# Behold, the Parker Cube Hive!!!



## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Check out my latest post on my blog. http://parkerfarms.blogspot.com/ You can see full 5 megapixel pictures of the boxes I built today.

I had started a thread a while back about using square hives. http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...e-Hives-13-Frame-Boxes-Big-Hives-and-Swarming

I thought it would be 13 frames, but it turns out to be more like 12 standard frames or 14 1 1/4" frames. I called it a cube hive because three mediums equal 19 7/8, the same as the length and width. A 14 frame medium has more or less the same comb area as a 10 frame deep, though three inches shorter. A hive of four or five boxes as I keep them is a full 12" or 15" shorter respectively. I think the thing I'm most excited about trying is placing the frames perpendicular to the ones below. I'd like to see if that has any effect.

Tell me what you think.


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

Solomon...Reference the thread about the square hives a while back, I built two square hives, and they each hold 13 standard Kelly Frames as you can see in the photos on my photobucket. One of the square hives says, cottonwood, the other square hive says cypress. They are standard 19 7/8 square.

http://s841.photobucket.com/albums/zz339/cchoganjr/

cchoganjr


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Looks interesting.
What is the advantage of placing the frames perpendicular?
Do you foresee any issues with the cluster accessing stores laterally to the cluster and issues with starvation?


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I don't know. That's the fun part.

I'm imagining it will make the environment in the hive a little more like in nature, with combs going every which way. I'm also thinking it will slow the movement of air in the hive. 

It's something I've wanted to try for a couple months now. I'm kind of excited.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

It is a neat project, I would like to see how it turns out.

The project I am working on is a TBH based on the medium frame.(in order to place standard medium nucs in a TBH)


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Can you give me a quick tour?


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Solomon,
Here is the rough out build of the medium frame supporting TBH.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Looks good, good lid! Is this similar to Michael Bush's trough hives? Are you going to use the frames, or just the nuc and go to topbars?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Very European Solomon. From what I have seen on Irwin Harltons' Facebook Pages. Seems as though when supers are turned 90 degrees from the one below it acts like a queen excluder.


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## Keth Comollo (Nov 4, 2011)

Interesting experiment! I also like how you build your bases so they sit on only two cinder blocks. I need to modify my SBBs so that I can do that too. Will save more time not having to build hive stands.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

I am only planning to use the medium frames for transferring nucs and to be able to give the colony a jump with some drawn comb. But beyond that I plan on using normal top bars.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Solomon, 
Here is the final TBH.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Oh, wow, that's pretty!


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## Abeja (Mar 11, 2012)

Did you use a plan for this tbh - or is this your own design - its very nice Id love to try to build something like this.

R


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## Fishman43 (Sep 26, 2011)

How has the Parker cube trial progressed?


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I started the big hive in the pic on my blog with a deep and two mediums, attempting to get the bees to move from the deep to the mediums. After a couple months, I removed the deep, harvesting the honey and transferring the brood to another hive. I also added a third medium to the stack. At this juncture, the hive seems to be doing quite well and I plan to inspect it again soon to ascertain its status.

The second hive was started when I did a shook swarm of one of my nucs into a six frame medium nuc. Later on, I moved the hive to the current location and put it in the square box. As you might expect it is not growing as quickly and has not yet had time to equilibriate. I'm planning on placing another box on the hive borrowing some drawn comb from my eight frame hive to give them a boost.

The form of the hive with its single bottom entrance and 3/8" slot entrance across the top appears to be adequate. The bees don't typically beard much and can be seen directionally fanning, usually out one half of the top and all the bottom entrance.

I am not yet able to make a determination as to the effectiveness of the form factor of the hive nor of the ability to place the frames perpendicular to successive layers.


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## rail (Apr 1, 2011)

How are the square hives doing?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Solomon, it just occurs to me, unless the hive is only just as tall as it is long and wide, you will have to change the name. If you super a cube hive it is no longer a cube, but a square tower. Right?

Me just being me. I'm sure it doesn't matter.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

rail said:


> How are the square hives doing?


They're doing okay as far as I can tell. Last time I got into the small one, it was in the process of superseding the queen, so I took the opportunity to split it and see if I could get some comb drawn out of the deal. Last time I got into the other one, I removed the deep from it and shook out all the bees from the frames, extracted the honey and donated the rest to another hive. They had filled up the medium box. So it was a partial shook swarm. I imagine they've done some good comb drawing since then. They seem to be doing okay. I've been itching to do a summer inspection, but I've been busy with other things.

I feel that the ventilation regime I've set up is pretty productive. These hives don't seem to beard very much while other ones do.



sqkcrk said:


> Me just being me.


I wouldn't expect anything less.

What you want argue about the definition of 'cube' now?!? Just kidding. The cube moniker was in reference to my standard hive volume (three deeps). Square mediums with narrow end frames have the same comb surface area as a ten frame deep. So three deeps=three mediums. That's all there is to it. As a side note, the cube doesn't include the lid or the bottom board or it's not a cube anyway. The cube only refers to three square medium boxes. That's all it's ever meant.

Let's see, a square is a two dimensional shape, a cube is three dimensions, how would you define a square four dimensional object?


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

My two square hives we talked about last winter are doing great. I started one with a slpit in Mid April, the other with a split in mid May. 

I don't see any difference in bearding or activity in the square hives than the regular Lang.

I am really more interested in how they winter and if checkerboarding will replace queen excluder. I harvested a little over 2 gallons from the first one and did find small patch of drone brood on one frame in the honey super.

cchoganjr


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Solomon Parker said:


> The cube only refers to three square medium boxes. That's all it's ever meant.
> 
> Let's see, a square is a two dimensional shape, a cube is three dimensions, how would you define a square four dimensional object?


Give me some TIME and I'll figure it out. 

Three square medium boxes? So is it a "cube" hive or a "cubed" hive or a hive "cubed"? I would have thought that a cube hive would be one having all three dimnensions the same, Length, Wideth, and Depth. But, that's not necassarily what you have?


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## toekneepea (Jul 7, 2010)

Solomon Parker said:


> Let's see, a square is a two dimensional shape, a cube is three dimensions, how would you define a square four dimensional object?


How's this?

:banana:

Tony P.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Update:

I was inspecting one of the cube hives recently and discovered that they had begun to build comb up from the bottom box, parallel with the frames in the bottom box, which of course means that the new comb was perpendicular to the frames in the top box. This hive only has two boxes so far.

So I pulled out the frames and scraped off the errant comb and replaced them in the box which I then turned to be parallel with the bottom box. So now I have one hive with the perpendicular setup and one with the parallel setup. It would seem from this to suggest that the bees would rather build new comb parallel with existing comb rather than perpendicularly.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Brother Adam liked the idea of a square hive. I think the only reason they are not in common use is weight & leverage - beekeeper convenience.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

They are significantly shorter for the same volume of hive and comb. The jury is still out on effective differences. I made eight mediums and one deep to share between two hives. The purpose of the deep is to facilitate the move from deeps to mediums. Eventually I'll probably cut down the deep. Or maybe not.


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