What about giant hives?

[LtlWilli]

I was day-dreaming yesterday (partly snoozing) out under the mimosa tree, and the thought of finding a truly monstrous hive....What to do, or how to handle it. I was thinking of our attic for instance..
Has anyone built a superhive to accomodate such numbers. ---Like a 15-20 frame Langstroth possibly several boxes high. I realize the weight factor, but that could be dealt with.....How about an extended-length top bar hive>

...Just early morning ramblings before Folgers forces reality upon me.

[Iddee]

Since a worker lives approx. 6 weeks in the summer, how many eggs would the queen have to lay to keep this giant hive going? A standard double deep can have 60,000 plus workers in it in the late spring and summer. She would have to lay 10,000 eggs a week, or more, just to supply it.

[specialkayme]

In my advanced beekeeping class in college I went through a hive that was probably about 6 or 7 deeps tall, with 4 or so mediums on top of that. I don't know if that is what you were thinking about.

[LtlWilli]

What about two deeps side-side-side as one unit, and supers added as needed?...Trying to keep overall height would be a consideration......Thank God for Folgers....

[Iddee]

There's your problem. Switch to Maxwell House and "maybe" the nightmares will go away.

[LtlWilli]

Good point, Iddee...I think that what you all are witnessing from me is only the musings of one who is still vitually new to this....A child gazing at the night sky can easily envision cities upon any star....He drops all of that as he matures, and so shall I.

[Iddee]

I don't know about that, Rick, I'm 64 and still think daydreaming is a wonderful pastime. Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

[Bitty Bee]

What about those 2 queen hives? The ones with side by side deeps that a have a box on top that merges the deeps together, and queen excluders on either deep,of course.(sorry for the long explanation, I can't remember the name for them, too late for coffee). How many bees would one of those have if it was healthy and...say...during spring. Around 100 or 120 thousand right?
Obviously not an attic full, I was just curious.

[tecumseh]

there use to be a hive (size) that were called JUMBOs. they were essentially the approximate equivalent of a deep + one medium all in one box. they fully utilized 12" lumber and also held 12 frames (if my memory still serves???). real monsters for a little guy like me to move and yes the frames were 3" deeper than a deep. I have seen them used once in my life... perhaps 30 years ago.

[Cape Fear Bees]

Thought about making a Jumbo hive like that this year, albeit 10 frame, and entirely as a novelty. I have a mill wide enough to make jumbo foundation, usually I just cut it into a deep and shallow/medium. Depends if I want strips for starting baby comb, and or how straight I run the blank through.

[Bitty Bee]

It might be interesting to see one of those, but wouldn't it be expensive to keep one?

[G3farms]

I was day-dreaming yesterday (partly snoozing) out under the mimosa tree, and the thought of finding a truly monstrous hive....What to do, or how to handle it. I was thinking of our attic for instance..

That would bring on a whole new meaning to "going into a hive"

G3

[BjornBee]

It seems to me, that many variations of hives, comes down to some individual wanting to make something different, so they can be...... well.....different!

I've seen one group of beekeepers who cling to the "natural" side of things go from foundationless, to long frames (deep and a half), to now promoting TBH, and I bet this year, they will be latching onto some Warre hive design. Of course this will be with their own "model" of course, so they can be.....well.....different!

[barry42001]

Actually Rick, were you to have the energy, and patience to go with a 2 queen colony, your " Giant hive " maybe be a happening thing, but as a stand alone colony populated by one queen, would think portions of the hive would be abandonded by the bees, not the SHB or Wax Mothes but not with bees. Iddee and I sometimes use different numbers about max egg laying capasity of a really good queen, I was raised on the 200 eggs a day number during peak egg laying but this figure or Iddee's are not for the entire summer season, is for a relatively short time frame like 4 - 6 weeks after that queens generally slow down quite a bit to a more sustainable number. no queen could maintain the high numbers of eggs laid in the mid - late spring or the queen would be burned out by July or August.
Barry

[Iddee]

Barry, I hope you accidentally left a zero off the above amount of eggs laid. 2000 per day is the normally accepted max number, and yes, it is a short lived time frame.