As usual, I began organizing the apiary business with the acquisition of beehives. And since my ideas about the design features of bee dwellings at that time were very vague, I decided that when purchasing I would pay attention not so much to the design as to the technical condition of the hive. The first thing that caught my eye was an advertisement for the sale of four hives for a narrow, high frame. The price was low, and the condition was no worse than new. In addition, they gave me a blowtorch for burning the hives from the inside, a well-worn smoker, a chisel, tightly built frames with honeycombs and various other little things. My apiary began with this acquisition.

It must be said that the hives were quite bulky and there was no talk of wandering with them. However, I did not plan to wander and installed the hives in a checkerboard pattern not far from the house, with entrances to the east.

Now let’s take a short excursion into the history of beekeeping. The inventor of a similar type of hive was a Polish beekeeper Kazimir Levitsky(1847-1902). The Levitsky hive became widespread at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in Poland and Ukraine. The simplified design of the Levitsky hive began to be called the Ukrainian hive or a bed with a narrow-high frame. It was with such beds that my apiary began. The Ukrainian hive also became widespread in peasant farms of pre-revolutionary Russia. Due to its ease of use, the absence of shops and additional buildings, the Ukrainian hive was liked by peasants engaged in back-breaking labor. They simply did not have time to look into the hive every two weeks, install and remove magazines. I expanded the nest to 20 frames and forgot about the bees until the honey was pumped out.

But with the advent of Soviet power, when collective farms put a low Dadanov frame on stream, Levitsky’s hive was undeservedly forgotten. But for small apiaries, the Ukrainian hive was an excellent solution. Its design required minimal maintenance and resembled the natural home of bees, in which they pulled their long honeycombs from top to bottom.

Let's summarize the main advantages of the Ukrainian hive:

• The shape of the hive is as close as possible to a hollow or log, a natural vertically developing bee nest;
• Optimal conditions for long wintering of bees in a Ukrainian hive are explained by the fact that the high frame leaves a headroom for searching for food and heating the colony;
• One of the easiest hives to maintain;

Each of the hives I bought was designed for 20-22 narrow-high frames, the last of which was covered with a transparent diaphragm. A small door was located at the back of the hive for ease of cleaning and the ability to observe the development of the bee colony through the glass diaphragm. I opened the door in the spring, you see everything in the bees behind the glass - add one or two frames with foundation. The roof folded back effortlessly and only the upper bars of the frames, tightly pressed together, were visible to my eye, so there was no need for even a canvas. In the front part of the hive there were two entrances about ten centimeters long. Thus, the hives I bought ended up with a warm drift.

Now, after several years of using the beds on a narrow-high frame, comparing them with double-hull hives of the Dadan type, I can say for sure that they are easier to work with and there is enough honey in them. I will say more, I liked the Ukrainian hive so much that last summer I ordered the same new one, but for 30 frames plus two magazines (!), with an additional entrance on the side. The 2015 season will show whether the bees will be able to master my giant hive. In the fall, I will definitely tell you about the results of this experiment.

And I am finishing this paragraph on March 7, 2018. The giant hive that was made to order for me turned out to have 35 narrow frames and 3 magazines, each of which accommodates 8 dadan-type half-frames. Was the Buckfast family able to master such a huge space and how much honey did it produce during the 2017 season? I will tell you more about this on the pages of the site, but for now I bring to your attention a sacramental video about populating a Ukrainian giant hive with a layer on a narrow high frame and planting a queen in the layer Buckfast. Subscribe to YouTube channel of the Honey Summer apiary. All the best to you, dear friends!

Since the middle of the 19th century, the efforts of beekeepers have been aimed at finding the optimal frame sizes and the corresponding types of hives. Opinions were divided: some preferred low-wide frames, others preferred narrow-high ones.

One of the supporters of the narrow-high frame was the Polish beekeeper Kazimir Levitsky. The hives he developed became widespread in Poland and Ukraine. The popularity of the Levitsky hive was facilitated by the ease of working with it. Neither second hulls nor extensions were needed. When assembling nests for the winter, it was enough to leave six or seven combs filled with food in the upper part, and success was guaranteed. The bees form a club, the diameter of which approximately corresponds to the width of the frame. A narrow and long nest warms the bees well, which contributes to the intensive development of the colony in early spring.

Established by the beginning of the 20th century. The huge variety of hives acutely raised the question of their standardization and unification. The congress of beekeepers held in January 1918 in Kyiv adopted uniform sizes and recommended the main types of hives for them. The dimensions of the hive frames established by the congress (435x300; 435x230; 435x145 mm) are strictly observed to this day.

Later, a somewhat modernized hive, proposed by K. Levitsky, began to be called Ukrainian. Its first description was made by V.Yu. Shimanovsky in 1923.

The Ukrainian hive (Fig. 1) consists of a body, a roof, two diaphragms, 16 nesting frames and a permanent bottom. Case length 686 mm, width 381 and height 507 mm. The thickness of the front and rear walls is 33 mm, the sides and bottom are 28 mm. The walls and bottom are assembled from separate plots, joined together into a strip with glue. At the corners the walls are connected into quarters.

In the right wall of the case at the bottom there is an vent 115 mm high, closed with a special lid (bushing). On top of the outer edge of the body there is a rebate 6 mm deep and 16 mm wide for installing the roof edging, and on the inner edge of the front and rear walls there is a rebate 8 mm wide and 22 mm deep for the hangers of the frames.

A taphole 15 mm high and 160-200 mm wide is cut into the front wall. It is shifted to the left of the center, covered with a mesh that folds down and also serves as an arrival board. Depending on the beekeeping method used, one or two more holes can be made in the hive.

The roof of the hive is single-pitched, attached with hinges at its high side to the front wall of the hive. The roof consists of a frame and a shield. The walls of the trim are connected to each other in a quarter. The thickness of the longitudinal walls is 33 mm, the side walls are 28 mm. The shield is assembled from boards 22 mm thick, joined together into a batten. Ventilation windows 15 mm high and 100 mm wide, barred from the inside with mesh, are cut into the side walls of the frame. The top of the shield is covered with roofing sheet with edges curved downwards.

The Ukrainian hive is equipped with 16 frames (300x435 mm) without permanent dividers. The upper bar has dimensions of 330x22x8 mm, the bottom - 312x12x8 mm and two side bars - 419x22x8 mm; The dimensions of the hangers of the knocked together frames are 15 mm. The bottom strip is nailed to the end of the side strips and protrudes from the sides by 6 mm, forming wall dividers.

Diaphragms serve to limit the nest, and, if necessary, to separate two families. Each is a shield made of individual planks 13-20 mm thick. It is suspended in the hive using the top bar on the quarters of the body. The diaphragm fits closely to the walls of the hive, and is 10 mm away from the bottom.

As is known, beekeeping was widely developed in Kievan Rus. The foreign traveler Gall wrote in the 10th century that he saw a large number of borts among the Slavs. Later the sides were replaced with nest boxes. All the natural habitats of bees (boards, nest boxes, logs) had the shape of a riser, and their insoles were narrow and high. Recumbent dwellings of bees were very rarely found, except in the hollows of fallen trees. This is where the division into vertical and horizontal, risers and sunbeds came from. Disputes surrounding the history of the emergence of the Ukrainian hive, its pros and cons, are natural. The time has come to find out how convenient and practical the Ukrainian hive is, and whether it deserves our attention.
Let's look at the history of the emergence of the Ukrainian hive. The American Langstroth invented the hive, Quinby slightly changed its frame. Dadan decided to take a Queanby frame for his hive; beekeeper Blatt reduced it by 40 mm. Bertrand remade the evidence to fit a 435x300mm frame. Thanks to Andriyashev O.Kh. The hive is undergoing further changes. Andriyashev decides to rotate the Dadan-Blatt frame by 90 ̊ (300x435mm) and makes several new hives for testing. In 1918, at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Beekeepers in Kyiv, Korablev I.I. proposes to call a hive with a rotated Dadan-Blatt frame Ukrainian. So, the Ukrainian hive was created by a Langstroth frame changed in size several times.

A successful hive for bees to live in

The Ukrainian hive is a particularly good option for bees to live in, since it is as close as possible to the conditions in which they live in nature.

In order for insects to easily endure the winter cold, narrow high frames were created. They really best suit natural conditions and the development of a bee nest. As you know, a bee’s fruit nest is always made where there is the best flow of fresh air. It starts with a small ball on one frame, in early spring (for mutual heating, the frame is seeded with a queen on both sides). Gradually, with warming, the roslop increases in size to adjacent frames, initially maintaining a spherical shape, and then (due to the limits of the height of the frame) the ball gradually transforms into an elepsis. Thanks to the narrow, high nest, where there is enough fresh air and warmth, the bee colony acquires all the conditions for intensive development in the spring. If you increase the space under the frame through the mesh by another 10-12 cm, then the insoles will be rebuilt and sown with rose crops to the very bottom bar; in winter, the lower part will not become covered with mold. By approximately May 15, the nest will occupy 15-16 frames of a 20-frame hive. And here the advantages of the Ukrainian hive system end. Because there are a lot of bees, but nowhere to put the honey. The family begins to swarm. In this situation there is only one way out. It is necessary to make a pass-through frame and install extensions (magazines). In a hole with two lower entrances, the bifurcation of the nest is completely understandable: the nest at the entrance is formed opposite the entrance and gradually expands to the periphery.

Near the nest, bees lay out reserves of honey and beebread; as the nest expands, all of this is eaten and partially transferred to adjacent frames, freeing up space for oviposition. The beekeeper helps them make the nest correctly by placing dry wood, foundation near the outer frame with brood, or even in the middle of the nest, where it immediately begins to be used by the bees and the queen.
Beekeepers are doing the right thing by switching to a multi-body system. These hives have large spaces for both creating a nest and storing honey. Although here, if we compare it with the Ukrainian evidence, the spring development of bee colonies lags somewhat behind, but with the beginning of acacia flowering, they level out, and, as a rule, they produce more honey than the Ukrainian ones. Moreover, their honey is always fully ripened and is selected in blocks, and not in separate frames as in other systems. However, for successful and fruitful work, the beekeeper, both in Ukrainian hives and in the multi-hull system, must thoroughly master the technology of proper maintenance and development of bees in them, and travel in time to roam closer to the honey-bearing grasses.

This is the kind of vulki I make. There is a bottom, a nesting body for 12 Ukrainian frames, an extension for 12 Ukrainian frames (215mm), or for 9 Dadan frames, a ceiling, a support, a roof.

This is a simplified version of the hive that was demonstrated by V.Ya. Priyatelenko. at exhibitions in March and May 2011. Here is a description of the hive from its booklet: Three-body hive with special frames Author Priyatelenko V.Ya. In 2011, I presented my model of a hive with special housing frames, the design and manufacturing technology of which I had been working on for many years. The hive was presented at the exhibition "Apiary Expo 2011" (March, exhibition center on Brovarsky Prospekt, Kiev), at the exhibition-fair "Bzhilnitstvo2011" (May, NAAS "Institute of Beekeeping named after.. Prokopovich P.I."). An article I published about this hive model sold a thousand copies and attracted the interest of beekeepers. Articles about the hive model I proposed were published in the magazines “Pasika” (No. 5, No. 6), “Pasichnik” (No. 6) for 2011. This topic has not gone unnoticed: beekeepers are constantly calling me and writing letters; beekeepers are interested; the first buyers have appeared. In addition, practical experience in the manufacture of a hive and hive frame and the use of this system in beekeeping practice have increased. This prompted me in my next article to reveal in more detail the essence and practice of operating the proposed hive model and frame in a form accessible to amateurs and interesting to professionals. The bee is one of the few representatives of the animal world that has served humans for decades and, at the same time, remains a “wild” animal. However, a bee cannot be called “wild”. It would be more correct to call beekeeping “wild”. A bee family is so attached to its nest, or rather to its brood, that it very rarely leaves it. This allows them to be manipulated so much that the illusion of bee domestication is created. We can say that most of today's “fundamental” concepts in beekeeping can be classified as illusions that create living conditions for bees similar to those of domestic animals. It is known that in nature, the queen of a honey bee lives and uses her functions for up to 5 years, while at the same time, when there is a need for a bee colony, the queen is quietly replaced. For centuries, people have idolized the bee family and considered it an ideal family in nature. In my opinion, modern beekeeping methods destroy the bee colony, including manipulation of the queen, considering her as an egg-laying unit, and this is the mother, the “queen” of the bee colony. Today, scientists have proven that relationships in the bee colony, including the management of the queen, proceed through substances that bees secrete (so-called ferromones). The queen also plays the role of the “brain” center of the bee colony, which controls all life processes of the bee colony with the help of ferromones. Thus, a single information field is created, the existence of which is impossible without an integral wax connection when building a bee nest. Most modern beekeeping methods are actually based on restricting the movement of the queen with bars and insulators. Moreover, the design of hives and hive frames does not create conditions for building a nest according to natural needs. It can be said that the existing system of hives, hive frames and beekeeping methods does not provide for the natural existence of a bee colony. This, in turn, is the cause of most problems in this area. In this design, each hive frame has wax contact with other frames. Throughout the history of beekeeping, many different hives and beekeeping methods have been proposed. A list of them would take more than one page. Existing hive models can be divided into “loungers”, hives with a vertical structure and (something in between) “loungers” with extensions. But an in-depth study of these models is not the purpose of this article. Let us note only a few significant shortcomings. “Loungers” are characterized by the expansion of the bee nest in width, which is unnatural for the development of the bee nest. Accordingly, we have a reaction from the bee colony, significant labor costs for the beekeeper. The system of extensions for these hives solves this problem, but only partially. Vertical hives do not provide natural living conditions for the bee colony. Let us list several main characteristics for these systems. It is known that first a bee colony builds its honeycombs up to 50 cm long in the amount of 7 - 14 pieces. This size is needed in order to place food reserves up to 20 cm above the brood, and for the winter a club of bees with a diameter of 25 - 30 cm. Practically existing hives with a vertical structure do not provide this. Another painful issue is the integrity of the vertical wax connection between the bodies. The point is not only that the thickness of the upper, lower bars and the space between the frames gives 4-5 cm of the so-called “dead” space. An even bigger problem is that in almost all existing hive systems and corresponding hive frames, the bees build the hive frame starting from the top bar. That is, the actual gap between the nesting part of the hive and the attached body or extension is from 20 to 30 cm. Here other biological mechanisms begin to operate, the bee colony loses control over the only “brain” center (the queen), the queen’s pheromones do not reach those areas. Also, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in nature, the further expansion of a bee’s nest does not occur linearly, but in a “spiral”. This is inherent in the biology of bees and must be taken into account. So, summing up the above information, we can conclude that none of the existing hive models and hive frames provide the natural needs of the bee colony and ease of maintenance in order to obtain beekeeping products. Having tested most models of hives, I came to the conclusion that the most natural option for a bee colony is one of the variants of a Ukrainian hive for 12 hive frames with a honey body for 8 hive frames, which are placed across the nesting frames. But the hive has not gained wide popularity because it has significant drawbacks. First of all, it is inconvenient to maintain. The first thing that was done was to apply a high bottom of 100 mm of the sub-frame space with a back wall that opens. This made it possible to inspect the nest from below without disassembling it. In addition, if necessary, you can feed the bee colony and, of course, clean it of dead bodies after wintering. Practice has shown that most bee colonies, after filling the nest box for 12 frames, need further development. Later, the queen either goes to sow in the upper body, or the family enters a swarm state. So I came to the conclusion that I needed to add a lower housing to expand the socket part. To do this, I tested two options: on a frame across the nesting body and on half a Ukrainian frame (280x280 mm) parallel to the nesting frames. The first option turned out to be much better. A frame located across the frames is much more preferable to master. Having supposedly made the “correct” hive, I improved the productivity of the bees and began to spend less time on maintaining the hive, but the probability of the bee colony entering a swarming state and the transition of the queen to the honey body remained quite high. Recently there has been talk about the need to modernize hive frames. The proposed models of hive frames did not provide reliable fastening of the artificial foundation, nor the reliability of the hive frame itself when disassembling the bee nest.To be continued in the next post, because... did not invest in the length of the message.

Ukrainian hive-lounger consists of a bottom, which is most often arranged as an integral part, a body that can accommodate 20 narrow frames, and a roof (picture).

Manufacturing of the body.

The case consists of a front, rear and two side walls 40 mm thick.

Making the front wall.

The front wall is assembled from three boards, having a clean length of 840 mm and a thickness of 40 mm. The width of the bottom board is 145 mm, and the next two are 185 mm. After jointing, they are assembled into a panel, tongue and groove; for this, tongues 15 mm deep and 13 mm wide are selected on the upper edges of the lower and middle boards. During selection, the tongue and groove are slightly shifted towards the inner surface of the board. Slats 840 mm long, 13 mm thick and 30 mm wide are driven into the tongues. Sometimes the boards of the walls of a Ukrainian beehive are assembled into tongue and groove (Fig. 64).

After gluing the shield, a fold with a depth of 25 mm and a width of 50 mm is selected from the inside at the top edge. The rebate is made in this way: after marking with a tongue and groove, a tongue 24 mm deep is selected, then the unselected part of the wood is cut off with an ax and cleaned with a plane and a picker. The fold forms a side for insulation. Then a frame fold with a depth of 11 mm and a width of 20 mm is selected. The frame rebate is also made using a tongue and groove tool and a selector. After this, quarters 25 mm deep and 40 mm wide are taken from the front panel to connect it to the side walls at the ends. Two lower tapholes 200 mm long and 10 mm high are cut along the lower edge at a distance of 90 mm from the ends, and then two upper tapholes with a diameter of 25 mm are drilled strictly in the middle of the lower tapholes at a distance of 120 mm from the upper edge.

Making the back wall.

The back wall is made of three boards 840 mm long, 185 wide and 40 mm thick. The boards are connected into tongue and groove. Two folds are taken from their inner surface at the upper edge - a frame fold measuring 11 x 20 mm and an insulating fold measuring 14 x 50 mm.

At the bottom edge, a quarter is made under the bottom, 25 mm deep and 40 mm wide. At the ends, to connect the rear wall with the side walls, end quarters measuring 25 x 40 mm are selected.

The lower tap hole, 100 mm long and 10 mm high, is drilled closer to the right side wall. It is made at a distance of 40 mm from the bottom edge and 90 mm from the end. A correctly made rear wall should be 40 mm wider than the front, that is, have a width of 555 mm.

Manufacturing of side walls.

Each side wall is made of four boards, having a clean length of 365 mm, a thickness of 40 mm and a width of 139 mm. Rough blanks should be larger in length by 20 mm, in width by 10 and in thickness by 5 mm. These boards are planed and trimmed to the required dimensions, but not trimmed. Then they are connected to each other into tongue and groove. To do this, a tongue 13 mm wide and 15 mm deep is taken from the bottom board at the top edge, from the top board at the bottom edge, and from the middle boards at both edges. The slats are driven into these tongues using glue and the side wall panel is assembled. After drying the shield, trim one of the ends using a square. 365 mm is measured from it and the remaining part is sawed off with a fine-toothed saw. In each side wall, quarters 25 mm deep and 40 mm wide are taken from the inner surface at the lower edge under the bottom. After making all four walls and carefully processing their internal surfaces with a double plane, they begin to knock together the body. When knocking together, the walls are connected so that the quarters selected under the bottom coincide, and the front flap with its lower edge is at the level of the quarters of the side walls.

Making the bottom.

The bottom is made of three boards 810 mm long, 150 mm wide and 40 mm thick. After planing and shaping, they are connected to each other into tongue and groove. The boards are fastened at the bottom with straps. After trimming the bottom, it is inserted into the quarters of the body and nailed with 100 mm nails so that each board is nailed with four nails. When the bottom is nailed, its protruding part is planed into a cone. This is done to prevent precipitation from entering the hive through the entrances. A dividing board is nailed to the outside front wall and to the protruding part of the bottom, which separates one tap hole from another. The dividing board is made 30 mm thick, 70 mm wide and 400 mm long. Its front edge is cut out figuratively. Guide bars are nailed to the upper edge of the tapholes, into which two taphole liners are inserted. The rear entrance will also be equipped. To do this, a support block for the landing board is nailed to the lower edge of the notch. A guide block is attached above the tap hole. Fly liners are inserted between the support and guide bars. The arrival board is attached with hinges.

Making a roof.

The roof consists of a frame and a roofing shield. The harness has a front, back and two side walls (Fig. 65). The roof is made of a pitched roof.

The front wall, 860 mm long, 200 mm wide and 20 mm thick, is made 120 mm higher than the rear one.

In the front and rear walls, at the lower edge on the inside, to connect the roof to the buildings, folds with a height of 15 mm and a depth of 10 mm are selected. At the ends of the same walls, for connection with the side walls of the trim, quarters are made 20 mm wide and 10 mm deep. The side walls of the roof trim are made of boards 395 mm long, 20 mm thick and 200 mm wide. The upper edge of the boards is cut down in a straight line so that their rear end is 80 mm. In the side walls of the roof trim, at the lower edge on the inside, folds with a height of 15 and a depth of 10 mm are selected. Then the roof trim is nailed down. After knocking together with a jointer, bevel the upper edge of the front and rear walls of the trim so that the upper edges of all four walls are in the same plane. Four roofing boards 960 mm long, 130 mm wide and 15 mm thick are nailed to the roof frame. The boards are attached with an even overlap on all sides of the hive. The top of the roofing shield is covered with tin, roofing felt, roofing felt or rubber.

Three ventilation holes with a diameter of 20 mm are drilled in the side walls of the roof trim at a level of 50 mm from their lower edge. On the inside of the roof, the space adjacent to the ventilation holes is fenced off with a grid with a mesh size of 3 mm. From the outside, the ventilation holes are covered with turntables.