What is a Long Hive - Hyde Hives Long Hive Review

[@robertpmblake]

I bought one - beautifully made, and so far my bees are really happy in it. I'm now going to sell my National hives, and buy more of these!

[@mattshepherd100]

Hey Matt from Hyde Hives, if anyone has any questions I'm more than happy to answer them 👍

[@dang3002]

Hi Matt, this looks like a beautifully built hive. Just wanted to ask a quick question; can you use SN1 frames in this hive, or can the DN4 national brood frames be used for honey? I’m just thinking in terms of honey extraction as I’ve only ever seen the process with smaller frames from a super as opposed to a deep brood frame! Many thanks

[@robertpmblake]

Matt, I bought one of your hives and love it. Couple of questions though - I'm used to combining hives when I have 2 weak ones - through newspaper, Would I do the same thing horizontally by putting the bees and brood frames from the weak one further from the door separated by paper? Second - should I insulate the roof in winter in some way. I worry that the acrylic crown boards and gabled roof will let my bees get too cold!

[@marypollock1130]

I share an Apiary with a Beekeeping Pal and we invested in the same hive late last year. It's a beautifully made hive and we are looking forward to getting some bees in it this year. Hoping to see how it would do for Beekeepers with disabilities /back issues that affect ability to lift boxes.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Great to hear Mary. Yes - it would be ideal for people with disabilities. Hope your bees do well in it this year :)

[@marklunny9662]

As I keep telling beekeepers "Everything you do vertically I do horizontally". I was told when I started beekeeping with a long hive that they don't work in Scotland and that my bees would die. This summer will be my 4th as a beekeeper and I love using 14x12 in my longhive. I go foundationless too. Looking forward to seeing how you get on with this hive as a vertical beekeeper.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Mark. I may well come bending your ear for advice. I follow you on Instagram but I am going to actively hit the notifications!

[@lorus511]

Hi Mark interesting that you use foundationless frames how do you extract the honey, do you in fact use an extractor?

[@marklunny9662]

@@lorus511 I use crush and strain to extract the honey which also gives me lots of fresh clean wax!

[@lorus511]

@@marklunny9662 Sounds good to me, thanks

[@JulianMartin51]

As usual, very thorough review and I like it. Popped onto their website, £480 for a National and £540 for the 14 x 12 is pretty reasonable when you consider materials and quality of workmanship. Add to that 5* rating on all reviews - can't argue with that. Looks a very manageable height too. Looking forward to following your journey with this hive

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Julian. Yes - and thats with free delivery in person as well which saves on pallet fees. Great piece of kit!

[@shanesmith1844]

@@BlackMountainHoney their website say they charge £50.00 for delivery in person. This is definitely a hive I will get in a few months .

[@wharfedalehives1459]

Nice review, good to see a smaller company getting a shout out 🐝 they look really well made !

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Really well made. Great attention to detail and a nice style!

[@bluelab5019]

I've just ordered one of these💪💪👌

[@LeftGuard]

After seeing one of these at Beetradex last year, I really want to get one sometime soon, so I'm REALLY looking forward to this series. In the meantime, I'll get on with working out how to fit one into our back garden.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Sure you can shoehorn it in somewhere! I am looking forward to the series too! Going to be lots of fun!

[@CH-um4iy]

Literally the best bee keeping video I've seen.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

That's brought a huge grin to my face 😉

[@peterbustin3662]

I have used 14 x 12 Dartington Long Deep hives (forerunner of the Omlet Beehaus) for years as well as Top Bar hives. The Dartington hives utilise half supers above the brood area so they are both vertical AND horizontal. I have found the bees don't really like to go horizontally (as in Top Bar Hive) to store honey. Interesting video and I will be very interested to see how you get on.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Peter. Yes - I cant wait to get them stocked up with some bees :)

[@mattshepherd100]

Robin Dartington is a member of our UK long hive Facebook group. I believe he is the one that invented the underfloor entrances too. There's not much about beekeeping he doesn't know.

[@kezzathewynn]

Brilliant review , look forward to see how you get on with it long term . Very tempted myself in the not too distant future .

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Highly recommended. Plus they just look so cool!

[@mikebrittain6917]

Great review been thinking about adding a long hive for a while this review finally inspired me to order one for next season would love to see it in full swing filling supers once again great informative review

[@jericho_bees]

After a lot of thinking I went for the plunge when they put it on offer on facbook. Well worth the price. I'm a hard task master but they really are well made, solid and stable. You can lift the lid up with your fingers and be pretty sure it won't come crashing down on your head.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes - the gas strut design is really nice. So well made.

[@lourensklopper4217]

Nice! I also want 1 of these beautiful hive???Are you going to paint it? Show more of this hive, with bees? How you gong to extract the honey?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

No. Its Cedar so im going to let it weather to a nice grey. Will do plenty of videos with it ;) Takes a 14 x 12 frame that fits into our extractor :)

[@reade79]

Got to say, I really enjoyed this vid. And definitely has made me change my opinion on these types of hives to that of standard nationals that I use. And definitely can see a benifit for beekeeping in my more senior years. Saving hefting and lifting heavy super, or brood boxes. Spot on. Best take a look on their website.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Glad you enjoyed it Peter. Yes - for people with disabilities or back issues this is an excellent way to keep bees. They can even adapt the stand to the your height if you ask them.

[@jesshowe4591]

Nice looking thing expensive. But bees prefer to store the Honey above their brood but during a flow they will stick it anywhere. You have to make sure the large frames fit your extractor. I often can have 4 to 5 supers on top of my hives so I'm not a fan of that. good demonstration as usual.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Jess. Yes - we will have to see how we adapt their management throughout the season. Will be interesting for sure. Luckily my extractor can squeeze in six 14 x 12 frames :)

[@HothamsApiary]

Super interesting. Can't wait to see more vids on how to keep bees with this hive system.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Plenty more to come throughout the season. I am very excited!

[@HothamsApiary]

@@BlackMountainHoney do you have to worry about thieves or vandals where you are? One thing I was thinking about was putting a clasp on the roof with a padlock. Also, an off-topic question: what brand of microphone do you use in your videos?

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Would love to have one here in my Mediterranean island where we used to have vertical hollow palm trees for this

[@BlackMountainHoney]

I'm not jealous at all. Med sun and bees sounds bliss. We get regular drizzle and sheep

[@beebob1279]

I just looked up the price of the queen rearing hive. I would be more interested in this. In USD they are close to a thousand dollars. Eight individual nucs would cost over 250 these days. This is all together for ease. Also, it's not a back breaker because I wouldn't be leaning over all morning working with it. But what a beautiful piece of workmanship. I may look at building one of these and give it a try. Builders are always throwing away scrap wood. I'll ask.

[@curtisbeers9383]

I run foundationless in 8 frame boxes. Boxes and frames become a storage issue. This looks an alternative to adding and removing boxes and frames. It also looks nicer than a bunch of ratty hives scattered in the back yard. How does it handle hive beetle?

[@roystheboy]

A great review again as always

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Roy :)

[@robertholdsworth4498]

Look forward to future vids on this hive

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Robert. Its a beauty! Lots of videos coming this season :)

[@stevefox8948]

Very interesting thanks

[@48luke]

Lovely hive

[@won2winit]

Regarding protection of the stand legs how about some form of plastic foot added just to keep it out of any water.... Does this make me a Research & Development trainee?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yeah that would definitely work!

[@puntkomma3303]

HOI Where can me buy the GAS POWERED STRUTS ? THANK YOU FOR A ENSER Punt Komma

[@UTsnowsailor]

Thank you for a great review. Hive is a lovely product, so well though out. Can anyone recommend a US company that makes anything as nice? 🙏

[@greghamilton889]

Absolutely gorgeous hive, I'm so jealous you got it for free, jammy bugger 😋

[@BlackMountainHoney]

It really is a beauty. I am very thankful for the guys at Hyde Hives for giving me this. Very generous indeed! Hopefully the series of videos this year will give them good publicity and help boost sales.

[@greghamilton889]

@@BlackMountainHoney I've already got it on my "to buy" list. Looking forward to your future vids. I've seen a lot of people bang old duvets in the middle cavity for a bit of extra insulation, useful for getting nucs to have size supposedly. Are you going to bother with that?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@greghamilton889 I think I will make up some insulated dummy boards to manage the volume of the boxes. Very excited to get moving on it.

[@greghamilton889]

@@BlackMountainHoney the season is so close I can smell it. I'm looking forward to my queen rearing and nuc making this year. 15 hives out of 2... think I'll manage it?😅

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@greghamilton889 Defo! Im doing a video. 1 colony = 10 splits ;)

[@garethwalsh7114]

Great review Laurence! Amazing looking hive... how do you extract honey from a 14x12 frame? Do you need a bespoke machine?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Gareth. My extractor takes 14 x 12 frames radially. A lot of extractors 12 frame and up allow you to extract them tangentially with screens

[@RascalApiary]

Nice! We just built one. Looks very similar.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Nice! What did you use to build it? Did you post a vid?

[@RascalApiary]

@@BlackMountainHoney We made ours out of pine since it was our first long we built. Next one will be cedar or something a little more classy. We love the wood look. We can't bring ourselves to paint it. Here's our built video, it's not really an instructional video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q52sqJ-CaseGldU

[@rickwarner9142]

Nice idea perhaps I could use the ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Go for it!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Great video. Really like the idea of long hives - love the UK wood aspect too - how many frames (per colony) do they hold Lawrence? Hugh

[@mattshepherd100]

40 frames mate, 20 per colony.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@mattshepherd100 Thanks Matt...I wonder whether a large colony on abundant food would find that sufficient. Of course the frames are almost twice the area of a National super...

[@marklunny9662]

@@EnglishCountryLife it's 3x! Supper is half a standard brood and a 14x12 is half a standard brood again. With the flexibility you can remove honey frames whenever you want so you don't need to wait for all the frames to be capped. You can remove and replace with a new frame. Hope that helps!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@marklunny9662 It does. I think I like the concept but am thinking it through. Videos like this & your advice is a great help. Thank you

[@marklunny9662]

I've been using a homemade longhive for nearly 3 years. Always happy to discuss! I've been posting my journey on Instagram @scottish_longhive (shameless plug! 😂)

[@Banyan314]

Do they do a flow hive version ?

[@dominicpearson9969]

Interesting review Laurence, bit of a change from the norm, 👍🐝🍯

[@mattshepherd100]

Yes but don't tell anyone.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Dominic.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

As below - YES :)

[@Pugwash07]

How does this type of hive differ from a Dartington hive?

[@mattshepherd100]

Hi Nigel, these long hives don't have supers, the hive uses 40 frames, 20 per colony. Each colony is then split with a vertical queen excluder. When a frame is full of honey it gets replaced with a new frame.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Great having you here to answer questions Matt! Cheers 🍻

[@grumpy3517]

I am concerned about the use of phenolic ply and plastic because of formaldehyde emissions and plasticiser gassing out. Also I would worry about the electromagnetic field created by the use of metal screws. I realize all this is quite common and convenient but bees are a lot more sensitive than humans and are exposed to a lot of environmental poisons in the field already. Who is to say that all this does not play an important role in the problems facing bees today...