keeping it small (using long hives]

[Murox]

They do draw them out fully- this is on a V shaped top bar that had wax dribbled along it, done in one season.

 

[drex]

I found long hives brilliant as brood factories, but nowhere near a National for honey production

 

[rdartington]

I found long hives brilliant as brood factories, but nowhere near a National for honey production

Did you keep them as just one level long hives - or did you try putting on supers when the main flow started?

 

[drex]

One level. My objective was actually as brood factories, for which they could not be beaten

 

[rdartington]

One level. My objective was actually as brood factories, for which they could not be beaten

Fair enough - but if you do not add supers for the honey crop then it is not fair to say a Long Hive does not produce as much honey.
i have posted that management of a long hive for honey, used in ‘combination mode’, is much easier . Noone has yet challenged that - yet!
But to illustrate:
winter on 9 frames between two dummies

Add deep honey frames in spring - here 3, can be more - wide spaced

 

[rdartington]

Fair enough - but if you do not add supers for the honey crop then it is not fair to say a Long Hive does not produce as much honey.
i have posted that management of a long hive for honey, used in ‘combination mode’, is much easier . Noone has yet challenged that - yet!
But to illustrate:
winter on 9 frames between two dummies
View attachment 38405
Add deep honey frames in spring - here 3, can be more - wide spaced
View attachment 38406

 

[rdartington]

Continuing ….
add supers - and later split to avoid swarming

Split to avoid swarming, just cut brood nest in half with division board , check a week later to see which half has queen and which is rearing new queen, sort frames into ‘artificial swarm with queen , and ‘parent’ that has developed queen cells - add additional frames and additional honeyboxes to personal taste (no more shown here for simplicity) - reunite when new queen is laying satisfactorily - no need to remove old queen as this is enforced supercedure.
So, no need for separate nuc box on stand, swarming avoided, hive requeened, good honey crop in honeyboxes (up to 8 honeyboxes needed on strong hive). Easy - or so I think.
I share information as I am now 85 and can continue with long hives but can no longer lift heavy National supers. There are probly others in same situation. Yes?

 

[B_north]

I have two long deep hives with 16 frames each and one with 23. The frames are 14"X16"

IMHO my 23 frame long hive is great for partitioning off and doing a simple split to prevent swarming. For this next season I have made a permanent divider that will first be solid and then changed to a screen ( so they can get used to each other) but that finally can be switched out to a QE so I can have both sides working on the honey frames in the middle, and hopefully, since they are quasi combined moving from one side to the other, when fall comes just remove it (eliminating one queen) and let them go back as one unit for the winter. If this works it will solve both the swarming problem and the problem of hive # increase.

I do super two of my hives that have the 16 frames, but I still need to do splits to prevent swarming. There is no getting away from that. To manage the supering I let the hive expand to 10 frames, or 12 up until I need to put the boxes on. Then I slowly condense them down to 7, if I do not I find my bees will not move up into the supers.
I winter on 7 frames.