LAZUTIN DEEP HORIZONTAL BEE HIVE
I designed a DEEP one body HORIZONTAL hive in 2016, based on the book by Fedor Lazutin (below), that has the Golden Mean dimensions inside where bees work. In the RESOURCES section I have included links to other beekeepers using a deep one body horizontal hive around Mother Earth.
ADVANTAGES OF THIS HIVE:
1. It is an insulated hive. Bees are warmer in the winter time......... so they will eat LESS honey and produce LESS moisture in the hive. They are also cooler in the summer time......so less energy is spent on cooling the hive on really hot days.
2. Only one frame is all that is ever lifted. This allows me to go and work with my bees INDEPENDENTLY without having to inconvenience any one else. YA!!!!!
3. Management of the bees is much easier than my Warre hives I have used in the past 4 years (2011-2015).
4. A warmer hive means less bee diseases. I have posted the scientific data related to cold temperatures effects on bee health at this link:
http://bwestie.wixsite.com/barbara-westfall/temperature-revised
Building the Hive:
I am very thankful to two men who are very instrumental helping me build this hive. They have had great ideas.
Barry O'Neil, my husband, has lent me his CAVE space. He is fabulously supportive of these adventures and is incredibly meticulous..... a good trait for bee hive making. Thank you Barry.
Doug Adams, a retired shop teacher, is excited to learn beekeeping. His Grandpa was a beekeeper and an expert pollenologist who photographed/recorded the pollens that bees ate over the season for the University of Waterloo. Beekeeping is in his genes. He is teaching us safety with the tools and has great structural ideas. Thank you Doug.
TOP BARS:
We decided to use poplar hardwood for the top bars. It was recommended in other sites. So we cut, glued and screwed the wood together. After the glue was dry, I removed the screws to limit the amount of metal in the hive.
I wanted a large over hang for handling a heavier frame. If my calculations are correct, this frame should weigh in at 13-15 pounds when full of honey.
We then set the table saw at a 45 degree angle and cut the top bar to be a V shape. This gives the bees more surface area to attach their comb to at the top bar.
FRAME ASSEMBLY:
We made a JIG to assemble the frames.
It made it much easier for me to get 90 degree angles of attachments.
Support for comb inside the frame?
If the frame is narrow enough, no support is needed. If you check out the resources section, you will see many kinds of support structures. We decided to try horizontal support mid frame. The bees did not like 1/4" dowelling as they tried to go around it. But 1/8" dowelling is good as they include it into their comb structure.
HIVE BODY CONSTRUCTION:
We are using up wood already in the CAVE. This box is made from 1.5 inch white cedar (what I was making my Warre hives with). To the outside of this, we will add around 3" roxul insulation and an outer cover. This should be an interesting endeavor. Thankfully, Doug and Barry are both mechanics and good problem solvers. We are all very visual people.
Back bottom trap door:
A bottom trap door at the back was built in to inspect below the bees. One could put in sticky paper/cafeteria trays for varroa counts or oil in the cafeteria trays for the small hive beetle catching. Roxul insulation was put outside the trap door and then another layer of plywood built to close in the cavity.
Insulating outside the hive body:
We used Roxul insulation. According to the material I read, bugs do NOT live well in it and moisture will not destroy Roxul's insulation value. We put R11 around the outside of the body, below the bottom and in the roof.
Plywood bottom attached to the hive body:
Structural frame around the body using 2X4's:
Roxul insulation added on all 4 sides and bottom, caulking around edges, and plywood exterior screwed on.
Front entrance cut into inner hive body, framed with 2X4's , insulated all around and front added on. Fedor Lazutin used this structure but I found it hard to keep the bugs out of the slot, so I filled in the middle section and kept an opening in each end.
Roof:
The age old dilemma - how does one keep bees cool in summer, warm in winter and let excess moisture out ... especially in Canadian winters that go to -20C. We decided to use a quilt box with cotton cloth on the underside of the quilt to let the moisture out. We put woodchips in the quilt box. The roof has R22 roxul insulation. This hive is better insulated than my house!
I wanted a nice looking roof for my first deep hive, so we built a gabled roof.
I am glad we built a gabled roof as it is an easy balanced lift. The roof of the next hive we build was a salt box roof and it is quite heavy to lift.
The roof is hinged to the front of the hive so it stays open as I work there.
You can see the black hinge behind the quilt boxes.
I work the hive from the back without disturbing the entrance activity.
Although you see the quilt boxes full of roxul, we changed back to wood chips.
We found that house wrap fabric and roxul did not let the moisture out of the hive well enough and some frames molded.
Left picture:
I apologize for the lack of clothing.....but it was 35C when we were building this hive.
You can see the quilt with roxul insulation at the front.
Under that is the top cloth.
Below that are frames with a cross support.
A division board would be at the back.
FINAL HIVE:
So here is our final deep horizontal hive .... Yes, it looks like a big dog house. It took a lot of time to design and build, but I can truly manage this hive independently. The heaviest lift is one frame of honey.....about 15 pounds while standing on the ground!
Compare that to my Warre hive below (that we have been using since 2011). For me to work this hive, I need a ladder and heavy lifting (40 pounds/box) is required. I love beekeeping and I want to do it for a long time. It needs to be easy for me and the bees. I am excited about the potential for the deep horizontal hive design.
My family truly enjoyed helping us to remove a nuc of honey off the top of this 7 box Warre hive. The bees are occupying 6 boxes actively.
Lessons learned:
1. I need to start new hives with starter foundation attached to the underside of the V of top bar
OR
go in soon after installed and correct cross comb.
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2. A small bundle of bees in a large space leads to wax moth issues and chalk brood issues. This did the hive in.
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3. I need to consider putting in a screened bottom to be able to do weekly varroa counts in the hive....done.
4. The roxul + house wrap in the quilt box did NOT let out the moisture. So we put wood chips inside cotton fabric for winter.
5. The frame is too deep for me to work comfortably.
It was designed to be golden mean dimensions on the inside of the frames, and the warre hive frame fits inside this frame...... but I will not build a frame this deep again.
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6. The cross bar is too thick at 1/4". The bees do not like it. But 1/8" is better.
Ants in a hive prevention:
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Wow do ants ever like our hives !!!!!
So we have added special feet to keep them out.
Interestingly enough, I wonder if the feet might work to keep out small hive beetle larva trying to get back into the hive?????
Here are the pics of what we did.
The grease has no smell that I can sense and it melts at something like 500 F ....
good enough for me.
I now know the grease needs to be reapplied each year as it dries out and the ants get in.
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2017 Adventures:
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We added a screen mesh bottom to the hive.
It is made of stainless steel and is attached to the sides of the hive.
According to my bee supply guy, it will provide 40% control of varroa since varroa will drop below the bees (thanks to hygenic bees) and NOT attempt to go up to the bees again. He said the varroa will die in 4-5 days.
Installing a langstroth nuc into this horizontal deep hive:
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Ok, thank you Leo Sharaskin for showing us how to install a lang nuc into a deep hive.
I made 4 transition frames.
The lang frame is rotated 90 degrees and screwed twice on the top and twice on the sides to connect the transition frame to the lang frame.
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