I am a constant tinkerer,but not much of a gadgeteer. Anyone here ever tried or have experience with the Dartington hive,especially those of you in the UK?
>I am a constant tinkerer,but not much of a gadgeteer. Anyone here ever tried or have experience with the Dartington hive,especially those of you in the UK?
I don't have any of British dimensions. I built my first long hive (22 frame Langstroth deep) in about 1976. I have about six long hives now. I've been corresponding with Dartington some. What would you like to know?
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshorizontalhives.htm
I have a 22 frame Dadant Deep, a 22 frame Langstroth Deep and several 33 frame mediums.
First of all, thank you for the reply. My questions concern wintering, supering(does one super these?) and division for queen rearing. From what little I have been able to gather-there are some sort of insulated dummy boards used for dividers.If you have been using them for 30 some years now,I assume that you find them to be worth building. The British dimensions are not critical,adaptation to Langstroth frames should be a cinch.Anything you can think of would be helpful, and greatly appreciated. The info& pics on your site were interesting. I can not find any books that are currently for sale in regards to the Dartington long hive,save one that was almost $100.00 on a used book site.
>My questions concern wintering, supering(does one super these?)
From my understanding, Dartington does not super his. I sometimes super mine. Since I make the entrance at the top of one end, adding supers forces them through the super so they tend to work it. Also, I can move honey from the bottom box up into the super since all my frames are the same size (mostly mediums).
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/LongHiveSupered.JPG
>From what little I have been able to gather-there are some sort of insulated dummy boards used for dividers.
Dartington uses a division board to split the hive for swarm prevention and requeeing. I'm always busy breaking mine up for raising queens or just trying to keep them together to get more honey. A division board is useful in a long hive to control the space of the hive when it's building up.
>If you have been using them for 30 some years now,I assume that you find them to be worth building.
It's nice not to have to lift boxes if you don't want to.
> The British dimensions are not critical,adaptation to Langstroth frames should be a cinch.Anything you can think of would be helpful, and greatly appreciated. The info& pics on your site were interesting. I can not find any books that are currently for sale in regards to the Dartington long hive,save one that was almost $100.00 on a used book site.
Dartington's address:
Robin Dartington
15 Benslow Lane
Hitchin SG4 9RE
Email:
smv47 at dial dot pipex dot com
I'd ask him if he can sell you some of his brochures.
As far as wintering, I just make sure they have sufficient stores for your climate and make sure they start the winter at one end or the other. Otherwise they may work to one end and get stuck with stores at the other end. Don't leave any supers on unless they are at the far end from where the cluster starts or they may go up in the supers and then never go back down to the other end for the stores. The winter fine.