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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10249  by Bobbysbees
 15 Mar 2021, 17:43
They look very nice...But i have already built my own long hive.
Did you Know that scaffold boards with a 10mm shim of wood for retaining the frame lugs are the perfect depth for National frames. and at £8 each from my local reclamation yard i will never be buying hive components other than foundation again.
I'm all for people trying to make a better be hive but its a bit like building a better mousetrap. You might make a fortune or more likely some one in the far east will copy your design and everyone will still complain about the price.
eg FLOWHIVE. lol heck even the knock of frames are over a £150 a set.
I will see how i make out with my long hive before i rush into producing it on a commercial basis.
I would be interested to know what people thing of the viability of such a product and what Starting price they would aim for,
 #10253  by NigelP
 15 Mar 2021, 20:31
No disrespect intended but would never consider a long hive myself. Too Awkward to work frames and poor honey producers. Almost impossible to move as too big and heavy.
But they do tick a lot of boxes for those not wanting surplus honey.
 #10256  by Patrick
 15 Mar 2021, 21:50
There seems two main markets in hive design. The first is for those who want a single static hive in the garden and the other for those wanting multiple or mobile colonies, often partially kept in out apiaries. For the latter group, modular box systems take some beating but they require accurate replicable joinery to function.

Maybe the USP of many of the hives in the first group (Zest, topbar, longhives etc) is the fact they can be constructed relatively easily or cheaply at home. That may affect how readily they can be made into a commercial product and so the price you could charge for it. The plastic commercial version, popular a few years back, seems to have gone a bit quiet recently.
 #10263  by Bobbysbees
 16 Mar 2021, 22:33
I have seen few plastic 10 frame boxes and any amount of poly hives. I might look into trying a long poly hive maybe with a little reinforcement could be a practical option for moving around. My long hive is only 30 frames but I grant you that you wouldn't want to pic it up at the end of a season full of honey even with 2 people.
I have considered stacking supers on it just to save having to pick through the combs to get the ones with out brood on.
The only 2 that I have seen in person seemed to have a hugely elongated brood nest. not something you would really want going into winter if all the honey is at the other end. You could end up with starved out bees in hive half full of honey.
As for them being awkward to work it depends if you are used to your hives set up the warm way or the cold way I work all of mine from behind as thats how i was taught ,
 #10265  by AdamD
 17 Mar 2021, 10:09
I made a 16 frame National some years ago - very heavy and awkward but just about liftable however the bees I had at the time (swarmers) didn't like progressing down the length of it before they flew off. It had the disadvantage that I needed to stand along the long side which meant twisting to get the frames out - just awkward. Having a box the cold way (as Langstroths are as well) means you can stand at one side and then the other if you don't want to lean over much.
 #10273  by MickBBKA
 17 Mar 2021, 23:44
I am sure bees prefer to nest in vertical trees rather than horizontal ones. Just say'n ;)
 #10274  by Alfred
 18 Mar 2021, 06:37
I'll second that
I made a few bait hives with that in mind
All were the folklore 40 litres but the deep four frame ones got strikes but the modified old brood boxes only got enquiries.

Image
 #10278  by NigelP
 18 Mar 2021, 08:41
No folklore Arthur, scientific research by Thomas Seeley determined this was the volume the Italian bees used in the study preferred. Treat yourself to a copy of Honeybee democracy where all the work is laid out in easy to understand and very readable text.
Whether other strains have lower or higher preferences has never been done.
Although its worth adding the caveat that on the island they did this research the first swarm preferred a chimney on the keepers cottage to any of the bait hives :D And the research was conducted after the chimney was blocked off.
 #10285  by Spike
 18 Mar 2021, 16:01
MickBBKA wrote:
17 Mar 2021, 23:44
I am sure bees prefer to nest in vertical trees rather than horizontal ones. Just say'n ;)
Must be why long hives are not used as much as vertical ones. It ain't natural.
 #10286  by Bobbysbees
 18 Mar 2021, 17:08
Iv made up a set of quadratics to use as mating hives might be an interesting experiment to leave a queen in one and stack them to see how well that fair. I have seen them used like that but the ones i saw were so expensive with there pretty copper corner fittings and roofs I built my own.
Maybe a good way to produce cut comb to a chosen size?
And as you say mimicking nature might be the way forward.