The best bee hive?

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merylvingien

Field Bee
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
536
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Location
Near Andover Hampshire
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
7
This may sound like a ridiculous idea, BUT why dont you guys colaborate on a thread and come up with your chosen best bee hive!

Prefered type of floor
Dimensions of brood box
Dimensions of supers
Thickness of crown board
Type of roof (prefered dimensions)

Etc etc

If this proves a popular thread, then whence we have all the chosen dimensions i will draw up a detailed contruction plan and post here on the forum, also build a demonstration version and video the contruction techniques.
A few people mentioned that my work is worthy, so if people cant be bothered to make thier own then as stated previously i would be willing to wittle a few hives out over the winter months.

What say everyone?
 
This may sound like a ridiculous idea, BUT why dont you guys colaborate on a thread and come up with your chosen best bee hive!

Afaik it's been tried a few times before but it just ain't possible.

Different Beeks, different ideas, different bees, different locale, different proven old ways, etc .........

Modified National is about as close as you will get to a UK preference, with Langstroth having a large following for the world at large, no doubt based on US scale of use.

I suspect though we shall see plastic taking over from wood much sooner than we think. Economies of scale and insulation factors are the prime movers for plastic.

My preference atm is 14x12 BS Mod National, but it takes some filling from a cold start.
 
yep merv i tried it early this year we started with an empty page and filled several hundred included with this was the design of a hive for super duper F1 hybrids ( humbug)
we used only cell numbers and then worked out wards to the size of the hive afterwards, which is the correct way to go, always start with cell quantities never just start with a sized box we reackon that a box increased to about 550mm square with a depth of 400mm containing 16 frames would do it and then ontop add a cover board/lid that will then allow us to put a national super on the top
 
Meryl, (is that an appropriate abbreviation ?) To try and help a little more, I think it might be condensed like this.

1. if you want 'pretty' for the garden, and to exercise your woodworking skills, consider a WBC. They are very reliable and thoroughly tested for success with 'Old English Bees' (whatever they are).

2. BS Modified National (non cedar) is the cheapest to make and maintain and is ubiquitous. Consider the 14x12 brood-box option if you're going for modern 'nuclear fast breeder' type bees.

3. for commercial beekeeping or more than 10 hives, I suspect the likely answer is poly-Langstroth. Consider double brood boxes for very prolific bees.

Everything else is oddball, and probably won't catch on.

This is just my analysis. Continue to ask around but be skeptical, and take most notice of beeks who are actually doing what they talk about, not just hypothesizing.
 

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