>
> I built a hive for my brother who has back issues,
> Despite the cost I'll probably make more...
> this one has been a dream to work with.
Changing to a new type of hive is a big step but can prolong the years of beekeeping if specially designed to reduce lifting and also increase convenience. I designed a hive I call the Dartington Long Deep Hive 38 years ago which is used on small numbers across UK and is now available from Thorne's, the largest bee supplier in UK.
This Long DEEP hive (stress DEEP) use UK's Deep frames 14x12 inches deep, so that the 42,000 brood cells needed for a queen laying 2,000 eggs a day only occupy 7 to 8 frames. But to avoid the brood patches being squashed down by honey at the top of the frame, it is essential to use a shallow super above - hence the hive is 18 inches DEEP. NOT a simple long hive. The supers are half length, holding 5 frames at wide spacing, so weighing only 16 lbs, an easy lift when the brood must be inspected.
The hive is twice the length of our National hive, the UK's standard box, so that it can hold both the swarm and the parent after artificial swarming. A colony winters on 9 frames between two insulated dummies, expands to 15 frames in spring with stores front and back of the brood and also in 3 of the small supers above. When swarming starts, the brood is moved to the rear of the hive, frame by frame, so without any need to lift a box full of brood. The swarm is left on 3 frames new frames plus 6 more foundations, so a full new set of 9 frames is drawn out each year. The swarm and parent are separated by dropping in a division board and re-united by removing the board when a new queen is laying. The hive by then has the full number of 21 deep frames, the rear 12 being removed in autumn 6 on each of two carry boxes) for extracting along with then the 4 short top supers. The hive can hold 150 lbs of honey in theory, and a more short supers can of course be added. The system works well if the bees and weather cooperate. I run 24 hives with my students doing any lifting. Age before beauty!
Few ageing beekeepers would want to invest completely in new hives, and the Langstroth frame is really too wide for comfortable lifting from one side of a long box. But older beekeepers might like to try the early steps that led to the design of this hive.
Step 1: change to deep brood frames, using a deep box or a medium on top of a shallow if that is what you have.
Step 2: put each deep brood box on two wooden rails, facing the end, with a second empty deep box facing the other end ready for artificial swarming. Modify the floors so that bees can enter at the back when an entrance block is removed. Pile short supers in pairs on the brood box as needed.
Step 3: when swarming preps start, drag the brood box down the rails without lifting, and switch the entrance 180 deg to face the ends of the rails. Put the empty box in place of the brood, and transfer the queen and 3 frames containing some brood. Full the empty places in both boxes with foundations.
Step 4: when a new queen is laying, remove old queen from the swarm and transfer new queen. Remove any queen cells in the parent hive after 5 days and push both boxes together after removing the rear entrance blocks so that the queenless bees in the former parent can merge.
All that can be done by lifting only the short supers and individual brood frames.
If it works for you, then consider moving to the next stage of screwing the two boxes together and cutting a hole between them, and having a division board to slide down to close the hole when wanted. If all that works, and beekeeping can be continued to old age, only then think of making a totally new hive with a double length body and removeable division board - a long deep hive. Raise the new hive to waist height on long legs to cut out stooping.
The Dartington Long Deep hive has its fervent admirers in UK's, and many critics who theorise problems without ever coming to see the answers used with the 24 hives in use in my sites. Typical is to say a long deep hive is too heavy to move - ignoring that it has exactly the same volume/weight as a vertical hive after the colony has been split and the slit put on top. UK beekeeping is very conservative. It gets tedious counteracting prejudice.
Hope this will interest and help some.
Robin
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