Horizontal vs. Vertical Hives

As mentioned in an earlier post I have become really interested in the use of horizontal hives as opposed to the more standard vertical hive arrangement - so much so that I plan to make all my future hives to be horizontal.  I also mentioned that I am greatly influenced by Fedor Lazutin's book Keeping Bees With A Smile which is available from Amazon and www.horizontalhive.com and, probably, others.  Fedor expresses his world view vis a vis bees and beekeeping quite well, but I plan to adapt as I see fit for my own uses.  What follows is my take and plans (as of the time of the writing, anyway).  Mostly I am trying to adapt to my climate in central Missouri (between the 38th and 39th parallels),

Physical Differences

To go back to very basics at first, the overwhelming percentage of beehives in the USA consist of stacks of boxes that contain the frames, etc that make up the "home" of the bees being kept.  There are numerous variations as to depth (with deep, medium and shallow being the most common designations) and number of frames (10, perhaps, being the most common with eight growing in popularity).  The chief reason for a beekeeper to choose one or other size seems to be the ultimate weight of a given choice when full of honey - a 10-frame deep full of honey can weigh up to 90 pounds.  This is significant as the usual management schemes involve moving the boxes around frequently.  For purposes of this comparison I will adopt as a "standard" for the vertical hive arrangement to consist of 10-frame deeps and those who use different arrangements will just have to adapt the following.

The horizontal hive that I shall examine consists of one box that holds, say, 30 or so deep frames.  Thus it would be comparable in "accommodations" for the bees to three stacked 10-frame boxes.  I feel that there is no real choice to use medium or shallow frames in my climate as the bees will have to winter in the single deep box I give them.  I have found reports of beekeepers successfully over wintering bees in single deeps in similar climates as mine (and even a few references to success with mediums).  I might note that this is a major departure from Lazutin's scheme wherein he uses frames that are 18 inches deep which he finds necessary in his much colder, and longer, winters.  The horizontal hive has no bee space above the frames and some sort of quilt is used between the tops of the frames and the lid or cover of the box (the value and use of which will be discussed in the management section below).

Below is a concept drawing featuring three different lid/roof designs.  The hinged roof has an "attic" that is 4 inches deep on the front (where the hinges are located) to 3 inches at the back to provide for rain run off and to allow Fiberglas insulation to be encased.  This is probably the most convenient design but also the most costly.  The other two concepts are variations on the migration cover idea with one being full-length and the other consisting of  three segments.  Winter insulation would have to be put on top of the lid and protected from the elements in some way.  Any of them can be made from a half sheet of 3/4" plywood and a half sheet of 1/2" plywood plus two 2x4s for the legs.

Here is a summary of what I see as the advantages of the horizontal arrangement over the vertical arrangement as it relates to the physical properties, advantages in management will be discussed below.

- No lifting of heavy boxes, the heaviest thing ever to be lifted from a horizontal hive would be a deep frame full of honey.
- The horizontal hive can be elevated on legs to a convenient height for the beekeeper
- No need to store supers when they're not needed
- Probably less costly to produce or acquire

Maybe a strike against horizontal hives is they are not as mobile as a bunch of boxes.  That doesn't bother me and I suspect most hobbyists and side-liners won't be troubled either as we don't expect to move our hives around much.  The professionals, especially those who provide pollination services might be affected but, from what I've seen of their operations, they all have fork lifts and heavy duty trucks that could handle bigger, heavier hives if they so desired.

The big differences come in how the respective arrangements are managed.

But before getting into the differences in management I would like to note that whatever a beekeeper wants from his vertical hives can be had from the horizontal arrangement.  By that I mean honey production should be the same (extracted, cut comb, chunk); producing nucs should be the same; producing queens should be the same, etc.  A possible exception might be producing section honey (square or round) - I don't know, might have to give it a try.

Management Differences

The differences in management of the two hive systems is what swung the pendulum in favor of the horizontal hive for me which I hope to detail below.  To start, I note that one of the biggest management issues is adjusting the size of the hive.  The needs of the bees, being upper most in my world view, are reflected in the fact that the size of the colony varies throughout the year.  The size of the colony is smallest at the end of winter/start of spring for overwintered colonies (and, it's also true if we start new colonies from nucs, packages, or swarms), grows considerably as workers are produced for the main nectar flows and decreases in late summer/early autumn as the bees prepare for winter.  But the physical space needed is probably greatest in the fall when, we hope, there is lots of surplus honey in the hive.

It does not appear wise to just give the bees as much room as they are likely to need come autumn because the bees must maintain a warm environment in the nest at all times, especially when raising brood and in the springtime when both temperatures and number of bees are low it can be difficult to impossible to keep a large volume at a suitable temperature.  Likewise, come winter, it is much better if the bees don't have to keep more space than they need for their winter stores and cluster.

So, it is prudent to adjust the space in the hive throughout the seasons.  With the vertical plan that means adding and removing boxes (ie, lifting).  With the horizontal plan it means adding or removing frames.  This can best be explained by an example of a typical year in the apiary with horizontal hives (with appropriate comparisons to vertical hives).

Starting A New Hive

Let's just imagine starting a new hive with a 5-frame nuc and walk through the steps.  (Starting with a package or swarm wouldn't be much different but to save typing I will just stick with this example.)

In the vertical case, we would place the five frames from the nuc more-or-less in the middle of a 10-frame box, fill in the empty spaces with empty frames (with or without foundation) and close up the box for  week or so before coming back to inspect it.

With the horizontal case, we would also place the five frames from the nuc more-or-less in the center of the box, add two frames to one side and three to the other but we would place solid follower boards on either side to wall off the empty parts of the bigger box.  Then we would close it up and come back in a week or so to inspect it.  At this point, as far as the bees can tell, they have identical arrangements so we wouldn't expect any fuss.

We hope and expect for the bees to go to work building up their new homes by drawing out the empty frames to make room for the queen to lay more eggs and to store honey and pollen beyond what is needed for raising the brood for their winter needs (and, hopefully, with some "surplus" for the beekeeper).

There is a danger that they might fill up the available space and start to feel crowded which could cause them to swarm or abscond - not good.  That's why we must inspect periodically so we can see it coming and give them more space before it is too late.  This decision point is a major difference between the horizontal and vertical layouts.

With the vertical layout, we must remove the lid and check the outermost frames.  Depending upon how well we find the progress of the new construction we must decide to either wait a while longer or add another box on top of the first one (lifting, again!).  In my experience of reading on discussion boards and attending beekeepers meetings this is one of the most perplexing things for people to deal with, especially beginners. Of course, there are lots of opinions and recommendations but it seems me the worries continue after the decision is finally made (did I do it too early?  did I do it too late?).  And it will continue to the next box and the next one and ....

In contrast, with the horizontal hive the lid is removed, the follower boards are pulled back one at a time and the beekeeper peeks at the two end frames.  If the second one in is mostly filled and the bees are showing interest in the end one, add a couple of frames and put the follower board back.  If the activity is deficient, put the follower boards back and come back later.  This would continue until the weather has warmed up and there are lots of bees so that keeping the brood nest warm is not such a risk and you might just remove the follower boards and fill the remaining space with frames.

Here we might make an observation vis a vis "natural beekeeping" practices.  I might add that term seems to me to be an oxymoron because bees don't need to be kept and any meddling we might do is not natural to the bees.  On the other hand I feel strongly that what meddling we do should be in as closely following the nature of the bees as possible.  Thus, what's the difference between these two practices?

In the first place, bees did not evolve with their brood nest being periodically exposed to the bright light of day.  Clearly bees tolerate it and I've not seen any evidence that it adversely affects them, but I haven't seen anything that says it is good for them either.  So why do it?  I mentioned above that we use some sort of quilt to cover the frames under the lid.  We only need to raise the edge of this quilt to peek at the end frames and the brood nest is never violated.

Maybe more seriously, when we remove the lid in the vertical hive the hot air which the bees have produced to keep their babies warm will escape (hot air rises) thereby putting a risk on the brood.  The quilt in the horizontal hive protects against this calamity.  (One might think a quilt could be used in the vertical hive but it would have to be removed to place another box on top and the whole idea of that is that the bees could move up into the new box.)

Another factor of import is that when a new box is added on top of the first one, the hive space has suddenly doubled, whereas in the horizontal hive, only as much space as the bees are likely to need in the next week or so has been added.  That this is unnatural for the bees, consider the following:

We must realize that from the springtime on, whether a new colony or an overwintered one, the bees are working to be ready for the next winter.  As far as they are concerned they are in their winter quarters from the get-go.  All their efforts to raise more workers is to be able to gather enough nectar to fill out their winter stores - which go above their brood nest.  All their propolyzing is to seal up the cracks in their winter quarters.  When a new box is added above them, their whole plan is disrupted and they must move their activities up which many authorities say puts them off their game for at least a while.  With the horizontal hive, the brood/winter nest is never disturbed.

Moving on with the calendar, once the horizontal hive has been opened fully and is full of frames nothing more need be done until autumn.  It wouldn't hurt to peek at the end frames, though, as long as the quilt stays in place.  If one should discover the end frames are full of honey (wow!) then a few of them should be removed and replaced with empty frames so the bees don't feel crowded even at this late date.  It's not likely to happen with new starts but a strong overwintered colony in a really good year might produce a surprise.

When it gets cold in the autumn, all the bees will move into their winter quarters to huddle together (cluster) to keep warm.  That means all the outside frames will be devoid of bees and can be examined with ease.  The task would be to start with the outermost frames and start removing them.  Hopefully, there will be honey which we can safely deem to be "surplus."  When we remove a frame and discover bees, we will have found the edge of the cluster.  We would replace that frame, add another full of honey alongside it, add an empty frame and replace the follower board.  When we do it on both sides we are ready to close up the hive and wait until next spring.  We might, and I plan to, place a one or two inch layer of Styrofoam outside the follower boards as a little extra insulation on those sides of the cluster.  Likewise, we can place a layer of Styrofoam on the lid above the cluster (we know exactly where it is) with some sort of weather protection.  We can also store empty frames back into the unoccupied parts of the hive.

As we have never messed with the brood nest the bees should have stocked their winter quarters well (which survivor bees will "know" how to do) and if we found frames of honey in the outer frames we can be fairly confident that they were successful as they would fill their winter stores before they put any honey elsewhere.  We can also weigh the hive to get an idea of how many stores they have.  If we find the hive is too light and we didn't find any "surplus" honey, we can feed.  If we have frames of honey from another hive, we can just put them next to the cluster and, if it is warm enough in the hive (not necessarily in the outside air) the bees would be able to move it above the cluster for their winter provisions.

Springtime With An Overwintered Colony

Managing an overwintered colony would basically follow the same plan as above for a new start.  The inspections for adding more room (frames) would probably start earlier as the queen has probably had a head start on laying.  But the springtime is the one time when we would actually violate the brood nest - but carefully.

The winter cluster would have been somewhere near the center of the hive.  We want to move it to one end or the other.  To do so, we would add a couple of frames at the end of the box, maybe with some honey in one of the frames.  Then we would move the brood frames one by one, in the same order, over beside the new frames, inspecting each comb as we go.  Hopefully, we won't see any problems and just keep going.  If we should see a problem we will deal with it then as needed (beyond the scope of this article) but damaged or old black frames would be replaced.  When we reach the end of the brood nest we might add a frame of honey if we see the springtime stores are too light but would add a empty frame or two for expansion and then the follower board (only one in this case) and close up the hive.

We would also have to adjust the entrance.  I didn't mention above that the entrance is a 1/2 inch wide slit that runs the length of the hive body.  It is closed up with a roll of burlap or some such that can be jammed in with a hive tool, leaving about 6 inches open for the bees to use.  The entrance is located adjacent to the brood nest which, in this case, is toward the end of the box (it was in the center of the box with the new colony that started out in the center).  The expansion inspections and the addition of new frames will only take place on the end away from the brood nest this time.

But here is another magical trick to play on the bees.  As the drawn out frames move toward the center of the hive (and beyond), the entrance can be moved to follow.  The bees will move the brood nest to be more-or-less centered on the entrance (possibly to be close to the fresh air?) which means the brood nest will occupy new wax in a short time and the old brood combs will be abandoned to honey storage.  Once the entrance reaches the center of the hive, the brood nest will stay put and the frames on either side will be used for surplus honey which will be managed in the fall as before.

It is also worth noting that with the entrance and brood nest in the center of the hive, the returning foragers will have the least amount of travel from the entrance to the honey storage areas.  Maybe not a big deal but a lot better than climbing up three or more stories and laying down travel stains as they go?

Some More General Thoughts

One might worry (or actually experience) that a single deep depth does not leave enough room for bees to store enough winter provisions over their cluster to survive.  That's certainly the case where Fedor Lazutin lives.  So a deeper frame might be desired or necessary.  Building deeper boxes and non-standard frames shouldn't bee too big a challenge.  Extracting deeper frames might be a challenge though.  On the other hand, I'm wondering if using standard deep frames in a box that is two (or more) inches deeper wouldn't work?

I would expect the bees to hang extra comb off the bottom of the frames (and Fedor shows some examples in his book, plus I've seen something on the Internet where some beekeeper somewhere allows it).  In the brood nest, presumably the queen would lay in this extra comb and, in any case, it would be empty at clustering time so the bees could occupy it while their winter stores take up a larger part of the frame above them.  As to extracting, the extra comb could be cut off easily enough for crush and strain while the cleaned frames could be extracted normally.

Just a thought.

On another subject, it seems to be horizontal hives would work well for out apiaries.  There would be no need to haul supers, just empty frames (or full honey frames on the return trip).  I have some friends who tell me they would like to host a hive or two just for the pleasure (and maybe garden pollination) of having them. I've been reluctant to take vertical hives but I'm thinking to put a horizontal hive or two out there as I expect the management would be relatively easy and could be accomplished during social visits.

Practical Examples

In companion pages (see menu at right) I have detailed some plans to construct a couple of horizontal examples.  The body is the same, using standard Langstroth deep frames but wide enough to accommodate 30 or more frames.  The difference is one of the models features a fully insulated roof (which contains sufficient insulation to weather winter temperatures) while the other uses a simple migratory roof (which might need to be insulated on the exterior for winter).  Here a a couple of photos of the latter.

We might note that the bottom is covered with 1/8" hardware cloth which seems to be a growing practice in the vertical hive world.  Also, the follower boards (one not visible on the far side of the nest) have a 3/8" bee space at the bottom.  The entrance slit runs the full length of the box but all but a 6" opening is blocked by simple wooden plugs that can be rearranged to put the entrance at the middle, 75% position or all the way to the end for managing the location of the entrance and, hence, the brood nest.  For wintering a Styrofoam slab would be pressed up against each follower board.