Bee houses and cabinet hives

[magnet-man]

There was an old post regarding cabinet hives / bee-houses. Well I have found some links and even some plans. I have also e-mailed a number of German beekeepers and found some interesting information. The cabinet hives in the pictures were last made in 1990. You can find some for sales along with straw hives at www.ebay.de. Use this link to translate the web site to English. http://babelfish.altavista.com Here are the links:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...tem=4314644469

Here is a portion of an e-mail that I received about the next hives.

”Yes I know about those hives. In Germany tey are called "Blätterbeute" or
"Hinterbehandlungs-Beute"
translated something like "Hive for back-treatment".
I think you will not be able to by one nowadays because ist a very ancient
System.
My Grandfather used them but switched to Zander in 1960. In Germany most
often the "Zander"-System ist used.”

http://www.imkerhomepage.de/meine_im...normbeute.html
http://www.imkerhomepage.de/meine_im..._TGL_11407.pdf
http://www.imkerhomepage.de/meine_im..._DIN_11660.pdf
http://www.adiz-online.de/sro.php?redid=43252

I did find a German beekeeping supply house that sold cabinet style hive. I lost the link and have been unable to find it. The hives were like storage cabinets. Stack a couple of brood boxes and supper on top of each other and make the side of the hive one big door and that is what they would look like.

I did purchase “An Introduction to Bee-houses” from a British bee supply house, but was disappointed in it.

[al coble]

You can use Google to translate the web page without going to Babel Fish ( http://translate.google.com/translat...D%26ie%3DUTF-8 ). It will translate the pages as you click through them. Unfortunately, it will not translate any PDF files.

[magnet-man]

I found the link to the cabinet hive. This site has some strange hives.
http://www.bienen-meier.ch/db/index....mmer=7&do=list

[Darrel Wright]

Those are really interesting. Is anyone planning on trying one of these cabinet type deals? In visualizing it, I thought there was no way this would work because propolis would make it impossible to slide the frames out. Now I can see that this might actually be an advantage--instead of prying frames loose like a lang, you could grasp the frame from the free-hanging bottom and pull towards you until the propolis loosened.

[Michael Bush]

I'm assuming you'd need some kind of hook device to reach in and pry the frames loose. Or a long skinny pry bar to slip under the frame and pry it up first and then a hook to pull it out. I'm not sure how well it would work, but if it did, you'd never have to lift a box.

[magnet-man]

If you look at items 6608 through 6614 these are spacer pins. The sides and bottom bar is as wide as the top bar is. The spacers enforce the bee space and only allows a small area that can be glued with propolis. Of course you want a breed of bee that doesnÂ’t go propolis crazy.

What is interesting this the size of the brood frames. They are huge!

These hives might be nice from the standpoint of checking the brood without having to remove the suppers. The down side is you have to have boxes to put the frames in when you pull honey.

[jfischer]

I looked at the PDFs, and I am confused by the first one listed.

Is anyone's German good enough to make any sense of the
text? Technical terms never translate worth a darn.

I would also love to know how the bees are prevented from
gooing the entire assembly into a solid immovable mass,
as I see what look like lots of spaces for both propolis
and bridge comb.

[shoefly]

This is a swiss website. These cabinets are for installation into bee houses or bee shacks - a permanent structure with up to 20 hives (cabinets) in them. The weather in Switzerland can be a lot wetter than what we are used to in most parts of the country with the exception of the Northwest. If you need any specific word or sentence translated let me know.

[Michael Bush]

>These hives might be nice from the standpoint of checking the brood without having to remove the suppers. The down side is you have to have boxes to put the frames in when you pull honey.

I already have to have a box to put them in when I pull them because I brush every frame. I extract in my kitchen and I have to minimize the number of bees flying around the house or I might have a revolt.

[topbarguy]

Hi Guys,

Almost all the cabinet hives shown have frames that are parallel with the cabinet opening. I've seen pictures of cabinet hives with the frames perpendicular to the opening so that individual frames could be removed without affecting any other frame.

Cabinet hives and bee houses are areas of beekeeping that don't have get much exposure in the US. But they might be a very practical hive for a suburban beekeeper, for someone who wants to closely observe a large hive, or a beekeeper who trailers bees. I became intereseting in them for all these reasons. But I got diverted into top bar hives. I still plan to build a couple.

I think a cabinet hive would have most of the advantages of a top bar hive and all the flexibility associated with vertical management.

There are some interesting ideas in those links. Thanks.

Regards
Dennis

[olimar.marinho]

I am working hard a similar modern solution.
I expect to finish it until the end of the year. I will share it with you despite my english. It´s early now.