Working with Horizontal Layens Hives
Working with Horizontal Layens Hives Feral Hive in a Natural Tree Hollow Layens horizontal hives were designed to imitate how the feral bee colonies live in natural tree hollows. Layens horizontal hives with deep 16″ frames have been in continuous use since the 19th century, as they are easy to manage with minimal disturbances to […]
Vertical and Horizontal Beehives & Math of Overwintering. Honey Bee Clusters, Shapes & Frame Design
Vertical & Horizontal Beehives and Math for Overwintering. Cluster Shapes & Frame Designs The above video discusses the following: The shape of a bee cluster varies depending on the depth of the frame. In conventional Langstroth vertical hives, due to a relatively shallow (just 9″ deep individual frame) the bee cluster tends to take a […]
Raising Good Bees in Horizontal Hives. Swarm Traps, Queens & VSH Genetics
Raising Good Bees in Horizontal Hives At ForestBeehive apiary we are miles away from industrial & agricultural pollution, we have sufficient Spring-to-Fall foraging resources for our bees and we don’t use any supplemental sugar feedings. We also don’t use any human engineered chemical treatments or even organic pest control substances in and around our beehives. […]
Splits or Artificial Swarms for Horizontal Beehives
Splits or Artificial Swarms for Horizontal Beehives Splits are also called ‘artificial swarms’. Artificial swarming does what the honeybees are trying to do naturally: to prevent overcrowding by swarming i.e. self-splitting the colony so that they can establish an additional new colony elsewhere and be fruitful and multiply. Swarming Honeybees With uncontrolled natural swarming, only […]
Vertical Beehives and The Lord of the Rings
Vertical Beehives and The Lord of the Rings OR How Horizontal Beehives Minimize Disturbing the Honeybees This is the 2nd part of the series. The 1st part is here: Vertical Beehives and a Crazy Landlord In Summer we gradually fully fill our horizontal hives with frames – up to 20 frames as the bee colonies […]
Horizontal Hives
Bee-friendly beekeeping – putting the bees first! Insulated Horizontal Hives give our honeybees the best chances to survive harsh Maine winters! We use insulated horizontal stationary Layens-style hives. The double walls of our long, deep horizontal Layens hives are insulated with 1.5” of raw natural sheep’s wool providing 6 times the insulation value (R6) of […]
Happy Busy Bees in Horizontal Layens Hive after transfer
HAPPY BUSY BEES IN LAYENS HIVE AFTER TRANSFER FROM A 5-FRAME NUC BOX Bees were transferred to Layens hive May 1, 2022 from a 5-frame nuc box ( see HERE ) from a 5-frame nuc box. bees are now busily bringing yellow pollen and raising brood. By pollen color and what’s growing around, my best […]
Expanding the apiary
Expanding the apiary Why would the honeybees confuse their hive entrance with that of another hive?This video shows how we have caused a lot of confusion for the bees after we moved our 1st hive 2.5 feet to the right and then added the second hive on the left way too early.In the video, some […]
Bees, Trees and Music
Bees, Trees and Music Did you know that when the worker honeybees are not disturbed, they are buzzing with the sound close to a B natural next to piano’s middle C ?The frequency is: 247 vibrations per second.When the worker honeybees are agitated, they raise their buzzing frequency closer to a middle C (also known […]
Vertical Beehives & a Crazy Landlord or why natural beekeepers prefer horizontal hives
Vertical Beehive and a Crazy Landlord or Why Natural Beekeepers prefer Horizontal Hives Vertical beehives and a crazy landlord This is the 1st part of the series. The 2nd part is here: Vertical Beehives and The Lord of the Rings Let’s see which beehives are more natural – conventional vertical hives (aka Langstroth hives) or […]