#4. Maybe mañana...

I am procrastinating.  Ray encouraged us to order our equipment or risk having our 2 main bee supply companies - Betterbee and Brushy Mountain Bee Farm - run out of stuff.  Indeed, one of our Yahoo Group members has posted that Betterbee has some items on back order already.  Well, I'm not going to succumb to pressure.  I just can't.  I'm not ready to order my hives and equipment.  There are just too many decisions to make.

The first, and biggest, decision has to do with the size of the hive components.  Beehives are composed of layers of bottomless and topless boxes - 'hive bodies' -  traditionally made of wood, and these boxes hold rows of removable frames upon which the bees construct their wax combs.  Standard hives bodies come in two versions:  the smaller 8-frame or the more popular 10-frame.   (Hive bodies that house the bees are 'brood chambers', and those that hold the honey crop are 'supers'.)  The thing is, there are 3 standard depths of hive bodies, shallow, medium and deep.   So the first decision to make is whether to go with an 8- or 10-frame system.  Then, what depth hive bodies to use.

For commercial apiaries, it makes sense to go big - that is, 10-frame hives with deep hive bodies.  Problem is, honey-filled supers are very heavy.  And I'm going to be managing my hives alone, which means I need to be able to lift the supers by myself.  From what I can calculate, a single full, deep frame of honey can weigh about 5 lbs.  Multiply by 10 frames and a deep super can weigh in excess of 60 lbs.  Not something I want to be hoisting.  (Ray told us that there were only 2 kinds of beekeepers - ones with bad backs, and ones who were going to have bad backs.)  Of course, for a commercial establishment, the deep supers mean efficiency - a greater honey-to-structure ratio, and if they're paying for the structure, and if they have mechanical lifters or brawny people doing the job, I can see how this makes sense.

Of course, I am already resigned to the fact that economics are not going to drive my apiary.  So practicality and ease of operation should.  That argues for an 8-frame hive set-up with shallow supers.  But now what to do for the brood chambers.  Turns out that in the South, most hives use a single brood chamber.  And, of course, it's probably a deep hive body.  But here in the North, Ray tells us that the use of double hive bodies is the norm.  And I think he said that if we wanted to use shallow hive bodies for brood chambers, then we could use 3.  Using all shallow hive bodies makes sense in that all my equipment will be interchangeable: all my frames will fit all my hive bodies.  But I wonder, using up to 3 hive bodies for the brood chamber sounds like I'm going to have to disturb the cluster of bees a lot more when I check the hive than if I only have a 2-layer brood chamber.

Once I get this figured out, do I order the pieces assembled or unassembled?  There's the question of the frames - wood or plastic (plastic - who knew?!), and what type of 'foundation' do I want in the frames.  Am I going to use queen excluders, bee escape screens, mite traps, screened bottom boards, pollen traps?   Do I really need frame grips, lifters and holders?  Which kind of hive smoker, veil, and feeders do I want?  Should I get extra bottom boards, telescoping covers, and other hive parts?

When I get exhausted and confused devouring catalogues, and my Beekeeping Basics handbook, I gaze out the window to the tiny plateau of scrubland, just in front of the woods, where I picture my future hives sitting.  I'll be able to keep an eye on the bees easily from inside the house.  I can sit at the window with my binoculars and watch the individual workers taking off from their little front porch, and then return home, their tiny thighs laden with pollen.  Periodically I feel the need to relax with these thoughts and refresh my addled brain.  There's so much new information swirling around, and it all needs to settle.  The more familiar I become with all the theory and literature, the more things will fall into place and everything will make perfect sense.  I feel sure of it.  A plan will emerge, and then I will able to place my order.  Maybe mañana.