Langstroth beehive is the basic beekeeping equipment. Usually it has two layers, brood box is used for bee living and raise their young, and honey super box is used for harvest honey.

Langstroth hive is a vertically modular beehive that has the key features of vertically hung frames, a bottom board with entrance for the bees, boxes containing frames for brood and honey (the lowest box for the queen to lay eggs, and boxes above where honey may be stored) and top cap to provide weather protection. In a Langstroth hive, the bees build honeycomb into frames, which can be moved with ease. The frames are designed to prevent bees from attaching honey combs where they would either connect adjacent frames, or connect frames to the walls of the hive. The movable frames allow the beekeeper to manage the bees in a way which was formerly impossible.

How to make Langstroth Bee hive

Our Langstroth beehives are wholly Kenyan made using local material and are all fitted with 100% bees wax comb starters, comb strips that are also locally produced from bees wax coming from our local bees thus assuring quick colonization

The Langstroth hive is easier to move during migration and easier to capture a swarm of bees with. Better quality honey is obtained because less smoke is used. However they are more costly and require a good knowledge of the cycles and bee ecology. The wood must be well seasoned.

The queen excluder is a mesh grid, usually made of wire or plastic, sized such that worker bees can pass through, but queens (generally) cannot. When used, it is generally placed between the hive body and the honey supers. The purpose of the queen excluder is to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers, which can lead to darker honey and can also complicate extraction.

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When harvesting it, protective gear should be worn.  The process should be done in the morning or late in the evening when bees are less active. A bucket or pail can be used to collect the honey comb with the aid of a bee brush to brush off bees back into the hive.

The annual production of langstroth bee hive is 40 kg whereas the Kenya top bar bee hive is 30kg and the traditional bee hive with 20kg.

In addition to getting revenues from honey, bees play an important role in pollinating fruits in your orchard. OxfarmAg Ltd has made it easy for the farmers who want to invest in the Fruit Farming and HONEY PRODUCTION.

Through our research, we have realized that most farmers do not have the knowledge and required experience to successfully farm hass avocado up to maturity and profit from them.

This has caused many farmers huge losses, and we are here to offer stairs and a good start in hass avocado orchard establishment.

A kilo of honey in Kenya fetches around 800ksh to 1000ksh. A farmer with approximately ten beehives can earn a comfortable 320,000ksh per year. 10 beehives times an annual production of 40kg of honey per beehive.

Honey Combs used in Modern Langstroth Bee hive

ADVANTAGES OF THE LANGSTROTH HIVE

  1. It produces the highest amount of honey

  1. There is no bee killing during harvesting
  2. It is environment friendly
  3. It does not allow intrusion of hive by bees enemies such as mice and spiders
  4. It works well with trap boxes
  5. Makes it easy for bees to fan and clean the hive.
  6. Fitted with wax foundations that reduce work for the bees in making combs
  7. Promotes cleanliness during harvesting
  8. Brood and honey are never mixed as in log hives
  9. All members of the family can work with hives
  10. The shadow frames can be easily tied up three or more stories high
  11. The beekeeper can add supers at the rate at which they are required by the bees