What Is The Best Beehive - National Versus Langstroth And Which Hive System Works Best For Your Bees

In this video, I'm going to talk to you about 2 different styles of hives, the Langstroth and the National, and I'm going to tell you which one I think is best. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Now, this is going to be controversial again. I'm really on a roll with the controversial videos at the moment, but I just wanted to give you a breakdown of what I think is best, the Langstroth hive or the National hive. Obviously that is completely subjective. Some people are going to prefer the National, some people are going to prefer the Langstroth. In this video though, I'm going to break down the differences between the two and tell you which one I prefer. Now the elephant in the room is this isn't a straightforward Langstroth hive. This is a Flow Hive that I've got. I bought this hive secondhand and I'm going to do loads of different videos on Flow Hives throughout the year. But it gives me a chance to take a real in-depth look into the Langstroth system, tell you about the features that I do like, tell you about the features that I'm not so keen on, compare it into the National, and tell you which one I think is best. First thing to say then is Langstroth is internationally recognized as a beehive style. Most countries in the world use the Langstroth or some slant on the Langstroth variation. So the first differences that you get between a National and a Langstroth is that the Langstroth is rectangular. It's only one way to run a Langstroth, and that is the cold way. Probably even a term that people outside of the UK don't really get. Cold way means that the frames are running parallel to the entrance. In a national hive like this, you can run it both ways 'cause it's square. So if you run it that way, that's called the warm way. And then you can also run it that way, which is the cold way, similar way that you'd run the Langstroth. Do the bees care which way around it is? No, but it does give you more flexibility in terms of which way you work. I've always worked from the back, always been the way that I do it, maybe 'cause I'm doing it to the camera quite a lot. But I like to work from the back of a hive. Which means that I do it the warm way. Just a lot easier for me. With the Langstroth hive, if I'm going to work from the back, I have to do this really awkward twist and then I have to pull it out like that. So for me, I'd have to work from the side from a Langstroth. Nothing wrong with that. It's just something different to the way that I would normally operate. I know a lot of people work from the side from a National and then they have it the cold way as well. You just work out which is best for you. Make sure it doesn't strain your back. So there's the first difference out of the way. The second difference is a big, big difference as well. National Hive is a bottom bee space hive. That means the frames sit flush with the top of the box. The Langstroth Hive is a top bee space hive, which means that you have the bee space on top of the frames. They don't sit flush. You've got a bee space difference between the top of this box and the frames here. Now, for the way that you work the bees, that does make quite a big difference. I know some people blow the difference between bottom bee space and top bee space out of proportion. Some prefer it one way, some prefer it the other way. But for me, the biggest difference is the accessories that come with it. You'll see all of the national equipment, anything that you put on top of the hive ideally needs to have a rim. So all of my queen excluders, you've got wooden rims to give you that bee space on top. Okay, you can get away with it, but you tend to crush bees. If you want a feeder, needs to have a wooden rim on the top. Crown board needs to have a wooden rim on the top. Your roof, if you're using it without a crown board, needs a rim. Whereas on the Langstroth system, everything's so much more simple. So this queen excluder here, it's just a flat piece of wired metal, go straight on top like that. And then the same for everything else as well. So crown boards, you don't need a crown board, you can just have a flat piece of wood, flat piece of plastic. Any of the feeders, they just fit straight on. I just think that the Langstroth system, or the top bee space system, is a lot easier to manage in terms of all of the accessories, and it means that all of the accessories are so much cheaper as well. Now that leads me on to another point as well. The Langstroth system is a worldwide system, and I know there's various different glance on it, but pretty much everyone has settled on one single type. That means that building these are so much cheaper for the manufacturers because they don't need to do all of the different versions that beekeepers want within the UK. You look at the UK beekeeping market, there's so many different iterations of wooden hives, of poly hives, extra size nationals, smaller size nationals, bigger, smaller. There's lots of different variations, and it means that you can pick and choose the one that you want, something that gives you added extra benefit, which is a good thing. Also means that the majority of the versions are going to be more expensive than a single standardized Langstroth version. If you had to ask me which one would I prefer, I would say in terms of standardization, I'd much prefer we all just used one really simple box like this and it was loads and loads cheaper. Right, next thing to talk about is the construction. Now I've put together a Langstroth hive before. My first hive that I bought, I actually bought Langstroth incorrectly and put it together, and it was so easy to put together. So the way that you put them together is it's just finger joints and they just lock together like that. 4 sides to a rectangle, You glue them, you screw them, you make it square, and you've built yourself a Langstroth box. Really, really easy. With a National box, you have these bars that are just so confusing, and then you need to tap stuff up to make sure that you're getting the correct bee space. There is so much that can go wrong when you're putting together a National hive. There's no additional benefit for all of that hard work, and it just brings error into the equation. So in terms of putting them together, assembly of the hives, the Langstroth is the clear winner here. It's So much more simple. In terms of handhelds, I'd say this is going to be a draw because coming from this side, I much prefer picking up the National. You get a deeper groove, a deeper rung to be able to hold it and lift it. But then on this side, you don't have any handhelds whatsoever because it's quite a thin wall. Where on the Langstroth, they're not quite as easy to lift because of the handhelds, but you have handhelds on all 4 sides as well. So I really do like the fact that you've got the handhelds on all 4 sides. Definitely makes it easier when you come to picking up the hive. But the handhelds on the 2 that you get on the National are definitely easier, so I'd call it a draw in that Right, next thing to talk about is number of frames. So you get so many more frames in a National Hive. If you squeeze them in, you can get 12 frames in there, but I'd say standard is to go for 11 frames and a dummy board. Whereas in a standard Langstroth, there's variations on this again. You can get different number of frames, but the standard one here is like an 8-frame Langstroth. You can get more frames in a Langstroth. Again, you're changing the variation on it though. One of the standards though is an 8-frame Langstroth. In terms of volume, there's not a huge amount in it, an 8-frame Langstroth versus an 11 or a 12-frame National, but it's the configuration and the way that it's set up that I like a lot more. You look at bees in natural cavities, they're in thinner, narrower, taller clusters. They do tend to like it a lot more. It's very, very strange why they do that, and I think that the Langstroth mimics that natural configuration a lot better than the wooden National does. Now on to one of the biggest benefits for me in the Langstroth, is the frames. And if you've never held a Langstroth frame before, you'll be kind of thinking really stubby little lugs. Surely that makes it more difficult to keep bees and do the inspections. And I'd say it probably doesn't. You know, it's just something that we're not really used to in the UK. We have big lugs. Like you bring out one of these frames here and you compare the difference of the lug sizes. I'd say that the national lug is about 3 times bigger than the Langstroth lug there. It's just something that you need to get used to. It really doesn't make a huge amount of difference when you come to do your inspections. You can still turn things around like that. Probably gives you a little bit more control because you're being a little bit more careful. But what it gives you, the biggest thing that it gives you, is it gives you strength in the frame. The frame of a Langstroth is so superior to the National frame, it's not even funny. The amount of times that I've broken lugs on these frames, I do it all the time. When you break a lug on the frame, you have to chuck that frame away. It'd be very, very difficult to break a lug on a Langstroth frame. The next thing I really like about the frames as well is they're designed to wire the frame, whereas a National is designed to have the wire in the foundation. Now you can run a National with wired frames if you drill them in yourself, and then you get a superior frame, but it's just the simplicity of a Langstroth frame. There's no bits that clip out of the frame, which means if you're making these for yourself, it's so much easier to make them. And then you get a solid bar at the bottom as well. So the overall frame construction is so much simpler. The overall frame construction is so much more rigid, so much more durable. It just results in a far superior frame. So that's pretty much it. We've spoken about the differences between the 2 hives, bottom bee space versus top bee space, the benefit that gives you in terms of covers, queen excluders, feeders, roofs, and floors, the substantial differences between the 2 frames, the benefits of the shorter lug, the more simple frame construction, the simplicity in terms of actually making your own wooden equipment, and the The benefits of just having a standardized system in terms of keeping the costs down. I think you probably guessed this quite a while ago, or I've said it before, but Langstroth is a far superior hive style. It just makes sense. Every single little bit about the Langstroth makes sense to me. It's not been tinkered with. It's just a really good, solid, effective design that is much better than the National. However, the National has one thing That means that all of my beehives are Nationals and not Langstroth. And it's a really rubbish reason, and you'll know the reason why. It comes down to what's available in the UK, but also the nucleus colony market in the UK. That's the big thing that drives everybody into National, is that everybody is already on Nationals. So if you're starting up, you go to your local beekeeping association and you say, I want to start up with Langstroth because I think Langstroth is a better format. Chances are nobody's got Langstroth there, so they're going to convince you to say, well, you need to use a national because if you want to hire our extractor, it's a national extractor. If you want to buy a nucleus, all you're going to be able to get is nucleus colonies. It just makes so much more sense in the UK to go down the national route. Which is rubbish, isn't it? Because when I look at the Langstroth hive, I just think this would make my beekeeping so much easier, so much more durable, and I'd have a lot more fun doing it. And I'm stuck On the national system, and there's no way I can get away from the national system because the whole basis of our company is based upon selling nucs or nucleus frames to people in the UK. What I'm going to do though is I think I'm going to start running a few Langstroth. I'm just going to start running a few of them just to produce some nucs on, because maybe I can sell a few nucs. Definitely for Flow Hive enthusiasts, they want to buy the Langstroth nucs as well. I can't run them in terms of honey production though, because all of my honey production extraction facilities is based around the national frame size. So I'm not going to buy a separate extractor for Langstroth, a separate uncapper. Everything is based on this National format, so I'm pretty much stuck in terms of honey production. Definitely going to buy myself some more Langstroth though to run some nucs because I just enjoy working them so much more than the National system. So no doubt I've missed some of the differences there. Tried to do that a little bit quick today. If there's any differences, any reasons why you like Langstroth more than National, or why you like the National version more than the Langstroth, Stick it in the comments. Definitely interested to learn more. As always, I hope you enjoyed that video. Please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.