Over the years, I have used several different types of beehive, each with its own advantages, quirks and level of maintenance.
One of our apiaries still contains some of the hives I experimented with when I first started beekeeping, including WBC, Commercial and National hives.
The white hives in the photos are WBC hives, a traditional British design that was once very common.
They have an attractive outer shell made up of removable sections called lifts, which surround the boxes inside. This extra layer gives the colony additional protection and insulation during colder weather.
They look great, but they also take more time to open, inspect and put back together, which makes them less practical when you are managing lots of colonies.
At the far end of the apiary is a Commercial hive.
Commercial hives have larger brood boxes, giving the queen more space to lay and allowing the colony to build up strongly.
They are useful, but they are not the hive type I now choose for most new colonies.
The third type we use is the National hive, which has become my preferred choice.
They are practical, widely used in the UK and easier to manage during regular inspections. Because of that, all of our new hives are now Nationals.
As the apiaries have grown, having a consistent hive type also makes day-to-day beekeeping much simpler.
There is no single perfect hive for every beekeeper.
Part of the fun of beekeeping is trying different systems, learning what works for you and adapting as your number of colonies grows.
For East Anglia Apiaries, the National hive has become the clear favourite.
