Beehive Layens with screened bottom

01 · HORIZONTAL HANDLING

Open the lid and work standing up

The whole colony lives in one body, so an inspection is opening the lid and taking out frames — no dismantling supers, no lifting twenty-kilo boxes. It is the traditional system of the south and still the most comfortable for anyone with few hives, for anyone working alone, or for anyone whose back is past carrying weight. The trade-off is that the colony has a ceiling: once it fills the twelve frames, there is nowhere to grow.

02 · THE MESH FLOOR

Mites drop out and air comes in

The mesh lets varroa fall out of reach of the bees and improves ventilation, which in a horizontal box and a warm climate is exactly what stops damp from building up. It also makes cleaning quicker. Two working notes: for a count to mean anything you need a sheet with thick vaseline underneath, and for a cold wintering it helps to be able to close the floor — the permanent ventilation an Andalusian summer wants is not what a colony wants in January at a thousand metres.

03 · THE FRAMES

Twelve, and closed at the top

It carries its 12 frames, Layens format and built so they leave no passage between them: the colony stays contained in the body and gets handled less than it otherwise would. Take note if your plan is to add a shallow super later — for the bees to go up you need frames with the rebate that opens that passage, sold separately; with the standard closed frames they will not.

04 · THE WOOD

22 mm pine with linseed, and a second coat

The body is 22 mm pine treated with linseed oil, and the internal measurements are 50 × 56 × 43 cm. As with any wooden hive, that coat of linseed is a starting protection: before leaving it outdoors it is worth a second coat or exterior paint, above all on the roof and the edges, which is where water gets in.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Ordered with sand paint or unpainted. The frames come without wax foundation, and the shallow super and the rebated frames go separately.