Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: little john on March 02, 2024, 04:34:16 pm
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I've been away from BeeMaster for a while, and have been posting over on BeeSource instead. Although the discussions there are excellent, the same cannot be said of the forum software, and although I've complained about it, no-one there can hear me. In contrast, the software Beemaster uses is excellent (imo), and so I looked-in earlier today and noticed a few posts about 'the' Layens Hive, a subject which at one time I researched fairly thoroughly - so here's a few words about Layens which may, or may not be of interest to other beekeepers ...
A widely-held belief throughout the Internet, and despite what a well-known 'Layens guru' has to say about the matter, in the 2nd Edition of his book Layens makes it quite clear that he did NOT invent the hive which has come to bear his name, but rather that he adopted an existing hive design which met those characteristics he considered a beehive ought to possess. Now this becomes of significance, because having adopted someone else's hive design, he then proceeded to modify it in certain ways. A couple of examples here will demonstrate this:
The original design had straw or reed walls, whereas in his book 'Economical Construction' he adopts a wooden plank construction. Another change - which may be of particular interest in view of recent threads here - was to change from the V-closures which were originally used:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/48/ff/TCRVY5CZ_o.jpg)
to the use of spacer-strips, as will be familar to many top-bar beekeepers.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/e2/d9/s7ytBuIt_o.jpg)
The advantage of this technique of course over touching top-bars is two-fold: firstly, the spacing between top-bars can then be adjusted - closer for brood and wider for stores - and secondly, an overhead feeder can then be easily installed whenever feeding is required. It may come as a surprise to learn that De Layens even 'supered' his hives on occasion with a honey-box, which the non-touching frame top-bars allowed.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1e/a2/ar4iDK5c_o.jpg)
What else ? Well, there does seem to be an almost religious adherence to the idea of a singular 'Layens Hive' design with an equally singular design of frame, whereas De Layens himself was enthusiastic about the use of a 14"x14" frame, and proposed that it be adopted as a standard in France, and even internationally. And of course just as Layens had experimented, so did Jean Hurpin, from which four different designs of Layens Hives emerged.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/07/55/VAjBLyHW_o.jpg)
For myself, although I have worked a Layens Hive of a more-or-less original design, I currently run Deep Horizontal Hives with British National 14"x12" frames, and Ukrainian Hives with slightly modified 11.25"x17" frames - the latter frame also fitting rather neatly into the Warre stacks which I also play around with. :)
'best,
LJ
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Little John, welcome back!! It's been so long since we've seen you, I figured you were a goner! :grin:
Interesting information about the Layens. My family is a member of the School of Traditional Skills, and, not being beekeepers themselves and not knowing any better, the School unfortunately picked one of those Layens/long Lang groupies as their bee instructor; you know, one of those people who says that long hives are the only way to keep bees "naturally". I'd like to see the look on his face if I showed him that diagram of the Layens arranged vertically. :cheesy:
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LJ I am very happy that you have chosen to revive your activity here. As always, your post are packed with top quality information! Thank you Sir!
Sincerely,
Phillip
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Welcome back LJ. Really glad you came back.
Jim Altmiller
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Thanks for the kind words, guys. :smile:
LJ
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Glad to see you! Your posts are always informative. Thanks :grin:
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Little John.
I agree.
Most all beeks are passionate about their opinions, but I have difficulty with all the "natural" claims from horizontal hivers, as well as any beek claiming that one style of hive is intrinsically the best.
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Anyone who has done a lot of cut-outs knows bees can thrive in almost any configuration as long as the size is within reasonable limits.