[Cordovan Italian Bee]

Hi Everyone,I would like to know what you think about the 22 frame brood hive you can add reg.10 frame supers on ? We don't give detailed info. on our web about how you add supers because we don't want other manufacture to start building them. So, anyway what do you think about them ? We are giving a demonstration on them at the central Texas bee association on July 22nd.

 

[CAHighwind]

Sounds like the long hives that I've built for some of my own colonies, that will accommodate two regular sized supers side by side on top. So far, it's worked well, bees are filling up frames like crazy, and nice to not have to dig through two deep brood boxes during inspections. Also nice is that having a lower profile, they seem to be pretty stable in high winds like we've got here.

 

[Cordovan Italian Bee]

We use them too and they work great. We wanted to make sure they work good before we started selling them. We have them on the market now.

 

[Cordovan Italian Bee]

We say this on our web about them.
A big break through for bee keepers. It’s a 22 large frame bee hive brood box and you can place 2 regular supers on top side by side, yes you can use your regular boxes, place as many regular supers on top as you need , 2 side by side. It has a screened bottom board you can close in the winter and look in it any time without your bee suit to see if you’re getting swarm cells. It’s always good to see in your hives anytime for many reasons. With the screened bottom board hundreds of mites fall out of the hive and you can do mite counts. When going in your hive you can blow a little smoke in the bottom before opening it.

The hive comes with a stand with treated wooden legs that keeps them from going bad and keeps ants out of the hive. It comes with a screened bottom to keep raccoons and other creatures out. You can look in the bottom, right into you hive. It also comes painted and with a landing board.

This 22 frame brood box keeps your supers low so you can work your hive more easily. You can look in your brood box any time with out removing one box for inspections. Instead of your boxes being 6 high they are only 3 high. The brood box comes with two dividers that changes your hive from 10 frames to 16 and then to 22. It comes with a divider board so when you add supers, you can add two and close one off until you need the other. You can use queen excluders if you like. Your 22 frame brood box comes with a screened 6 hole inter cover so you can see in the top anytime without your bee suit. It comes with an outer cover and the complete hive is painted on the outside ready for you to put your bees in.

There are many other advantages of having all your brood in 1 box. When bees get ready to swarm, they build swarm cells on the bottom of the top brood box frames where you can’t see them. When you have this 22 frame brood box, all the cells will be on the bottom where you can see them through your screened bottom board if you use a queen excluder. An other advantage is, you have 22 frames in the same space, and instead of 20 you have 22. Another advantage is you have 22 frames for the bees to crawl though instead of 10 to get to the supers, this stops crowding and cuts back on swarming.

 

[Rob73]

How do you manage that type of hive body in the winter? Do you have to close off some of the screened bottom? Can they be used in most climates?

Rob

 

[honeydreams]

Sounds ify to me. I'll Just stick to the modern Hive that's 158 years old has work well for years.

 

[Cordovan Italian Bee]

How do you manage that type of hive body in the winter? Do you have to close off some of the screened bottom? Can they be used in most climates?

Rob

There is a board you slide in the back of the bottom under the screen that closes the whole bottom.

 

[sqkcrk]

What do I think?
A. Nothing new.
B. Inconvenient
C. Takes more space.
D. Bees have been known to "want" to build in a vertical fashion.
E. No thanks, I like what I have.

 

[Peter]

Sounds a bit like the UK Dartington long hives. Said to be good for Italian bees but a little iffy for other varieties.

 

[sqkcrk]

Why is it called a 22 frame brood hive? Should I really expect it to have 22 frames of brood? Where does the honey go?

 

[mothergoosemagic]

I built some of these last year for my Italians, and this year, I'm ripping the lumber down to regular sized deeps & nucs. Even with movable division boards, the bees just would only build out so far and that's it.

Most all the long hives I've seen online are in the deep South, so it might work just fine there. Not here up in the mountains.

 

[MikeJ]

I do not want to put the product down - I have never even seen one in "real life", so I can't say anything for or against it, other than opinions.

I like the idea of the mite drops. I have thought before how the second, third or such supers mites will ever reach the sbb in the normal hives.

Here are some questions though,
1) Last year my two brood chambers went into winter weighing about 60lb and 70lb = 120lb. Does this mean this hive (which has 2 frames more) will avrg. 125lbs going into winter? Isn't that a lot if I need to move them?

2) Do you have to super by 2s? That would mean a chance that you will rarely get a super packed in honey - but more likely they will be partials doesn't it? Also the need for 2x the number of supers on hand?

3) How do you keep water (rain) out if you are placing 2 supers on top, aren't the elements going to seep down between them?

4) I have noticed that reaching across the hive seems to attract bee attention. Wouldn't a 22 frame long hive mean a very long reach - or at best changing positions half way through inspection (which if you have set frames out can mean more than just stepping over)?

The questions may simply be because I don't understand the product.
Mike

 

[waynesgarden]

There's no trade secret to reveal. Just yesterday, I built one from plans that have been on Dennis Murrell's website forever. I built it for 20 deep frames. I believe there are also plans or an article about them on Beesource.

Since I haven't used it yet, I don't know how well it will work up here in the hills of western Maine, but Michael Bush has long hives in Nebraska and countless people are running top bar hives here in the north. Dennis Murrell keeps bees in Wyoming. Perhaps the choice of bees is more critical than their hive configuration.

Wayne