[Mike Snodgrass]

I am just getting into this, joined a local club and going to purchase a Langstroth tomorrow from one of the members of the club who has his own shop. I always over research anything i get involved in and this has been no exception. Thus leading me to learn a great deal about TBH's.....Like Warre's and KTBH's. The idea of the KTBH does seem far easier to manage than any other hive i have seen, but to the contrary with the Warre. Just the thought of haveing to pick up the upper box's and slide in another underneath seems more difficult than it needs to be? Has someone found out that Bee's move down better than up? Seriously? I even saw several web sites that are useing forklifts and one was useing a smaller front end loader, cherry picker to lift the upper boxs! Now im probably going to be lead to Langs anyway by membership in this club which seems exclusively langs, but variety is the spice of life! I dont want to have to invest in a heavy duty tractor with a front end loader or even a fork lift to manage bee's! Can you just add a empty hive box to the top of a warre when takeing off a loaded hive box? The idea of a more natural and maybe even more desease resistant form of beekeeping sounds great! If it doesnt break my back in the process!

 

[mike haney]

dont worry. only large opperations buy powered equipment to handle hives. i'll bet no one in your bee club has. stick with langs to learn-there is a reason your club has all langs. learn to keep bees, then experiment. good luck,mike

 

[buckbee]

Can you just add a empty hive box to the top of a warre when takeing off a loaded hive box? The idea of a more natural and maybe even more desease resistant form of beekeeping sounds great! If it doesnt break my back in the process!

People do manage Warrés without fork lifts, but you do have to be able and willing to do some lifting - if only of single boxes.

If this is a prime concern, the horizontal TBH is an obvious choice. The heaviest thing you lift is a comb full of honey!