Aaron brought up the D. E. hive....

While David Eyre has designed a hive that flows in the face of
conventional thinking as far as the Langstroth hive is concerned, it
should be noted that he has also produced a modification kit for the
Langstroth hive that works rather nicely.  I ordered a kit from David last
year. Living in the southwest (Oklahoma and yes I know it's not really the
SW :) it does get considerably warm here at times. In fact we're at 60 odd
days and counting of 100+ degrees Fahrenheit.

The kit consists of material to make a bottom board...a ventilated inner
cover, ventilated spacer box and a ventilated telescoping cover. The inner
cover is complete but everything else you assemble. I have completed my
first year with this modification on one of my hives and I did notice
considerably less hanging out of the ladies on the front porch in the
evenings. It worked very well this last winter in keeping the hive dry and
the ladies liked the upper entrance/exit. Now this particular queen
(daughter from last year's monarchy) doesn't like the air conditioned
inner cover and directed the royal court to propolize it closed. But it
will be very easy to fix once the cold is upon us again.

All in all I would recommend this kit if you have a few hives and want to
convert to a side mounted entrance. The only thing I did to modify the kit
was to put an aluminum top on the roof to prevent hail damage.

I do not receive anything from David for this recommendation, except
possibly his gratitude.

Gary Johns
OSU Educational Television