I’m no longer the young, strong, fit man I was when my ego pushed me to lift things beyond my capacity. Scoffing at the old men who warned me to take care of myself else I’d land up like them. No, those days are long gone. The legacy of my misspent youth lingers, just as the old men said it would. Lumber pain a constant companion. Aching shoulders especially in the cooler months. A neck that sometimes won’t turn.

Such restrictions tend to make beekeeping challenging at times. Like many, I started with Langstroth hives. I didn’t look for alternatives at the time, I didn’t know there was a choice. After a few seasons, it became clear I had to do something. Sure, I’d been using an electric hive hoist/trolley to help, but sometimes it just doesn’t fit the situation.

I noticed in the many cutouts I’d done that bees pretty much make a home of any cavity, including walls, logs, barrels and more. Bees don’t have to live vertically!

So I looked for horizontal hive alternatives.

The Kenyan topbar is probably the simplest and least expensive option. It’s an excellent way to keep bees especially starting out and on a tight budget. The downside to me is that harvesting honey meant using the crush and strain method. I already had loads of frames and extraction gear, so topbar was out for me.

The next step is the horizontal Langstroth hive, or Long Lang. Some call it a coffin hive. Basically a box with inside dimensions suitable for Lansgtroth frames. Typically they accommodate 30 deep frames in one line. That’s about 1200mm or four ft, though there are some up to twice that length.

I built my first Long Lang and sure appreciated not having to lift boxes of honey frames at a time. Also, I noticed that the bees are not as disturbed at inspections. Onc of the design features of Long Langs is covers that are sized for three or four frames instead of the eight or ten in a standard box. Lifting only the cover for three frames at a time means the other bees are left in relative peace. It’s less disturbing to the hive temperature and humidity too. The girls definitely appreciate that.

Although I only had to lift one frame at a time from the Long Lang, I still had to move all the honey frames from the hive to the honey room for extraction and back.