Scott;  You are not crazy at all wanting to try horizontal hives.  I am
working in Moldova at the moment on a beekeeping development project in
Moldova and as in much of eastern Europe and the Caucasus a lot of
beekeepers use horizontal hives.  I just posted some photos of horizontal
hives I took in Moldova in June on my Facebook page @

https://www.facebook.com/BeekeepingDevelopmentConsulting/

You can see a new one at the top of the page - this guy just started
beekeeping - and you can see some old ones too.  The horizontal hives have
BIG frames and require a lot of management, almost daily management during
the flow, so horizontal hive beekeepers are limited in the number of hives
they can manage.  They pull honey one comb at a time, but if you can rig up
a system with supers you may have a winning strategy.

These Eastern European horizontal hives are a far cry from bop bar hives.
I have first hand experience with top bar hives in Malawi, Sudan, and
Ethiopia and I think the bees, the beekeepers,and the honey consumer are
much better served by 'box' hives.  That is a another story......

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC
BeekeepingConsultingForDevelopment

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