# kerkhof hive plans ?



## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

Humm, Maybe thats why I can't find it. I'll figure it out and build it from scratch, I'm just not sure how much gap to put between the 2 layered boxes. quarter inch sould be enough for air flow.


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## Ted n Ms (Apr 25, 2008)

When you find out let me know.


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

Have you guys found plans anywhere? I'm interested in the Kerkhof design as well.


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## greengecko (Dec 16, 2008)

Here are the patent drawings:

original patent

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/1055313/page/1055313_19940420_drawings.pdf

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opi...1055313/page/1055313_20031108_description.pdf

updated patent

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/1120783/page/1120783_19940203_drawings.pdf

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opi...1120783/page/1120783_20031104_description.pdf


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## fafrd (Aug 22, 2009)

BGhoney,

I hae seen picture of Kerkhof hives but do not really know much about them. Would you mind to breifly outline the advatages of this hive and what is motivating you to go to the trouble to building your own?

-fafrd


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## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

From what I remember, They have 2 queens,The thought was that the 2 halfs of hives could compete with each other to get more honey and if 1 fails you still get honey, they are double walled with an air gape for better wintering, and summer heat, you add like 6 frame supers ontop of the brood nest . I'll look at these to plans and see if I want to make 1.

There is a hive out now, called the H3 hive, that is very similar, very expensive but cool. Google it.


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## Paraplegic Racehorse (Jan 25, 2007)

Having read the patents over several times, they actually cover TWO different hive systems. The first, the ventilated Kerkhoff hive, is a single-colony hive with all of Kerkhoff's fancy ventilation system. The second, the one that gathers the most attention, is the multi-queen hive, again with all the fancy schmancy ventilation stuff.

What I got from Michael Harvey is that the gap between walls is one bee-space.


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

A friend of mine is putting together AutoCAD or Solidworks technical drawings. Anyone want copies, contact me offline. It is in process, nothing is ready yet.


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

I too was very interested in the Kerkhof design. So I designed and built my own version of it. I wanted to make the system as compatible to Lang equipment as I could. Let me see if I can briefly describe what I built; The double brood chambers have the exact outside dimensions of a Lang brood chamber, to accomplish that I had to use ½ inch plywood for the side walls. It really looks like two Nucs side by side except using ½ plywood instead of ¾ pine to give me enough room inside to install 5 frames on each side. I had to make a custom bottom board because the two sides are separated and entrances are on opposing sides of the hive. One drawback is that to get 20 frames of brood each, I have a stack, 4 brood levels high. Once I have the stack full of brood and ready for supers, it is just a queen excluder on top and supers to the sky. I already have plans in my head for a platform to work from that braces the hive from falling over. Anyone that builds their own bee wood ware could build one of these. The only thing I am going to change on the next one I build, (if this “honey tower” works), is to make the two inner walls out of 3/8 inch plywood. The frames need about a 1/8 inch more in each side for good bee space. I used marine plywood, expensive as heck, but I don’t want the plywood warping or bowing. Bottom line here, I built this experiment this winter, I am actually buying my bee packages next month for delivery in April, but the Honey Tower is built and setting outside the shop ready to go. It will work; I just need to see how well it works before I start crowing too loud about it. 

Ernie


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## Sal Monella (Mar 30, 2009)

In 1989 I bought 200 used Kerkhof 2 queen hives. We still run these Kerkhof in addition to our Langstroth. There are both advantages and disadvantages to the Kerkhof system . Hans van der Kerkhof firmly believed that if he could engineer a ventilation system, swarming would be greatly diminished. I have never seen less swarming with this system. In fact ,if one side decides to swarm, the other side will also. After swarming, the virgins can get into either side and through the QX's and one ends up with a one queen colony. If one finds the situation in time , it is possible to isolate the brood areas with plywood on top and both sides have a better chance of being re'Q'd. The ventilation system is a double wall throughout all the boxes. Guess what, Q's like to hide in there and you'll never find them.
On the other hand, since the brood area is comprised of 6 frame 6 5/8" boxes, making splits is extremely easy. Just remove a box ,check for Q and start a hive. These hives can produce an incredible crop of honey if they don't swarm. The supers are 11-13 frame 6 5/8". When full they net about 54 lbs of honey. We are not surprised to find 6 full supers on a colony.
This side by side 2 queen system can be duplicated in Langstroth. Use 5 or 6 fr nuc boxes, stack 2 high and then another stack of 2 next to the first with the entrance facing the other direction. Use 2 queen excluders, since one won't be wide enough and then make a single stack of Lang supers on top. Have fun


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

Excellent information Mr. Monella, thank you for the post.


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

Mr. Monella, 
I did build a mock Kerkhof that pretty much looks like side by side nucs, I explained what I did in an earlier thread in this review. What peaked my interest is the virgin queens coming back and getting in the wrong brood chambers. My mock Kerkhof hive has the entrances on opposite ends. In your experience, do they still sometimes enter the wrong chambers, even if the entrances are on opposite ends of the hive?
Thanks, 
Ernie


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

THGB,

How did your tower of bees and honey work this past season?

--The Bix


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

As a matter of fact I still have the custom Kerkof I built, still sitting outside the shop. What happened last year was that I had to make a choice at the last minute with the packages of bees I had. I had to choose between two more Warre hives or the “mock” Kerkof I had built, went with the Warres. Believe it or not, my Beekeeper Club president has been eye balling it and as that I am expanding into more Warres this spring, I probably should let someone make use of it. I could email some pictures of it, if you want. 

Ernie


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

Would love to see the pictures/plans, whatever. Thanks for the quick reply.


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## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

I was trying to find a picture and I ran across this link. Maybe it is helpful.
http://rusticelementbees.com/
They call it an H3 hive as it's design has been slightly modified.
Looks like you could do something with nuc bodies and standard supers?
Seems like a lot of work, keeping a two queen hive. I get nervous just inspecting one broodnest.


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## Sal Monella (Mar 30, 2009)

I checked out the H3 hive and the only problem (other than the cost) I see is that it is sold w/just 1 super. Of course, one can doubtless buy additional supers. These hives need 2 to 4 supers during a reasonable flow with reasonable strength colonies. The point of putting 2 colonies together is the same as putting 2 horses together- increased production. Nuc boxes or normal hive bodies can be used with the same success as a regular kerkhof. Keep those queens separated and excluded!


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## Bruce Amundson (Aug 3, 2010)

Sal Monella said:


> After swarming, the virgins can get into either side and through the QX's and one ends up with a one queen colony. If one finds the situation in time , it is possible to isolate the brood areas with plywood on top and both sides have a better chance of being re'Q'd.


Sal, thank you for sharing your experience with your Kerkhofs.
I have a new H3 (not using yet), and am building a couple more with modifications and more supers.
1) Did you recognize the one queen colony by brood only on one side, or did the same queed find a way to visit both sides?
2) What might you do different with the Kerkhof design...i.e. smaller vent space between walls so bees don't use the vent space, an additional brood box...etc.?

Thank you


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## bletaria (Apr 2, 2010)

Hi all,
I can see that this has started in 2009, could someone please post a plan on how to construct a Kerkhoff hive as im very interested in building one. Maybe as Sal above has said that maybe two ordinary nucs with extra ventilation put together could do just as well as a Kerkhoff hive.
Thanks to all for the good information you provide in this forum.


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

bletaria,

I started experimenting with a two-queen hive this year. They are my highest producers in a rather difficult year. I did not build a Kerkhof hive. Instead I built 6 nucs, 4 of them without bottoms. I stacked them three-high and dropped a queen excluder atop both stacks and it fit fairly well. I then put regular 10-frame equipment on top of the excluder. It's not pretty, but it seems to be effective.

Contact me if you have any questions.

--John


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## FrozenAlaskan (Feb 12, 2012)

Were you successful?


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

Successful, well, in a manner of speaking I did have success. However, it turned out that these bees were quite mean. My honey crop was very good with these bees. They produced more than any other hives. I wasn't sure whether they were mean because of being in the two-queen hive or they were just plain mean. I had to move them out of the neighborhood they were so mean. After pulling off the honey, I moved them to the outyard and in the process I moved them into to separate Lang hives. As it turns out, they're just plain mean.  They see me coming 20 yards away and immediately go into attack mode. I will try it again sometime, probably not this year though.


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

I finally got the photo bucket thing figured out. Pictures of my latest Kerkhoff Knockoff” hive.
http://s1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii557/ErnieBeeboy/ 
I am actually going to finally start this hive. I went in different direction last spring and didn't get to it. I will be installing packages this April. I contacted as many keepers as I could that have tried Kerkhoffs and similar methods and designed what I have here to make it as easy as possible to work a 2 queen hive system. I will try to keep everyone posted as I progress. As everyone can see by the distance between my postings, I tend to get distracted and over whelmed at times and don’t keep up. Be patient and I will try my best. 
Ernie


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## The Bix (Feb 18, 2010)

HGB,

That's pretty much what I did in concept. Your version is a lot prettier though.  That looks like 1/2" plywood, which I found to work near perfectly with regular 10-frame Langstroth woodenware. The one miscalculation I had was that I just retasked some of the nucs I had built. What I found was that there was the bee space as it relates to the depth of the boxes was wrong and when I pulled the boxes apart I found a big mess of honey and brood stacked between the nucs.


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

An update on that "Kerkhoff Knockoff" I built. Two packages of Italians went in April 21st. I was able to find a keeper that had kept bees in Kerkhoffs and got a some pointers on management methods. I am going to keep the colonies seperate until they are both well established. So as of now, it's keeping an eye on them, feeding and waiting for them to fill out the brood boxes. For this set up they will have 4 medium boxes of 5 frames each, (20 frames) per colony for brood area on either side. Later when I will install a queen excluder and supers the colonies will mingle for the first time.
Ernie


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## Joey (Mar 19, 2015)

Saw a kerkhof hive this past weekend and I'm very interested I trying it out. Anyone know what happened to the guy that was building these, Mike Harvey of Brewster NY?


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