I haven’t been doing as well updating my experiences using the AZ hive as I had hoped. But I do want to provide an update on how my first year using the hive went.
The Good
During the first year, I was able to experiment with how the hive worked and some things that are maybe unique or at least more feasible to do in an AZ hive than in a Langstroth. I started the hive by adding a captured swarm to the bottom compartment and they did exactly what you would hope and began quickly drawing out combs. Having a few “pre started” combs from the langstroth hives was a big boost as well. A bit later in the spring I received a call about a smaller swarm and decided to really do an experiment and hive that swarm in the top compartment of the hive- creating a two queen hive. I do believe this is probably easier to do in an AZ hive as there are not as many and as drastic of manipulations to the hive as trying to maintain separation for two queens in a langstroth hive. The two queen system was quite easy in the AZ. I simply put a queen excluder both above and below the 2nd chamber. This allowed the two brood nests to develop in the top and bottom chambers and a shared workforce to draw combs and store honey in the middle chamber. The results were great. The bees drew out all 33 deep combs and I even harvested about 60 pounds of honey from the hive. At the end of the clover nectar flow, I removed the queen from the top chamber and made a split into a AZ nuc that I designed.
After the success using a two queen system during the nectar flow, I was interested to explore the possibility of overwintering two colonies in one AZ hive. I was leery of failing and losing two good colonies of bees so I compromised by trying to see how the colony would do overwintering in a single chamber. At the end colof the fall nectar flow last year, I began to reduce the colony’s size down to the single chamber. As the brood nest size reduced in fall, I replaced empty combs in the bottom chamber with honey filled frames from the middle chamber. I ended up giving the bees six frames of honey (3 on each end). I also kept 3 or 4 additional honey frames in reserve and have wove those in during the early spring this year. Our winter has been extremely mild this year, I’m convinved that is actually harder for the bees as they are exerting more energy looking for forage that isn’t there. At any rate, the 6 frames of honey on it’s own would be cutting it really close- I’m glad I kept the extra reserve frames for insurance. As spring progresses, I will still need to keep a close eye on their stores and feed syrup if necessary. Things are looking promising on the one chamber overwintering- if this ends up working, I could logically progress to overwintering two colonies in two separate chambers during next winter’s experiment. As noted, this will probably require a bit of food management, but I think there could be several advantages to overwintering colonies together like this. First- the bees will “share” the heating bill. It’s no surprise the nuc producers utilize double screen boards to share heat between established and growing colonies; so why not leverage that across the entire winter. Another advantage (and this could be a big one with proper hive management) is that allowing both colonies to build up in spring and then split the queens out prior to swarming would result in a massive hive that was poised to capitalize on the spring nectar flows. In my area the black locust flow is a big one (and delicious honey as well) that can be difficult to capitalize on. Many beekepers can miss out on this bounty because their hive has recently swarmed and people can also miss out on the full potential with out supers of drawn comb.
I also found it very appealing to work in a system that didn’t involve lifting heavy boxes to inspect the hive. The chambered system let me check on honey stores without disturbing the brood nest and vice-versa. I did find the frame stand to be a useful tool to hold frames while inspecting as well as to transport frames to the extractor. The hive stand that I started my hive on last year was designed for langstroth hives and turned out to be a little lower than ideal for looking into the bottom chamber of the AZ hive. This year I have built a beehouse type stand specific for my AZ hives and specifically designed it so that the bottom chamber is right shoulder level when I sitting on a stool or bucket.
Another thing that I liked about the AZ hive is the temperament of the bees. I do believe that they are much easier to work from a hive that opens from the back. It’s just a lot less disturbance to the bees and they react accordingly. Only time will tell if this has just been a calmer hive or if the hive setup makes the difference. I suspect it is probably a combination, but I am optimistic that overall using these back opening hives will prove to be easier on the bees and the beekeeper as well.
The Bad
There are a couple of things that were a little tougher with AZ hives. Small hive beetles (which don’t yet exist in Slovenia) and propolis.
The apiary where I started my AZ hive does seem to have more small hive beetles than my other bee yards and this past summer seemed to be particularly rough with beetles. However, I definetly noticed that the nooks and crannies available in the AZ hive seemed quite attractive to the hive beetles. I often found dozen of them hanging out on the back side of the inner doors or scurrying under the screened floor when I opened the door and removed the foam plug. Much like the top of the inner cover of a langstroth hive, these spaces seemed to provide the beetles a nice refuge from the bees. All of the methods for trapping small hive beetles worked just as they do in a langstroth hive- I just think that theres some added potential for a small hive beetle problem in this hive since there is so much space for the beetles to escape into. Although all of the conventional beetle traps work, I will note that that the swiffer sheets were easiest additions to use for me. I simply set these on top of the frames and changed out at each inspection. The beetle jail traps worked as well, but the bees really liked to propolize these shut- often before they could catch any beetles. If you are inclined to use these style of beetle control- I would highly suggest the variety with “hooks” to hold onto the frame. In the AZ hive you aren’t adding and taking away from the top of the frames (as in a langstroth hive)- you are working from the back. The hooks provide a much more stable method of working with the traps in the AZ hive configuration.
I doubt propolis is any more prevalent in the AZ hive than any other hive, but it does have a somewhat greater effect than in a langstroth hive where you can vigorously scrape it away from the frames and hive bodies. The inner doors are the most precarious. The bees propolize the spaces around the doors and removal requires a delicate patience. It’s not impossible at all, but the technique is different and certainly involves a bit of a learning curve. I’ve read of some slovenian beekeepers omitting the inner doors altogether and simply pushing the foam plug directly against the frames. I can see how this could work- but I doubt that I will try it, as I like the idea of keeping frames lined up using frame spacers on both ends of the frames that are provided with inner doors. I will say, for those considering an AZ hive in the United States; after only a year of use in the AZ hive- please DO NOT buy into any AZ system that claims to use conventional langstroth frames in an AZ system. It’s ok (what I use) to use LANGSTROTH SIZED AZ frames- but the coved top and bottom bars are absolutely critical to the AZ hive. A flat langstroth frame would be too much surface area and the bees would glue it all into a distratrous mess. Even though I have never directly tried these hives using langstroth frames in an AZ hive; between my brief experience with the hive and many, many comments in online groups I can concur that beekeepers looking to try an AZ hive will want to avoid these.
I once read that there is no perfect beehive waiting to be developed and that makes a lot of sense. Although there are many upsides to the AZ hive, there are some drawbacks. The system may not be for everyone, but I’ve enjoyed my first year enough to build a small bee house type stand and commit to expand my AZ hive footprint from one hive to three in the coming year.