Beekeeping equipment manufacturers offer consumers a wide selection of multihull hives that are comfortable and easy to maintain, but at a high cost. To minimize financial costs, beekeepers prefer to make hives on their own, from improvised materials. What are the advantages of a multi-section bee "house", and how to make it with your own hands - read more about this.

Important! Keeping bees through a multi-hive hive allows you to grow a strong, able-bodied family, reducing the time and money to maintain an apiary.

Features of keeping bees in multihull hives

For the cultivation and maintenance of bee colonies, beekeepers often use multi-section hives, which, as the family grows and honey accumulates, increase the structure to the desired size by installing an additional number of buildings. This makes it possible to grow a full-fledged, healthy family and keep it in a non-healthy state.

The technology for keeping bees in multicase designs comes down to the use of such techniques:

• a healthy bee colony is left for the winter in two buildings: the lower section is occupied by bees and brood, the upper section is partially insects and a honey product;
• during the winter, bees eat a sweet treat and gradually move into the upper bodies;
• at the end of winter, the family completely moves to the upper buildings;
• in the spring, depending on the strength of the family, it is left in two buildings or only in one, removing the lower empty section due to uselessness. Later, with the formation of crowding, it is set back.

It should be noted that the main goal of beekeeping using multi-body designs is to gradually add buildings as the bee colony grows and the amount of honey increases. Such hives make it possible to breed strong and active insects with year-round performance.

At the same time, the content of bees in the described structures has a number of characteristic techniques:

• in a construction with two sections they leave a strong family for the winter;
• as the upper body is filled with brood, it is interchanged with the lower;
• after the insects have mastered the upper body, establish a new one;
• by means of a dividing grid, isolate the uterus;
• after two weeks of isolation of the uterus, there are two new sections necessary for the construction of hundreds and filling them with honey;
• when collecting honey, the upper section is changed from the bottom. The section with empty frames is set down on the brood part, and the others are raised up;
• in the fall, a section with honey is set on a part with brood, and the bee family is left to winter.

Did you know? A hive in the form of a structure with several buildings is considered the most suitable from the point of view of biological breeding of bees. It was invented by the beekeeper Lorenz Langstrot in 1851. Modern similar products can contain up to 100,000 insects.

Structural features

A multi-section hive - a vertical structure consisting of several special sections, a removable bottom, a roof, grids for dividing the space, stand and cage liner. This design makes it possible to quickly build a family and prepare it for the main honey collection. Each case is designed for 10 frames, which allows you to work not with one frame, but directly with the whole section.

This significantly increases the efficiency of beekeeping and reduces the time for servicing beehives. The case of the described hive has a box-shaped shape, measuring 45 × 37.5 × 24 cm. All sections fit snugly against one another and are well held during transportation. The roof of the product is flat, stretched over the beehive in the fly hood.The bottom of the structure is removable, it is a figure of wooden bars in the shape of the letter "P". The hive stand also has the shape of a box, the dimensions of which go slightly beyond the edges of the structure itself. For the production of a bee house, it is preferable to use environmentally friendly, durable materials.

Which could reliably protect the structure from the harmful effects of atmospheric phenomena. The best option for the hive is natural, well-dried wood, without gaps and the presence of rotten areas. Suitable linden, spruce, poplar, fir. Also for manufacturing it is allowed to use plywood sheets, polystyrene or expanded polystyrene.

Important! For the manufacture of sections, it is not recommended to use metal parts, since bees treat them negatively.

Advantages and disadvantages of such a hive

• The use of a multi-hive hive for breeding bees has a number of advantages, which include:
• a significant reduction in the time spent on apiary maintenance, since the beekeeper carries out the main work by changing the whole section, rather than a separate framework;
• simplification of the preparation of feed reserves for the winter: the section with slots filled with sealed honey is cleaned of insects and stored in a designated place until spring;
• the convenience of clearing the hive from death, by releasing the removable bottom;
• simplicity and ease in collecting honey, as the bees put it in the upper cases, which eliminates the need to parse a whole nest.

In addition, vertical structures are most optimally adapted to the biological regime of bees, since under natural conditions the insects lived in hollows in which the nests were located in an upright position.

• Meanwhile, the described construction is not without drawbacks:
• difficulties in transportation and movement, since the housing can be damaged in the absence of reliable fasteners;
• the efficiency of breeding bees in multihull hives is advisable in those farms where it is possible to grow a strong family. In addition, a good feed base is required. Otherwise, having gained strength up to 50-60 frames, without a steady bribe, the family will go into a swarm state. Especially, this applies to cold regions in Siberia, where a similar situation happens often;
• a large weight of sections with which healthy, strong and young beekeepers are able to work. The eight-frame or ten-frame case has a weight of 20-30 kg, while the topmost one is located at an altitude of 1-1.5 m from the ground, which greatly complicates the process of removing / installing sections.

How to make a multi-hive beehive with your own hands?

The design of a multi-hut house for bees is simple, so making it yourself will not be difficult even for people who do not have experience in the field of carpentry.

Important! The installation of the third section is to prevent the swarming of bees.

Drawings and Dimensions

The production of the hive begins with the creation of drawings and determination of the required dimensions. Modern designs should have a width of at least 38 cm, in accordance with which, other structural elements are increased: the bottom, stand, roof, dividing grilles, liners. As a rule, sections are performed on a frame of 145 mm or 230 mm. The extension of the bee house is carried out by installing an additional one-piece building.

The design of the hive has the following features:

• the thickness of the board for the section should be at least 3.5 cm;
• frame dimensions: 435 × 230 mm, rail on top - 10 mm, bottom - 5-6 mm, on the side - 8 mm;
• the case is assembled without the use of nails or self-tapping screws. The design is assembled into a spike, while the joints are smeared with glue;
• the cover should contain four ventilation openings on the sides, covered with a special mesh.

Tools and materials

In the process of manufacturing a multi-section house, you will need the following materials and tools:

• durable boards for the manufacture of roofs, 25 mm thick;
• solid boards for creating cases with a thickness of 35 mm;
• sheet of metal needed to decorate the roof;
• special studs for attaching boards;
• glue for reliable fixation of all structural parts;
• three wooden bars, dimensions 570 × 65 × 35 mm (2 pieces) and 445 × 65 × 35 mm for the production of the bottom;
• hammer;
• saw for trimming wood;
• ruler and tool for determining angles.

Did you know? A family of bees in a medium-sized hive can consist of 60–120 thousand insects, which during the summer period can bring about 100 kg of honey. After wintering, with insufficient feed reserves, the number of family members can be reduced to 10-30 thousand.

Rearrangement of buildings

The buildings are assembled according to the groove-spike system: a wall with gaps is installed on the workbench, and a side plate with spikes is laid on top. With neat hammer blows, the spikes are easily driven into the gaps. When assembling, experts recommend using a carpentry wooden hammer, which will prevent damage to the spikes. All sections are not installed immediately, but gradually, as the bee colony develops and honey accumulates.

To begin with, two cases are mounted - on the first they have the second, in which they put honeycombs with honey and land. After some time, after about 2-3 weeks, the uterus will pass into the second section and lay eggs. In this period of time, a third building with 10 frames is mounted between the two sections, where in five of them there is land, in the other five - wax. In the middle of the summer season, when the second phase of the main honey collection starts, the fourth building is mounted.Which is necessary to increase the volume of honey collection. Little toilers always stack nectar in the upper sections, which is why the third and fourth segments are the main place for storing sweet treats. During this period, the number of broods is significantly reduced. Next, the beekeeper conducts preparatory activities related to the wintering of insects.

Wintering Features

One of the most important stages in the maintenance of bees is their competent and timely preparation for wintering. First of all, they check the condition of the family and take care of a sufficient amount of food. A healthy, strong family is located in several buildings, while insects and decay are placed in the lower sections, and a feed extension in the upper sections.

Since in winter a strong family of insects consumes about 40 kg of honey, the extensions must contain more than 10 frames with honey products. It should be remembered that completely healthy bees in the winter, although they do not die in the hives, are significantly weakened, so you should not save on their nutrition. For the winter, the hive can be moved to a warmer place or left on the street, if the weather conditions in the region allow.

In addition to natural honey, half-frames with a perga are left in the hulls, which allows insects to quickly recover strength after the winter cold. Gradually, during the winter period, the bees will eat honey, and move into the upper tier.In the spring, when the lower case is completely free from insects, the nests are expanded, by installing additional sections. At the end of spring, the upper and lower bodies are interchanged. Such manipulations allow the uterus to move to the upper tier, where it can lay eggs.

Tips from experienced beekeepers

The multi-case pavilion breeding of bees has features, the knowledge of which will help novice beekeepers to avoid mistakes.

Experienced beekeepers with this method of maintenance advise:

• refrain from installing the hive directly on the ground, since low temperature in winter and high in summer can negatively affect the state of the bee family;
• when making a construction with your own hands, take care of its insulation in advance. At the same time, use not cotton wool as insulation material, as was done before, but for example, polystyrene foam;
• install the house in areas protected from wind and direct sunlight. Open areas are not suitable for mounting structures, as they can increase the risk of overheating or hypothermia of winged insects;
• it is imperative to make a stand for the hive, which will avoid direct contact of the structure with the soil, and also greatly facilitate its transportation;
• work to expand the nest in the spring should be carried out in warm time, since the brood in the lower case can catch a cold.

A multi-section hive is considered an alternative for keeping the bee family. Compared with traditional designs, it has several key advantages: it facilitates insect care, increases bees' labor productivity and reduces the cost of honey products. Such houses can be purchased in specialized stores, but more often, beekeepers prefer to make hives with their own hands.