Matthew wrote:
 
> >
>
> Has anyone tried joining two Langstroth hives by removing one side
> (i.e., one really long Langstroth hive)?
>
> I'm wondering if the queens prefer climbing comb-to-comb rather than up
> to the next hive body & back down.
 
Hi matthew,
    I f you look through the old beekeeping books, an old abc-xyz for
example, you will see articles about the "Long Idea Hive". The idea was to
construct a hive as you describe with 20 or more frames per hive body.
    Some years ago I tryed to help someone who was confined to a wheel
chair to keep bees. Using the long hive idea we made a base hivebody that
held 33 9 1/8" frames. This was to allow us to super the hive with three
standard 6 5/8' supers side by side. The whole hive would stay low to the
base and there would be a minimum of lifting. The problem we had was
getting the bees to work that wide a hivebody. As I remember they went out
to about 20 frames fairly readily but the end frames never got filled. As
soon as supers were put on they went up.
    We may have been able to force them up with excluders or by confining
them to the brood chamber longer but at the time it seemed that we were
working against there wishes.
    We tried this for 2 1/2 seasons and gave up. Wintering was not as good
either.