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Help me decide which format of horizontal to do

9K views 54 replies 10 participants last post by  GregB 
#1 ·
For what it's worth I am in Zone 7B North Carolina about 30 miles from Charlotte.

I am taking a season off to prepare, so I have no colonies at present.
I am abandoning vertical hives. But still have boxes, supers, and frames for Langstroth deep, medium and shallow. And I have a 2 frame extractor.
I am not opposed to selling off stuff, including the extractor. Nothing is "precious".
I plan on trapping and catching bees as opposed to buying nuc's and such.
I build all my own equipment, at least the woodenware.

I have just read through the two books that Dr. Leo pushes, but I have never gotten an email response to my questions from him so I have no access to an "expert." :)

So my thoughts are on depth vs breadth. I seem to see that in colder climates probably above my zone by a significant distance, the Lazutin or Double Deep Langstroth do well at a 14-20 frame width. I like the idea of the Layens in that width as well. But a single height deep at 25-40 seems possible. Initially I was concerned with lateral movement of the cluster during wintering.

So what's going to be my best bet? I realize that there should be opinions involved. I accept that and realize there is no definitive answer, except for someone with motivation to sell books or speaking engagements or equipment. But I am interested in hearing those opinions an don't need disclaimers to go with them :)
 
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#53 · (Edited)
So.... My backyard being hillside, unstacking, stacking and packing around Lang supers and gear gets old in a hurry, as well as insulating and uninsulating, and having 60,000 raging bees roaring around every inspection or treatment. That's why I made some horizontals. All are 3/8 ply with 1.5" styrofoam sandwiched. Foam bottoms, and insulated tops/roof/lid. You get it, fully insulated. A couple divider boards, one insulated.

First one is simple, 32 deep frames long, board covers.
Furniture Desk Table Machine
Wood Plywood Wood stain


Second one got a bit fancier. I wanted more capacity, so I made it to take med supers on top, and still able to close the lid. It holds 32 deep frames long, and two med supers as well.
Wood Furniture Shelf Hardwood Table

Furniture Desk Doghouse Room Sporting Group

The third, I went a bit far, I think. A double deep, 52 deep frames.
Tree Plant community Plant Vehicle Forest


They're sooooo much easier to deal with the bees. All three are splits from my normal Lang hives, with new queens, but the bees are so calm, and easy to deal with frame by frame instead of removing a top, an inner cover, then a super, and another super, then digging around while 10,000 foragers are confused that their entrance has vanished...
I can leave stuff in each hive under the lid. A tool, note pad, queen grabber, spare frames, bundle of zip ties. Stuff I don't have to remember to carry around in my pockets. Having a nice big platform to work on, set tools, a camera, a pulled out frames, way nicer to work on.
My preference is to dribble OA, or use mite away, and will soon try Hop Guard strips. Having only one level to deal with is nice. Exposing only a few bees at a time, and the lids tip up from behind so the foragers just continue to use the normal entrances, makes for no defensiveness or confusion. Haven't used a smoker at all on them. Another thing I don't have to pack around!
Strategy for honey harvest...I placed the hives where I can drive up to them in my tractor. Will make 30 frame holding box for the bucket, arrange the frames I want to take, apply fume board, remove, take frames, replace with empty frames, drive away. No intention of lifting more than one frame in each hand.

Might not be suitable for a commercial operation, but for the casual beekeeper, that only has a few hives to manage, I don't think you can beat the convenience of a horizontal.

So far, I like the second design the best.
 
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