The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

Will do! There’s lots of YT guys that have videos on using long hives. Most in the south. Kamon Reynolds did an entire series on it a few years back. They build between floor joists going horizontal and have thriving colonies. I figure this is no different, right?

Thats funny, the house I grew up in had a huge colony between the stud bays in my sisters room, so huge and thriving that honey actually oozed out of the cracks in the plaster. They were destroyed using Chlordane which I felt hastened her death, also affected my dad as his room was below hers.

 

[troyer]

View attachment 3857545It only weighs 2 tons…

It surely won't be a wind problem in blowing away.

 

[WallyG74]

All it needs is paint and bees! The entrances are on the hinge side so you can work bees without disturbing the flow. Mistakes were made but it will work great just the same. I learned a lot building that tank!

 

[Sally PB]

Wow! How many frames will fit in there?

 

[WallyG74]

Wow! How many frames will fit in there?

I think around 31-ish. The first time I did the math it was 29 but I used the wrong measurement.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

View attachment 3857712View attachment 3857713All it needs is paint and bees! The entrances are on the hinge side so you can work bees without disturbing the flow. Mistakes were made but it will work great just the same. I learned a lot building that tank!

All you need is a crew and a fork lift to put it in place, nice build though. They weren"t mistakes, they were "adjustments".

 

[WallyG74]

I have been commenting on The Honey Factory thread, but trying to keep my bloggish stuff here. It gets confusing.

I got the longhive painted and moved with the help of my lovely wife. The whole point is to switch to all longhives eventually. I was going to switch when they capped the honey but they are only half done. To keep the bees happy I postponed the move and hastily built 2 new deep boxes because I have deep frames in excess. This way I can stack them on and carry through the Fall flow. If they draw all that comb I will bee one happy beekeeper!

 

[Sally PB]

What is your plan with the long hive? Just have one or two?

I can see that it would be a great way to keep the weight lifting to a minimum! Just lift out the frames needed.

 

[WallyG74]

What is your plan with the long hive? Just have one or two?

I can see that it would be a great way to keep the weight lifting to a minimum! Just lift out the frames needed.

If it works out good, I want to eventually have all longhives. Realistically, I will probably always have something going in the traditional Langstroth setup too. Can’t have good equipment just setting around, right? Right now the longhive is empty. I plan to put 1 of these existing colonies in it when the time is right. If they had capped all the honey in the mediums, I would have swapped them yesterday, but they were not ready. It may be that the longhive sits empty until next Spring. We will have to wait and see. I did 9 frame spacing in the deeps that I just put on. Hopefully they will build it out nice and fat!

 

[WallyG74]