If you are new to beekeeping choosing the ideal hive can be a daunting proposition. If you are a seasoned veteran recommending the right hive to someone taking up beekeeping it might simply come down to recommending what works for you.

Think of selecting a hive as analogous to buying a car. We don’t all run around in one type of car. In fact, there isn’t one ideal car. Instead, there are many fantastic cars. Our needs vary and the choice of vehicle depends upon such factors as size of the family and the uses to which it is put. Also, physical factors play a part. We might want to drive around in a low-slung sports car, but if we can’t bend to get in and out, it might be the wrong purchase. The same logic applies when choosing a hive.

This article is designed to help identify the choices of hives and systems available and to clear the confusion.

A Brief History of Hives

It is worth noting that the hives we mainly see today are of relatively recent origin, so before diving into detail about the various modern hives, it is interesting to reflect on what was used in years gone by.

People have likely been harvesting honey for as long as there have been people on the planet.

Hunter-gatherers sought out wild nests of bees and robbed them of their honey. When people began to live more settled lives and started to farm, it was an enormous advantage to have colonies nesting nearby. Initially, hollowed logs were used to attract the colonies but harvesting the honey often resulted in the loss of the colony. Skeps have also been used for a long time but again, the harvesting of the honey can involve the destruction of the colony.

Over time, most likely in Greece, many centuries ago, beekeepers realised that if they placed wooden bars at a particular spacing in the top of a receptacle which had inward sloping sides the comb would not be fixed to the inside walls. The honey could be harvested in individual panels by lifting out the wooden bar. The idea of the sloping sides is the main feature of the current top bar hive.

The modern hive as we know it with moveable frames has only been around about one hundred and eighty years. In beekeeping terms, it is as significant as the development of the wheel in transport.

The name that is synonymous with the modern hive is Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895). He was an American apiarist, clergyman, and teacher who has been called the father of modern beekeeping.

Although Langstroth’s contribution to beekeeping was of huge significance, moveable frame hives were first invented by François Huber (2 July 1750 – 22 December 1831). He was a Swiss entomologist who specialized in honey bees. His pioneering work, based on thorough observation was recognized across Europe. It is hard to believe that Huber was, in fact, blind and he needed the help of assistants in his work. In Huber’s Leaf Hive (patented in 1789) the frames were inspected like pages in a book.

Another major innovator was Petro Prokopovych (1775–1850). He was a Ukrainian beekeeper who made revolutionary contributions to the practice. He also developed a moveable frame hive where the frames were extracted like a book from a library shelf. Another invention of his was a wooden partition with apertures passable only by worker bees, now called a queen excluder. Incidentally, Petro Prokopovych was also the first to ever model a 'bee beard'.

Langstroth’s hive, which was patented in 1852, introduced the fully removable frame and utilised the concept of bee-space, a minimum distance that bees avoid sealing up. This a gap of 5/16inch or 8mm and is crucial to beekeeping.  The practical application of this concept allowed for the use of a roof above the frames that the bees don’t stick down and the use of rectangular, fully removable frames which would not be stuck together with propolis or the gap filled by burr comb.

Langstroth found that several communicating hive boxes can be stacked one above another, and that the queen can be confined to the lowest (or brood) chamber, by means of a queen excluder. In this way, the upper chambers can be reached only by the workers and therefore contain only honeycomb. This made honey extraction easier and more productive and turned the art of beekeeping into a full-scale industry.

The removable frame made colony inspection so much easier and with it such aspects as swarm control and prevention.

The development of the modern beehive moved beekeeping from being about providing a home for bees to being about colony management.

Types of Hives in Use today.

The main hives in use today can be classified as:

• Relatively Natural.
• Removable Frame Hives of which there are single walled and double walled varieties.

Relatively Natural

Some beekeepers prefer not to use hives with removable frames and foundation (that is the stamped wax sheets that provide a start for the bees to build honeycomb) as they see this as getting in the way of the natural behaviour of bees. In the wild, bees build beautiful organic structures and a joy of having a relatively natural hive is being able to see this.

Not only do the bees construct comb in their preferred shape in a relatively natural hive, they produce the right balance of worker and drone cells – something that is not possible in standard frames fitted with worker foundation.

 Amongst the relatively natural hives are the top bar hives and the Warre.

Top Bar Hives

As previously mentioned, the idea of the sloping slides is the main feature of the top bar hive.  Bees are given top bars without foundation on which to build their comb. The inclination of the hive walls results in the comb not adhering to the sides, and the top bars can be gently lifted out.

A great advantage of the top bar hives is that they do not require heavy lifting of boxes. However, this comes at a cost. The honey production tends to be much lower compared to a stackable box system.

 

 

Warre

The relative naturalness of the Warre is derived mainly from the fact that it also uses foundation-less top bars and the nest is allowed to grow downwards as happens in honeybee nests in natural cavities.

As with all relatively natural hives, you cannot use an extractor to harvest honey from a Warre hive and so there is the need for a honey press, or similar, to separate the honey from the comb.

There is also the possibility with relatively natural hives that the bees don’t play ball and build their comb across several top bars. Sorting this out can be messy!

Removable Frame Hives

Removable frame hives come in a variety of sizes and shapes and include stackable single walled hives, long hives and double walled hives.

Beekeepers who use removable frame hives tend to use foundation. This not only speeds up the production of cells, it also guides where the bees draw the comb. The use of wired foundation, which provides greater strength and rigidity, enables the comb to survive the process of honey extraction.

It is said that the main resources required by the beekeeper are time and drawn comb. The modern hive, and the use of foundation, at least offer the opportunity to increase one of these. It enables the beekeeper to reuse drawn comb saving the bees a great deal of time and effort and in the process increases honey production.

Stackable Single Walled Hives

The principal feature of the single walled hive is its constructional simplicity. Most use four pieces of wood to form the side and short lugged top bars to fit the boxes. To lift the boxes there are machined-out finger recesses.

The exception to this is the Modified National or National as it is more commonly known. This is the most widely used hive in the UK and uses extra timbers to form a rebate.

In addition to the National, the main singled walled hives that are stackable (in order of volume) are:

• Smith Hive. This is popular in Scotland as it is lighter than the National and makes for easier transport to the heather,
• Langstroth. This is the most widely used hive in the world. The best known variant is the Langstroth Jumbo,
• Modified Commercial. The outer dimensions are similar to the National and therefore uses the National roof and floor but the frames are wider and deeper,
• Modified Dadant. This has a similar length of frame to the Langstroth but is deeper in the brood and supers.

Volume equates to weight. The bigger the box the heavier it is to lift especially when full of brood or honey. Except for the National, finger-tip lifting can be difficult.

Given the similar diameters of the Modified Commercial and the National hives, some beekeepers use a Modified Commercial brood body with National supers. Whilst this is a tailored solution that suits some beekeepers the downside of using different size boxes is that it becomes difficult to swap frames.

The Rose hive, also known as the One Size Box (OSB) aims to simplify beekeeping by having the brood and the super the same size. Having only one size of frame maximises interoperability.

As the National hive is the UK’s most widely used hive by far it is worth noting its history and its pros and cons.

The specification of the National was based on the performance of the Old English Bee which at its best could only produce eight frames of brood. The demise of the Old English Bee happened with the introduction of new strains from about 1900 and the collapse of the Old English Bee due to, what was called at the time, ‘The Isle of Wight Disease.’

The present-day cross breeds do not have such low fecundity as the Old English Bee and a downside of the National is seen to be the size of the brood box. People often prefer a 14x12 brood body to accommodate the increase brood. Other common configurations in use to extend the volume of the  brood include using a ‘brood and a half’ (standard brood box and a super) and two brood boxes. The choice of configuration depends on the fecundity of the bees and the beekeeper’s strength to lift the boxes.

Double Walled Hives

Two walls provide better weather protection and thermal insulation.

The most famous double walled hive in Britain is the WBC hive. Rev. William Broughton Carr designed his hive in 1890 that had insulating lifts with parallel sides. In 1899 James Lee and son modified the design to one we know today with sloping sides. This is the iconic hive that makes a great feature in a country garden.

The lifts in the WBC hive provide an air space between the hive boxes and the outer wall and this acts as insulation thus retaining heat in the winter and moderating the high temperatures of summer. The lifts need to be removed before a hive inspection.

Additional features are the integral entrance closure and conical bee escape in the sloping roof.

Long Hives

A good example of a long hive is the Westley hive.

The Thorne Westley is a modern take on a mid-20th century design by Capt. Treadwell of Hampshire.  It retains the colony management benefits of the removable frame and removes the need for heavy lifting. However, the space cannot be extended as with stackable boxes so honey production is limited.

Other Hives

There are many other hives on the market and a popular one is the Flow hive. This is essentially a Langstroth hive with a patented extraction method in the super.

The hive allows for easy honey extraction when the conditions are right. Turning a key breaks the plastic cells and the honey flows out. However, it can be difficult to see whether all the cells are capped and therefore ready for extraction. Also, the extraction of oil seed rape and ivy honey can be tricky as these tend to set quite solid.

 

 

Conclusion

Returning to the analogy of choosing a car, the ‘vehicle’ you use for beekeeping will depend on the size of the family (in this case the fecundity of the queen) and the uses to which it is put.

Regarding uses, if you are wanting to maximise honey production, a stackable box system with removable frames is ideal. If there are other objectives such as just having bees as pollinators there are a variety of options.

Even if you opt for the popular National hive, you will still have plenty of choices to make regarding configuration of the brood body and the use of different floors and entrance on offer.

It seems that choosing the type of hive is only the start of the beekeeping journey!!