Langstroth vs Warre vs Top Bar

Latestarter

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Happy new year all you bee people! I'm a new-bee and starting out with Langstroth hives (2) this spring. I had never heard of the other two types above. If anyone out there has experience with either as well as the Lang that can do a good comparison between them, I'd really like to know. You know, pros/cons, costs to establish/maintain, etc. Thanks
 

Maggiesdad

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I've already got opinions, but since I don't have any experience... I'll just sit back and wait!

I've got a friend that's starting two hives in the spring, too. He's one county east of me - about 40 miles. Another total bee noob. He's smitten with the Warre hive.

Time will tell!
 

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I know this is an old thread, but since I'm kinda sorta maybe sliding back into bees this spring with a bait hive project I'm doing right now, I thought I'd revive it and see what you've found out since this was started.

I've studied up on all of them, had a TBH briefly and really like most everything about the style of the TBH, but also like a few features of the Warre method and hive too.

So, I'm building a Lang/TBH/Warre long body horizontal hybrid thingy as my final solution to liking different aspects of all of them. I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm doing it as hard as I can! :D

I like the level and type of ventilation in the Warre and also love the whole less interference style of the Warre method. I love aspects of the TBH the most, so will be using mostly top bars in the hive but also a modified Lang frame with a starter ledge on the top bar. I've also got some ideas of my own, so am modifying my top bars to incorporate that aspect.

Today I was studying up on where to place the hive on this land and found that it's a real science when one considers the magnetic aspect of it all and how bees prefer to build comb and where they prefer to have hive locations~geomagnetically speaking.

My main goal is to attract a swarm from my local wild bees and have a place that they find conducive for living a long while. I want my own pollinators, I want to help the local bee population and I wouldn't mind having a jar of honey now and again, but am not looking for big production at all. I don't even know anyone who actually even eats honey except Mom and I, so no need to harvest much from the hive at all except to keep them from running out of space when the flow is heavy.

Started out with a yard sale find of $4...a heavy built, 2 drawer nightstand...and then decided to extend it into a long body when I started thinking about adding supers to it and how heavy that would all be.

Still working out the ventilation and hood design and even might incorporate another cheap find from Good Will if they still have the item. I'm trying to do this whole thing on the big ol' cheap and then attract bees instead of buying them. If I never attract bees to this hive, I will have had a ball building it, studying up on bees again and imagining the outcome.

Latestarter, how's the beeking coming along? :pop
 

Happy Chooks

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I'm not Latestarter, but he lost both of his hives. One before winter and one during winter.

I placed my hives in morning sun with afternoon shade in summer. They are under the canopy of a large oak, so in winter, they get sun all day when there aren't any leaves on the tree. We can get to 115* here in the summer, so afternoon shade is a pretty big deal. It has worked really well for the past 4 years.

I faced my hives (Langsroth) away from the storms, which means North here. I know most of the country the storms come from the North, so most people face them South. I spent many years trying to correct people that said to face your chicken coop South. You face a coop South here and you are doomed, it all depends on where you are.

I have heard of people in heavy SHB areas state that they would rather have full sun than mostly shade, as the SHB seem to thive in shady conditions. I've been lucky thus far, and have not had an issue with SHB.
 

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I started last year with 2 Lang hives of package bees. I lost the first one maybe late June, they just died out and went away. I lost the second one about January of this year. They were strong going into November and by January, they were all gone. No corpses, just an empty hive with plenty of stores that should have taken them through winter. Having read up on CCD, I believe the fact that I'm surrounded here by farms growing GMO corn, and the combination of that and pesticides (leading contributor to CCD) killed my hives. The bees got weakened which led to varroa induced vectored disease and when the bees know they're sick, they leave the hive to die.

I'll be moving this summer and hope to be in an area with less intense farming, so less pesticides and less GMO crops... just natural wild flowers and the like. I'll re-start once I get settled.
 

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That's a shame. My first attempt didn't go so well either and it's been almost 10 yrs now since then and I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to try again, but God gave me the green light to try a bait hive and so I'm giving it a whirl.

I sure hope you get to try again eventually....it's one of those things it would be nice to succeed in doing.
 

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Hey Bee! Good luck with the fresh start. - I wouldn't worry too much about ley lines, those bees just need a good, tight, defensible hive body that they can manage the ventilation in. Run the colony strong and they will do fine. If you run two or three hives of the same type it will make it easier for you to manage being sustainable. Michael Bush's website has a lot of pointers for the style of keeping you want to do.
The colony is a supercreature, know the husbandry just as you would your other farm critters.

Deut 25:4
Prov 12:10
 

Maggiesdad

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...and the friend's Warre hives from up above? They didn't make it. :( He wanted to try a hands off approach. :idunno
 

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Hey Bee! Good luck with the fresh start. - I wouldn't worry too much about ley lines, those bees just need a good, tight, defensible hive body that they can manage the ventilation in. Run the colony strong and they will do fine. If you run two or three hives of the same type it will make it easier for you to manage being sustainable. Michael Bush's website has a lot of pointers for the style of keeping you want to do.
The colony is a supercreature, know the husbandry just as you would your other farm critters.

Deut 25:4
Prov 12:10

I like Mike....he was the first fella I got to talk to about bees and raising them naturally. I'll be buying his first book soon to refresh the learning I had done back then~that was more than 10 yrs ago! Hard to believe. I always recommend his site to new beeks looking to learn about doing things a little more naturally.

I'm not much wanting to start collecting hives, just want to build one that will keep a wild colony safe, able to reproduce more of their own kind and provide me with pollinators. If by God's grace I actually lure in a swarm from our local wild colony and they seem to be doing well, I'll build another similar hive box for them to swarm to by next spring....but that will be as far as I would take it. I have no desire to struggle with a bee yard...two hives would be my limit.

Thanks for the good advice, Maggiesdad!!! :frow
 

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