Peter says " The Omlet hive suffers from all the drawbacks of that class of design (I guess they were all based on the KTBH) in that when you stand at the side of the hive the frames are difficult to remove without twisting your body."



I used Dartington long deep hives (on which the Omlet is based) for years and never found handling the frames from the side an issue. In general, the ergonomics (handling frames at waist height) are better than for vertical hives which involve a lot of lifting with consequent back strain. Also, the Omlet and Dartington supers are half size and so also much less of a strain to lift when full. Having said that, I do think bees do better in vertical hives -  I now use BS Nationals. I have no real evidence that colonies thrive better in vertical than horizontal - just a personal observation.



John

Hitchin, Herts, UK





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