The WBC Hive is the bee hive that everyone pictures when they think of honey and honey bees. What picture of an English country garden is complete without a white-painted WBC Hive. The WBC was invented in Britain in about 1890 by the writer and beekeeper William Broughton Carr, hence the name WBC. This design of hive was a variation on the earlier and still used moveable frame Langstroth Hive.
This is a double walled hive, the reason being that the double walls can offer greater protection in adverse weather, especially if you keep your hive in a cold damp windy environment. The inner air space creates a warm buffer zone, protecting the colony from the freezing winds and driving rain, although this can also have the reverse effect of taking longer for the WBC hive to warm up in the early spring sunshine. The inside of the WBC hive is made up of boxes like the Langstroth and British National Hive and the outside is built up with a series of box frames, called lifts, built on a landing porch or board. It is these outside lifts on the WBC that are often painted white.
The disadvantage of the WBC hive design is basically the extra work involved in taking it apart and moving it. The WBC also uses much more wood than other hives and every time an extra box or super needs to be added an additional lift also has to be made or purchased.
The WBC however uses the same frame sizes as the National so the two can be run easily together. There is one major difference between these two hives which is the number of frames in both brood box and honey supers, being only ten in the WBC, as opposed to the usual eleven in National and other hives.
This may seem a minor detail, but one frame can mean a lot, in terms of space for the growing colony and the spreading brood in early spring. If there is less space, then it’s more likely the bees will swarm and also there is obviously a smaller area in the WBC for storage of winter supplies of honey for the bees. However older or less strong beekeepers are often glad to have a lighter super box to have to lift when it is full of honey. But of course that also means harvesting less honey from a WBC honey box.
Despite the disadvantages of the WBC hive they still remain popular amongst hobby beekeepers who see them as a not just a home for their bees but also as a great garden ornament.
