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I'm No Bee Expert!

I just want to make this short post to say, I'm no bee expert!

Everything I have learned about bees I have learned from my dad, Les Crowder, Sam Comfort, Michael Bush, Tim Durham, Joe May, and Don Kutchenmeister. I have taken that learning and applied it to my apiary. Through practical application I have proven for myself most of what they teach, as well as learning new things on my own.

All in all I am learning from those whom I call experts.

 

What Is A Comfort Hive

A Comfort hive is a very simple-to-build, and inexpensive alternative to modern day honey beekeeping. It is likely the most cost effective way to start your beekeeping hobby or business. Many folks are finding that these hives are just simply too good not to use.

Who Designed The Comfort Hive?

Let me introduce you to Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries . Watch the short video clip introduction  to Sam Comfort made by YouTuber Honey Love, and find out more about the designer. 

Sam is widely recognized as a treatment free beekeeper, and is leading a grassroots movement to help introduce the next generation of beekeepers to alternative styles of beekeeping that will hopefully prove to move the industry in such a direction as to reduce and/or eliminate the use of chemically treating bees. Keep in mind, he will be the first to tell you that he is not one to tell other beekeepers how to treat (or not treat) their bees. However, he is taking up the mantle of teaching others how he is able to keep over 500 colonies alive without the use of chemicals. 

What Makes The Comfort Hive Different From The Typical Modern Langstroth?

When you think of modern beekeeping you will almost always picture in your mind the standard white boxes stacked one on top of another out in a field somewhere. And inside those boxes you know that there are wooden frames that are able to be removed by the beekeeper when time to harvest the honey that the bees have made for him. 

This image in your mind is called a Langstroth Hive and was developed by Lorenzo Langstroth and patented in 1852. His design was widely accepted and it didn't take long for the Langstroth Hive to become the industry standard in North America. Everything in the industry catalogs today is centered and specific to his design. The manufacturers now own the industry in terms of equipment needed to keep bees. 

There is no doubt that the Langstroth Hive has been the best design in terms of practicality when it comes to offering pollination services. Other more natural hive designs just don't make the grade when it comes to offering pollination services. Hives like the Kenyan Top-Bar or the Tanzanian Top-Bar are much too cumbersome and have the added probability of comb-collapse when moved by truck if done in the heat of the summer. Comb-collapse will occur in these hives because there is no real support of the comb because of how it is suspended from a single bar from the top. In a Langstroth frame there is usually wire or string reinforcement as well as four side for the bees to attach the comb thus keeping the combs firmly in place in the frames. No other hive has that benefit. 

But, with the Sam Comfort design the bees have the ability to not only attach the combs to the top-bar which is made from a Bamboo Skewer that you would use on a bbq grill, but they will also attach the combs to the sides of the box and to the bamboo skewer beneath them in the box below. With each box being only six inches deep or less makes each skewer of honeycomb reinforced every six inches or less, meaning you have the ability to move these bees around by truck and offer pollination services with your Comfort Hives. You do need to take care and not drive like the Dukes of Hazard when moving them, but transport of these hives is possible. You just need a vehicle that can do it. 

So, what actually makes the Comfort Hive different from the Langstroth? Well, the Langstroth is highly standardized in the industry. The boxes are designed to only take frames that must be purchased. The frames can be built, but they are very precise in measurements and would be very time consuming to build. There is no way you could make them cost-effectively. Another problem with the frames is that they come unassembled. You have to take the time to put them together once you purchase them. You can pay extra and order them preassembled, but when each hive can take up to 50  or 60 frames it is hard to make that cost-effective. With the Comfort Hive you don't buy nor build frames. As I said previously you only use Jumbo Bamboo Skewers. The link at the bottom of the page is the correct skewers and you can order them directly from Amazon. I can't find the correct skewers locally so I order all of mine from Amazon. Each box you make will hold 8 skewers. The bees build their combs from the skewers. No frames....just the skewers. You cut them to length and set them across the top of the box. By the way, the inside dimensions to the box you will make are 11x11 inches. Want to see how to actually build a Comfort Hive? Here is a link to my Blog post

Comfort Hive: How to Build it, How to Add Bees With Wild Bees or From a Langstroth Hive check it out.

So what else is different? The Langstroth requires an inner cover. Well, they tell you it is required, but I never found it good for anything but giving the small hive beetles and roaches a place to hide. But anyway, they say you need one. Its an added expense. The Comfort hive inner cover is a piece of reflectex insulation. Primary goal is keeping the bees from attaching the comb to the lid. It also aids the bees in temperature control and gives a vapor barrier to the box top allowing condensation to escape assuming you have ventilation near or at the top. So, Langstroth inner cover = $7ish, Comfort Hive inner cover = maybe 35 cents. 
The Langstroth top is another expense that you can reduce, and honestly, it has the potential to outlast you! Sam advises that you use 18inch ceramic floor tiles. Not sure why unless that was all he was able to find when he started designing these hives. I use bot 15 and 18 inch tiles. And for me they have both worked out the same. When you look at the finished product you are going to think that they look like a strong wind might blow them off. You may be right, but in my experience so far a 40mph wind blowing for a few hours has not blown one off yet, and no I don't put bricks or anything else on top of them to hold them down. The bees don't glue them down either unless I forget to put reflectex underneath. So, Langstroth top is about $13 and the ceramic tile top for the comfort hive is $1.50 if you go to the salvage store. $2 at Lowes. By the way, I use the same thing for the bottom that I use for the top, just in reverse order.
By the end of the season you may have $40 tied up in one complete Comfort Hive full of honey. Thats assuming you have a good honey flow anf stack those honey supers high. If you want to do the same with a Langstroth Hive you will easily have $300 invested if not more. That is counting the bottom board, five deep 10 frame boxes full of frames, inner cover, and top. Of yeah, I nearly forgot the hive tool. According to Sam, and I agree, all you need for a hive tool is a butter knife.

Paint or Not

I no longer paint my boxes. It really is just a personal preference. I have found that the bees don't seem to care. I like my boxes to kind of blend into the background rather than stand out like a sore thumb especially when I have them someplace other than my own backyard. If vandals don't notice them then they are less likely to mess with them. I've started using Boiled Linseed Oil exclusively. I only apply one coat on the outside of my boxes. Then in the winter time, on a cold day, I'll hit them again when the bees aren't flying. It doesn't bother the bees, and I'm careful not to get any on the door. Not sure if that would bother them or not so I don't risk it. It is non-toxic, but it does have an odor that might mess with them in a confined space if too much gets in the hive.

Well thats about all for this time. I hope you find this information helpful. If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments.

Comfort/Langstroth Hive Split Update #2

These are the cutters you need!

Comfort Hive Shim Update

The girls are making progress! FINALLY!! Seems it took forever to get them interested in expanding into the shim I made. Just to get you up to speed if this is your first time here, this is a box made to fit on top of a five frame langstroth nuc box and is designed to hold 11 inch jumbo skewers. The bees build on these skewers and the queen lays eggs in the comb. Once this is done the skewers along with the comb, brood, and bees are put into a 6 inch deep 11 inch by 11 inch (inside diminsion) box. This is how you make a split from a langstroth hive to a Sam Comfort hive. 

Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries developed this type of skewer hive, so I refer to it as a Comfort hive. Thank you Sam!