The Old Walsh Farm

Learn 52 homesteading skills in ONE year. Become more self sufficient.

  • About
  • Book
  • 52 Homestead Skills
  • Start a farm
    • How to raise sheep for milk – Dreamers to Dairy Sheep Farmers in 2 years!
    • How to start a farm – City slickers to profitable farmers
  • Animals
    • Chickens
    • Ducks
    • Bees
    • How to catch your bees – when they escape
    • How to find your Queen bee
  • Growing
    • Fruit trees
    • Raspberries
    • Microgreens
    • Grow lemons indoors
    • Seeds, secrets and eating only what you grow
  • DIY
    • Knitting
    • Deodorant
    • Candles
    • Embarrassing moments and cheap soap
    • How to Make a Healing Honey Hand Salve
    • Homemade Lip Balm – in 3 minutes
    • Convert an existing structure into a chicken coop
  • Recipes

Six secrets to choosing the best beehive for beginners

By 4 Comments

Share19
Pin55
Tweet
Share
Reddit
74 Shares

So you’ve decided to get into beekeeping, but now you are faced with the big decision – What is the best beehive for beginners?

Choosing a hive will likely be the costliest decision you will ever make as a beekeeper. However, it is almost impossible to find a group of beekeepers who will all agree on the same setup. Why?

Every beekeeper lives in a different climate. Every beekeeper has different goals. Every beekeeper has different preferences.

What is the best beehive for beginners?

And once a beekeeper invests money into their setup, it’s rare for them to change it. It would be too costly.

So, what is the best beehive for beginners? Here are my six secrets to choosing a hive:

What is the best beehive for beginners

How to choose the best beehive for beginners

Secret #1 – Combine the best of both worlds

Instead of using a Langstroth or a Warre hive, why not combine the best elements of both?

When I was doing my beehive research, I stumbled upon The Beecentric Hives built in Edmonton, Alberta by Dustin Bajer.  He took the most beneficial aspects of both the Langstroth and Warre hives and combined them into what I think is the ultimate hive. Unfortunately, at the time, he didn’t ship his beehives so my dad volunteered to come up with his own version of the Beecentric Hive. Here’s how you can easily put one together:

Bringing home my first two beehives.

Secret #2 – Use All Medium Langstroth Supers

I use standard Langstroth brood boxes and supers (supers are boxes containing honey). Although they are available in deep, medium and shallow sizes, my second secret is to use only mediums. This makes it easier when it comes time to split hives (making a second bee colony from your existing hive usually to prevent swarming or as mite control).  I can easily transfer frames of brood and honey from one box to another saving me time and the expense of keeping different sized boxes. I have heard from some beekeepers that if they could start beekeeping all over again, they would choose all mediums for this reason.

Bonus: Medium boxes are lighter! They weigh between 40 and 50 lbs as opposed to 79 and 90 lbs for ten-frame deep supers. I like to think of myself as a strong woman, but it would be impossible for me to handle 100 lb boxes without doing some serious damage to my back.

Secret #3 – Use 8-frame equipment

Most brood boxes or supers contain 10 individual frames. However, I chose boxes that fit 8 frames. This may sound like a bad deal but I prefer the narrower supers that house only 8 frames. Why? I was inspired by my mentor, George Wheatley of Doré Products in New Brunswick, who has been keeping bees for 40 years. His bees fare better in 8-frame equipment throughout our bitterly, freezing Canadian winters.

You may have heard of bees starving over the winter in 10-frame equipment even though there is still honey remaining in the last two outer frames. For reasons I’m not 100 per cent sure of, bees often opt to move up to the next box stacked on top before consuming those last two frames of honey. It may be that the bees can’t break out of their warm cluster to reach those outer frames. I believe the narrower 8-frame equipment is better sized to the tightly knit, overwintering cluster of bees.

The 8-frame equipment is also better sized to me. Because there are 8 and not 10 frames per box, these supers are even lighter than the medium deeps I mentioned above. Medium 8-frame supers clock in at 35 lbs (16 kg) or less.  So, for anyone out there who was thinking they couldn’t get into beekeeping because of the heavy lifting, you’ll need to find another excuse. 

A slatted rack has many benefits including raising the brood box from the hive entrance.

Secret #4: Use a slatted rack

When I say the word “slatted rack” even among some beekeepers, no one seems to know what I’m talking about. I think this piece of equipment is one of beekeeping’s best kept secrets.

A slatted rack, like the name suggests, has wooden slats that run parallel to your frames. It fits on top of your bottom board, raising the brood box (where the Queen lays her eggs and raises young bees) from the hive entrance. Why is this beneficial? During the dog days of summer when you will often find bees congregating outside the hive because it is too warm in the hive, the extra space the slatted rack provides allows the bees to hang out in the safety of their home and fan cool air into the hive.

My queen also lays her eggs all the way to the bottom of the frames using a slatted rack. Most likely because even on cool days, the eggs and larvae are still far enough away to be protected from the drafty entrance.

During the winter, the extra air space the slatted rack provides also acts as an insulating layer between the cool bottom board and the brood box.

All my beehives have a screened bottom board with a removable insert to help control varroa mites and increase ventilation in the hive.

Secret #5: Choose a screened bottom board

There are two types of bottom boards – solid and screened. All my beehives have a screened bottom board with a removable insert, which you can coat with a sticky substance such as cooking spray. The purpose of the screen is to allow Varroa Mites, tick sized parasites that feed on bee blood, to fall through the wire mesh as the bees clean the hive and groom each other.

The insects then get stuck on the insert allowing you to estimate how many mites are in your hive.  Varroa mites can easily take down a hive. If you have too many, you will need to treat your hive or risk losing it.

Secret #6: Cover your bees with a Warre Hive Roof and Quilt Box

If you have been researching how to choose the best beehive, you have probably stumbled upon the Warre Hive. This vertical top bar hive has a unique sloped roof that fits over what is called a “quilt box” (basically a box filled with wood shavings). Although I use wood shavings during the summer, in the winter I also add a piece of Rockwool insulation to keep the bees extra toasty. The quilt box not only insulates the hive, but it prevents moisture from building up and dripping down onto the bees and killing them.

The bottom of the quilt box is made of wire mesh. This allows air to flow, but it also gives the bees the ability to add or remove propolis (what I like to call “bee glue”) to regulate the airflow themselves.

What is the best beehive for beginners?

Buyer beware: When you are inspecting your hive, you can easily set your equipment on top of a traditional, flat Langstroth telescoping outer cover. You definitely can’t do this with a sloped roof. Instead, I use an extra super to hold my equipment.

I hope these tips help you in your quest to finding the perfect home for your little bee friends. I would also suggest joining your local beekeeping association and speaking with other beekeepers in your area who will be able to provide even more insight on how to choose the best beehive for beginners or perhaps even let you try out a top bar or another different style of hive.

Happy bee house hunting!

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Want to read more about bees? Check out some of my previous posts…

The Bees are Coming…
Why You’d Make a Great Beekeeper (and the benefits of beekeeping)
How to Catch a Swarm of Honeybees…
How to Find the Queen Bee…
Healing Honey Hand Salve (and how to render beeswax)

If you have more questions about choosing the best beehive for beginners, please leave a comment below and I will be happy to help you.

Related

Share19
Pin55
Tweet
Share
Reddit
74 Shares

Filed Under: House poor to life rich - The adventure begins Tagged With: Best beehive for beginners, What is the best beehive for beginners

« Keep Kids Entertained and Learning While Stuck at Home
A wooly great lambing guide: Your top 20 questions answered »

Comments

  1. Jim Belknap says

    March 27, 2020 at 10:52 pm

    I would like to build my own hive as I’m fairly decent with my Woodworking equipment. Do you have set of plans for Sale?
    Jim

    Reply
    • Kimberlee Bastien says

      March 29, 2020 at 10:43 pm

      Unfortunately, at the moment, I do not. But it is a great idea and I will look into putting some together. Thank you and happy beehive building! šŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. Dustin Bajer says

    August 1, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    Nicely done!

    I’ve enjoyed building Beecentric Hives and am glad to see other people’s take on them. I’ve noticed the slatted rack, which is funny because it’s something I’ve been trialling on a few of my hives and will likely include them on all-new versions on the Beecentric Hive. We’re currently in the middle of a heatwave; it’s amazing to see the difference between the hives with and without the rack.

    All the best,

    Dustin Bajer (Breecentic Hives)

    Reply
    • Kimberlee Bastien says

      August 6, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      Thank you so much! šŸ™‚ And thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It made my day! Your Beecentric Hives are awesome and I’m so glad I stumbled upon them and was able to put together something similar. And I agree 100% about the slatted racks. I think they are worth adding to all hives. Take care and thank you again!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow the Old Walsh Farm

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Never miss a post

From "Oh No!" to "Oh Yes!"...join us as we build a farm from the ground up.

Food Advertising by logo

Popular Posts

How to catch a swarm of honeybeesHow to catch a swarm of honeybees7K Total Shares
How to find the Queen bee OR – Where’s Waldo?How to find the Queen bee OR – Where’s Waldo?5K Total Shares
How to start a farm – City slickers to profitable farmersHow to start a farm – City slickers to profitable farmers2K Total Shares
How to raise sheep for milk – Dreamers to Dairy Sheep Farmers in 2 years!How to raise sheep for milk – Dreamers to Dairy Sheep Farmers in 2 years!1K Total Shares
Raising sheep: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned the Hard WayRaising sheep: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned the Hard Way1K Total Shares
What I wish I would have known about raising chicksWhat I wish I would have known about raising chicks1K Total Shares
How to raise ducks for eggsHow to raise ducks for eggs891 Total Shares
We did it! 52 Homesteading Skills in One Year.We did it! 52 Homesteading Skills in One Year.660 Total Shares
How to Make a Healing Honey Hand SalveHow to Make a Healing Honey Hand Salve610 Total Shares
How to grow huge lemons indoorsHow to grow huge lemons indoors528 Total Shares
Food Advertising by logo

Copyright © 2021  

Privacy Policy / Amazon Affiliates Disclosure