it, I recommend investing six minutes in watching the first of those two videos I linked, you'll likely find some useful information irrespective of the configuration you're aiming for - he describes what he'd built and speculates on how it will run. Subsequent videos show how it runs once there are bees in it. At the end, it links into a subsequent video on moving bees into the hive
you seam to have things back to front.
bees are not forced to go up in conventional hives.
in long hives bees are forced to go sideways.
one of the big problems with long hives is they are often not big enough to contain a full strength hive, hence its not uncommon for people to add vertical boxes to them.
as bees do not naturally expand sideways its very difficult to force bees to take up a full sized long hive.
long hives have been around for hundreds of years but very few use them because they do not work naturally with the bees.
That isn't what you asked, and I wasn’t aware of my struggle. I have one reference for you. Walt ( W.A.) Mangum’s Top-Bar Hive Beekeeping. He ran several hundred ‘horizontal’ hives for years and anything you’d want to know will be in there.
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Welcome to the forum @Prue47.
You have been fortunate to receive some very learned advice from some of our members who have freely told you of their own personal experiences with long hives. There’s probably 200 years of beekeeping plus experience in the comments above. These are people whose advice you can trust.
Good luck with your bees
You have been fortunate to receive some very learned advice from some of our members who have freely told you of their own personal experiences with long hives. There’s probably 200 years of beekeeping plus experience in the comments above. These are people whose advice you can trust.
Good luck with your bees
I made a long hive a few years ago. It took conventional full depth frames and was the equivalent of three full depth boxes side-by-side so effectively it was close to 3 1/2 boxes. Initially I had the entrance at one end and this was not satisfactory as no matter how full it got the bees would not go down the far end and when they were on a good honey flow they would just completely jam out the brood nest. I then change it to an entrance halfway along which put the brood nest in the middle and they were somewhat better at working towards both ends but it still needed a lot of manipulation. I kept it for quite a few years mainly to show hobbyists something different when they came to visit but I was not sorry when the box went rotten.
Bees will live in almost anything and I have seen them in everything from rabbit holes and holes in cliffs to making a hive in tree branches. The reality is however that they do better in some (hives) than others and while I found it perfectly possible to keep bees in my long hive I strongly believe they do better in a vertical hive.
Long hives have one big advantage in town and that is that they don't look like a beehive and with a couple of flowerpots on top, most of your neighbours won't even know you've got a hive.
After saying all that against them if a long hive is what you want then you can keep bees successfully in them. I would suggest going with the central entrance and something close to a three box equivalent. You can always use a follower board to restrict them in winter although I think they are a bit of a waste of time and bees only heat the bit they are using.
Bees will live in almost anything and I have seen them in everything from rabbit holes and holes in cliffs to making a hive in tree branches. The reality is however that they do better in some (hives) than others and while I found it perfectly possible to keep bees in my long hive I strongly believe they do better in a vertical hive.
Long hives have one big advantage in town and that is that they don't look like a beehive and with a couple of flowerpots on top, most of your neighbours won't even know you've got a hive.
After saying all that against them if a long hive is what you want then you can keep bees successfully in them. I would suggest going with the central entrance and something close to a three box equivalent. You can always use a follower board to restrict them in winter although I think they are a bit of a waste of time and bees only heat the bit they are using.
I have been thinking the same recently , about having nucs.......even my 8 frame FD is quite heavy, but Trevor pointed out a few years ago it wouldn’t be practical in NZ .....interested in how using nuc boxes instead of FD could play out...
I have recently been pondering on using nuc boxes, even my 8 frame FD is too heavy, thinking of trying 8 frame 3/4. A reply to my post a few years back was that nucs wouldn’t be practical in NZ .....wonder how it could play out.....I‘m 1.5m so wouldnt want it too high😁