[HawkI]

Ive been keeping bees for a few years, I started out with 4 Warre hives that I built with observation windows – these were very successful and 1 Langstroth , all in my garden. I managed to attract swarms in all my hives in a week or two. Link to my Warre post - https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?349459-First-Warre-hive-slightly-modified. Over the past 2 years, I have moved from Warre to Langs.

Currently a very warm Spring in South Africa and my hives are packed with Bee’s and they look in great shape.

I wanted to try something new so built this Horizontal hive in my spare time over the last week – it takes 30 Layens frames. Wish me luck…

 

[HawkI]

One more pic



I got most of my inspiration from this sub-forum and also some clips on YT with Dr Leo. I took the Layens frame dimensions from Dr Leo's site and designed my hive around those frames. I did not opt for the double walled/insulated hive but rather just reasonable quality ply wood. We only really have 1 or 2 moons of cold weather a year and the hive is quite sheltered so Im hoping that will be okay.

Put the first 5 frames in with a follower board and put a few drops of lemongrass oil in the hive - lets hope I am able to attract a swarm.

 

[GregV]

Looks great.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Honeyeater]

I got most of my inspiration from this sub-forum

I'm also getting a lot of inspiration from the great people here. And thanks for sharing I'm always looking for horizontal hive ideas I can pinch....

 

[little_john]

Wish me luck…

Well - I'll certainly wish you luck - but as a beekeeper it appears that you know full-well what you're doing, so my guess is that luck won't be needed ...

.. except perhaps in the catching of a swarm. But - if that should fail, you could always make a split from one of your existing hives. You may need to be a little 'creative' in order to accommodate top-bar length differences, but on balance I think any hassle in doing that is worthwhile in order to more-or-less guarantee getting another colony up and running, rather than relying on a chance event.

But - whatever the outcome - keep us posted.
LJ

 

[HawkI]

...you could always make a split from one of your existing hives. You may need to be a little 'creative' in order to accommodate top-bar length differences, but on balance I think any hassle in doing that is worthwhile in order to more-or-less guarantee getting another colony up and running, rather than relying on a chance event...

That never crossed my mind - but sounds like good advice, never done it before so will research it further...

 

[HawkI]

So - its 1 month later and for some reason catching swarms both in the horizontal and Lang hive has been difficult for me. Everyone else round here has no issues but I have had no luck this year. I did seriously consider taking a split as suggested by Little_John - to be honest I was not confident enough to a. do the actual split and b. move from Lang frames to Layens. So I opted for the easy way out and bought a swarm from a fellow beekeeper. The swarm is in a swarm box situated right next to my hive and in a couple of days, I will move the comb onto the Layens frame - with the help of the swarm seller - he has a LOT more experience than I have. I will report back in a weeks time...

 

[JWPalmer]

Looking forward to the update. Since you are familiar with Dr. Leo's site, I use swarm traps from the plans there and have pretty good luck with them.