Who has tried a long Langstroth (Urban Condo) type hive - what do you think it?

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Winter is the time for woodworking, and questions. I'm a hobbyist, and I have seen BB and MB have tried long Langs, and supered them. It looks fairly easy to make one with a table saw. I have three related questions.
Have those who have tried them noticed an increase in honey yield with them, and if so why do you think that this would be so? Did you use queen excluders with them? Thanks, Adrian.

[HAB]

I have a Long Hive I built two years ago. Its easier for someone with a bad back to work than a regular Lang but other than that no different.
You can see it in this picture to the right of my Langs. Click the picture for a larger view.


Here is a link to BeeWranglers Long hive plans.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...1b6d246fd176bc

And here is a link to my plans. But be warned it's not near as nice as BeeWrangler's.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...3c73678302b4ea

[Joseph Clemens]

I built one - it was done as an experiment and is one of only two hives I keep that uses deep frames. It holds twenty-two deep frames and is the size where two 10-frame supers will fit on top of it without any gap or overlap.

I have not seen it outproduce my other hives, even though it seems to maintain a larger population of bees.

[USCBeeMan]

I myself would like to try out a long hive. Have plans for 1 that is 48" long. It sits on a treated lumber stand. Will modify the stand itself to allow the use of oil pans for SHBs.

Hive is currently designed for medium frames. I am thinking of modifying it to use brood frames with the idea of allowing upward expansion using 8-frame equipment in a 7-frame setup. This would allow easy removal of supers and the ability to use more supers without going too high.

I am thinking about using divider frames and installing several packages and/or splits and also allowing for faster build up by adding a couple of swarms. Once there is a substantial buildup I can remove some of the queens and brood to nucs for further growth.

Does this sound like a plan?

[D Coates]

I've thought it looks interesting too. I remove Drone brood for IPM and being able to easily get to that frame would be great. Right now I have to remove all of the supers. The concern I have is how they would overwinter? With minimal vertical movement starvation could be an issue. Do TBH's overwinter well?

[Adrian Quiney WI]

I hadn't thought of the your drone removal idea - good thinking.
Barry avoids the overwintering issue by removing bars 5 and 16 placing follower boards in, and then adding a deep in the fall to winter in a conventional 2 deep manner. This can be seen by doing an "urban condo" search on the "beekeeping home" page at the very top of this screen. However, regular top bar hives can overwinter in the north - mine did last year . One issue I could see would be getting snow-bound. TBH's are often raised, but then again a long hive could be raised - if you are strong enough.
Adrian.

[Michael Bush]

I usually have a few running with bees in them. I have hives for seven or eight.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshorizontalhives.htm

[D Coates]

I usually have a few running with bees in them. I have hives for seven or eight.

Are you saying your bottom box has 7 or 8 frames? If not, can you please explain the 7 or 8 reference? I'll be doing some woodworking over Christmas break and want to understand what you're trying.

The one odd thing I have found with using Perco drone frames (one per hive) is that if a queen is laying swarm cells, they seem to lay them on the bottom of the drone frame about 90% of the time. I invariably find them when I remove the frame for freezing. I may find others but the bulk of them are on the drone frame. I haven't found an effective way to transfer them off of the frame without destroying them.

I hate destroying queen cells, so if anyone has any ideas about handling that issue I'm all ears.

[Michael Bush]

>Are you saying your bottom box has 7 or 8 frames? If not, can you please explain the 7 or 8 reference?

No. I have seven or eight long (aka horizontal aka coffin aka chest) hives. They are 22 frame deeps and dadant deeps, 33 frame deeps and dadant deeps, 16 frame mediums, 22 frame mediums and 33 frame mediums.

[Cyrus Brewster]

"No. I have seven or eight long (aka horizontal aka coffin aka chest) hives. They are 22 frame deeps and dadant deeps, 33 frame deeps and dadant deeps, 16 frame mediums, 22 frame mediums and 33 frame mediums."
__________________
Of the mediums, which do you recomend? I will be starting with all mediums in the Spring, and want to try a long hive. The 16 frame base box allows for supering one end. Not sure about the 22 frame. 33 frame would be a long hive supered where?

Thanks,

[Michael Bush]

>Of the mediums, which do you recomend?

The 33 frame boxes work well. The rest are too small.

> I will be starting with all mediums in the Spring, and want to try a long hive. The 16 frame base box allows for supering one end. Not sure about the 22 frame. 33 frame would be a long hive supered where?

I super them at the entrance end. That way I force the through the supers. I have a top entrance from the start and when I add supers the entrance moves up.