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I've ordered my first hive today, a commercial brood with 2 national supers. plus smoker,hive tool, jacket/veil. Aim to use 1st hive as a template for making some more of my own, has anyone experience of this? any advice  for a novice bee-keeper? (I've started the 'introduction to bee keeping'  B.B.A. course)

I don't have the skills for this; I buy boxes flat and knock them up. The traditional joints would be fiddly to make, but plenty of people in the States make their own boxes using much simpler systems.

Are there any bees in the hive?

no bees, I am planning on getting some in the spring from a local breeder. ;)

Probably just as well. If you'd had bees at this time of year, the forst concern would have been to feed them and make sure they'd get through the winter. As far as you ever can be sure, that is.

do you use top or bottom bee space?

I've always followed tradition, but if I was starting again (it is possible to convert boxes, but it's not easy, and you do need to have them all the same) I'd be tempted to use top. The problem I have is a tendency to lift the odd frame from the box below the one I'm lifting off the pile, as the bees link them with comb and they can be quite firmly stuck at times. I believe (I haven't put it to the test) that this is less of a problem with top bee space. As time passes, though, everything tends to get propolised, at least with my strain, and I then have the opposite problem, of trying to shift recalcitrant frames! It's not critical, and if you ever buy any secnd-hand boxes, they'll almost certainly be bottom space.

Ted Hooper recommends top bee space, I think I'll go that way myself.

here's my first hive ;)[attachment=1]