Log Hive Beekeeping: How It Actually Works Today
A log hive is a length of hollowed tree trunk, stood on end and fitted out for bees to colonize much as they would a wild tree cavity. It is…
Category Beehive types
Hive designs compared: the Langstroth most suppliers assume you own, the Dadant, Smith and British Standard, horizontal hives such as the Layens and long deep hives, top bar hives in the Kenyan and Tanzanian styles, the Warré, and natural or alternative designs from skeps and log hives to the Sun Hive, Perone and Flow Hive. Each guide explains how the hive is built, how a colony uses the space and what routine management looks like inside it.
If you are still deciding, frame compatibility matters more than the name on the box. It usually pays to choose a hive that your nearest supplier and local club actually use.
Start here:
- How to Choose a Beehive for Beginners (2024 Guide) — the trade-offs before you buy
- The Langstroth Hive: Why It’s the Beekeeping Standard — the design most equipment is built around
- Layens Hive: The Original Horizontal Hive Explained — the two-visit system and why its frame sizes differ
- Do Insulated Beehives Actually Help Colonies? — what insulation changes inside the box
Read MoreLog Hive Beekeeping: How It Actually Works Today
The Sun Hive: A Natural Abode for Honey Bees
The Sun Hive is an egg-shaped, straw-built hive that prioritizes colony welfare over honey yield. Here is its real design, history, and how it is actually used.
The Intriguing World of Skep Beehives
A skep is the classic dome-shaped straw beehive most people picture when they think “old-fashioned beehive” — and in most U.S. states today, it’s actually illegal to keep live bees…
Horizontal Beehives: Pros, Cons, and Real Trade-Offs
A horizontal beehive is any hive whose colony expands sideways along a single long box instead of upward through stacked boxes. The family includes top-bar hives, long or horizontal Langstroth…
Flow Hive Explained: How the Honey Tap Really Works
The Flow Hive replaces the last, messiest step of beekeeping — pulling frames, uncapping wax, and spinning an extractor — with a plastic frame that splits open at the turn…
Warre Beehive Guide: Nadiring, Design, and Real Limits
The Warre hive is a low-intervention, vertical top-bar design built around minimal management. Here is how it actually works and what to expect running one.
Top-Bar Beehive Guide: The Kenyan Design Explained
A top-bar hive is a single-story, frameless hive in which comb hangs from removable wooden bars rather than milled frames, and the box itself lies on its side instead of…
The Langstroth Hive: Why It’s the Beekeeping Standard
The Langstroth beehive, named after its inventor Lorenzo Langstroth, has become the most iconic and widely used beehive design in the world. Its modular design, ease of use, and efficiency…
Kenyan Top Bar Hive: Definition, Design and Dimensions
A Kenyan top bar hive (KTBH) is a single-storey, horizontal beehive with sloping side walls, in which the bees build natural comb hanging down from a row of loose wooden…