Beekeeping > TBH, Warre, and Other Alternative Hives

3 Reds New Long Lang

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Wandering Man:
3Reds has wanted a hive she could operate herself - no heavy lifting.
I started looking for someone to build one for me this past August.  I settled on a guy in San Antonio who makes weird hives, and I thought he could build it for me.  I think it might be finished before the end of the year.  I hope it is finished before I end up in Houston for a seven week "vacation" I didn't want.

Christmas was coming, and I hadn't heard from the guy, so I contacted my second choice, a non-beekeeping cabinet maker.  He built the one in the picture below in about two weeks.  3Reds was out of town over the weekend, and he brought it out to the apiary for me and helped me put it in place.













I had to give it to her early because a) she's going to have rotator cuff surgery on Thursday and so couldn't work with it for a long while; b) I didn't want to chance the weather turning bad before we got the bees in there; and c) well, because I couldn't wait to show it to her.  She saw it yesterday, and we went back out today to transfer the bees:






It didn't take long for the bees to figure out where their new home is:

Wandering Man:
My only concern is that my carpenter didn't know about bee space.  Those slats he made for me sit directly on top of the top-bars.  I guess that would be okay, but I can't put SHB jails between the top bars, or use a frame feeder if I use the slats.  We'll try it without the slats for a while.  I may end up with comb on the underside of the lid.  I'll miss out one of the advantages of a Long Lang; being able to uncover only a few frames at a time.  Well, 3Reds will miss out on the advantage.

iddee:
Very nice, but you will have the lid locked down with comb and honey in the inner part of it. Cut a piece of heavy canvas to act as an inner lid before you have a mess you don't want. Tack it to the bottom of the lid.

neillsayers:
WM,

Very neat. I'll be looking forward to hearing how it works out for ya'll. :)

Wandering Man:
The bees are respecting the lid, so far.  They haven't locked it down.  We are using the slats that our carpenter made for us, and that seems to keep them from trying to hang comb on the lid.  This week, we swapped out some of the slats for ones that allowed bee space under them.

The back of the lid had enough space to allow bees to use it as a back entrance.  I didn't want the bees to have too many different places to guard, so I laid down some steel wool. 

The cover he made for the Freeman Beetle trap trays allows water in, so ended up with three trays full of muddy Diatomaceous Earth.  I think I'll tack a bit of canvas to the back rim of the hive and let it drap down over the leaky lid.  That should take care of both problems.

So ...
The above was the hive that I ordered the first of December and was completed in two weeks.

Below is a hive I ordered from a beekeeper who makes and sells hives (not Long Langs) in August, and did not get until Christmas Eve:










There are some things I like on both hives and some things I don't.  There are some things both have wrong with them, but I think I can fix or get fixed.

The bees don't seem to care.  They just want a home.

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