Beehive Langstroth Hybrid® 10F

01 · THE BROOD BOX

Pine and dovetails, because brood wants insulation

The body is pine with dovetail joints, which is what stands up to handling without opening at the corners. Timber damps the day-to-night temperature swing better than plastic, and that matters exactly where the brood sits. The side recesses act as handles, so there are no nailed-on grips to work loose over the years.

02 · THE FRAMES

They come fitted, Hoffman and wired

It arrives with its 10 Langstroth Hoffman frames already wired, and that is why there is no castellated spacer: the frame itself keeps the spacing when pushed against its neighbour. It is one of the things you ask us most, so here it is in writing: the hive is delivered assembled and with frames. What you will have to add is the foundation.

03 · THE FLOOR

Pressure-washable, ventilated and adjustable

The floor is high-density plastic: it does not rot, it does not splinter and it hoses clean in seconds, which is where the maintenance time of a wooden floor goes. It carries a ventilation mesh — useful for varroa monitoring with a tray — and a sliding entrance to open up during the flow and close down for winter. It weighs about a kilo less than a wooden screened floor, and that kilo tells when you load fifty hives.

04 · THE JOINT

The floor is not screwed to the brood box

This is the question that reaches us over and over, so it deserves a straight answer: body and floor do not come fixed to each other. On a static hive that is no bother, but if you are going to move it — or the site is windy — you need to secure them. The practical way is hive body clips, screwed to both and released without tools every time you open up.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a complete brood box: the super and its frames go separately, according to the harvesting system you run.