Hi from Spain. I really like those new table hives, will be interesting to see how they come along. A little tip (that i kept learning the hard way) i always (now) carry a little stapler just in case i get a rip in my head veil whilst i'm in the thick of it. It works as a temp fix until i get home and sew it up. Great video.
I don't want to highjack this video, but want to leave some observations. but i came a cross a video on these several years ago and liked the idea (i have a really bad back) so i built 4 of these 3 years ago, but have only used 2 up till this year. Still learning with them. Some things to consider. I built mine with 1" pink foam insulation sandwiched between 2 pieces 1/2" BC plywood for the sides and end piece. I did this for warmth. Gets cold here in Nebraska. I will also insulate the bottom on any future ones i make. I also put a pitched roof (3/8" plywd covered with metal) with hinges on 1 side and a chain to hold the top when opening it to keep it from falling clear back over to the other side. I left a gap at the top where the plywood met and covered it with mesh screen for ventalation and put a metal cap over this to keep out the rain. I also use 4x4 legs that i notch out and actually sit the frame on and bolt to them. The 2x4 legs on the hives above i wouldn't trust once that hive gets full of honey. It wobbled quite a bit already. Mines rock solid. Having my own construction company for over 26 years gives me a pretty good background in building. Built it to the exact inside demensions of a Langsford hive so i can use the same frames. Make sure ur top boards are within 3/8" of the top of ur frames, or the bees will make honey comb between them. I learned the hard way. I cut a hole in the bottom to put a sliding piece (10"x14")on the bottom to be able to allow some ventalation in the summer. Really don't need this i don't think. What i'm finding out is , being high off the ground way to much cold circulates under them in the winter which is making it to hard for bees to sustain warmth. Killed off hives both the last 2 winters. This winter , i just finished enclosing them (around the legs) with 1 1/2" foam insulation (6R value), i enclosed 2 hives together so as to use a 2'x 8' piece as my hives are 4' long each. I placed a bunkhouse heater under each set , already set on low, that i will plug in and use in really cold weather. I'll insert a candy thermometer thru the insululation to see temp as i only want the dead air space to be in the high 20's. Hopefully i won't even need these heaters. The insulation will also block wind from under the hives. I don't want to heat the hives. The heatersb/ will only b turned on if extreme cold. Last year our winter didn't arrive until Feb 1st. Then we had 3 months of extreme bitter cold and snow. I lost my only 1 of these hives i had established & 1 super strong langsford hive. The only hive that survived was a top bar hive i had in the front yard protected by some old stand evergreens. i've got 4 of these going for this winter. 1 is not as strong as i would like going into winter as i had a late swarm i collected. I also have a really strong langsford hive and the top bar hive is really strong once again. Hopefully they make it thru this winter as i really like this concept . Another thing, i put a piece of insulation inside the roof over the boards leaving the vent holes open as there is condensation in the winter and it still needs to breathe, but heat escapes upwards. This helps keep the bees heat inside. I hope some of this helps those wanting to build their own
I am about to start this "hobby" and planning building my boxes. Is what you are saying is horizontal hive boxes are much more difficult to keep warm and maintain over cold weather spells than vertical ones? Did I misunderstand that? If so is the advantage of having the frames easier to access worth the risk?
George, this was very helpful. I have built to horizontal hives for the summer, and I am worried about insulating it enough for next winter. I live in upstate New York. Thank!
This idea has legs...I am going to seriously consider this for next season. I am a first year keeper and have two healthy hives. I am a bit concerned about a proper winter plan. All the advice for wintering colonies is directed toward cold northern states and Canada. Since you have experience and success in South Texas I would find your advice very helpful in wintering my hives here in San Antonio. Please consider a video on wintering for South Texas.
I’m onboard! Natural bee keeping all the way for me! Watching the episodes on Doug & Stacy inspired me as well! A much better system than traditional vertical nightmares!
Thank you for showing old Ukraine hive! It’s not top bar hive because have frames inside! I have 2 hive like your for 21 frames each! But for summer time not enough room for honey I put second box! Good luck for you! You have a great time! I’m living in Bellingham Wa!
I would suggest adding a locking compression cylinder. These are used on screen doors for example. They cost around 10 bucks, this should protect you on windy days from closing the lid on your hands or head providing you engage the lock. You can get sealed one or grease with grapeseed oil instead of industrial oils, so it doesn't effect the bees.
Yes, queen excludes are possible just as you can also have a false-end board. I do not have a y horizontal hives but have scrutinized this and have found some designs do much better than others. Block foam 'weather stripping' or heavy vynal can work. I'll cross that bridge before long but using langstroth rather than laynes hives as my spinning equipment is langstroth
Nice color copy cat! I built my yellow bottom horizontal hive three months ago. I built a gable top and painted it salmon for some contrast before adding a layer of aluminum. I like the width of your inner top boards mine are narrower. I I reccomend keeping a deep or two for transferring honey frames into when harvesting honey.
I built 2 for my first year of beekeeping and love them. I can check parts of the hive without disturbing the whole colony. An added bonus, they survived a bear attack with no damage to the hive.
Really? How so, as they seem like pushovers to me, then everything would spill out for a bear dining experience. PS/slow cooked black bear stew is very delicious, plus you get a free rug.
I saw their video also. We have only had bees 3-4 years now, but I like the idea also. I wonder about the bees filling the outside frames though. We have trouble getting them to fill all the frames with the vertical ones. The other possible problem I can see is Idaho winters can be tough. The farther the honey is from the center, the harder it is for the bees to reach their food supplies.
Horizontal hive bees definitely is the way to go for me ! many thanks . I'll building these fall some of them and get rid of the regular langstroth , I don't like to have that many equipment ,and is must easier to work with.I was looking for something different ,somehow found your channel ,glaad I did ! the only thing I would change I'm going to use thicker wood. I enjoy watching your videos many many thanks!
Becoming interested in beekeeping but I'm in the city suburbs. I came across Dr. Leo on RUclips and I now own his book, "Keeping Bees with a Smile". Definitely think that horizontal hives are the way to go, and so is natural beekeeping, from what I've learned so far. Glad to see you making the switch. Those look really nice!
So glad you've come over to the horizontal side! I've been using horizontal hives since 2015 and love them. I don't get as much honey, but one day I may make a queen excluder and a horizontal TB super to put on top just for honey production.I saw a video from Africa where someone is doing that with great success. I have gone completely treatment-free; The first year I fed my bees sugar water to give them a leg up. I have never treated for mites, but the hive _is_ made from full 1"-thick western red cedar, which contain thujone oils that have been proven to adversely affect Varroa mites but not bees, (I can look up the studies if you are interested.) That winter (here in snow country) I poured a couple of pounds of sugar on the bottom board of the hive body - not fondant, not sugar water, just granulated, organic, white cane sugar. The next year, I didn't feed them except for some more sugar in January. Last year I didn't feed them at all. They are strong and healthy, and swarm every year. I believe swarming is how they cleanse the colony of mites. My hive bodies have 3 open 2"-holes in the long side of the hive. The fist year, I only opened one hole at the far end of one side; they didn't build out more than a third of the box. The next year, I opened the middle "door", and they built out another third of the top bars. Last year, I opened the lat "door", and they built out all of the bars. BTW - since we get up to 3 feet of snow for up to 3 months where I live, I only harvest honey in the spring after the first nectar flow begins.
Hi Kirsten . Thanks for the info I am in Canada . Just wondering how you winterize your longhive. I have 3 inch foam in the cover . Thanks for any info Dan
@@danh1202 Hey, Dan. I am in Western Washington on the northern Olympic Peninsula outside of Sequim - I can see Victoria, BC most days. In what part of Canada are you located? Since I'm on the coast, my winters are pretty mild: Zone 8. While there may be snow on the ground for up to 3 months at my altitude (~500 feet/~152.4 meters), it doesn't get very cold here - only about 15° F/-9.44° C at the very coldest. Consequently, I don't need to do much to winterize the hive. My hives were built with fully 1" thick Thuja plicata (western red cedar) by a company in Portland, Oregon called Bee Thinking, now defunct. It is such an awesome hive that I bought 4 of them a few years before they went out of business. It has a water repellent roof with an overhang that keeps the hive dry in our wet winters. There are ventilation holes under the "eaves". Some of my hives have mesh bottoms with sliding covers, but others have solid wood bottoms. The latter seem best for my area since it never gets very hot and I don't seem to have an overabundance of Varroa mites. The one thing that worried me about my hive was winter moisture. The first year or two, I thought about making a winter quilt like those used in Warré hives, but I've not gotten around to it. My bees seem to do very well in the Kenyan TBH, as is. I have come to be very hands off with them - they seem to know how to take care of themselves very well without my interference not that they are fully established. Last winter, I forgot to cap off all but one entrance to the hive. I posted pictures last March or April on FB of my hive with 3 feet of snow on the roof. They still thrived despite my benign neglect. Some people in the local bee club wrap their Langstroth and\or Warré hives with quilts and tar paper. They use ratchet straps to keep the covers on. That's about all I can offer. I hope it helps. Best wishes!
Awesome video Blake, I love the looks of the horizontal hives even better than the top bar hives and I think they would be even easier to build as well. Can't wait to see the transition taking place. Good Luck.
I would put gussets on the legs for stability AND tie the hive down to the ground so the wind will not blow the hive over. Tie the hive to the ground with either lags into the ground on leg brackets or a single wire from the center of the hive screwed down into the ground like using a dog run ground screw. Over all I like the design, great job.
Great video. This is my first year keeping bees and I am using a long hive. I have a peaked roof for better insulation and I can fit different feeders under it if needed. I put my bees in on June 1 and everything looks great so far.
The attic will be a good spot to place hive beetle traps. That thing is built to give them spots to hide. Every slat provides all that length for hiding.
You can take your vertical deeps take off ends of the ones that will be in center and one end of the ones that will fit on each end and make new horizontals we did :) Love our horizontals. You can reuse the supers to make a medium horizontal to use in spring to raise queens or make nucs. Just add divider boards and holes rotating front to back so the holes are not too close to each other.
These kind of hives was native to Serbia, Vojvodina region. Then they got suppressed bu LR style of hive. I work with "Poloska", a hive with 20 frames (42x30cm) and i am very satisfied with them. It's very easy to work with them and bees are extra happy with them. Swarms are a lot stronger than in LR :D
I have been thinking about trying out a few of these hives. Probably would of been a good idea to put them in the order you took them out of the old hive. Would be less confusing for the bees. Everything would of been the same just a new box.
awesome to see you doing this and can't wait to watch your results. I just built one to experiment with for next year. Should be a lot easier on my back.
I'm a nub this year. Started with a vertical hive in May. Got a second queen by end of June while I was in the process of building my first horizontal hive. I found my follower board is not quite deep enough. My ladies squeezed under it. Sitting here now I just thought of an idea to add a strip of felt along the bottom. Thanks for the idea! I have split my ladies once more. I now have 2 vertical and the 1 horizontal hive.
@@00448296 I ripped a thicker board for the top of the follower board to fill the bee space above and used peg board that I had laying around. Oops! Peg board makes for a good queen excluder. LOL. I then lined the peg board with #8 hardware cloth.
In Romania the horizontal hive is the traditional hive. It has some advantages: one model of frames, not to lift heavy, much brood and bees, the frames remains always in the box and you don't need a special place (sheed) to store them. Also has some big disadvantages: the box is heavy, difficult to move in transhumance beekeeping, less honey versus vertival hive, the frames for honey are exposed to treatments for varroaa mites and the chemicals will fix in the wax, these hives are not practical for profesional beekeepers because requairs more time for regular controls and works.
The vents look too small for the amount of water evolved from concentrating the nectar to honey and wax. A trolley can be easy to make from a couple of old bicycles
In middle east we have like this design but with some change we call it Abu Salman Natural System we don't need to give them any sugar or any anti faro any the bee need only 16 day to get out of the cell the system very powerful
If you noticed when you removed the frames from the old hive that honey was on the outside and brood in the middle, you place it on opposite side. The honey acts as an insulated around the brood
Winner of a video, I have been researching "build your beehive" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Tiyia Beehive Basophilic - (search on google ) ? Ive heard some super things about it and my friend got amazing results with it.
Hello - I plan to become a beekeeper and will build a horizontal hive. Question: Do you divide your colony - i.e., do you separate the frames that keep the queen and brood from the frames which you use to harvest honey? If so, how do you ensure that the queen does not crawl out and into the harvesting frames between the covers you place over the frames and the top of the frames? Many thanks in advance for your answer.
So interesting! We were supposed to "foster" some beehives this year but the beekeeper had a bad year so not enough splits to put any out here. There's always next year!
Pull outside frame first . You should be able to visually see where the bees are. Go to opposite side. As I see you rolled bees taking a middle frame first. Thanks for sharing your time!
I use silicone sealer on my vail to seal tears. I put it on a board and smear the silicone over it and 1/2" beyond the torn area. Work well and last a long time.
Looking forward to seeing how this progresses for you. don't be too quick to sell off your woodenware, you may need it for splits, nucs, etc. also will need them to tote the frames when you rob them of their honey. Still think you should do a couple of top bars. :D
I built a few of these years ago. The "Kenya" type of top bars are more problems. You tear off cross comb, or just combs, because you can't see cross- combing until you move the bar. Frames are good, consider making an inner cover or 2 with regular bee space dimensions. Youll need to modify or delete the hinge set up. Keep using an extractor, and reusing your frames. If you are setting them up foundationless, the work you save you bees is quite a lot. Just a few things I ran into, I'm passing them on. I still like Langstroth hives better. You may too after a while. I have big 48" frame storage boxes now, but they could have bees again.
That is the tough part. In my country we call the excluder a hanemam grate. They do not come for horizontal hives usually. This hive type has been in use for a very long time and considered archaic and not suitable for productive beekeeping in my area. They are still used for a static apiary on a semi pro level(my family always kept between 30 to 70 hieves) there were times when we would allow them to swarm naturally and just sell the swarms. . Made more money by selling the bees than the honey. Needles to say this type is NOT a high efficiency commercial hive. It has it's quirks and drawbacks, but it's less demanding on the back and the bees can go longer untended. As to how to exclude the queen, my grandad always said :you will never see a queen cross a full frame of honey. So as long as you have a couple of frames of honey between the brood and empty frames you should be ok
@@ronsmith6233 I agree. No lifting, one size of frames and plenty of space for expasinon. The hives my grandfather used had 18 frames, so smaller. It's just that the accesories for this type of hives are less comon or nobody makes them as there is little demand for them. In Eastern Europe, where I am from you can find some as these hives are still in use in by subsistence farmers, I don't know if that is the case for the West.
Love it! I just finished the illustrations for Dr. Leo's new book coming out next spring. I have build 4 of these now and I love them. I've also come up with a few improvements to minimize lumber waste, and have a full set of drawings to match. My design also allows for hive top feeders, if you would be so inclined. I actually have (6) 1" entrance holes, using plastic rotatable hive entrance discs rather than slots. Also included the bottom tray with screened bottom. Great video!
When you went into your bee yard to clear the weeds, I thought "That looks like hot, crispy Texas." Then I scrolled down and saw you're in Cibolo! I'm a little north of you in the Austin area. Looking forward to seeing how the long lang's work for you!
I like the horizontal hives. I would want a peaked roof, though, added on to top of the flat roof for insulation as well as rain run off. Oh...and snow, lol. Keep forgetting I moved to a place where it snows!
They look great! It has to be easier than moving all of those boxes around and squashing some of the bees when you do move them. Im excited to see how it goes.
Just clicked on this, form a komcha video, and wanted to mention, shungite. A mineraloid crystal. Heard the other day that it very helpful for bees, and helps them withstand some of the environmental stress they are exposed to... Even in the best of locales. thought to pass that on, as I love bees.
Dr. Leo suggested the deeper box for colder climates. I asked him if my design was good for Texas (warm climate) and he agreed that the 9 inch deep frame design was good. Up north he likes the Layens deeper frames.
If your veil needs minor repair/s, I suggest you sew the tears with fishing line. If the line just fits a darning needle, it’ll hold up to the rigours of beekeeping. I volunteer with a charity and part of my work there, is checking and prepping bee suits for their training courses. Veils occasionally get damaged. The advantages for me, is that a small reel goes a long way. And regardless of veil colour, there’ll be a line colour to match, (presentation being important).
You will do everything you can to make it work but in the end you will go back to the vertical hives.I have been there decades ago. I saw these in Bee Culture magazine back nearly 40 years ago.I like the idea but it just doesnt work like we always hope for.There is a reason everyone goes back to vertical hives.Good luck and have fun with your bees.
Me2. Built two top bars. It was fun but really not sustainable here in central Illinois. If you just want to watch a colony grow and harvest a little honey for yourself its great. They don't winter well horizontally.
In a hive like this, do the move laterally during the winter and stay clustered? My concern would be winter time, with the cluster ending up on one side and all of their resources on the other side. Totally interesting... just curious about cold winters.
Interesting weed eater choice... but I see the point... quiet. Our bees don't seem to mind a gas weed eater or the lawn mower. Funny the temperament of them in various locals.
I hate to disappoint you but I built three of these and my bees never liked moving horizontally inside the boxes. After two years, I gave up and put them in Apimayes and they are booming.
I may be being a little paranoid when I say this, as I am an Australian who despite never witnessing or being in one is fully aware of the dangers of a bushfire, but I couldn't let anything, plants or weeds, grow that tall. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I also wouldn't let it get that dry and remain on my property, especially if it was surrounded by what appears to be some sort of bushland or forest in the background. I would be using that as fuel for the smoker, or as kindling for camping trips or a woodfire heater. Or, if I grew my own vegetables and fruit I would put it in a compost bin for fertiliser. I would never in a million years let it get that grown and out of control, especially considering it makes a perfect place for hive beatles and wax moths to hide outside the hives. Oh, and snakes and spiders. So many potential major risks that could lead to harm to yourself, your bees, or your entire property, but can be easily managed in minutes, and without excess carbon being emitted given you can now get battery operated line trimmers and lawn mowers that have brilliant battery life and are decently priced, and create minimal noise. Sorry if I come across as picky, but I am paranoid about this stuff, especially now Australia is getting into Summer.
FormulaFish15 I was shuddering looking at that too. I have a piece of cheap artificial lawn in my bee yard, it's pretty dazzlingly green in summer but it saves trying to deal with long grass - I don't mow lawns, I have four-legged lawnmowers for that but I'm not letting the cattle into the bee yard. I think a concrete pad would be even better though. I've never been in a fire myself, but I had friends lose their house in Black Saturday and I'm old enough to remember Ash Wednesday too, when the whole sky was orange. I think every adult Australian is paranoid about long grass, it's both tinder and snake harbour.
Teal Kerberus Exactly! I wasn’t alive for it, but my father and grandparents have told me about Tasmania’s Black Tuesday on many occasions. In 5 hours most of Southern Tasmania had been affected by fire. I think 67 people died, 1000’s left homeless, whole communities burned to the ground, with only the clothes on their back and their lives remaining. It was so bad it even burned in the city and the built up suburbs. Hundreds of homes were lost in the Northern Suburbs, where I now live. My old primary School was surrounded by spotfires they were continuously being put out by teachers, and even the principal. Houses on the main road burned, even Australia’s oldest continually operating brewery was burned, with only the shell remaining (you can still see the carbon stains on the facade to this day. It burned within 2km of the Hobart CBD! The whole country learned some very valuable from this fire, and others. Tasmania now has hundreds of rural roads built especially for fire trucks to access burning land. And now the Greens are influencing people and trying to lock up heritage forests and prevent fuel reduction burns. We were so lucky last year we didn’t lose more than a couple of properties to the massive fires in heritage listed forest. The Greens have enough influence on enough very noisy people that they always get their way. And, despite having few seats, it is the same situation across the country!
Wife wants me to go to topbar hives also due to back issues. I have several books from Dr. Leo but my woodwork skills stink. I hope to meet Dr. Leo sometime. Wish I understood as much as he has probably forgot. 🐝
Actually Doug n Stacy's channel musta been one of the first aside from this that I got so much helpful info on stuff like when I first wanted to start fermenting and kombucha so the honey is really peeking my interest (wish I could try beekeeping but I live in an apartment right now.....they don't even have yards here lol)
I'm not really sure. I've never had all 3 entrances open. After seeing how they dealt with 2 entrances open I'll probably put a more permanent closure over that 3rd entrance and an adjustable cover over the 2nd.
those are some great looking hives, I was wanting to ask what is the bee space between the floor and the frames , i was wanting to build one and not sure how tall to make it ?
Just a RUclips fan, but really liked your bar top hive. I think it is better than Manzer Apiary Inc., top bar hive, as the use non standard frames. With regular frames, you're is more versatile, and works with existing tools, spinners and other bee keeper equipment. Very clean design. Look forward to figure videos.
I’ve had long Horizontial hives for five or six years. Disadvantage is fixed size. Like the Fat Bee Man says “ya making bees or ya making honey “. My hive looks a bit longer and is too small. Mine will always swarm cause there is not enough space for honey. Good luck
Hope the painted lid works for you. Mine became a headache fast so I will go to a thin sheat of metal at some point. Maybe a slanted shingled roof next time.
There are a lot of comments here and not sure if someone already asked this but have you considered paneling the inner cover boards (icbs) ;) with a board or nylon strips attached across several icbs so you have maybe 2 or 3 larger sections instead of 20 small slats? Thanks! Love the content!
My father uses horizontals hives since almost 25 years. He tried vertical at some point, he wasn't satisfied. The difference is he uses only same type of frames, those biggest ones. So his hives seems shorter and deeper. Mixing shorter with taller frames doesn't sound good to me with that space remaining beneath. My advice to replace the short frames little by little with some that fit perfectly. It's first time when i see horizontal with different frames in it.
I've seen people staple plastic playing cards above the entrance, too. Apparently bees are well able to tell the difference between a six of clubs and an eight of hearts, and know which one is their own home.
Top side must be insulation very strong 4 cm. Under side need air circulation holes. Bees need 35 degrees heat .. Co2 and moisture go down because heavy.. O2 heat goes up bees because thin. Bees consume honey easily.. This old technology works always.. basket type beehive.. loves from Anatolia..
They’re just wooden boxes. Of course you can do whatever with it. (If you want it solid, those legs are the only part thick enough to put in a *big* eyebolt, but that seems like a fine place to tie down if you want to do that...)
Stephen Stubbs - Horizontal hives are very much like top bars. I suppose one advantage during transfer from stacked hives, is that frames can be slotted in easily.
@@dcvariousvids8082 my first homemade hive was a cross between the two, allowing both top bar and national frames to be used, so a frame of eggs could be added if need be
Hi from Spain. I really like those new table hives, will be interesting to see how they come along. A little tip (that i kept learning the hard way) i always (now) carry a little stapler just in case i get a rip in my head veil whilst i'm in the thick of it. It works as a temp fix until i get home and sew it up. Great video.
I don't want to highjack this video, but want to leave some observations. but i came a cross a video on these several years ago and liked the idea (i have a really bad back) so i built 4 of these 3 years ago, but have only used 2 up till this year. Still learning with them. Some things to consider. I built mine with 1" pink foam insulation sandwiched between 2 pieces 1/2" BC plywood for the sides and end piece. I did this for warmth. Gets cold here in Nebraska. I will also insulate the bottom on any future ones i make. I also put a pitched roof (3/8" plywd covered with metal) with hinges on 1 side and a chain to hold the top when opening it to keep it from falling clear back over to the other side. I left a gap at the top where the plywood met and covered it with mesh screen for ventalation and put a metal cap over this to keep out the rain. I also use 4x4 legs that i notch out and actually sit the frame on and bolt to them. The 2x4 legs on the hives above i wouldn't trust once that hive gets full of honey. It wobbled quite a bit already. Mines rock solid. Having my own construction company for over 26 years gives me a pretty good background in building. Built it to the exact inside demensions of a Langsford hive so i can use the same frames. Make sure ur top boards are within 3/8" of the top of ur frames, or the bees will make honey comb between them. I learned the hard way. I cut a hole in the bottom to put a sliding piece (10"x14")on the bottom to be able to allow some ventalation in the summer. Really don't need this i don't think. What i'm finding out is , being high off the ground way to much cold circulates under them in the winter which is making it to hard for bees to sustain warmth. Killed off hives both the last 2 winters. This winter , i just finished enclosing them (around the legs) with 1 1/2" foam insulation (6R value), i enclosed 2 hives together so as to use a 2'x 8' piece as my hives are 4' long each. I placed a bunkhouse heater under each set , already set on low, that i will plug in and use in really cold weather. I'll insert a candy thermometer thru the insululation to see temp as i only want the dead air space to be in the high 20's. Hopefully i won't even need these heaters. The insulation will also block wind from under the hives. I don't want to heat the hives. The heatersb/ will only b turned on if extreme cold. Last year our winter didn't arrive until Feb 1st. Then we had 3 months of extreme bitter cold and snow. I lost my only 1 of these hives i had established & 1 super strong langsford hive. The only hive that survived was a top bar hive i had in the front yard protected by some old stand evergreens. i've got 4 of these going for this winter. 1 is not as strong as i would like going into winter as i had a late swarm i collected. I also have a really strong langsford hive and the top bar hive is really strong once again. Hopefully they make it thru this winter as i really like this concept . Another thing, i put a piece of insulation inside the roof over the boards leaving the vent holes open as there is condensation in the winter and it still needs to breathe, but heat escapes upwards. This helps keep the bees heat inside. I hope some of this helps those wanting to build their own
george jenkins do you build these for sale? I live in Vermont and it gets very cold up here too.
I am about to start this "hobby" and planning building my boxes. Is what you are saying is horizontal hive boxes are much more difficult to keep warm and maintain over cold weather spells than vertical ones? Did I misunderstand that? If so is the advantage of having the frames easier to access worth the risk?
please can you make your own video on how to build these boxes, would be greatly appreciated. thanks for the tips.
George, this was very helpful. I have built to horizontal hives for the summer, and I am worried about insulating it enough for next winter. I live in upstate New York. Thank!
Thanks George!
This idea has legs...I am going to seriously consider this for next season. I am a first year keeper and have two healthy hives. I am a bit concerned about a proper winter plan. All the advice for wintering colonies is directed toward cold northern states and Canada. Since you have experience and success in South Texas I would find your advice very helpful in wintering my hives here in San Antonio. Please consider a video on wintering for South Texas.
I’m onboard! Natural bee keeping all the way for me!
Watching the episodes on Doug & Stacy inspired me as well!
A much better system than traditional vertical nightmares!
Thank you for showing old Ukraine hive! It’s not top bar hive because have frames inside! I have 2 hive like your for 21 frames each! But for summer time not enough room for honey I put second box! Good luck for you! You have a great time! I’m living in Bellingham Wa!
Welcome to the Farm! Thanks for sharing with me.
I have absolutely NO PLANS to do beekeeping, but it's really fascinating to watch your videos!
I would suggest adding a locking compression cylinder. These are used on screen doors for example. They cost around 10 bucks, this should protect you on windy days from closing the lid on your hands or head providing you engage the lock. You can get sealed one or grease with grapeseed oil instead of industrial oils, so it doesn't effect the bees.
good idea. I'll look into something like that.
Is there anything to exclude the queen in the horizontal hive?
Yes, queen excludes are possible just as you can also have a false-end board.
I do not have a y horizontal hives but have scrutinized this and have found some designs do much better than others. Block foam 'weather stripping' or heavy vynal can work. I'll cross that bridge before long but using langstroth rather than laynes hives as my spinning equipment is langstroth
Looks lovely. Might I suggest a slight slant to the top of the lid to shed water. You are the first I have heard of Dr. Leo, I am looking him up now.
Refreshing to see a beekeeper wearing some protection. I'm intrigued by the concept. I will have a good think about this. Thank you
Nice color copy cat! I built my yellow bottom horizontal hive three months ago. I built a gable top and painted it salmon for some contrast before adding a layer of aluminum. I like the width of your inner top boards mine are narrower.
I
I reccomend keeping a deep or two for transferring honey frames into when harvesting honey.
Copy Cat LOL ... Hey, when you have a good idea it's going to be "borrowed". :)
I built 2 for my first year of beekeeping and love them. I can check parts of the hive without disturbing the whole colony. An added bonus, they survived a bear attack with no damage to the hive.
Really? How so, as they seem like pushovers to me, then everything would spill out for a bear dining experience. PS/slow cooked black bear stew is very delicious, plus you get a free rug.
I saw their video also. We have only had bees 3-4 years now, but I like the idea also. I wonder about the bees filling the outside frames though. We have trouble getting them to fill all the frames with the vertical ones. The other possible problem I can see is Idaho winters can be tough. The farther the honey is from the center, the harder it is for the bees to reach their food supplies.
Thanks, now I have a new project! :-) Great looking Hive Boxes
Horizontal hive bees definitely is the way to go for me ! many thanks . I'll building these fall some of them and get rid of the regular langstroth , I don't like to have that many equipment ,and is must easier to work with.I was looking for something different ,somehow found your channel ,glaad I did ! the only thing I would change I'm going to use thicker wood.
I enjoy watching your videos many many thanks!
Becoming interested in beekeeping but I'm in the city suburbs. I came across Dr. Leo on RUclips and I now own his book, "Keeping Bees with a Smile". Definitely think that horizontal hives are the way to go, and so is natural beekeeping, from what I've learned so far. Glad to see you making the switch. Those look really nice!
Those are BEAUTIFUL. I think I'm in love.
I've never seen one made quite like this and I really wish I had that kind of talent. 👍❤️
Very relaxing watching you in fast motion cutting the weeds out. ;p
A scythe beats a weed whacker every time.
Those new boxes look awesome! I'm anxious to see your success with them.
So glad you've come over to the horizontal side! I've been using horizontal hives since 2015 and love them. I don't get as much honey, but one day I may make a queen excluder and a horizontal TB super to put on top just for honey production.I saw a video from Africa where someone is doing that with great success.
I have gone completely treatment-free; The first year I fed my bees sugar water to give them a leg up. I have never treated for mites, but the hive _is_ made from full 1"-thick western red cedar, which contain thujone oils that have been proven to adversely affect Varroa mites but not bees, (I can look up the studies if you are interested.) That winter (here in snow country) I poured a couple of pounds of sugar on the bottom board of the hive body - not fondant, not sugar water, just granulated, organic, white cane sugar. The next year, I didn't feed them except for some more sugar in January. Last year I didn't feed them at all. They are strong and healthy, and swarm every year. I believe swarming is how they cleanse the colony of mites.
My hive bodies have 3 open 2"-holes in the long side of the hive. The fist year, I only opened one hole at the far end of one side; they didn't build out more than a third of the box. The next year, I opened the middle "door", and they built out another third of the top bars. Last year, I opened the lat "door", and they built out all of the bars.
BTW - since we get up to 3 feet of snow for up to 3 months where I live, I only harvest honey in the spring after the first nectar flow begins.
Hi Kirsten . Thanks for the info I am in Canada . Just wondering how you winterize your longhive. I have 3 inch foam in the cover . Thanks for any info Dan
@@danh1202
Hey, Dan. I am in Western Washington on the northern Olympic Peninsula outside of Sequim - I can see Victoria, BC most days. In what part of Canada are you located?
Since I'm on the coast, my winters are pretty mild: Zone 8. While there may be snow on the ground for up to 3 months at my altitude (~500 feet/~152.4 meters), it doesn't get very cold here - only about 15° F/-9.44° C at the very coldest. Consequently, I don't need to do much to winterize the hive.
My hives were built with fully 1" thick Thuja plicata (western red cedar) by a company in Portland, Oregon called Bee Thinking, now defunct. It is such an awesome hive that I bought 4 of them a few years before they went out of business. It has a water repellent roof with an overhang that keeps the hive dry in our wet winters. There are ventilation holes under the "eaves". Some of my hives have mesh bottoms with sliding covers, but others have solid wood bottoms. The latter seem best for my area since it never gets very hot and I don't seem to have an overabundance of Varroa mites.
The one thing that worried me about my hive was winter moisture. The first year or two, I thought about making a winter quilt like those used in Warré hives, but I've not gotten around to it. My bees seem to do very well in the Kenyan TBH, as is.
I have come to be very hands off with them - they seem to know how to take care of themselves very well without my interference not that they are fully established. Last winter, I forgot to cap off all but one entrance to the hive. I posted pictures last March or April on FB of my hive with 3 feet of snow on the roof. They still thrived despite my benign neglect.
Some people in the local bee club wrap their Langstroth and\or Warré hives with quilts and tar paper. They use ratchet straps to keep the covers on. That's about all I can offer. I hope it helps.
Best wishes!
Wow looks like you are going to have fun with those hives!!!🐝🐝🐝🐝
Awesome video Blake, I love the looks of the horizontal hives even better than the top bar hives and I think they would be even easier to build as well. Can't wait to see the transition taking place. Good Luck.
Not sure the bees will agree that horizontal hives are more fun
Does it make sense to add a rod or stick to brace the cover securely in the up position if a strong back wind were to push the top shut?
I was thinking the same thing when he described the chain function.
John Sluga add a bunny cord to keep it from slamming shut
If you want it more secure, make the chain a little bit longer.
i like it! its well done ! looks in order! very interesting!
We'll see how it works long term, but so far I like it too :)
Human: randomly inserts the combs back into the hive
Bees: "Ah, I see the politicians are redistricting again."
😂😂😂😂😂
That’s how I feel because I hate trump .
I would put gussets on the legs for stability AND tie the hive down to the ground so the wind will not blow the hive over. Tie the hive to the ground with either lags into the ground on leg brackets or a single wire from the center of the hive screwed down into the ground like using a dog run ground screw.
Over all I like the design, great job.
Also wonder if bees experienced that new house smell when you moved them 😁😜
They'll cover up those vents in no time :) good looking beehive.
I went to 3 holes per slat, using #8 mesh. They still fill them up in just a couple of days.
Great video. This is my first year keeping bees and I am using a long hive. I have a peaked roof for better insulation and I can fit different feeders under it if needed. I put my bees in on June 1 and everything looks great so far.
The attic will be a good spot to place hive beetle traps. That thing is built to give them spots to hide. Every slat provides all that length for hiding.
Very nice to inspiration and education
You can take your vertical deeps take off ends of the ones that will be in center and one end of the ones that will fit on each end and make new horizontals we did :) Love our horizontals. You can reuse the supers to make a medium horizontal to use in spring to raise queens or make nucs. Just add divider boards and holes rotating front to back so the holes are not too close to each other.
These kind of hives was native to Serbia, Vojvodina region. Then they got suppressed bu LR style of hive.
I work with "Poloska", a hive with 20 frames (42x30cm) and i am very satisfied with them. It's very easy to work with them and bees are extra happy with them. Swarms are a lot stronger than in LR :D
I have been thinking about trying out a few of these hives. Probably would of been a good idea to put them in the order you took them out of the old hive. Would be less confusing for the bees. Everything would of been the same just a new box.
awesome to see you doing this and can't wait to watch your results. I just built one to experiment with for next year. Should be a lot easier on my back.
I think bees will walk right over your divider board top is not thick enough. Very nice hive!
I'm a nub this year. Started with a vertical hive in May. Got a second queen by end of June while I was in the process of building my first horizontal hive. I found my follower board is not quite deep enough. My ladies squeezed under it. Sitting here now I just thought of an idea to add a strip of felt along the bottom. Thanks for the idea! I have split my ladies once more. I now have 2 vertical and the 1 horizontal hive.
@@davidlewis4179 the top is same as frames. They are walking over it same as a frame. Felt on top may work also.
@@00448296 I ripped a thicker board for the top of the follower board to fill the bee space above and used peg board that I had laying around. Oops! Peg board makes for a good queen excluder. LOL. I then lined the peg board with #8 hardware cloth.
In Romania the horizontal hive is the traditional hive. It has some advantages: one model of frames, not to lift heavy, much brood and bees, the frames remains always in the box and you don't need a special place (sheed) to store them. Also has some big disadvantages: the box is heavy, difficult to move in transhumance beekeeping, less honey versus vertival hive, the frames for honey are exposed to treatments for varroaa mites and the chemicals will fix in the wax, these hives are not practical for profesional beekeepers because requairs more time for regular controls and works.
The vents look too small for the amount of water evolved from concentrating the nectar to honey and wax. A trolley can be easy to make from a couple of old bicycles
Same thoughts like mine
The top bars are my main hive
Why do you get less honey than from a vertical hive?
In middle east we have like this design but with some change we call it Abu Salman Natural System we don't need to give them any sugar or any anti faro any the bee need only 16 day to get out of the cell the system very powerful
If you noticed when you removed the frames from the old hive that honey was on the outside and brood in the middle, you place it on opposite side. The honey acts as an insulated around the brood
I wanted to get into bee keeping. It really looks rewarding. Keep the vids coming, very therapeutic
Thank you. I hope you can find a way to experiment with beekeeping.
Thanks for sharing.
Instead of electrical tape for your bee mask screen, try velcro strips. One on the inside, one on the outside. Should work much better.
I know of nothing for which electrical tape is good!
Winner of a video, I have been researching "build your beehive" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Tiyia Beehive Basophilic - (search on google ) ? Ive heard some super things about it and my friend got amazing results with it.
Thought the same thing.
I would just sow the hole.
TheRainHarvester
Taping wire!
I like that! Thanks 🐝👍
Hello - I plan to become a beekeeper and will build a horizontal hive. Question: Do you divide your colony - i.e., do you separate the frames that keep the queen and brood from the frames which you use to harvest honey? If so, how do you ensure that the queen does not crawl out and into the harvesting frames between the covers you place over the frames and the top of the frames? Many thanks in advance for your answer.
So interesting! We were supposed to "foster" some beehives this year but the beekeeper had a bad year so not enough splits to put any out here. There's always next year!
I have two that I have made. One is in working order. The other is just placed but no bees yet. Just placed the second yesterday. You will like it.
Pull outside frame first . You should be able to visually see where the bees are. Go to opposite side. As I see you rolled bees taking a middle frame first. Thanks for sharing your time!
Thank you
I use silicone sealer on my vail to seal tears. I put it on a board and smear the silicone over it and 1/2" beyond the torn area. Work well and last a long time.
Looking forward to seeing how this progresses for you. don't be too quick to sell off your woodenware, you may need it for splits, nucs, etc. also will need them to tote the frames when you rob them of their honey. Still think you should do a couple of top bars. :D
I use my older deep boxes to make swarm traps. 100% success rate for 2 years so far. :-)
Wonderful work! 🌹 🐝
I built a few of these years ago. The "Kenya" type of top bars are more problems. You tear off cross comb, or just combs, because you can't see cross- combing until you move the bar.
Frames are good, consider making an inner cover or 2 with regular bee space dimensions. Youll need to modify or delete the hinge set up.
Keep using an extractor, and reusing your frames. If you are setting them up foundationless, the work you save you bees is quite a lot.
Just a few things I ran into, I'm passing them on. I still like Langstroth hives better. You may too after a while. I have big 48" frame storage boxes now, but they could have bees again.
I like the design. How do you exclude the queen?
That is the tough part. In my country we call the excluder a hanemam grate. They do not come for horizontal hives usually. This hive type has been in use for a very long time and considered archaic and not suitable for productive beekeeping in my area. They are still used for a static apiary on a semi pro level(my family always kept between 30 to 70 hieves) there were times when we would allow them to swarm naturally and just sell the swarms. . Made more money by selling the bees than the honey. Needles to say this type is NOT a high efficiency commercial hive. It has it's quirks and drawbacks, but it's less demanding on the back and the bees can go longer untended. As to how to exclude the queen, my grandad always said :you will never see a queen cross a full frame of honey. So as long as you have a couple of frames of honey between the brood and empty frames you should be ok
@@sorcyo Not everyone is out for major production. This is a fine hive for hobby bee keepers.
@@ronsmith6233 I agree. No lifting, one size of frames and plenty of space for expasinon. The hives my grandfather used had 18 frames, so smaller. It's just that the accesories for this type of hives are less comon or nobody makes them as there is little demand for them. In Eastern Europe, where I am from you can find some as these hives are still in use in by subsistence farmers, I don't know if that is the case for the West.
You could always modify a Langstroth excluder to work.
Love it! I just finished the illustrations for Dr. Leo's new book coming out next spring. I have build 4 of these now and I love them. I've also come up with a few improvements to minimize lumber waste, and have a full set of drawings to match. My design also allows for hive top feeders, if you would be so inclined. I actually have (6) 1" entrance holes, using plastic rotatable hive entrance discs rather than slots. Also included the bottom tray with screened bottom. Great video!
Dr. Leo throws down some knowledge doesn't he?
Seems like a good design to have a window top under the cover for less disturbance when checking in a cold period.
And when you harvest keep a couple empty boxes on a wagon. That way you can pull your frames out and still no heavy lifting.
Great idea! I'm going to do just that with my old Aluminum Dock Cart
When you went into your bee yard to clear the weeds, I thought "That looks like hot, crispy Texas." Then I scrolled down and saw you're in Cibolo! I'm a little north of you in the Austin area. Looking forward to seeing how the long lang's work for you!
I like the horizontal hives. I would want a peaked roof, though, added on to top of the flat roof for insulation as well as rain run off. Oh...and snow, lol. Keep forgetting I moved to a place where it snows!
They look great! It has to be easier than moving all of those boxes around and squashing some of the bees when you do move them. Im excited to see how it goes.
I do hope there will be fewer bee casualties with this method.
Good luck Sir,,
Just clicked on this, form a komcha video, and wanted to mention, shungite. A mineraloid crystal. Heard the other day that it very helpful for bees, and helps them withstand some of the environmental stress they are exposed to... Even in the best of locales. thought to pass that on, as I love bees.
Komcha, nice typo! a short form. i meant kombucha.
keep a couple of verticals and compare for 1 year, good vid series =) I should have done that!
looking good and dry in Texas =/
Great idea! I am not sure when my additional 4 Horizontal hives will be built.
Can you believe we are already planning out 2020. Bees make time pass quickly. :)
How do they work in cold climates?
Dr. Leo suggested the deeper box for colder climates. I asked him if my design was good for Texas (warm climate) and he agreed that the 9 inch deep frame design was good. Up north he likes the Layens deeper frames.
This African concept does not work in east central illinois. In Kenya however...
I have never seen a horizontal hive before, looks good. Glad to see a beekeeper near me. We live up near Bandera.
This has to be much better om an aging back in the long run ! thankyou for this post good quality video, nice work !
My back right now is fine, but YES... I think in order to keep it fine I'll need to be careful about all the heavy lifting.
Very nice. How about those flow hives though? Please try one the Daddykirbs way.
If your veil needs minor repair/s, I suggest you sew the tears with fishing line. If the line just fits a darning needle, it’ll hold up to the rigours of beekeeping. I volunteer with a charity and part of my work there, is checking and prepping bee suits for their training courses. Veils occasionally get damaged.
The advantages for me, is that a small reel goes a long way. And regardless of veil colour, there’ll be a line colour to match, (presentation being important).
You will do everything you can to make it work but in the end you will go back to the vertical hives.I have been there decades ago. I saw these in Bee Culture magazine back nearly 40 years ago.I like the idea but it just doesnt work like we always hope for.There is a reason everyone goes back to vertical hives.Good luck and have fun with your bees.
Me2. Built two top bars. It was fun but really not sustainable here in central Illinois. If you just want to watch a colony grow and harvest a little honey for yourself its great.
They don't winter well horizontally.
In a hive like this, do the move laterally during the winter and stay clustered? My concern would be winter time, with the cluster ending up on one side and all of their resources on the other side. Totally interesting... just curious about cold winters.
Interesting weed eater choice... but I see the point... quiet. Our bees don't seem to mind a gas weed eater or the lawn mower. Funny the temperament of them in various locals.
I hate to disappoint you but I built three of these and my bees never liked moving horizontally inside the boxes. After two years, I gave up and put them in Apimayes and they are booming.
I may be being a little paranoid when I say this, as I am an Australian who despite never witnessing or being in one is fully aware of the dangers of a bushfire, but I couldn't let anything, plants or weeds, grow that tall. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I also wouldn't let it get that dry and remain on my property, especially if it was surrounded by what appears to be some sort of bushland or forest in the background. I would be using that as fuel for the smoker, or as kindling for camping trips or a woodfire heater. Or, if I grew my own vegetables and fruit I would put it in a compost bin for fertiliser.
I would never in a million years let it get that grown and out of control, especially considering it makes a perfect place for hive beatles and wax moths to hide outside the hives. Oh, and snakes and spiders. So many potential major risks that could lead to harm to yourself, your bees, or your entire property, but can be easily managed in minutes, and without excess carbon being emitted given you can now get battery operated line trimmers and lawn mowers that have brilliant battery life and are decently priced, and create minimal noise.
Sorry if I come across as picky, but I am paranoid about this stuff, especially now Australia is getting into Summer.
FormulaFish15 I was shuddering looking at that too. I have a piece of cheap artificial lawn in my bee yard, it's pretty dazzlingly green in summer but it saves trying to deal with long grass - I don't mow lawns, I have four-legged lawnmowers for that but I'm not letting the cattle into the bee yard. I think a concrete pad would be even better though.
I've never been in a fire myself, but I had friends lose their house in Black Saturday and I'm old enough to remember Ash Wednesday too, when the whole sky was orange. I think every adult Australian is paranoid about long grass, it's both tinder and snake harbour.
Teal Kerberus Exactly! I wasn’t alive for it, but my father and grandparents have told me about Tasmania’s Black Tuesday on many occasions. In 5 hours most of Southern Tasmania had been affected by fire. I think 67 people died, 1000’s left homeless, whole communities burned to the ground, with only the clothes on their back and their lives remaining. It was so bad it even burned in the city and the built up suburbs. Hundreds of homes were lost in the Northern Suburbs, where I now live. My old primary School was surrounded by spotfires they were continuously being put out by teachers, and even the principal. Houses on the main road burned, even Australia’s oldest continually operating brewery was burned, with only the shell remaining (you can still see the carbon stains on the facade to this day. It burned within 2km of the Hobart CBD!
The whole country learned some very valuable from this fire, and others. Tasmania now has hundreds of rural roads built especially for fire trucks to access burning land. And now the Greens are influencing people and trying to lock up heritage forests and prevent fuel reduction burns. We were so lucky last year we didn’t lose more than a couple of properties to the massive fires in heritage listed forest. The Greens have enough influence on enough very noisy people that they always get their way. And, despite having few seats, it is the same situation across the country!
Hello. We are new subscribers. This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
Thankyou for the great video. What is your reason to eliminate the use of the vertical hives?
Wife wants me to go to topbar hives also due to back issues. I have several books from Dr. Leo but my woodwork skills stink. I hope to meet Dr. Leo sometime. Wish I understood as much as he has probably forgot. 🐝
Go to his site he builds and sells them and free designs
Actually Doug n Stacy's channel musta been one of the first aside from this that I got so much helpful info on stuff like when I first wanted to start fermenting and kombucha so the honey is really peeking my interest
(wish I could try beekeeping but I live in an apartment right now.....they don't even have yards here lol)
OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY are awesome :)
What happens if you open 3 entrances before harvest bees busy time, do they mix pollen and honey everywhere?
I'm not really sure. I've never had all 3 entrances open. After seeing how they dealt with 2 entrances open I'll probably put a more permanent closure over that 3rd entrance and an adjustable cover over the 2nd.
The hives looked a little wobbly on the legs. Will they withstand a wind storm?
I was thinking the same, perhaps the legs should have been splayed a bit?
I wonder if you could cut an opening on the lid, place honey supers on top to be the honey you take from them
I have seen some hybrid type hives like that. I'm not sure how it would work with this design, but with some modifications it could probably work.
those are some great looking hives, I was wanting to ask what is the bee space between the floor and the frames , i was wanting to build one and not sure how tall to make it ?
Turned over by the wind?
Could you please post some plans you used to build your horizontal hives, or where we can go to get them? Thanks
horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/hive-frame-swarm-trap.shtml
Just a RUclips fan, but really liked your bar top hive. I think it is better than Manzer Apiary Inc., top bar hive, as the use non standard frames. With regular frames, you're is more versatile, and works with existing tools, spinners and other bee keeper equipment. Very clean design. Look forward to figure videos.
I’ve had long Horizontial hives for five or six years. Disadvantage is fixed size. Like the Fat Bee Man says “ya making bees or ya making honey “. My hive looks a bit longer and is too small. Mine will always swarm cause there is not enough space for honey. Good luck
Could you not just super them upwards with medium supers as posted in Trev's Bees?
Nope fixed gable roof
Then you need to remove most of the full honey frames when full periodically. During a flow, the bees do not need capped honey.
In regards to the holes in your hood, try a screen repair for a screen door. You basically cut a section of screen and sew it onto the old screen.
Nice!, for holes in the hood a dab of silicone calking if you have some works well
Did Mr Todd have a plan he worked by to build the hive? Is there some way to share/purchase that?
He followed the plans available on horizontalhive.com ... that's Dr. Leo's site and there are a lot of great resources there.
@@daddykirbs Great! Thanks, I'll check it out. I hope your post more videos so we can see results of you efforts!
@@daddykirbs Try clear gorilla tape for those holes in your veil. You're welcome!
Hope the painted lid works for you. Mine became a headache fast so I will go to a thin sheat of metal at some point. Maybe a slanted shingled roof next time.
There are a lot of comments here and not sure if someone already asked this but have you considered paneling the inner cover boards (icbs) ;) with a board or nylon strips attached across several icbs so you have maybe 2 or 3 larger sections instead of 20 small slats?
Thanks! Love the content!
Do you know if Flow Hive frames will fit in there? They are designed for deep langstroth hives.
My father uses horizontals hives since almost 25 years. He tried vertical at some point, he wasn't satisfied. The difference is he uses only same type of frames, those biggest ones. So his hives seems shorter and deeper. Mixing shorter with taller frames doesn't sound good to me with that space remaining beneath. My advice to replace the short frames little by little with some that fit perfectly. It's first time when i see horizontal with different frames in it.
They are changing the design and end up having problems
Can't you just use the same size boxes and thus frames in the vertical setup so you have the same frames all around ?
I like that hive!
I love this hive & would like to make one, Do you have the plans or can you point me in the proper direction. Anyone, little help.
Go to horizontalhive.com for plans
horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/long-langstroth-plans.shtml
horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/ventilation-long-langstroth.shtml
horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/screened-bottom-plans.shtml
horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/gable-roof-hive-top-plans.shtml
In Germany, Melifera has long been available as one-room hive. Good system, nice to work with. Have fun.
Interesting... I'm curious see how well this works and manages. Thanks for sharing!
Nice.
Never watched someone use a scythe (?) before, pretty cool
Dr Leo recommended (in Doug and Stacy's videos) different designs on the bee hives so the bees know which one is home. Painted or simple duct tape.
I do plan on making some different colors and designs. The yellow was available to me this time and I wanted to get them done :)
I've seen people staple plastic playing cards above the entrance, too. Apparently bees are well able to tell the difference between a six of clubs and an eight of hearts, and know which one is their own home.
Top side must be insulation very strong 4 cm. Under side need air circulation holes. Bees need 35 degrees heat .. Co2 and moisture go down because heavy.. O2 heat goes up bees because thin. Bees consume honey easily.. This old technology works always.. basket type beehive.. loves from Anatolia..
How stable are those long legged boxes in a stiff Texas windLOL?Can you add an eye bolt to cable them down or would that compromize the interior?
They’re just wooden boxes. Of course you can do whatever with it.
(If you want it solid, those legs are the only part thick enough to put in a *big* eyebolt, but that seems like a fine place to tie down if you want to do that...)
Look similar to a top bar hive, I would have made the floor open mesh for ventilation and allowing varroa to fall out
Stephen Stubbs - Horizontal hives are very much like top bars. I suppose one advantage during transfer from stacked hives, is that frames can be slotted in easily.
@@dcvariousvids8082 my first homemade hive was a cross between the two, allowing both top bar and national frames to be used, so a frame of eggs could be added if need be
Very good effort by Luke on your Tshirt!🎨🎈