Hive opinions/ suggestion

[melco]

I'm going to start a hive in the spring, I will be attending a local group between now and then. My son is buying me a hive for my birthday. Please give me your recommendations, links appreciated, for a good starter hive. Thanks.

[indypartridge]

Attending a local group is an excellent way to learn about beekeeping and get connected to local beekeepers.
Beekeeping is very ‘local’, so it’s advisable to learn the practices of nearby beekeepers.

A few factors to be considered regarding a ‘beginner’s first hive’.

1) Location – where you live
A ‘typical’ hive in Minnesota will be configured differently than a ‘typical’ hive in Texas.
Northern colonies need more boxes to hold more honey to get them through long, cold winters.

2) Physical strength of the beekeeper
Hive boxes come in 3 sizes: Deeps, Mediums and Shallows.
Traditionally, each box of the beehive had 10 frames

Usually, deeps are used for the brood nest (where the queen lays eggs and baby bees are raised)
Medium and shallows are typically used for honey.
Average weight when full of honey:
Deep – 90 lbs
Med – 60 lbs
Shallow – 40 lbs

In recent years 8 frame equipment has become popular:
Deep – 72 lbs
Med – 48 lbs
Shallow – 32 lbs

Many beekeepers have decided that because of weight and convenience to use just one size of box (usually mediums, although a beekeeper in our local club uses all shallows). If you live in a locale which traditionally uses two deeps for brood, those could be replaced by 3 mediums or 4 shallows.

The upside of using all boxes of one size box is less weight and everything is interchangeable. The downside is you have more frames and boxes to build, and more frames and boxes of bees to inspect when you’re checking on your bees.

So, personal preferences have a lot to do with things. Just as I mentioned we have a guy in our club who uses all shallows, we also have a petite woman who prefers 10-frame deeps. She doesn’t try lifting them, she always takes an empty box and moves frames one at a time.

Another consideration:
When you get to the point of buying bees to populate your new hive, your usual choices are ‘package’ or ‘nuc’.
A package is a shoebox-sized box of bees with a queen in a separate cage. You dump the bees into your hive and install the queen.
A nuc is a ‘fully operational’ mini hive (4 or 5 frames), where you simply transfer the frames from the nuc box to your hive.
Most beekeepers who produce nucs use deep frames. Every spring I hear about beekeepers who chose ‘all medium’ boxes, and then are faced with the issue of their deep nuc frames not fitting into their medium boxes.