Horizontal Hive

[alexmc...@gmail.com]

Hello

Going to be new to Bee Keeping and am in the research phase.  I am wondering if anybody has or has ever used a horizontal hive?  I am interested in horizontal hives because I am in a wheelchair.  I wasn't sure how I was going to make this work because lifting heavy boxes is going to be difficult/impossible.  Looking around I saw somebody with a horizontal hive that I thought might be the answer to my problems.  

I am not sure if you can purchase them, but I have thought about building something like this:

Natural Beekeeping | Free Plans | Long Langstroth Hive

If anybody has one that is in use, or has used one, I would love to chat. 

I am a bit north of Mt. Horeb.

Thanks

Alex 

[John Thompson]

My opinion.

I tried these, and I don't think they are sustainable at our latitude because of winters.

Some folks have gone so far as to make boxes to stack on these, but kind of defeats the purpose. 

What you could do is look into layens or double deep hives, but fear that may be difficult for you to use. 

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[Greg V]

Actually, with ***adequate top insulation*** even long Langs should work.  People do it and it works in Northern States.

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[Greg V]

This being said I have been using horizontal hives for many years now - the Ukrainian version - no plans to stop.  Same hives as the hives of this Ukrainian guy in a wheel-chair: «Пасічник. Друге життя»

[Paul Zelenski]

Horizontal hives can work just fine. Think of all the bees that end up between joists or other horizontal spaces. While a horizontal deep can work fine, I think a bit deeper might work even better. Someone had made frames that were a deep and a medium. I’m sure layens would also work if you can lift them out ok. 

I used to have some top bar hives and I got bees to overwinter in them quite successfully. I stopped, though, because they’re a lot more tedious than langs. Now that I have 50 hives, I can’t take that much time on individual hives. They also tend to be more apart for mice to get into over winter, so be sure to have mouse guards. 

One thing that someone told me way back when, that seemed to work well is that the bees need to start winter on one end or the other with honey on one side of them. If they start in the middle of the hive with honey on both sides, they get indecisive about which way to move and will starve or split the cluster. So, in the fall I would move all the honey to one side of the cluster. For that reason, I also preferred the entrance on an end rather than the side. 

The other difficulty is that many horizontal hives are not designed large enough for booming hives. If you look at my yard, I have some hives that are 10 boxes tall. That would be a VERY long horizontal hive. This is where some people will put boxes on top. It lets you ‘super’ the horizontal hive with normal supers to remove before winter. If you don’t want/can’t do that, you’ll just have to be more proactive in splitting, harvesting or otherwise limiting the size of a booming hive. 

All in all, there are some differences in how you need to manage a horizontal hive, but it is certainly possible. 

On Jul 22, 2025, at 3:33 PM, John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[J.R. Migs]

I was hoping you'd chime in Greg :)

John Miglautsch <><

Jo...@MigMar.com

262-369-3900

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[J.R. Migs]

Thanks John

John Miglautsch <><

Jo...@MigMar.com

262-369-3900

On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[bberegszazi]

Alex, horizontal hives are workable but do require a different management strategy, in particular to space management as Paul notes below. I will split my TBHs in early June to avoid them overcrowding the hives and swarming in Aug/September. 

I'm a backyard beekeeper who maintains a combination of 4-6 top bar and Lang hives for about 16 years now. And to be honest, I have had better success through the years wintering the horizontal top bar hives than the Langs. Not exactly sure why. Ease of managing the TBH was my main reason for going that route, but I maintain 3-4 Langs every year as I usually get a better honey crop from the Langs, but a better wax crop from the TBHs.

Good luck with whatever style you go with and enjoy the experience!

Barb Beregszazi 

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

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[J.R. Migs]

Alex, Dane Co Beekeepers Association former President, John Thompson has experience with Layen's hives - http://horizontalhive.com type for more information.  I wrote to John T. for you. 

John Miglautsch <><

Jo...@MigMar.com

262-369-3900

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[Greg V]

BTW, Alex - I think we met last year at the Four Winds Farm during some local vendor event. I was present at the event with my hive and you stopped by if I remember correctly.

On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM alexmc...@gmail.com <alexmc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Betsy True]

I have some hives that are empty if you want to see how we repurposed langs to Ukrainian format. Danny has done a great job. 

Two hives are in use. 

In rural Middleton. 

On Jul 23, 2025, at 9:43 AM, Greg V <voro...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Greg V]

IF one insists on the horizontal Lang format - these in-line designs are much more ergonomic than what the "Natural Beekeeping" presents.

[alexmc...@gmail.com]

Hello

Thanks for all the feedback.  I think I am going to have to design a hive setup that works for me, but it will probably look more like a Layens Hive.  Due to my physical situation, there is zero percent chance I am able to lift heavy Langsthroth hives up and down to stack them.  That is the reason I am thinking about the horizontal hive.  I have plenty of space so I could make the box 20 or 30 frames wide if I wanted to.  I plan on having some sort of solid divider frame so I can control the size of the hive when the bees are getting established as well a vertical queen excluder to keep her in the brood part of the colony.  Things that I am curious about are insulation and air flow as well as how to feed and treat the colony if necessary.  

And Greg, we have met before at Four Winds.