Golden Mean Hive size envy

Thanks Everyone, appreciate the fast feedback. I will hold on to them, probably as starters for my packages, then as nucs/swarm traps.

jwcarlson said:

If those are plans that you paid for I don't think you should be posting them on the net. The golden mean plans I have seen are "for sale".

And you are correct, there seems to be a concensus that the TBH should be between four and five feet in length.

Click to expand...

as far as the plans, we paid cash for the hardcopies. I found these after we had paid by simply typing in 'Golden Mean Hive Plans' into the google, lol. We were a little miffed at ourselves as they were out there for free, but buyer beware. That, and since the person made the effort to do all that work putting those together, whether we built them or not we don't begrudge him the money for the plans, just that if the size is known to to throw multiple swarms a season, then overwintering them would seem to be more difficult for northern owners and should be declared before selling the product. Once we really started studying the TBH's we realized how simple they were and inexpensive too (though preassembled, these golden mean hives go for $350 - what happened to bee equipment prices in the last 10 years?)

Thanks again everyone, off to the workshop!

I still have two 3' hives of Golden Mean design and while I don't consider them honey production hives I think they are very useful. One is a pretty bait hive which sits in my front yard (I transfer swarms to a larger hive after they draw out combs and have brood) and the other is my splits hive.

Even though I don't consider the full 3' hive one a honey production hive, I still get 20-30 lbs of honey from it a year, but the honey comb wax gets used for brood. The honey is fine, but it's hardly suited for comb or chunk honey.

Then there are the modified Golden Mean Hives. I've been doing 4' because I need to re-design the roof and couldn't lift a 5' roof. I just buy three 4' long, 12" wide boards. Cut the 18° angle on 2 of them for sides, screw them to the 3rd for the bottom and use squared lumber scraps for the ends. It doesn't stress my poor woodworking skills and locally the 4' boards are 25% cheaper than the 6' boards.

Shouldn't the total volume of the hive be taken into consideration? I have 24-1 1/2 inch top bars in my TBH. But they are also 19 inches long. And the hive is somewhat deep as well – I would say at least 8 inches. So even though it's only 36+ inches long (1 follower board) there's a good amount of comb that can be built. There's a lot of math in all that and I don't care to do it-especially since there are trapezoids to be considered.

I have the luxury of keeping my TBH in my backyard, so frequent harvesting of honey will not be a problem for me. Realistically, how many of the comb would be devoted to brood? When will they start to feel cramped?

I think less than 36 inches would be too small, but can 36 inches be long enough?

I always forget to add that I don't have bees in this hive yet.

Delta Bay said:

The shorter golden mean hives volume is a little too small for my liking but I believe that management strategy can match the hive volume. More manipulation compared to a larger volume.

Click to expand...

This is absolutely true and very hard on a new First Year beek .I read 5 books-3 specifying Top Bars- before I ever got My package that said "don't worry about a swarm your first year".

One year ago I had my husband build me a Golden Mean as per the blueprint. My APRIL 2013 package of bees swarmed in JUNE and the hive was Full to the back with comb and bees when it happened.
Carniolans build up FAST. I simply was not Ready with a second hive, nor was I Ready to learn to do a Split so soon, when I was experiencing Everything for the first time. To keep up with Carniolans in a GM I would have had to put a new blank bar IN the middle or front of the broodnest Every week(or a couple of blanks every two weeks). I wanted a more "hands off" approach and that meant(and will always mean) 2 swarms a season in my zone 7-8 environment. The good side of this is that despite all my flubbing around (it was over-educated flubbing) with the hive insulated and a mouse guard, my bees Overwintered!

I have great hope that this wild bred granddaughter queen is laying true "Survivors" now. The colony was down to a couple of Handfulls this winter...I had no hope. But then I read that local "survivors" only inhabit ONE comb in a lang around here and make it! And MY bees made it in my GM too!!!! A month ago I couldn't see any in my window. Then each week another full comb of busy bees came into view. I harvested a half gallon of honey and still left 10 partials from last Fall for them to eat and expand into. I made some space and they've already built comb into it.

I was rather disgusted with my Golden Mean for awhile last year,but my "losses" I DO believe got me Better "mutt" and local genetics. I got a longer 2nd hive and Now I'm thinking I'll only give my new package half of it The First Year (hahahahaha), so I can let 'em swarm and have 2 genetically diverse but wild bred queens. I'll also split this first gangbusters colony for my first "split" experience,into a nuc and see how my education progresses as soon as they refill the GM which looks like it's gonna be by May. PS I LOVE topbar beekeeping ! PS2 Perhaps Italians would "stay put" and be easier to manage, but they aren't recommened by any bee keeper within 100 miles of my particular "crazy and extreme 10 to 107 degree weather" area..............