WHY A NEW BEEHIVE?

We have been asked so many times, and think of a million different reasons, answering on the spur of the moment, off the cuff fashion. We have decided to modify the system, and explain as fully as we can our new hive.

The Reverend Langstroth designed, in 1853, a beehive to accommodate his brilliant discovery, the beespace. We accept this beespace to be between 6 and 8 millimetres. No one has ever queried this beespace in relation to the smaller African bee races, but they seem to be happy with it. The only cheap, convenient, box he could find to take the bee frames was the wooden box that protected the standard fuel container of the time, the common wooden paraffin or kerosene box. The dimensions, less the bee space, determined the size of the modern standard bee frame in use throughout the world today. This standard is the only one we have followed in designing our new hive. We do not agree with it, believing from thousands of observations of wild swarms, that the natural shape of a brood comb is hemispherical, that is twice as wide as it is deep. It is only when our colonies are short of space that they start building comb into the corners to make a deeper, rectangular comb. However all modern equipment is built to accommodate the frame dimensions dictated by the old paraffin box!

SIZE OF CAVITY

Having got that off my chest let us now examine the reasons for a new beehive, remembering that it is designed to satisfy the needs of a swarm of bees as a luxury home, not the impecunity of a country parson. Wild bees have to make do with the best cavity that the scout bees can find. We have strived to design the perfect hive. The first consideration is to provide a cavity big enough to allow expansion to a full natural colony in an intense nectar flow. There is dissension in the scientific world about the ideal cubic capacity for the European races, and the practical beekeeper would reject totally the 60 litres recommended by the scientific community. When we measure a Langstroth box we find the volume is 40 litres, and as two boxes are used for brooding purposes in the northern hemisphere this exceeds the 60 litre scientific recommendation, let alone the volume of additional honey supers. For African bees, with their capacity to build up so rapidly, a much greater volume is required, even though the cell size is 8% smaller. We have found that an African colony needs between 12 and 14 frames, that is 56 litres for brood volume in a nectar flow, and therefore more frames for storage of excess honey. We have tried 16, 20 and 25 frame hives, and now are experimenting with 40 frames, or 400,000 cells. Our standard of 25 frames equals 100 litres.

Mick Schmolke of Zimbabwe calls these "Meat" hives in that the colony gets huge and dangerous. But it is generally agreed that a lack of space is the primary reason for this aggression from "meat" hives. Exciting stuff! Our experience on the Highveld of South Africa and the tropical coastal plain of Mozambique confirms our belief that a 25-frame hive is highly acceptable, with minimum absconding or swarming. So to accommodate a vigorous young queen a colony requires at least 14 frames for brood rearing and the beekeeper will have the remaining 11 frames filled with honey in a matter of weeks in a good nectar flow.

The obvious advantage of a Langstroth hive is that another box can be superimposed when the hive is nearly full of honey. The Achilles heal of this argument is the nomadic nature of the African bee races. They do not like being disturbed during a nectar flow and the opening of the whole hive to add a super by removing the Langstroth lid can easily lead to absconding by the whole swarm. If the honeycombs are removed from the rear, as in the J.H.H. the colony is unaware of the intrusion, as it is more concerned with the smoke at the entrance. The available space remains adequate for the colony. Absconding through disturbance, and swarming through lack of storage, are both minimised. So we believe 100 litres to be an adequate cavity providing the honeycombs are harvested before space becomes a premium for the colony. The total weight of a completely full J.H.H. is about 50 kilograms.

HEIGHT ABOVE GROUND

Under this heading we were concerned with four aspects, namely
· flight levels of bees,
· access to the hive free from vegetation or other obstructions like snow,
· predator control and
· comfortable ergonomic conditions for the beekeeper.

We have observed that bees in the savannah woodlands of East Africa fly up into and through the canopy, which is about 7 meters above ground level (a.g.l.). They fly through the treetops, for presumably three reasons, windbreaks, protection from flying predators, and improved visibility. It is well known that bees fly about 7 meters a.g.l. by choice, unless constrained by wind, when they hug the ground, or flying over a valley to a food source.

In tropical Africa a number of animals have evolved to predate on bees. Among them are wasps, parasitic flies, birds, ants, honey badgers, baboons, lizards and humans. Of equal or greater concern to the beekeeper is the cavity under a Langstroth floorboard that provides ideal habitat for black mambas, spitting cobras, Gaboon vipers, Puff adders and other nastiness. We have had some unpleasant surprises in our beekeeping life. Do not forget that honey badgers fall into this category when busy at a Langstroth hive. They have the painful habit of attempting emasculation of the beekeeper if disturbed! They soon learn that J.H.H. are out of reach, as they cannot jump, and have no hive stand to knock over. Whether the Cootamundi of Central America could jump onto the slippery plastic hive remains to be seen. Lizards and mice are confined to the ground, and ants are kept off the suspending wires with a dab of thick grease.

Birds, wasps and flies are at a disadvantage compared to Langstroth because the bees exit at a flight level enabling evasion in any direction up or down. Baboons and humans cannot simply kick over the hive and run away, waiting until the bees desert the scattered supers to return to the brood cluster. Ants and termites are discouraged by dabbing thick grease on the suspending wires or the steel hive support. Termites do not eat plastic. Wax moth doesn't find it user friendly either! Lizards cannot negotiate the support system used. The Greater Hive beetles have difficulty in entering the well-guarded entrance of our hive.

We have spent much thought and reading time on the location of the entrance to the hive. We believe that the most feared enemy of a colony is a foreign bee, for two reasons. The first is robbing. There are always scout bees on the lookout for weak colonies that can be robbed of their honey, and so they are the most feared predator because they are there every single day. African bees prefer one entrance. The multiple entrances of the Kenya and Tanzania top bar hives are their single greatest weakness as the colony is in a state of hypertension with guard bees at every hole! It is a common misconception by temperate climate beekeepers that bees propolise holes closed to keep the colony warm. In fact this time consuming operation takes place to reduce the entrance to an easily defended aperture, only big enough to give adequate access to the field workers. In the tropics cold air is not the major consideration, but rather hot air. The huge Langstroth entrance is almost impossible to guard, and Africanised bees in America spend massive time on propolising them closed. In addition all guards and returning field workers are forced to walk across the floor of the hive, picking up all the detritus including mites that have dropped out of or been expelled from the cluster above. We now place a single easily defended entrance at the front corner at the same height as the bottom bar. In addition, because African races like to fly straight into the hive, and seldom use a landing board we bend the flap of plastic from the cut entrance upwards to give a sheltering veranda to protect the returning bees from rain drops as they fly in.

The ideal ergonomic requirements of standing humans are between 80 cms. and 1.2 meters above ground level. This height is exactly achieved for each individual beekeeper by suspending the hive to achieve the lid height at exactly waist level. There is no stooping, glasses falling down off the face, veil going skew or any other uncomfortable posturing. When a comb is lifted out it is at eye level for easy observation. This goes a long way in alleviating "beekeepers back", a very common problem with lifting heavy supers of honey while bending over a Langstroth Hive.

SMOKING OF THE J.H.H.

By inventing a cheap miniature smoker we have achieved what we firmly believe to be the ideal set up for one man to control and not disturb a colony of African bees. We use a 350ml. beverage can, removing the top by rubbing it vigorously on a hard surface. It comes off easily. We then punch holes through it and the indented bottom of the can. We place the lid inside the can to rest on the punched bottom. Two opposite holes are punched through the rim. A piece of wire 30 cms. long is threaded evenly through the holes and each end is bent upwards. The two tops are bent outwards to clip into the front entrance, allowing the top of the can to hang a few centimetres below the entrance. We have a can for each colony in the apiary. By placing smoking material in each, obtained from the Jumbo Dadant smoker we always carry there is then a spiral of minimal smoke curling up in front of the entrance. The smoke odour is carried into the hive by returning field bees, and those nasty little guard bees face into the hive and fan to keep the smoke out of the colony.

Having placed a smoking can on each hive entrance, we go to the first one and puff a little smoke into the smoke hole at the back of the hive by simply pushing against the flap. Of course this flap is always kept closed by the built in memory of the plastic. This sends the young honey ripeners forward to the colony cluster in the brood frames at the front of the hive. This is instinctive behaviour in an alarmed colony. By using minimal smoke and none in the brood frames we keep the colony very calm, and do not get any apiary uproar, as happens with Langstroth. We have no guard bees to bother us and alert the whole apiary with sting pheromone. We then gently open the cover and remove frames from the unoccupied back frames. Harvesting honey is a pleasure. We do not rob our bees, we only collect rent for provided accommodation! Smoking a Langstroth down through the supers is a very delicate operation with African bees. They tend to flow out of the entrance and attack everything in sight.

One other feature of the hive, which may be mentioned here, is the 10-cm. handles at the back of the hive. They provide a perfect hanger for the first three frames removed, once again obviating the necessity of bending down. Thus our hive is designed with the single man hobbyist in mind, and is the only feasible hive for handicapped people.

TEMPERATURE

Bees only tolerate minor variations of temperature in the brood nursery area, varying from about 34 to 37 C. This is controlled by expanding or contracting the colony cluster to allow for air cooling or metabolic heating. In the honey processing area the higher the temperature differential between the honeycomb and the outside air the greater the humidity differential and therefore the more rapid the evaporation of moisture, so there are different temperature regimes required.

Now I wish to tackle head on what I believe is one of the major misconceptions in beekeeping practise imposed by the Langstroth system. By supering above the brood chamber this difference is minimised, and contrary to the ideal.There is a marked gradient in temperature from ground level to 2 meters. This is the reason that a Stephenson screen, used to house meteorological instruments, is placed at that height. No animal enjoys constantly fluctuating temperatures, and the African bee is no exception. Langstroth hives are on the ground, log hives an average of 6-m. a.g.l.
In winter the ground temperature can be as much as 6 degrees C. lower than that at 2-m. a.g.l. To accommodate our operations we decided to compromise between the two and set our hives at an ergonomic height of 80-cm. a.g.l. with gratifying results. The J.H.H. placed next to a Langstroth performed far better, giving three full frames capped when the Langstroth had none.

MOISTURE AND HUMIDITY

In an average year a colony will store 60 kg. of honey, and produce 600,000 bees. These will require a further 100-kg. of honey. To feed the inhabitants including drones workers and the queen will need a further 70-kg. in a year, giving a total of 230 kg. If the honey has 20% moisture content and the nectar harvested has 84% moisture content it means that 46-kg. of water remains in the honey and 1150 litres of water must be evaporated in a year. In a Langstroth hive this water has to be removed through the bottom entrance, mostly by fanning the air mass in the supers down through the brood combs. As the air in the brood has a temperature of between 34 and 37 C. and the external temperature is at best the same, but usually lower, it requires a great effort by the colony to remove downwards hot humid air containing 1150 litres of water in one year. Thus the humidity in the hive will be close to 100% in a honey flow. This leads to most of the fungal and bacterial diseases in the Langstroth system. We set out to duplicate, as far as possible, the situation in wild colonies as we observed them. We seldom see any fanning or clustering at the entrance, and therefore set to examining closely the undamaged cavities after removing wild swarms. Our conclusions were most interesting. In the classical savannah cavity, a termite nest, we found that the bees did not seal off the internal passageways of the mound, and utilised the superb air conditioning that termites require to control exactly the temperature and humidity for their fungus gardens. The moisture from nectar evaporation simply diffuses out without any air mass movement. In colonies built under sandy soil the roof of the chamber is heavily propolised to prevent the ingress of rain water, but the sides and floor are left porous, once again assisting diffusion of water vapour from the nectar.

The nectar is evaporated in open comb, normally only filled to half depth. Now to evaporate nectar to honey will require 4 times the comb. An early morning honey flow will mean that the field bees will have to cease harvesting, even if the honey flow remains good throughout the day, until evaporation surfaces become available by transferring mature honey to sealed cells. A further restraint in Langstroth is that any nectar being evaporated in cells in the brood box will have to be transferred to a super, perhaps five above the brood box. Many beekeepers have seen bees cease harvesting for prolonged periods of the day. We always assumed that the flow was over, but observing this phenomenon on a Eucalyptus Sideroxylon flow when nectar could be shaken in quantity from the flowers into the palm gave us food for thought. We see now that the J.H.H. colonies remain active whilst the Langstroth colonies go on strike. This is because the new honeycomb is built progressively away from the entrance, so that all nectar is transported by the field bees direct to the new comb as it is formed. The stored nectar is evaporated in situ until the comb is ready for capping, avoiding the transfer of nectar from cell to cell. As the water vapour diffuses directly from the comb to the outside, via the small holes running the length of the hive on both sides at roof level, there is no need for fanning hot, moisture laden air down to the entrance as in Langstroth. This is the prime advantage of our hive.

AIR CONDITIONING AND DIFFUSION OF GASES

Air conditioning is considered necessary in buildings housing many workers, but there can be few buildings housing 80,000. Why then has so little research been conducted into giving a colony a building where they can control and condition the air.

We have all read about "good and bad" buildings. The Langstroth is bad and the J.H.H. a good building, in that the bees are healthier and more productive in J.H.H. Why is the air better conditioned? Because the air mass in the J.H.H. is static, and therefore also the temperature, with only the gases changing place with those outside. So carbon dioxide and water vapour diffuse outwards through the little holes running along the tops of both sides, whilst oxygen and nitrogen change places with them or diffuse inwards. In an architectural design fans remove the poisoned air mass from a building and air ducts, and usually replace it by cooler fresh air from outside. In earlier designs the air was merely cooled down and not replaced. We felt relief from theheat, but inhaled fouler air, giving rise to sick buildings. Diffusion, if rapid enough goes the whole hog in that the bad gases only are replaced. We have achieved this by using the bees temperature regulation.This leads on to the next question of materials used to make a bee hive.

SUITABLE MATERIALS

Wood remains cheap, but there are many competing materials today, whereas Langstroth had little other option. Not even cement had been invented, and we have only had plastics for 60 years! Wood can be cut by hand but plastics need expensive machines. Wood is "natural" and more appealing aesthetically. Why choose plastic? The reason is that beehives ars generally placed outdoors so that wood needs preserving from the elements. So it is painted or covered in some other moisture impermeable material like creosote. So effectively it is rendered as ineffective in breathing as any plastic. We all know how plastic apparel causes our skin to stink from bacterial build-up. The same would happen in any impermeable beehive. We would make even the handles and frames of our hive out of plastic if we could afford the extrusion moulding machine, but the corrugated plastic of the body is cheaper than pine and does not have to be painted. It is black because it is made ultraviolet ray resistant by the addition of 3% carbon black. And of course it breathes!

Because the hive is suspended from the handles it is more stable than a Langstroth. It is not top heavy. Where we find suitable trees we merely hang it with wire, but in the open grasslands of South Africa we use two very simple T- piece hive stands made from 2.4cm. angle iron. The stroke is 1 m. long and the cross 50cm., welded together. This gives us an ideal ergonomic height when pushed 20cm. into the ground. Everything is far easier to transport for migratory beekeeping.

The frames are made of plain grooved top bars with side and bottom bars made of dowelling. This frame is many times stronger than the Hoffman frame used in the modern Langstroth system, and is only glued with a good waterproof glue. It requires no nailing.

The results of all this are that the J.H.H. is assembled from the flat in three minutes, whereas the equivalent Langstroth takes three hours. The only requirement is some contact adhesive. As there are no supers propolised to the brood box and the frames butt to each other there is virtually no propolis in our hives. This means that nothing has to be prised apart. The bees are not alerted to defence , and we do not damage equipment by having to lever apart with a hive tool. In fact we do not need a hive tool at all, but carry one from force of habit.

The last thing we have decided on is to abandon all metal within the hive, as this sets up a static electrical field, especially during thundery weather, which makes the colonies very aggressive. We can now happily work our apiaries on the hottest afternoon. However our frames are still drilled to take wire re-inforced wax for those who still down grade the quality of their honey by radial extraction. We have designed a totally new extraction system, which is far quicker, cheaper, and cleaner. We are applying for world wide patent rights. Watch this space!