What type of bee hive is best for the home bee keeper

"Western" hive (7 5/8") two chambers with one deep and a medium 8 frame hive.

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Originally Posted by BeeCurious

Daniel Y,

I believe you meant "The Dadant System of Beekeeping".

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Yeah that one what BeeCurious said.

OK so to put a final comment on this thread and to let any new onlookers know what I gleened from 122 posts on hive equipment.... I made a decision, at least for now (only took 2 months!):

I was hot for bees, then cold for bees the more I read and the vast expanse of beekeeper personalities was proving to be bothersome. Then I finally reached a point where I said the heck with it, I am going to give it a shot my perceived way based on what I have learned so far, and what I will learn up until the moment when i get my nucs. So thanks all for your contribution to this thread as I took what I needed and discarded the rest (for now).

I decided to go with all medium 10 langs. with screened bottom boards to start. A key factor to this was that the place I will be getting nucs from uses mediums, so I sucked up the cost on the extra mediums vs. deeps and moved on. I went with the wedge frames because they are versatile and I can use them for foundation and foundationless action. For my first year I will be mocking my nuc providers set up of foundation in the brood chamber and foundationless honey supers. Eventually I will work to getting them all to foundationless throughout the hive.

Wahoo - just placed and order with Dadant today, and signed up for the fall 2012 honey producers meeting. I will get to hear some great speakers (including Michael Bush) talk, and participate in a lab where they will show attendees how to ID a bunch of hive ailments.

It seems like for now, it is coming together for this new guy.

Best to all!

Congratulations and enjoy the meeting. I hope you will let us know how it goes!

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Originally Posted by joan

I hated the styrofoam. ... I found them annoying.

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Besides interchangeability, what did you not like about the styrofoam hive bodies? I was planning on making some this winter. Foam is cheap, 1x12 is expensive.

My take on hive sizes, I'm all 8 frame deeps and 5 frame deeps in order to vary the box but not the frame. I have found that not using standard 10 frame is like fighting city hall. I'm buying some single deeps in the spring and of course they are in 10 frame deeps.

Beelosopher - I think you made a good choice. Medium 10-frame Langs should serve you well - treat them with linseed oil and they will last a long time. SBB's are a good idea for checking mite counts and staying AHEAD of the mite game. Best of luck to you!

Woodenware should last as long as you want to keep bees if you assemble it well and keep it painted or otherwise protected from weathering. It's expensive to start, but my brother and I have not had to actually replace a box yet in 7 years, so it's really a one time cost.

There are lots of ways around the barn in beekeeping, so do what you want. You will find out very quickly if what you set up isn't working for you, and if you stick with a few hives to start, you won't be out much money in the end. A buddy of mine decided after getting all fired up about top bar hives that they are much too hard to manage for him, a Lang works much better and the bees seem to be happier, to say nothing of the ease with which honey can be extracted from a Lang vs crush and strain.

After a year or two you will know what you want to use if you grow your apiary, but you can always experiment with a hive or two. Once you get going, there are swarms every year which are a great source of bees for different hive types or management. Much nicer than paying for a package, and as our neighbor down the road said, if they swarmed in the spring, I know it was a healthy, strong hive!

Peter

This past February 2012 I was in the exact same position as you . I knew I only wanted a few hives, I started doing some research and I found this Forum.

After my first year these are some of my conclusions.

1) Read everything you can.

2) There are tons of opinions on here on which way to start (All mediums, 8 frame, 9 frame, small cell etc, etc.) It will make your head spin trying to figure it out. I think it's best to pick one and stick with it till you have a good understanding of what your doing before doing any experimenting. I decided to go with simplicity and use standard 10 frame equipment because i had a local supplier and i could get a complete hive for $114.00

3) The forum is a great resource, BUT don't rely entirely on it . In the beginning I was scared to make a move without consulting the forum (I didn't have a reliable local mentor), then i would be totally frustrated when i got 10 completely different answers or didn't get any answers at all. (No fault of the forum, that's just how forums are )
I had read several books, and followed this forum prior to starting this venture and I felt i had a good foundation; so I went cold turkey from the forum and started to do things on my own and trust my instincts.

Good luck with your hives!

psfred -
My buddy treated some hives with 50% boiled linseed oil and 50% mineral spirits back in 1973 and is still using them. Very few cracks in them as of yet (2013). Yes, he paints them every 2 years, but many of mine NOT treated with linseed oil and painted every year already have cracks and weathering in the end grain. You can bet I have treated all my new ones with linseed oil before painting, and will be treating all of the rest with linseed next time I paint. I let them dry for 2 weeks and then I paint them with 2 coats of KILZ II primer and 2 coats of exterior grade latex paint.

I even made a wood and metal dipping tank for the linseed treatment.

A penetrating oil treatment sure isn't going to hurt any on wood. The problem with just using linseed oil as a finish coat is that it weathers badly, and is soon gone. No UV resistance to speak of. Used as a penetrating sealer, covered with paint, it should keep the joints and end grain dry, which is what you want.

I may try that with the batch of boxes I'm making now, since I should have time to work with them rather than get them made as soon as possible -- I'm trying to get ahead of the game this year rather than trying to round up equipment while I have bees stuffed into a nuc that need a home.

Peter

I agree. Linseed treated Sugar pine works out cheaper than Cypress.