Hive Body Make Up

[Perry]

All my hives have upper entrances 24/7, 365 days a year.

[riverbee]

i use top entrances too tefer, and i will also use imrie shims if need be, between additional supers that are stacked, to give the bees ready access rather than having them take field trips through the brood chamber and up.

[brooksbeefarm]

I make a double compartment top feeder (one for dry pollen and the other for syrup),that has a 3/8in.x one in. rim all around the bottom edges, except for a one inch slot in the front for a top entrants. I leave them on 24-7, 365 days a year, i've been doing this for at least 20 yrs. and had bees build comb in them only 2 times when empty and when i find shb's in the hive they are in the top feeder, in a corner with guard bees watching them? (why don't they kill them?)  Jack

[tedh]

Thanks Riverbee!  And you too Perry!  This is good information and I appreciate it!  So, brood frames for brood, honey frames for honey, honey frames can be used for brood but brood frames maybe shouldn't be used for honey.  I say "maybe shouldn't" so as not to step on any toes that may feel differently.  The reasons for not swapping brood frames for honey frames is contamination from beek administered treatments, contamination from brood rearing, and "corn country" pesticides and neonics?  Riverbee, you mention changing out brood frames to avoid pesticides, neonics, "whatever".  That makes sense to me, I believe every three to five years?  Do you also change out your honey frames, at similar intervals, for similar reasons?  Ted

[Perry]

Not so much Ted, as they are usually on the hives only long enough to catch a flow. Mine might spend 3 to 4 months total actually sitting on a hive.

[tedh]

Huh!  Now that you say it, it makes perfect sense!  Wonder why I couldn't or didn't see it before?!  Thanks, man!  Ted

[riverbee]

" So, brood frames for brood, honey frames for honey, honey frames can be used for brood but brood frames maybe shouldn't be used for honey.  I say "maybe shouldn't" so as not to step on any toes that may feel differently.  The reasons for not swapping brood frames for honey frames is contamination from beek administered treatments, contamination from brood rearing, and "corn country" pesticides and neonics?  Riverbee, you mention changing out brood frames to avoid pesticides, neonics, "whatever".  That makes sense to me, I believe every three to five years?  Do you also change out your honey frames, at similar intervals, for similar reasons?  Ted"

ted, essentially yes, this is my practice, irregardless of configuration. contamination is a good description. some beeks may do it differently, we all keep bees differently and do what works for us.  tefer brought up another good point, the 'travel stain' that occurs.  dirt, pollen, whatever. your honey supers will get some travel stain, but not like the brood chambers do. in the big picture, this is not as concerning as the other types of 'contamination'.  wax absorbs just about anything. like tefer, i choose to use queen excluders to keep the queens out of the honey frames. three to 5 years? that is the recommeded guidelines now.  some of my frames are 15 -20 years old.  i have been culling them a little every year for the past 10 years. this takes a great deal of resources from the bees, and i have a long ways to go. my honey supers/frames, like perry said, not so much.

[barry42001]

My personal preference are all deep supers/ hive bodies. No need to worry about what goes where...it all fits totally interchangeable. Heavy but in my mind worth the effort



Something about a frame like that a shallow or medium can't compare to in my mind....lighter to handle but my preference is deeps.

[LazyBkpr]

I run all mediums as most know by now ..     Upper entrances as well, it seems to cut down on the travel stain quite a bit..  I have also noticed (Imagined?) with upper entrances the super frames are drawn out a little faster.
   I try to run an unlimited brood nest most of the time. using all mediums means i am not stuck with medium frames filled with brood that I have no place to put them because the lower boxes are deeps.
   I have had queens FILL the center 6 frames of 4 mediums with brood. If those queens had been restricted they would have swarmed. The bonus, was STRONG hives that made honey stacked seven and eight boxes per hive.
    For those with a few hives it wont be as important, but to me, being able to pull frames from wherever I can to make up a nuc is a HUGE bonus.
   I can still lift a deep of honey, provided I havent hurt my back recently.. AND, provided i dont hurt it WHEN I lift that deep of honey..  A deep of brood, pollen and honey is heavy enough.. i still have two or three deeps in the mix...  i have NO problem what so ever cutting them down. The biggest down side to doing that is losing all those drawn frames.  it is pretty easy to go from deeps to Mediums slowly, by rotating out one of the bottom deeps each year, and  put a medium back on top. Cut the deep down, repaint it and its ready to be used.
   
   I think if you WANT to use deeps, then you should! i also think if you are going to use deeps because thats what "everyone" does, then you need to rethink beekeeping. You need to keep bees how YOU want to keep bees, not how someone says you HAVE to keep bees. Yes, there are some things bees NEED.. I think Randy Oliver puts it best;

 "There are no “shoulds” in beekeeping other than practicing good animal husbandry.  Bees only need a dry cavity, food (nectar, pollen, or syrup and pollen supplement if lacking from natural sources), and parasite management.  My basic rule is to not do anything unless you completely understand the reason that you are doing it!"   -- Randy Oliver

   Beyond those basic things, just about EVERYTHING is variable..  That is why it can be so confusing starting out.

[Jen]

Scott- "i have NO problem what so ever cutting them down. The biggest down side to doing that is losing all those drawn frames.

     A thought: Since I have attempted one cut out... it seems to me that you could cut out those deep drawn frames and re-insert them into new frames, rubberbanding maybe? That could also apply to beeks such as yourself who go foundationless...

[LazyBkpr]

Indeed!  And that is an excellent thought, but usually when I have deeps, its because they came from elsewhere, and they invariably have plastic or wired wax, which makes cutting it out for a medium frame pretty tuff.
   1 year at a time, I rotate the deeps out, Not really in any rush..  Unless something tragic happens, I will have only a single deep left.........

         I think thats what I said last year too, and ended up with three inherited hives....  all double deeps...

[tefer2]

Though we run all medium setups, I still keep some deeps around for swarm traps.
Most research states the preferred size trap is very close to a deep hive body. 40L
Rather than placing traps with two mediums, an old deep is much easier to handle.
The difference is that I fill it with medium comb.
There is something about having that space in the bottom that draws some monsters for us.
After transport, they go into a medium hive.