Box Hives

Hives made in the manner of a wooden box have been around since the 1600's and the modern type with moveable frames since the 1800's. Apart from different dimensions, they are all pretty much the same and suffer from the same disadvantages. It is claimed that the Reverend Langstroth discovered Bee Space and it was essentially this discovery that revolutionised beekeeping. Hey, guess what? They are wrong!  The bees themselves discovered this about one and a half million years before! Left to themselves, the bees will leave a Bee Space at the bottom and sides of their combs. Anything more than Bee Space is filled with comb and anything less is propolised. But you know what, if you don't make it complicated and precise with perfect fitting frames, you cant sell those expensive items to gullible beekeepers. So now conventional beekeeping in Langstroths, Dadant, British National and the like all have frames surrounding the comb which, on the contrary, the bees like to leave open at the sides and the bottom. This is a stress on the colony and upsets the natural communication between combs. Also in a natural nest, you will find swarm cells along the outer bottom edges of combs. Framed comb doesn't allow this so the bees are forced to put them on the comb sides. Another stress factor. The top bars of these frames also has a Bee Space so that the bees can travel up into the supers. So when you lift off the cover board you expose the entire nest structure. This alarms the bees and causes many bees to fly up to defend their nest against the intruder. What do you suppose this does to the stress levels of the colony?

I have used box hives for beekeeping in the past and there is a place for them if you are going to move your bees in migratory beekeeping. Natural beekeeping though is all about minimizing stress and providing as natural an environment as possible. Allowing bees to build natural unconstrained comb to their needs and, in my view, this is not possible in box hives.

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