Madge
Drone Bee
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 1,373
- Reaction score
- 72
- Location
- Aberdeenshire, Scotland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 45
Moveable frame hives .. and even Abbe Warre decided on his box size on the basis of the wine boxes that were available at the time ...
His first hive was designed with moveable frames. He then designed an alternative using only top bars to make it even more affordable. You can use it with moveable frames or not - as you wish, and whatever system you wish. The bees still have the benefit of a smaller volume around them and honey above them (not way over to the side and out of reach on a cold winter’s day).
I’ve never heard that he used wine box to determine the size of the hive - but if it fitted the average cluster size that he used to base his design on - why not?