>I believe it's a Paine loader.  I don't think they're made anymore, but there
>are still a bunch around.
>
>Does anyone know of any companies that currently make good hive loaders?
 
There are pictures of hive loaders at some of the websites of bee-l
contributors such as Allen Dick, Andy Nachbaur, and P.O. Gustaffson.  For my
own part, up until this year I had a homemade loader that would lift single
hives.  I had one hive that I lifted with a spring scale on and it was 440
pounds.  I used to strap each hive with a ratchet strap, and then strap each
line of hives on the truck.  I had four hives across the truck and often put
a second tier on top (just used one strap for both tiers).  It was a lot of
strapping.  I made a hive cradle from a description and pictures that Allen
Dick kindly sent to me.  It worked great and clamped the hives nicely, but
they still had to be strapped so they wouldn't shake apart on the rough
tracks in the blueberry field (many of which are fairly recently cleared land).
 
This year I changed my loader entirely.  Don't limit yourself to "hive
loaders" is my recommendation.  Think "knuckle boom".  These are a much more
common piece of second hand equipment and very versatile.  There are knuckle
booms that are made for loading logs and there are a whole variety of
folding up knuckle booms that are made to mount either behind the cab of a
flatbed truck or at the end of the bed.
 
I got one off a truck that used to work in a quarry.  It is a real heavy
sucker (probably a ton and a half) but I don't have it on the truck, it is
mounted on the front of a twenty foot trailer, so I don't have to carry it
except when I am moving hives.  I sure am glad I don't have to jack up the
trailer to put it on, though!  I just hook up the hydraulics to the truck
before I hitch it and raise it up with its stabilizer feet, then back under,
and let it down.  I did have to massively reinforce the front of the trailer
and put extra springs on the truck.
 
The boom will load the whole twenty foot trailer, and will swivel around and
load the whole truckbed as well.  It has no trouble lifting a ton (or a
tonne) at its maximum extension!  I never liked the idea of keeping bees in
a square pattern on pallets, and I already was keeping them in lines of five
on stands eight feet long.  The only modification I had to make was to go to
"migratory" covers as opposed to telescoping (a cover with cleat on front
and back only).  My bottom boards already had cleats under them to keep them
from sliding forward or back on the hive stands.
 
One advantage of this arrangement is that one strap will secure the whole
five hives, and because of the weight and the fact that they span the whole
trailer or truck bed and are pushed up tight to the stand in front and
behind, I don't even have to strap the stand onto the truck or trailer.  And
one lift loads five hives at once.  I made a lifter that has a cage that
comes down to secure the hives,  but I only had to use the cage for the very
biggest of hives.  I moved some yards to near home wintering locations with
honey unpulled.  One stand had five hives on it each with five deep boxes.
That really pushed the stabilizer foot on the load side into the ground a
little ways!
 
Another advantage is that I have a combination of super sizes and have not
standarized my brood nests.  So some hives might be in two deeps, or one
deep and one medium, or three or four mediums, or one deep and two mediums.
But it makes no difference when I strap them, they will be secure with just
one strap as long as the lower hives are to the outside and the taller hives
are in the middle.  (If you don't want to shift the hives on the stand you
can add empty boxes or feeders or whatever to the lower ones to make the
height arrangement.  If you wanted to put a second tier of stands on the
truck or trailer then you would have to have standardized hive sizes.  For
my part, I think that eighty hives together with the heavy boom and twenty
eight cement blocks is about all my truck will haul.
 
It is a simple matter to slide the hives together for moving and then slide
them apart a few inches for ease of working during their stay in that
location.  I also slide them together for heat sharing during the winter.  I
have heard that hives on pallets sometimes get ants nested in between the
hives.  Ants are a real problem in blueberry fields, so I keep the stands on
two cement blocks and when they are slid apart I never have any problems
with ants nesting between them.  It also makes skunks expose their bellies,
and gives space to get the lifter under the stand.  There are rails on the
truck and trailer to give this clearance.
 
One nice feature of my knuckle boom is that the hydraulic controls can be
operated from either side of the trailer.
 
Another is that if you get the truck stuck in the mud you can put down the
stabilizer legs enough to lift the wheels right off the ground and put some
of the rocks (that were intended for cover weights) under the wheels.
 
Regards, Stan