>At 09:40 PM 12/11/96 -0900, you wrote:
>
>>> Still I'm not sure of all the specs.
>>> What makes these hives so great?
>
>> They are a low tech alternative to the Langstroth.
>
>Some historical background may help people understand where a TBH fits.
 
I saw a variation of TBH in central Asian beekeeping (Tajikistan and
Uzbeckaitan).  Another modernization if you will.
 
Basically, they were using box hives of various dimensions without supers.
The boxes were long and accomodated frames.  Expansion was horizonal with
brood near the entrance and honey in the farther frames.  When the colony
was small and not needing much space they removed unused frams and tucked
the bees in with an insolating cushion.  As the colony expanded, they moved
the cushion out of the way and added frames.
 
Generally it appeared an evolutionary step between the TBHs and Langstroth
hives.
 
While I found it interesting and saw that it worked in their setting, I
observed that they had now way to transport frames of honey to central
extraction facilities.  I wonder how you do that with THBs also?
 
Ed