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Keeping bees in multi-hull hives allows you to save space in the apiary and receive large bribes. For the beekeeper, the process of caring for colonies is simplified. Multi-hull houses consist of interchangeable buildings. This is one of the important advantages of technology. If necessary, sections can be easily swapped.
Advantages of multi-house beekeeping
The bees' home should be comfortable for the insects themselves and the beekeeper who serves them. For multi-body hives, each beekeeper determines the pros and cons from his own point of view. However, many avid lovers highlight more advantages:
- By stacking each housing on top of each other, the space occupied by the apiary is reduced. More often, beekeepers collect 4-body hives, but there may be a different number of tiers.
- Multi-building housing allows you to divide the bees' home into zones of different functionality. Better conditions are created for the reproduction of bee colonies and increased honey yield.
- The multi-body hive model resembles a construction set.The beekeeper is given the opportunity to change their places and arrange the sections at his own discretion.
- Each hive body is lightweight. They are easy to rearrange, carry, and maintain alone.
The only disadvantage that can be noted is the large weight of the multi-hull structure, if it is carried as a whole and not in sections.
Features of the design of multi-hull hives
The multi-body hive differs from a single-body hive only in the number of sections. They are all identical for each model and interchangeable.
Externally, multi-body hives resemble a column. The structure consists of the following elements:
- The body is made of boards and resembles a rectangular box. The size depends on the model and the number of frames. The body is equipped with a taphole with a valve.
- The bottom of the hive can be stationary or removable. The shield is similarly assembled from a 35 mm thick board.
- The roof is usually made flat with a slight slope. The shield is assembled from boards, and the top is sheathed with galvanized or aluminum.
- The roof liner is placed between the roof and the upper part of the body. Sometimes sections are blocked by an element.
- The ceiling of the hive is assembled from a thin board. Two stripes are used for connection. The element is a horizontal diaphragm between the compartments.
- The ventilation grille is a frame with a stretched fine mesh. The installation location of the element is the roof, the folds of the roof liner or the body.
The variety of multi-hull houses is great.The most popular are the Dadan-Blatt and Langstroth-Ruth models. There are vertical and reclining hives.
Fans of Canadian beekeeping technology prefer Mishaka multi-hull hives, which differ in size and special design. At first glance, the Alpine hive created by beekeeper Roger Delon seems unusual.
How to make a multi-body hive with your own hands
First of all, a novice beekeeper needs drawings of a multi-hull hive if he has the idea to make houses on his own. Before searching for a diagram, you need to decide in advance how many frames the design is needed for. The most popular are hives with 10, 12 and 14 frames.
Drawings, materials, tools
A novice beekeeper needs to know that to assemble a multi-body hive with your own hands, you can take the drawings of one model for any number of frames, for example, a 10-frame Dadan. Using this scheme, you can make a house for a different number of frames. The general layout is the same, only the dimensions differ.
The materials you will need are a dry board 35 mm thick. It is optimal to use coniferous wood, willow, linden. To connect the boards together with a tongue-and-groove lock, PVA glue is used, which provides better sealing of the seams. The walls are tightened with screws or knocked down with nails.
The tools you need are a saw, a router, a plane, a hammer, a set of chisels, sandpaper or a grinder.
Build process
Assembling multi-hull hives with your own hands begins with the body. The board is cut into blanks, adhering to the dimensions of the drawing. Since the wood will still be sanded, leave an allowance of about 3 mm. For trimming, the parameter is increased to 10 mm.
The elements of the locking connection are cut on the sides. There is a tenon on one side and a groove on the other. When cutting down, it is important to maintain straightness, otherwise the wall of the hive will turn out to be distorted. The workpieces are thoroughly polished. Assembly is carried out by coating the lock joint with glue. Using different widths of boards when assembling the panels, the walls of the body are folded so that the seams do not coincide. Spacing the joints will ensure the strength of the structure. The corners of the housing walls are tightened with self-tapping screws.
On the inside of the hive, in the upper part of the front and rear walls, folds are installed with a width of 11 mm and a depth of 17 mm. The frame should be folded into the hangers so that there is a height difference of 7 mm between the top bar and the edge of the body. The clearance is required for installation on top of the next housing. On the outside, in the center of the side walls of the case, transport handles are attached.
For the roof, a shield is made from boards 25 mm thick. The top is covered with sheet metal. About four ventilation holes are drilled into the roof.
It is advisable to make the bottom removable to make it easier to clean the hive. The structure is assembled from boards and the strapping is attached. The rear and side rails are solid. A taphole is cut on the front element of the harness. A 50 mm wide protrusion is also installed here, forming a landing board.
When all parts of the hive are ready, they are connected into a single multi-body structure.The outside of the house is painted to protect the wood from destruction.
Installation of hives
According to the rules for keeping bees, multi-hull and single-hull hives cannot be placed on the ground. Firstly, the wooden bottom quickly disappears. Secondly, bees will be cold in winter, damp during rain, and hot in summer. Special stands are made for hives. At home, you can use brick or cinder block. For a nomadic apiary, metal folding stands are usually made.
Rules for keeping bees in multi-hull hives
During the period from spring to autumn, working with multi-hull hives Dadan, Ruta or other models, with the exception of some nuances, is almost the same as maintaining single-hull hives. The main difference is wintering. Strong colonies of bees are moved to separate single-tier hives. To ensure the survival of weak bee colonies, they are placed on top of each other in buildings.
The video talks about keeping bees:
How to form layering
Keeping bees in a multi-tiered house simplifies the process of forming layers. The beekeeper divides the body with a ceiling diaphragm. At the beginning of the season, the queen is placed in the upper compartment, where she will begin to lay eggs and hatch young. During honey collection, the resulting layer is connected to the main family of bees.
Increasing bee colonies
To increase the number of bees in a multi-hull hive, the queen must be provoked to intensify the deposition of eggs. The beekeeper moves the compartment with the queen to the very bottom of the multi-hull house. Instinct will push the queen to move upward and at the same time take care of the brood.
The procedure is carried out in warm weather in early May. The appearance of brood is expected at the beginning of the acacia flowering. An empty housing is inserted between the populated compartments of the hive to prevent bees from swarming.Large free space will create optimal conditions for growing a family.
Rules for rearranging hulls
Keeping bees in a multi-hull house requires periodic rearrangement of the buildings. The procedure helps strengthen the bee colony and avoid swarming. There is no exact date when the housings need to be rearranged. Each beekeeper keeps an observation calendar for himself, draws up a schedule for replacing frames and installing new sections in a multi-tiered hive. The process depends on the amount of honey collected, the duration of flowering, the weather conditions of the area, and the location of the apiary.
Wintering
The main difference between keeping bees in a multi-hull hive is observed in winter:
- Strong colonies of bees are moved into separate single-tier hives for the winter. Weak bee colonies are left in multi-tiered dwellings.
- In a multi-tiered hive, where weak families are left to be maintained, the lower tier is a compartment with bees and brood. On the upper tiers, frames with food filled with honey and pollen are fixed.
- Eating food reserves, the bees will gradually move to the upper compartments. The lower empty building is removed after the onset of heat.
After wintering, the bees are examined and the condition of the queen is checked. Based on the results of the inspection, further actions are planned.
Conclusion
Keeping bees in multi-hull hives is beneficial for nomadic and stationary apiaries. In addition to saving space on the site, the manufacture of houses requires less materials, since the roof and bottom of several buildings are common.
