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Author Topic: The Small Hive Project Website  (Read 8936 times)

Offline smallhiveproject

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    • A hobbyist beekeeping experiment
The Small Hive Project Website
« on: September 22, 2017, 09:25:27 am »
Hello everybody  :happy:,

I am a French Warr? hobbyist beekeeper and author of the Small Hive Project (www.smallhiveproject.eu)
This non-commercial project is about a small horizontal hive that I designed for backyard beekeeping.
Starting from spring 2018, I will populate 4 copies of this hive and share my experience on the website.

You may wish to participate in the project by building your own copy of hive.
To do this, you may build it from scratch OR transform one of your Warr? hives.
Independent experimental data is necessary to evaluate the real potential of the hive design.

All necessary information is available on the project website.
New content will be added over the course of the project.
Stay tuned by subscrbing to the Newsletter on http://www.smallhiveproject.eu.

The Hive has been designed to meet the following requirements:
- favor bee colony survival in low-input beekeeping situations (no Varroa treatment, no sugar feeding).
- adapted to rather small bee colonies of Apis Mellifera in environments dominated by agriculture (moderate nectar flow).
- suitable for comb honey production (Low productivity is acceptable, as long as sufficient for personal use.) easy to build and to manage.

Hive plans and more information are available on www.smallhiveproject.eu.

Feel free to comment the project.

Thank you!

Offline little john

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2017, 07:33:28 am »
Feel free to comment the project.

I don't know if you've actually build more of these hives yet, but there is a far simpler way to achieve the same reduced volume for the purposes of experiment - simply use a single-box brood chamber, and insert dummy (space-occupying) frames into the end-comb positions.  That way, if you then discover that the box volume is too small for that particular colony, it's straightforward enough to enlarge it a little by removing one or more of those dummy frames.

For example, in the UK most folks use British 'National' hives, and a standard deep brood box without a super effectively becomes an 11 comb 'horizontal' hive with a box volume of approx. 38.5L - a tad smaller than Tom Seeley's experimental finding that 42L is optimum. (a finding I've always viewed as being somewhat suspect, as in practice most people find that anything from 18L upwards works perfectly ok as a bait box)

If a National brood box were to be fitted with double-width dummies at either end, the box volume of the resulting 7-comb hive would then be around 28.5L, not so very far from your own 25.7L

I'm sure a similar strategy could be adopted with a single Langstroth brood box and indeed, even with one of your existing Warre boxes.

'best
LJ
A Heretics Guide to Beekeeping - http://heretics-guide.atwebpages.com

Offline smallhiveproject

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2017, 04:22:24 am »
SmallHiveProject News:

(1) Why not to crowd colonies in an apiary http://www.smallhiveproject.eu/?spacing.html
Essential for treatment-free beekeeping

(2) The SmallHiveProject tree mounting facility http://www.smallhiveproject.eu/?hivestand.html
How to attach the small hive to trees.

Offline beepro

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2017, 08:28:30 pm »
Don't they swarm more often in a small hive environment?
If they don't then I don't need that many hive boxes and drawn comb to keep them in on
a flow here.

Offline smallhiveproject

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2018, 02:13:31 pm »
SmallHiveProject News:

(1) Hive construction video on http://www.smallhiveproject.eu/?plans.html

(2) Tree mount construction video on http://www.smallhiveproject.eu/?hivestand.html

Offline smallhiveproject

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2018, 02:15:23 pm »
Don't they swarm more often in a small hive environment?
If they don't then I don't need that many hive boxes and drawn comb to keep them in on
a flow here.

The small hive volume should encourage the bees to prepare to swarm virtually every year.
This is how colonies are multiplied.

Offline Troutdog

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2018, 03:12:42 pm »
Hello everybody  :happy:,

I am a French Warr? hobbyist beekeeper and author of the Small Hive Project (www.smallhiveproject.eu)
This non-commercial project is about a small horizontal hive that I designed for backyard beekeeping.
Starting from spring 2018, I will populate 4 copies of this hive and share my experience on the website.

You may wish to participate in the project by building your own copy of hive.
To do this, you may build it from scratch OR transform one of your Warr? hives.
Independent experimental data is necessary to evaluate the real potential of the hive design.

All necessary information is available on the project website.
New content will be added over the course of the project.
Stay tuned by subscrbing to the Newsletter on http://www.smallhiveproject.eu.

The Hive has been designed to meet the following requirements:
- favor bee colony survival in low-input beekeeping situations (no Varroa treatment, no sugar feeding).
- adapted to rather small bee colonies of Apis Mellifera in environments dominated by agriculture (moderate nectar flow).
- suitable for comb honey production (Low productivity is acceptable, as long as sufficient for personal use.) easy to build and to manage.

Hive plans and more information are available on www.smallhiveproject.eu.

Feel free to comment the project.

Thank you!
I'm not sure if you are anticipating a  swarm every 6/8 wks.
I am also curious what type of bee are you using.
My carniolan nucs will swarm lol.
I'm guessing AMM.

We have a problem with wild swarms living here the rate of success is 1 in 10. ( Seely)

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk


Offline smallhiveproject

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2018, 09:56:05 am »

Offline smallhiveproject

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Re: The Small Hive Project Website
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2018, 01:23:49 pm »
Call for participation in 2019!
Building your hive(s) right now  - before the cold days - would be fine if you consider to join the project next spring. Maybe as a family project during automn holiday ? A weekend should be also enough time... Refer to the project website for all necessary information (videos, plans ...) Feel free to contact the publisher for any question or advice.

First results overview is online at http://www.smallhiveproject.eu/?results.html