Rear-Access Hive
Lexikon
The rear-access hive is an older design of bee dwelling in which the beekeeper works not from above, as with today's modern box hive, but from the rear of a fixed box.
The rear-access hive is an older design of bee dwelling in which the beekeeper works not from above, as with today's modern box hive, but from the rear of a fixed box. It looks externally like a small cabinet with a permanently built-in floor and lid, in which the frames stand lined up one behind another and are pulled out individually from the back.
Two main types are distinguished: with the so-called rear-loader, the frames have to be pulled out in sequence from front to back, like a card index box, whereas with the Blätterstock each frame can be taken out individually like a page of a book, without moving the combs in front of it. This design was widespread in German-speaking regions from the nineteenth century until the 1970s, in bee houses and on fixed apiaries.
Its major drawback compared with the modern box hive is its fixed interior size: if a colony grows stronger than intended, the box cannot simply be expanded like a hive box, which favors swarming tendency. Honey harvesting is also more laborious, because each comb has to be removed individually instead of lifting off a whole hive box at once. Today, rear-access hives are mainly still found among older beekeepers who stick to their accustomed way of working, and regionally, for example in Switzerland.