Bee space and Warm way - Cold way
Basic Assessment:Discuss the concept of bee space and its significance in the modern beehive.
Consider two boxes stacked on one another. Top and bottom space refers to the position of the space between the top and bottom bars of the frames. It is a measure of whether the bees have room to roam due to space under the frames (bottom space) or on top of the frames (top space).
A quick way of assessing whether a hive provides a top or bottom space is to measure the space between the top of the frames in the bottom box and the top edge of the bottom box wall. Circa 8 mm is Top space. Zero, and it is bottom space. Theoretically, it could be half bottom and half top space. Top space may be preferable.
Bee Space
Bees leave a space around and between combs. They are rigid about these distances as they create the optimal workspace that is easy to warm, ventilate and defend. Explanatory diagram.
Feral honey bees use 6 mm as the bee space in the “supers” and 8 mm in the “brood box”. Eight millimetres allows them to work back to back. There is variability in comb distances depending on the size of the bee race. There are enigmas like Mellifera scutellata, living in Ethiopian highland areas use double bee space compared with honeybees in mid-altitude areas, which is not fully attributable to bee size.
Comparison of different bee spaces used in beekeeping - David Cushman
By observing these spaces, bees make the most of the room in their nest. Like “nature abhors a vacuum”, bees don’t like spaces in the wrong places. So, if a spare bit of space is about 4 mm or less, they fill it with propolis. But if the gap is larger than 9.6 mm, they ignore it or fill it with comb. More information about bee space
Frame spacing replicates the distance between natural combs.
This brace comb could be a consequence of too large a bee space, lack of space in the hive, or the result of how bees like to draw comb.
Here is another explanation
With bottom space, there is room for the bees to move around under the frames. BeeBox Langstroth hives are bottom space, like most other poly hives and Nationals. The Beebox bee space is about 9 mm. If it increases to 10 mm, it invites the bees to draw brace/bridge comb. The increase may arise due to squashed bees on the edges of the hive wall.
Langstroth, the father of all modern hives with removable frames, was the first beekeeper to use bee space in a vertical hive. Others had already observed the space but did not realise its global significance.
Read more on Cushman’s site – The history of bee things.
Top space can be achieved in a bottom space boxes by reducing the height of the lugs (albeit they will become a bit fragile).
Cold way - Warm way
Cold/warm way has to do with the orientation of the frames in the hive. To understand this, consider British Standard — Nationals. The hive footprint is square. So, there is the option to have boxes that take frames parallel or perpendicular to the entrance. The beekeeping terms for the one with frames parallel are called “warm way”, which in wooden hives, results in a brood nest more like a football. The other orientation is “Cold Way”, which results in more brood being reared towards the back of the hive due to the chilly air coming in the entrance. This results in a rugby football-shaped brood nest.
Bees in poly hives form a warm way shaped brood nest even when their frames are Cold Way, and during the winter they primarily cluster at the front of the hive.
Despite BeeBox hives being Cold way, the brood forms a pattern typical of a Warm Way setup.
An advantage of Cold Way is that two people can inspect the hive from either side, which is lovely if a bee pal comes to help. During an inspection, the boxes can be placed behind the hive.
Warm-way hives are great for one person who can inspect from the rear. The hive can be positioned on a long stand, and boxes placed beside it during an inspection.
When they can, feral bees draw warm-way comb near the entrance and cold-way comb further back.