Thanks again Rickey for the 34 frame Long Hive! You can see his multiple horizontal hives here @ www.horizontalbees.com/ ua-cam.com/channels/EUhmz1QuiiivRosypI_-hg.html
Kamon, thanks for turning on your “older” subscribers with aching backs to this resource. It will be very interesting to watch the progress of your horizontal colony.
Helping my brother get his first colony started, so he came over to observe an inspection. He got stung, ran and screamed so wildly he lost his glasses and then stood in front of another hive yelling until he got stung some more. Epic and deeply satisfying display to watch!
I am not sure if they are or not. Most trees go up but I am sure this style of hive works well just like all the others just have to keep the bees happy and we are all set
I believe it is the extra deep frames that are key, the brood has room to move up the combs during winter and not have to move sideways for honey. I don't have much hope for these long langs in the north.
@@jay90374 Agreed. The deeper frames are important, especially further north with colder climates. I would never consider a Horizontal hive that uses Langstroth frames.
Hate to say it, but that hive looks like what the magicians use when they attempt to saw their assistants in half. "Laurel, would you please climb into the box?"
Interested on what's going to happen with those horizontal hives. As I'm learning I read and you also had ponited out when inspecting bees that they are inclined to build vertical, not horizontallly, that's why you can see brood on 3 for frames on the bottom and same directly on top but little to none on the frames next to them. Wanted to see the results. Awesome
Heavy lifting and lots of bending over are very challenging during 3rd trimester! I wish I had known about the horizontal options when I started beekeeping (I was pregnant then, too). I appreciate you and Dirt Rooster showing these off, although he brought me to tears setting one up for his dad.
I like seeing that you dont wear a space suit. I get into almost a zen thing where they crawl up and down my arms- I use heavier smoke, though. Good show.
I've never seen these in Europe. We tend to have smaller hives, and just put more. There's a question regarding aggressivness in the comments, and I can speak for Scandinavia and Mediterranean. The bees here are extremely calm and very easy to work with. There can be times of year where they're more actively protecting the hive, but I have never experienced being driven away from a hive. I don't even own a full bee suit, I have the hat on when I approach bees I'm unfamiliar with, but that's it. We don't have killer bees in Europe, as far as I know. I've seen extremely aggressive bees in Asia in tropical areas. There they dress in double layered bee suits. Their bees are completely wild. 💖
Addictions come in all forms, don't they? I just started last year with a top bar hive (used) and am hoping that the clan survived the winter here in Wyoming. I left all the comb in there for them as there were only 13 frames and I'm hoping that will help them get through. I did fill up the empty space with bagged wood chips and covered the bars with an old towel then 3 layers of folded newspapers. There is a foam frame around them about 6 inches out to block out the north wind that loves to go whipping through here. It's been 20+ below zero for days in a row here several times. I need to go dig them out of all the snow drifts that have built up around them so I can get to them and check on them whenever (if ever) we get a warm enough day before Spring gets here. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Kaymon. My father in law just built me a horizontal hive. As always I appreciate you! Fun quick story after seeing you get stung. I was diagnosed last year with systemic mastocytosis (DO NOT GOOGLE OR YOU MAY CRY). Because of this, they tested me for IgE antibodies for allergic response via bloodwork. They "say" my results show extreme allergy to honeybee venom. I've been beekeeping and getting stung a dozen or so times a year for a long long time. It IS Invigorating! haha. They make me carry multiple epi pens and are adamant it will kill me if I get stung. NOPE. It makes the debilitating sickness totally go away for a few days. It has doctors at the NIH/NIC, WashU, UofM and the VA scratching their heads. I say, bee venom therapy is legit! Beekeepers live longer! I'm still carrying epi of course.
i recommend putting a transverse channel or little tunnel through each comb near the top, in the same place or towards both corners... Frederick Dunn had a dead out in his long hive and he said there was tons of food but they appeared to be unable to transverse the hive to fresh combs of honey during the brutal cold.... If they had easier ways to travel to the next comb they probably would have lived.
Hey Joe! Perhaps, but I overwinter a lot of bees like Ian in a single deep. I feel like a good cluster with enough food going into winter will do just fine. I felt after watching freds video that the only cause of death was mite related. Sometimes mites don't cause the bees to abscond but they do weaken the cluster to the point where that can't maintain a winter cluster and move properly.
@@kamonreynolds yeah maybe unrelated to the hive design thanks for the response its sad to think of how many bees are lost to parasites/viral load/pesticides these days, seems like a lot of it could be prevented.
ABSOLUTELY what I need to switch to. My neighbor has 5 of those now. Strong hives! At 60 it's getting too hard for me at 5'3 120# to wrangle supers of honey. Still eyeballing my swarm traps so till then.... Thanks for another great video!
Same issue. 60 and thin. Heading for wheelchair in the next five or so years but have found a 4 wheel drive electric wheelchair that will keep me caring for my sheep, rabbits, chickens and bees. Adapting is the key to staying on the farm. I’m hoping for another 20 years at least….then retirement…again….
Haha, four foot longs are way to short for me. Mine just ran out of space first week of May and got tons of queen cells. Looking forward to using more longs.
That’s just a top bar hive with frames!! Drop down to 10-12 frames for bees and 18-20 frames for honey production. This is typically what I have run almost year round. The only variant was how many would come through a tough winter. I might have to tighten it up if I lost a frame or two of bees.
I looked at these long Lang’s at the Hive Life Conference. Excellent quality! I definitely would like to see one of these in my backyard in the future. Great video Kamon and Laurel, excited to see how this hive does this season! 😃
Hi Kamon I think u need a bigger queen excluder for that amount of bee to traffic through to making honey and don’t make the hole in the side as yet watch the progression first love watching 🙏
I built my own longhive in 2018 when there were only a few UA-cam videos on them so great to see this and look forward to seeing more. I was warned they won't survive a Scottish winter and the like but this will be my 4th summer with bees and I now have them in both ends of the hive. Bees are happy to live vertically and horizontally - they really don't care! My one tip is to remember that everything you learned to do vertically needs to now be done horizontally! Good luck!
This is something I have been interested in…I am working up to 100 hives but have a progressive degenerative arthritis that will require a wheelchair sometime in the next five years or so. I have found an electric four wheel drive wheel chair that will enable me to keep my sheep, rabbitry, chickens and I hope bees if I can change over to horizontal hives. I can see doing this for at least another 20 years. I just have to adapt to decreasing mobility. In my honey processing/slaughter-butcher clean room I was able to install a hydraulic chair that gets me up high to work and clean the machinery and down to where I can process meat and honey. So far so good. I will be interested to know how this hive works.
K&L, i always like to hear Laurel giggle in the background! Kamon as for as getting stung on the hand or finger, I thought the hands and face was the only place they would sting. lol I looked at Ricky’s hives at the conference and they are definitely very well built and he does have so many different models. I’m sure your long hive will do great! Thanks for the video and I hope everyone had a great Easter!
Boy oh boy Kamon. That’s a great hive. I checked out that guys site. I love his ideas. Amazing. I especially like the flow hive inserts as flow hive is my preference.
8 have a Long Langstroth Hive in Queensland Australia. 2 queens.Honey in middle, 2 Queen excluder. Like the style of your queen excluder. I will add that style to next one and make up 2 for current hive. Is exciting and scary.
Great video, I m thinking there should be some boards between the frames and lid, to prevent the bees from making comb above the frame. Just thinking. keep up the great videos.
@@kamonreynolds Sorry Kamon I forgot to leave you 3 innercovers for this hive. We were in a hurry the last day of the conference due to my little girls b-day. I can send you 3 innercovers or you can use the canvas?
Kamon, I love your reinforcement of the basics: Good queen, dead mites and good nutrition. You should start (and I think it will catch on) calling this the Reynolds "bee triangle" since it is analogous to the "fire triangle" of: fuel, air and ignition. You are the founder of the Reynolds "bee triangle"!
I've been keeping bees for 2 years now. I built my first LLH in my first year. My first LLH was the only colony that survived winter last year. The thermal mass of the 2× makes a difference. Added a second LLH last year. This year all four of my colonies survived winter. And my LLHs look the best. I have 2" of foam insulation built into the top. I have done no other winter prep on my LLHs. My verticals were surrounded with 1" foam insulation and 2" in the top. 20 miles east of Syracuse NY the winters do get cold here. I just got home this afternoon from purchasing four ruff cut 2×12×12 boards for my next 4 LLHs! Purchased from an Amish lumber mill for about $100 savings over the big box store. FYI I harvested 60-70 pounds of honey from one LLH last year! My recommendations would be to close off the center entrance and make one on the end like you say you want to. With a center entrance the bees will naturally want to move the brood section to the center and store their honey away from the entrance. I don't use a QE and only have entrances toward the ends. Where are your inner cover boards?
*I'll be following this progress :) I have 7 long hives myself this year. Can't wait to see how yours do. Thanks for sharing man. You will find it extremely easy to manage this hive.*
You forgot to put the cover boards over the frames! Now maybe the queen can crawl over the barrier board? I intend to build something similar myself with more frames.
Kamon, there are no barrier boards over the top of the frames to stop migration. I use old carpet on my horizontal Langstroth and Layans, gives the shb trouble as an added bonus.
I assume you just forgot to show the cover boards being put in place. Otherwise they will glue that lid down tight and the queen can just walk over the divider board into the honey section. The cover boards are also nice because you can open the lid and uncover only a small portion of the hive at once. It does look nicely built! I love my long langs!
Sincere question. (I know the net can get mean, this is sincere) would a sheet of burlap above the frames work like a cover board? Would that be a good solution or lead to problems? Thanks.
@Paul Bzzz It can certainly work and some people use it. I just prefer boards because they are easier to scrap off if needed. Some people prefer a wider inner cover for much the same reason.
im getting ready to move from AZ to Horse Cave KY with my bees. I would like to come down with the RV for a few days to help and hopefully learn a few things from you if youre up for it.
*Another thing, I have a hive that was overwintered and I moved it to y horizontal hive, and they had swarm cells yesterday. I have 33 frames and 70% of those are filled with Brood, pollen and nectar. They seems to expand extremely fast in these lol In Northern Kentucky.*
Hi,some regions use to have horizontal hive and even with two floors, with 20 to 24 large frames ..... like dadant-blatt frames .... any hive has pros and cons but also unique beauty for bees and beekeepers....nice job!
Hey Kamon, I’m so pleased you started on a long hive. Really excited to see how it develops through the months to come. Sadly Fred Dunn lost his horizontal colony. It was so sad. Hope things go better this time around😁👍
Wow! I’m always learning so much from your channel! Thank you brother man! You’ve got me excited about my first time trying my hand at queen rearing in the spring next year! Got a super strong hive I think will be perfect! Appreciate you!
I’m hoping to catch your talk at Hive Life this year! My father-in-law enjoys this with me too so I’m hoping he can come with us! My husband is still a bit nervous. Well, I can see your work is paying off.
Fun video (except for the sting)! I was already typing about the frame that was still in the old box when you saw it! Great looking colony of bees! I'll be following this set up to see how they do. 😎
I had one like that built for me that i can use by myself. I'm in a wheelchair so i had to use a long hive. I've had bees in it for 2 years( but yet to have a colony to make it thru a year) but I'm a newbee. So I'm still learning. Unfortunately last year i had a mentor set up right before the lockdown. Ouch. But the only problem i had was keeping a queen. The nuc queen was ousted or killed within weeks of me getting my nuc. Then i bought one but she didn't make it either. Eventually they all absconded or died of old age. I couldn't keep a laying queen to save my life. I couldn't afford to pay 50$ for a new queen each month so i let nature take it's course. Hopefully this year I'll be starting with 2 nucs. My hive can handle it. It's 5 foot long and will hold 2 frame feeders and 40 frames. So I'm going to put 2 nucs in it in hopes i can keep at least 1 of them alive. Wish me luck
The horizontals that I have Kamon have slats on the top of the frames with bee space so that I can also feed them pollen Patty's and enough room above that for a rap around feeder
Really hoping this turns out.. I broke my back in 2012 and have been dying to get into bees. But I just can't bend over all the way without my back getting locked up. I'm 33 and this may be the answer to my dreams of becoming a beekeeper.
When you stated, " I'm slipping" I would like to state that you do a lot more right than the one minor mistake of forgetting to put in the one comb at 13:50 !!! I appreciate your approach to your art of beekeeping and I shall watch more of your videos. Please keep up the good work of sharing the word. Best regards, Skip 04/05/2021
Looking forward to seeing how the longhive goes for you. I built two of them and split each one in the middle and had two colonies in each box last year and through the winter. All went well. For this year though, I have already pulled them down to one colony each in hopes of boosting honey production.
I’ve enjoyed your videos and find them informative. Love your down to earth demeanor and teaching style. I’m starting my third year of beekeeping but feel I have a lot to learn yet. I still don’t feel confident in diagnosing and mitigating some of the problems I encounter ( and I’m certainly not going to open my hives in just a T-shirt and bonnet!- maybe someday!!)
I have never been a fan of a top bar hive but it will be interesting to follow and see if it changes my thoughts!! I personally have gotten away from 10 frame supers and gone to 6&8 frames and see faster growth. Also not as heavy to lift . Wild bees hive grow going up and down not side to side as much
I would think they would be hard to transport also. In the far north where it can get really cold for an extended time the bees would have a hard time moving across frames. Since heat rises, which is why bees find it easy to move up, bees moving horizontally would find cold honey to move into. In the warmer climates they will probably work just fine.
I'll be looking forward to watching your long hive videos. I built four horizontal hives last year and put swarm trapped colonies in 3 and a nuke in the other. Two were dual colonies and and two were single colonies. They were all 32 frame hives. The nuke colony absconded leaving one colony in the hive for the winter. All 5 remaining colonies over wintered (in central Kentucky) just fine. All of the colony's are exploding now. I'm wondering your thoughts on one or two colonies in each box. I did the math with the lifecycle of the bee (I'm a retired engineer and I love math) and figured that one queen could only use a maximum of 7 frames (31,500 cells) for brood. This considers laying, maturing, hatching, then available for relaying. If we give her 2 extra frames just to make sure, that leaves 5 deep frames for honey per colony if there are two colonies in each box. I'm a hobby beekeeper in their first year for honey, and I'm wondering if the math will work. My plan is to keep an eye on the hone and pull frames if the bees come close to filling the 5 frames so they don't run out of honey room. I really liked the queen excluder frame you showed and think I will build one for my horizontal hives. You are a great resource and I try never to miss a video. Keep up the great work and I hope to visit you one day and shake your hand. I'm hopeful that I will get some honey this year to share with you.
I used to maintain 500 plus colonies years ago and I got out of it about 25 years ago, I used to not pay any mind to getting stung , it always hurt me more than that average person but I didn’t realize the more I got stung the more danger you are in for developing an allergy to bee stings , I always thought sissy’s wore bee suits lol but now I have to wear one just walking into the bee yard , the kicker is I just got back into bees last year and there is varoa and trachial mites , wax moths and it’s a completely different world keeping bees now , but if you are a pro or just starting bees do your self a favor and suit up , it’s not if you develop a bee allergy, if you keep bees long enough you will develop an allergy if you keep getting stung, and I found out I have a reaction with epi too so I really have to be careful now 😮
I'm curious to see how they move during the winter. From what I understand, in the Langs, they basically start at the bottom and move up in a ball as winter progresses. If they move just as easily sideways, I'll probably build one of these next year. This will be my first year keeping bees, so I'm starting out traditionally lol. I just wanted to thank you as well, I'm in Warren County, so seeing an established beekeeper relatively close by is great instruction for me!
On their website there's a picture which shows a standard cover board fitted atop the frames. It's a 34 frame body so you'll still have frames frames exposed whether you're using 8 frame or 10 frame covers, unless you make your own cover board I suppose.
@@IFarmBugs Sorry I forgot to give Kamon the 3 innercovers need for this hive we was in a hurry to get home for your little girls b-day. Thanks for checking out our website and for helping answer questions.
This type of hive do not work well. The frames are on the wrong position. In the winter the bees will not move through a frame. It works well if you modify the box and install the frames 90 degrees. Frames run parallel.
Kinda thought this as well. I was going to start with the layens system but then I would have to deal with equipment issues. I settled on the Apimaye deep system for completeness of features.
Are you telling me that they are going to walk the length? I’m interested in watching the series. Would honey frames on either side of a centred brood nest work better? Looks old school
It is Old school. Not a bad school just somewhat forgotten. I think having all the honey together would personally work better as I think in ideal situations they like to have a surplus honey designated area but not in multiple locations? Is walking long as bad as walking up and long? This contraption is very foreign to me so I am not sure I will execute proper long hive management but hey with Laurel helping out I likely will not make too big of a blunder....maybe
Ian, I have been told to start the colony on an end, preferably closest to the early sun. I’m starting a horizontal this year as well, and definitely posting my experience with it.
Getting stung on the naked finger is like getting whacked with a tiny hammer and makes me do a little jig. I can take stings to the face better than to my fingers.
No inner covers, Kamon? Coming into my second year and built myself a couple of top bar hives. Just couldn't see the need for production hives when all I want to do is keep bees. Will try the horizontal Langstroth next. Enjoying your videos.
Thanks again Rickey for the 34 frame Long Hive!
You can see his multiple horizontal hives here @ www.horizontalbees.com/
ua-cam.com/channels/EUhmz1QuiiivRosypI_-hg.html
Kamon, thanks for turning on your “older” subscribers with aching backs to this resource. It will be very interesting to watch the progress of your horizontal colony.
I went to his website--those hives are amazing! I can definitely see adding one of those to my bee yard at some point!
Elizabeth is watching with me. If you need some more female giggling audio to go along with Laurel I can send it to you.
Helping my brother get his first colony started, so he came over to observe an inspection. He got stung, ran and screamed so wildly he lost his glasses and then stood in front of another hive yelling until he got stung some more. Epic and deeply satisfying display to watch!
LOL so cruel but as a brother I must admit I have had siblings hold the flashlight while moving bees at night
😂😂
Jumping out of the flying pan to the fire 😂😂😂
Wow....laughing my head off ...n
I needed this content today.
Can't wait to see you harvest some long hive honey !
I love to watch Dr. Leo. He uses the Horizontal Hives. Says it's more natural for the bees.
I am not sure if they are or not. Most trees go up but I am sure this style of hive works well just like all the others just have to keep the bees happy and we are all set
@@sinisterhipp0 - LOL, how many regular hives do you see on 20 ft stilts! SMH
I believe it is the extra deep frames that are key, the brood has room to move up the combs during winter and not have to move sideways for honey. I don't have much hope for these long langs in the north.
Bees use what ever space they are given. I do agree in cold climates they survive better with tall frames
@@jay90374 Agreed. The deeper frames are important, especially further north with colder climates. I would never consider a Horizontal hive that uses Langstroth frames.
great t-shirt! and it is going to be fun to watch this experiment unfold. Thanks again Kamon.
Hate to say it, but that hive looks like what the magicians use when they attempt to saw their assistants in half.
"Laurel, would you please climb into the box?"
HA she would put me in the box!
Interested on what's going to happen with those horizontal hives. As I'm learning I read and you also had ponited out when inspecting bees that they are inclined to build vertical, not horizontallly, that's why you can see brood on 3 for frames on the bottom and same directly on top but little to none on the frames next to them. Wanted to see the results. Awesome
Heavy lifting and lots of bending over are very challenging during 3rd trimester! I wish I had known about the horizontal options when I started beekeeping (I was pregnant then, too). I appreciate you and Dirt Rooster showing these off, although he brought me to tears setting one up for his dad.
Thanks Kamon for sharing our hive with your great viewers! We just wanted to share a little different way of keeping honey bees.
So awesome Rickey. .
Fan of Kamon and Ricky. I have a long flow hive from Ricky and a Flow hive from Down under. The test is on in my back yard
BTW, we are South Florida back yard bee keepers
@@edwardperrymacdougall2569 Oh nice. I'm in NE Ohio.
@@CastleHives Thanks Brian for your nice words!!! I love your new hives you have made.
So glad you are starting out with a great year. Maybe the Lord will even let your girls make up for last year's shortage. 💕 🌻💕🌻💕
Great video Kamon. Roark is on vac. for the next week and a half. I'm just laughing at all the hives he will have to build when he gets back. LOL
Looks nice! I thin you're going to beat out Mr dunn with this one!!! nice load of brood there! thumbs up!!!
Hey thanks. For video . Perfect video brotder
I like seeing that you dont wear a space suit. I get into almost a zen thing where they crawl up and down my arms- I use heavier smoke, though. Good show.
Good stuff, thanks Kamon and Laurel
Looks like something that would make a great multi mating hive. 10 queen's from 1 hive😉
Happy you’re starting out with a good year 😀, all the best!!
Thanks for the video! I just ordered one thanks to you!
I've never seen these in Europe. We tend to have smaller hives, and just put more. There's a question regarding aggressivness in the comments, and I can speak for Scandinavia and Mediterranean. The bees here are extremely calm and very easy to work with. There can be times of year where they're more actively protecting the hive, but I have never experienced being driven away from a hive. I don't even own a full bee suit, I have the hat on when I approach bees I'm unfamiliar with, but that's it. We don't have killer bees in Europe, as far as I know. I've seen extremely aggressive bees in Asia in tropical areas. There they dress in double layered bee suits. Their bees are completely wild. 💖
Beutiful information sir 🙏
Addictions come in all forms, don't they? I just started last year with a top bar hive (used) and am hoping that the clan survived the winter here in Wyoming. I left all the comb in there for them as there were only 13 frames and I'm hoping that will help them get through. I did fill up the empty space with bagged wood chips and covered the bars with an old towel then 3 layers of folded newspapers. There is a foam frame around them about 6 inches out to block out the north wind that loves to go whipping through here. It's been 20+ below zero for days in a row here several times. I need to go dig them out of all the snow drifts that have built up around them so I can get to them and check on them whenever (if ever) we get a warm enough day before Spring gets here. Thanks for sharing.
Looks well made
That's a nice set up.
Nice hives for bees, love your netted hat for bees, thanks for sharing
Hi Kaymon. My father in law just built me a horizontal hive. As always I appreciate you! Fun quick story after seeing you get stung. I was diagnosed last year with systemic mastocytosis (DO NOT GOOGLE OR YOU MAY CRY). Because of this, they tested me for IgE antibodies for allergic response via bloodwork. They "say" my results show extreme allergy to honeybee venom. I've been beekeeping and getting stung a dozen or so times a year for a long long time. It IS Invigorating! haha. They make me carry multiple epi pens and are adamant it will kill me if I get stung. NOPE. It makes the debilitating sickness totally go away for a few days. It has doctors at the NIH/NIC, WashU, UofM and the VA scratching their heads. I say, bee venom therapy is legit! Beekeepers live longer! I'm still carrying epi of course.
Love this
Finally someone that likes big hives like me with a Horizontal,let it rip Kamon!
I like big bees and I cannot lie!
@@kamonreynolds 😂🤣😂
i recommend putting a transverse channel or little tunnel through each comb near the top, in the same place or towards both corners...
Frederick Dunn had a dead out in his long hive and he said there was tons of food but they appeared to be unable to transverse the hive to fresh combs of honey during the brutal cold.... If they had easier ways to travel to the next comb they probably would have lived.
Hey Joe! Perhaps, but I overwinter a lot of bees like Ian in a single deep. I feel like a good cluster with enough food going into winter will do just fine. I felt after watching freds video that the only cause of death was mite related. Sometimes mites don't cause the bees to abscond but they do weaken the cluster to the point where that can't maintain a winter cluster and move properly.
mr dunn said his queen was lost going into winter didn't he? ya there was varroa but thought the queen dieing was the big part?
@@kamonreynolds yeah maybe unrelated to the hive design thanks for the response its sad to think of how many bees are lost to parasites/viral load/pesticides these days, seems like a lot of it could be prevented.
ABSOLUTELY what I need to switch to. My neighbor has 5 of those now. Strong hives! At 60 it's getting too hard for me at 5'3 120# to wrangle supers of honey. Still eyeballing my swarm traps so till then....
Thanks for another great video!
Same issue. 60 and thin. Heading for wheelchair in the next five or so years but have found a 4 wheel drive electric wheelchair that will keep me caring for my sheep, rabbits, chickens and bees. Adapting is the key to staying on the farm. I’m hoping for another 20 years at least….then retirement…again….
I'd be screaming inside and out lol Awesome stuff!!
Brilliant 🤩!!!!!
I’ve been looking theses type of hives for a while now. Thank you for the video and your time🐝
Nice setup, I will be watching in anticipation of future videos on this!
Haha, four foot longs are way to short for me. Mine just ran out of space first week of May and got tons of queen cells. Looking forward to using more longs.
I bought mine from him too. Love it!
Thanks Heather!!
That’s just a top bar hive with frames!! Drop down to 10-12 frames for bees and 18-20 frames for honey production. This is typically what I have run almost year round. The only variant was how many would come through a tough winter. I might have to tighten it up if I lost a frame or two of bees.
I find the tip of the fingers are really best. I sure love your videos you do a great job..
I looked at these long Lang’s at the Hive Life Conference. Excellent quality! I definitely would like to see one of these in my backyard in the future.
Great video Kamon and Laurel, excited to see how this hive does this season! 😃
Hi Kamon I think u need a bigger queen excluder for that amount of bee to traffic through to making honey and don’t make the hole in the side as yet watch the progression first love watching 🙏
Love your videos Kamon. Keep up the excellent work.
Wow even "the great" Kamon gets stung...just like us mere mortals....
ALOT
Well-done
I built my own longhive in 2018 when there were only a few UA-cam videos on them so great to see this and look forward to seeing more. I was warned they won't survive a Scottish winter and the like but this will be my 4th summer with bees and I now have them in both ends of the hive. Bees are happy to live vertically and horizontally - they really don't care! My one tip is to remember that everything you learned to do vertically needs to now be done horizontally! Good luck!
This is something I have been interested in…I am working up to 100 hives but have a progressive degenerative arthritis that will require a wheelchair sometime in the next five years or so. I have found an electric four wheel drive wheel chair that will enable me to keep my sheep, rabbitry, chickens and I hope bees if I can change over to horizontal hives. I can see doing this for at least another 20 years. I just have to adapt to decreasing mobility. In my honey processing/slaughter-butcher clean room I was able to install a hydraulic chair that gets me up high to work and clean the machinery and down to where I can process meat and honey. So far so good. I will be interested to know how this hive works.
Single brood management is a great idea. Bring the brood down to 8 deeps.
If you have to choose today would you choose this horizontal hive OR the vertical?
K&L, i always like to hear Laurel giggle in the background! Kamon as for as getting stung on the hand or finger, I thought the hands and face was the only place they would sting. lol I looked at Ricky’s hives at the conference and they are definitely very well built and he does have so many different models. I’m sure your long hive will do great! Thanks for the video and I hope everyone had a great Easter!
Thanks Don for the kind words!!
Boy oh boy Kamon. That’s a great hive. I checked out that guys site. I love his ideas. Amazing. I especially like the flow hive inserts as flow hive is my preference.
I’m going to use Horizontal Hives this year also. Rickey Roark is an awesome guy, I follow him. His Horizontal Hives are great.
Nice demonstration Kamon! I just ordered the same hive. Excited to pick it up.
That sting and your reaction made my bum wink! I'll still keep watching not doing
i fell down a bee rabbithole on youtube which i will likely stay in for a few days but i am gonna sub for this long hive series
8 have a Long Langstroth Hive in Queensland Australia. 2 queens.Honey in middle, 2 Queen excluder. Like the style of your queen excluder. I will add that style to next one and make up 2 for current hive. Is exciting and scary.
Great video, I m thinking there should be some boards between the frames and lid, to prevent the bees from making comb above the frame. Just thinking. keep up the great videos.
I have wonder the same. I think Rickey has some stuff for this. I am thinking of using canvas in between
Canvas or that bubble wrap stuff that Ian Stapler uses.
@@kamonreynolds Sorry Kamon I forgot to leave you 3 innercovers for this hive. We were in a hurry the last day of the conference due to my little girls b-day. I can send you 3 innercovers or you can use the canvas?
Kamon, I love your reinforcement of the basics: Good queen, dead mites and good nutrition. You should start (and I think it will catch on) calling this the Reynolds "bee triangle" since it is analogous to the "fire triangle" of: fuel, air and ignition. You are the founder of the Reynolds "bee triangle"!
I've been keeping bees for 2 years now. I built my first LLH in my first year. My first LLH was the only colony that survived winter last year. The thermal mass of the 2× makes a difference. Added a second LLH last year. This year all four of my colonies survived winter. And my LLHs look the best. I have 2" of foam insulation built into the top. I have done no other winter prep on my LLHs. My verticals were surrounded with 1" foam insulation and 2" in the top. 20 miles east of Syracuse NY the winters do get cold here. I just got home this afternoon from purchasing four ruff cut 2×12×12 boards for my next 4 LLHs! Purchased from an Amish lumber mill for about $100 savings over the big box store.
FYI I harvested 60-70 pounds of honey from one LLH last year!
My recommendations would be to close off the center entrance and make one on the end like you say you want to. With a center entrance the bees will naturally want to move the brood section to the center and store their honey away from the entrance. I don't use a QE and only have entrances toward the ends.
Where are your inner cover boards?
Very cool! can't wait to see their progress.
*I'll be following this progress :) I have 7 long hives myself this year. Can't wait to see how yours do. Thanks for sharing man. You will find it extremely easy to manage this hive.*
You forgot to put the cover boards over the frames! Now maybe the queen can crawl over the barrier board? I intend to build something similar myself with more frames.
Looks like fun Kamon. Looking forward to seeing how they do with the honey production.
Kamon, there are no barrier boards over the top of the frames to stop migration. I use old carpet on my horizontal Langstroth and Layans, gives the shb trouble as an added bonus.
Made my long hives this winter and cant wait to start using them
No lifting boxes,all frames easy access and no squashed bees
Love them
I assume you just forgot to show the cover boards being put in place. Otherwise they will glue that lid down tight and the queen can just walk over the divider board into the honey section. The cover boards are also nice because you can open the lid and uncover only a small portion of the hive at once. It does look nicely built! I love my long langs!
Sincere question. (I know the net can get mean, this is sincere) would a sheet of burlap above the frames work like a cover board? Would that be a good solution or lead to problems? Thanks.
@Paul Bzzz It can certainly work and some people use it. I just prefer boards because they are easier to scrap off if needed. Some people prefer a wider inner cover for much the same reason.
@@rpeebles thank you.
im getting ready to move from AZ to Horse Cave KY with my bees. I would like to come down with the RV for a few days to help and hopefully learn a few things from you if youre up for it.
Can’t wait to see what you think about them
*Another thing, I have a hive that was overwintered and I moved it to y horizontal hive, and they had swarm cells yesterday. I have 33 frames and 70% of those are filled with Brood, pollen and nectar. They seems to expand extremely fast in these lol In Northern Kentucky.*
Sounds like you need more hives and split that colony into 3s! :)
@@rpeebles Looks like that lol I will do a sit this weekend 🙂 Never enough hives
Hi,some regions use to have horizontal hive and even with two floors, with 20 to 24 large frames ..... like dadant-blatt frames .... any hive has pros and cons but also unique beauty for bees and beekeepers....nice job!
Thanks for sharing!
That would be really nice to have, Just open it up and have access to ALL of your frames. No lifting boxes off to get to the bottom .
Hey Kamon, I’m so pleased you started on a long hive. Really excited to see how it develops through the months to come. Sadly Fred Dunn lost his horizontal colony. It was so sad. Hope things go better this time around😁👍
Yeah I am sure it will go better for fred this go around!
@@kamonreynolds 😁👍
Wow! I’m always learning so much from your channel! Thank you brother man! You’ve got me excited about my first time trying my hand at queen rearing in the spring next year! Got a super strong hive I think will be perfect! Appreciate you!
Thanks so much for watching and the encouraging comment Karen!
I’m hoping to catch your talk at Hive Life this year! My father-in-law enjoys this with me too so I’m hoping he can come with us! My husband is still a bit nervous. Well, I can see your work is paying off.
Love your video man!
Appreciate it!
Fun video (except for the sting)! I was already typing about the frame that was still in the old box when you saw it! Great looking colony of bees! I'll be following this set up to see how they do. 😎
I had one like that built for me that i can use by myself. I'm in a wheelchair so i had to use a long hive. I've had bees in it for 2 years( but yet to have a colony to make it thru a year) but I'm a newbee. So I'm still learning. Unfortunately last year i had a mentor set up right before the lockdown. Ouch. But the only problem i had was keeping a queen. The nuc queen was ousted or killed within weeks of me getting my nuc. Then i bought one but she didn't make it either. Eventually they all absconded or died of old age. I couldn't keep a laying queen to save my life. I couldn't afford to pay 50$ for a new queen each month so i let nature take it's course. Hopefully this year I'll be starting with 2 nucs. My hive can handle it. It's 5 foot long and will hold 2 frame feeders and 40 frames. So I'm going to put 2 nucs in it in hopes i can keep at least 1 of them alive. Wish me luck
Hey Renee thank you for commenting. I am wishing you luck! hang in there. I struggled in my early years quite a bit but you will get it!
@@kamonreynolds hopefully 3rd year is the charm. 😆
With the lid up and frames in, kind of looks like a piano LOL. Love it. Time to break out the mandolin?
My bees v(2 nucs) should arrive in May. I hope I'm that calm when I get stung for my first time!
The horizontals that I have Kamon have slats on the top of the frames with bee space so that I can also feed them pollen Patty's and enough room above that for a rap around feeder
They’re popular here in the Mediterranean
I’m liking that one. I’ve got an apimaye hive in my neighborhood outyard so maybe a horizontal one for comparison and teaching would be another bonus!
In my long hives the brood usually stops around frame 11 or 12 and it will be honey the rest of the way. Great video.
Really hoping this turns out.. I broke my back in 2012 and have been dying to get into bees. But I just can't bend over all the way without my back getting locked up. I'm 33 and this may be the answer to my dreams of becoming a beekeeper.
When you stated, " I'm slipping" I would like to state that you do a lot more right than the one minor mistake of forgetting to put in the one comb at 13:50 !!! I appreciate your approach to your art of beekeeping and I shall
watch more of your videos. Please keep up the good work of sharing the word. Best regards, Skip 04/05/2021
Thanks for the encouragement Skip! It really is appreciated. Now for the test yard to begin!
Looking forward to seeing how the longhive goes for you. I built two of them and split each one in the middle and had two colonies in each box last year and through the winter. All went well. For this year though, I have already pulled them down to one colony each in hopes of boosting honey production.
I’ve enjoyed your videos and find them informative. Love your down to earth demeanor and teaching style. I’m starting my third year of beekeeping but feel I have a lot to learn yet. I still don’t feel confident in diagnosing and mitigating some of the problems I encounter ( and I’m certainly not going to open my hives in just a T-shirt and bonnet!- maybe someday!!)
I have never been a fan of a top bar hive but it will be interesting to follow and see if it changes my thoughts!! I personally have gotten away from 10 frame supers and gone to 6&8 frames and see faster growth. Also not as heavy to lift . Wild bees hive grow going up and down not side to side as much
This isn't a top bar hive though. 😜
I would think they would be hard to transport also.
In the far north where it can get really cold for an extended time the bees would have a hard time moving across frames. Since heat rises, which is why bees find it easy to move up, bees moving horizontally would find cold honey to move into. In the warmer climates they will probably work just fine.
I'll be looking forward to watching your long hive videos. I built four horizontal hives last year and put swarm trapped colonies in 3 and a nuke in the other. Two were dual colonies and and two were single colonies. They were all 32 frame hives. The nuke colony absconded leaving one colony in the hive for the winter. All 5 remaining colonies over wintered (in central Kentucky) just fine. All of the colony's are exploding now.
I'm wondering your thoughts on one or two colonies in each box. I did the math with the lifecycle of the bee (I'm a retired engineer and I love math) and figured that one queen could only use a maximum of 7 frames (31,500 cells) for brood. This considers laying, maturing, hatching, then available for relaying. If we give her 2 extra frames just to make sure, that leaves 5 deep frames for honey per colony if there are two colonies in each box. I'm a hobby beekeeper in their first year for honey, and I'm wondering if the math will work. My plan is to keep an eye on the hone and pull frames if the bees come close to filling the 5 frames so they don't run out of honey room.
I really liked the queen excluder frame you showed and think I will build one for my horizontal hives.
You are a great resource and I try never to miss a video. Keep up the great work and I hope to visit you one day and shake your hand. I'm hopeful that I will get some honey this year to share with you.
I cant wait to see how this turns out! Ive really been wanting one of these hives
I used to maintain 500 plus colonies years ago and I got out of it about 25 years ago, I used to not pay any mind to getting stung , it always hurt me more than that average person but I didn’t realize the more I got stung the more danger you are in for developing an allergy to bee stings , I always thought sissy’s wore bee suits lol but now I have to wear one just walking into the bee yard , the kicker is I just got back into bees last year and there is varoa and trachial mites , wax moths and it’s a completely different world keeping bees now , but if you are a pro or just starting bees do your self a favor and suit up , it’s not if you develop a bee allergy, if you keep bees long enough you will develop an allergy if you keep getting stung, and I found out I have a reaction with epi too so I really have to be careful now 😮
I'm curious to see how they move during the winter. From what I understand, in the Langs, they basically start at the bottom and move up in a ball as winter progresses. If they move just as easily sideways, I'll probably build one of these next year. This will be my first year keeping bees, so I'm starting out traditionally lol. I just wanted to thank you as well, I'm in Warren County, so seeing an established beekeeper relatively close by is great instruction for me!
Does this long Lang not have cover boards .
You have to expose all the frames during a inspection.
On their website there's a picture which shows a standard cover board fitted atop the frames. It's a 34 frame body so you'll still have frames frames exposed whether you're using 8 frame or 10 frame covers, unless you make your own cover board I suppose.
@@IFarmBugs Sorry I forgot to give Kamon the 3 innercovers need for this hive we was in a hurry to get home for your little girls b-day. Thanks for checking out our website and for helping answer questions.
I'm starting a horizontal hive colony this spring, too. I'll be doing this experiment along with you!
How did it go?
@@steventaylor4326 -- It went great! ...until a tree fell on it. Seriously.
It's not a coincidence two stings were in videos. Woman are gatherers so they can multitask.... Men.. we can only do one thing at a time 😂.
This type of hive do not work well. The frames are on the wrong position. In the winter the bees will not move through a frame. It works well if you modify the box and install the frames 90 degrees. Frames run parallel.
Kinda thought this as well. I was going to start with the layens system but then I would have to deal with equipment issues. I settled on the Apimaye deep system for completeness of features.
Where do you get our queens? Those are gentle bees that seem to be laying very well. And what growing Zone are you in?
Nice looking hive! I think I'll try to sell my top bar hive and build one of those. I would love being able to swap frames with my Langstroth hives.
I was thinking about getting one of these
Are you telling me that they are going to walk the length? I’m interested in watching the series. Would honey frames on either side of a centred brood nest work better?
Looks old school
It is Old school. Not a bad school just somewhat forgotten. I think having all the honey together would personally work better as I think in ideal situations they like to have a surplus honey designated area but not in multiple locations? Is walking long as bad as walking up and long? This contraption is very foreign to me so I am not sure I will execute proper long hive management but hey with Laurel helping out I likely will not make too big of a blunder....maybe
Ian, I have been told to start the colony on an end, preferably closest to the early sun. I’m starting a horizontal this year as well, and definitely posting my experience with it.
I recently received my horizontal hive from Rickey also, so I'm interested in taking this journey with you.
Cool!
Getting stung on the naked finger is like getting whacked with a tiny hammer and makes me do a little jig. I can take stings to the face better than to my fingers.
Kamon, in nature the only time a colony goes horizontal is when a tree falls down.
you think that hurt you ought to try working a "WILD" hive in your under ware!! that is how i learned to work the "WILD" BEEs when i was a kid
No inner covers, Kamon?
Coming into my second year and built myself a couple of top bar hives. Just couldn't see the need for production hives when all I want to do is keep bees.
Will try the horizontal Langstroth next.
Enjoying your videos.
I forgot to give Kamon the inner covers at the bee conference.