Our old (and barely used) TBH on the right & new one on the left. The new one is based on a hot weather design by Jacob Klingensmith from the Ploughshare school at Homestead Heritage near Waco Tx. He's the head beekeeper & instructor for their school & cares for over 80 of the community hives they have.
When we first met Jacob, much of our research & the hive that we built had been based on "The Barefoot Beekeeper" & the information at biobees, most of which originates from a much cooler UK climate. As we discussed all that, we learned that over the years, he'd looked at & used all of the various designs out there, & finally tweaked his own design which is essentially shorter, wider, & longer than most TBH's with end only entrances. The shorter wider design tends to minimize or eliminate failure at the comb to bar attachment in extended hot weather. Placing the entrances on the ends allow for a handy & very convenient place to hang the feeder, or refill it w/o disturbing the bees.
Because our bait hive swarm arrived right after meeting him, & before we'd been able to build a new one based on his plans, we settled for a pre-cut kit he had available & assembled & painted it ourselves. The old one actually did house the new swarm for a short while before we got the new one ready, but they're doing very well 4 months later. The old one has turned into yard furniture while we figure out what to do with it...
