New Beekeeping in the Dartington Long Deep Hive

Hive Description -page 2

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*Division Board being test-fitted*	The hive can be split into two halves by insertion of a solid 18mm plywood division board - shown here being test-fitted during construction. This is done when spreparations for swarming have been observed in the hive - as in production of queen cells. The nurse bees and brood are placed in rear section with its own rear entrance. The flying bees and old queen are placed in front half witha single frame of brood and some honey. The old queen comes back into lay and colony continues to grow. The bees raise a new queen in rear section - and after she is mated, board is removed and colony reunited.


The hive has top bee-space and the frames are covered by four 18mm plywood cover boards. These are removed when the honey boxes are placed on the hive. No ventilation slots are made in the cover boards but there is space to leave a 2mm gap between each board in summer. In hot weather the boards can be re-arranged length wise to leave a wider gap the entire length of the hive. In addition the two clearer boards with central ventilation slots can be substituted for two of the cover boards to give additional ventilation. No queen excluder is normally used since the author has generally not found this necessary.	*Four Cover Boards in place -* *entrance open with bees on landing board*


*Entrance slot open* *with landing board in place*	Bees fly onto the moveable landing board shown at left. They walk to the back of the entrance 'lobby' and climb the vertical batten visible at the rear. This leads to an 8mm wide slot which runs the full width of the hive. The bees enter hive through this slot which leads through the mesh floor to the brood frames. Since the slot is only 8mm wide it is mouse-proof and the under-floor entrance means draughts cannot blow directly onto the frames as in a conventional hive. The landing board can be easily inverted to completely close the hive. In addition an entrance block with three 9mm half-moon slots can be positioned within the entrance lobby - to reduce the entrance in winter or to make it easier for the bees to oppose wasps trying to enter.