hTBH in Local Climate - Bush/Murrell/Chandler - which one?

[Che Guebuddha]

Hallo bee folks,

I am in a mood to build two identical Horisontal Top Bar Hives which Im to establish in South of Sweden next spring. The climate around the city of Hassleholm is humid, windy, cold winters with or without show (yes freezing temps), cloudy vs sunny is 50-50, up to 20'Celsius in the summer down to 5-10'C in the night.
In the winter it can be -2'Celsius but it feels like -15'C (so it sais on the net) because of the humidity which is on scale from 70%-92% (winter is more humid of course). The ground can freez to the depths of 60cm some winters.
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Chandler's TBH is situated in England which is very damp in most parts and he does get wet floors and mould in TBHs with closed floors. He is now testing a hive with a Deep Floor

The Deep Floor - as I now call it - is working well and is so far looking like one of my better ideas. Contrary to what you suggest, ventilation is not really a significant feature of this floor - it's more about moisture retention and climate control.

I don't like solid floors because they don't breathe - they just get wet, go mouldy and rot. There is enough exchange of air in the deep floor for this not to be an issue, while the filling is sacrificial and can be renewed as required or treated as a compost heap. The main point is that it stabilizes the hive atmosphere.

I am preparing to video my latest version this week and will write it up soon. It will be available as an optional extra to my locally built hives and is an easy retro-fit on existing hives.

Chandler also made this interesting add on called the Periscope Entrance

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Murrell's KTBH is located in a dry but very windy and cold Wyoming and he made a hive which is shorter than Chandler's TBH but wider and taller instead so it still has the same or very much the same volume (assuming 80 litres).
He finds low entrances to work best in this climate. The hive has a solid floor.

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Michael Bush TBH is I think the same size as Chandler's TBH with a diferent hive entré preference. Bush finds Top Entrance to give best results for his hives. His hives are situated in Nebraska which is also dry and cold if im not mistaking. If I got it right Bush has both closed floors and floors with ventilation during the summer time in a form of a mesh floor.

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Im an unexperienced beekeeper. I got my first TBH up and running this year end of May and its growing as we speek into a fine colony.

Which hive would you advise to go with in my climate? Or a combination of all 3 hives also works fine for me. Im confused about the humid vs dry climate. So please feel free to throw all sorts of ideas, opinions and experiences

Thank you

[Che Guebuddha]

Big Time BUMP

Im actually trying to start building a hive today and I just seem not to be able to decide which is better suited for damp climate. Today the humidity is 88% here in Varmland and down south is 77%. So I can defenetly say that I need to build a hive for a windy, cold and damp climate.

I wonder what you experienced TBH beekeepers would choose and why so? Please elaborate.
I am trying to base the hive on Clark's Condenser Hive but not sure about the entrance or whether to tilt the floor a bit towards the entrance to let the accumulated water drip out ...

Is it so that Top Entrance is better suited for dry climates and low entrance for those which are damp?

Thank you