Hive is on the Way!

I ordered my hive yesterday which is a very exciting thing for me! I carefully shopped around the online suppliers taking into consideration the grades of wood used, the types of foundations offered and which configuration to use.

I decided to go with using three medium supers in place of the two deeps used at the lowest portion of the hive. The reason being that the frames and foundations will be interchangeable throughout the hive instead of needing to keep different sizes on hand for the deeps and supers. In all, I purchased five medium supers so saved a bit on the frames and foundations by purchasing those in a case of 50 each.

I decided to use nine frames per super instead of the usual 10. This allows a bit more space for the bees to draw out the combs just that much deeper resulting in more honey in those nine frames. To aid in the spacing of the nine frames I ordered special spacers that will be installed along the frame rails to keep the distance between the frames exact.

Bees respond well to beeswax foundations but the frugal side of me liked the durability of plastic foundations. I decided to order Duragilt Foundation developed by Dadant. Duragilt is beeswax bonded to a plastic foundation with metal reinforced edges so no additional cross wires are needed. It also has communication holes for bees but I have no idea yet why that will be beneficial. Still, I see Duragilt as a good investment.

The frames and supers will require assembly and painting, a good winter project but am getting them now so that I can work on it little by little as other projects allow. I stayed within my budget with the exception of the shipping charges. I wish it didn't cost so much to ship these days but it is what it is. I'm still very excited for my first hive to arrive!