Top Bar Hive Flow Forum

Dear All,
Well here is my version at last!!! the Long Langstroth and Top Bar Hybrid with 3 flow frames at the end. I have had great fun building it, and really ended up cutting the secand hand timber to fit around a Langstroth frame.
It was a very organic procese and I tryed to use some of the junk I had lying around, you know that junk the is kept cause you can’t bear to throw it out. I bought marian ply for the floor and corflute for under the roof, but thats about all.
I have no idear how it will work or manage it, but should be the same as a TBH. I might have to remove some honey frames to store for winter feed, don’t know??? to force the bees to fill the flow frames.
The next step the Bees in spring, some time in August perhaps.
Cheers Sue


4 Likes

FINALLY, I have my horizontal hive complete, now just waiting on the bees to arrive - just in time for Spring.

Building this hive has given me lots of satisfaction and I am happy with the final result. Took it to my local Bee Association meeting last weekend for ‘Show & Tell’ and it got the thumbs up from all.

11 Likes

Fantastic Schnucki !!! Looking really great. It is very satisfing isn’t it, I had great fun building mine.
I am looking forward to bees as well.
All the Best

Nice one. Looks fantastic. If my counting is correct you have 12 brood frames to your 6 flow frames. Should make for a stronger hive.

You have rekindled a thought I had on this. I had discarded the idea in favour of 2 separate hives but will now revisit it.

Great looking long Langstroth design, do you have any shots under the frame covers in the other half of the hive?

There is something strangely alluring about how crude this approach is… really keen to see it work. You should be getting close to coming out of winter up in Byron no? will be great to see progress!

wow Suses- that is one well insulated hive! How thick are those planks- or should I say- beams? That’s a beauty! Please be sure to post updates after the bees go in.

I should have my first long hive ready for bees in around 1 month.

very Nice also Schnucki! Will be interesting to see how our various long hives go in use this season. Can’t wait to see the updates about your hive. When do the bees go in? Are you leaving it open in case a swarm just happens along? If I was a swarm scout I would choose either of these longstroth hives.

1 Like

Love your use of/recycling materials. Straightforward, solid & everything the bees need, to hive. Copper roof will only get better with age. :slight_smile:

Beautifully made :slight_smile:

I have installed 7 x Flow frames and the hive is 1200mm wide so I guess that I can fit at least 20 deeps alongside. I have follower boards to expand out as the colony grows. I have chosen to use #8 wire mesh for the bottom. No heavy lifting with this hive :grinning:

I have made my viewing windows extra large all round so that at least I can see something

5 Likes

Sexiest hive ever! So great :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Thanks Schnucki and Kirsten, Yes the body of the hive is made form some old house beams and are 73mm thick!! It caursed some problems for the cutout for the flow frames and it will defiantly be more difficult when harvisting, I will have to use little chocks to lift them up at the back so they drain. But I think it will all work OK, just hanging out for Bees for now. The copper top was from a old hot water tank, I have been very lucky finding all this junk!!!
Cheers S

1 Like

Thanks @Schnucki. Because it is quite wide did you put any thought into putting 3 or 4 flow frames at each end instead of all 7 at one end? Apart from a more complex build.

Thanks for the additional photos!

Interested to know more about the plastic frames there? are they two piece cut comb frames? I haven’t seen a plastic top bar split like that with any of the frames i’ve used.

HI! Sorry for my long silence! had to stop my beehive project for a while, but will get back soon on it and well I will get an another year to make it even greater! :wink: This is looking pretty awesome! Well Done Schnucki! Great work! I can’t wait to get ur feedbacks on how goes with the bees!

Hi Busso

No thought given about the supers at each end. I copied my design from Joe Frank from USA, his latest update is that his horizontal hive is working better than expected so I have high hopes. Don’t even own a single bee yet, I’m rather just a beehive keeper at present. I have a good depth underneath the frames so I am confident with that.

If things go good this coming spring, who knows, maybe I will build another with your thought in mind, I do have enough material left over.

Hi RBK

I am the experimental kind of bloke, like to reinvent the wheel where I can. I now have a total of three hives, (this horizontal, a classic cedar Flow and a Hoop pine Flow hive). I will experiment with all types of frames and see what works best.

Do you have a picture of that plastic frame out of the box? My question was around the fact that your plastic frames look joined down the middle, which I have only seen in cut comb frames.

None of us do, we just think we do! :smile:

2 Likes