Nearby Hives

Over the summer whilst the bee populations have increased, the hives have also physically grown. One has a deep and a shallow super whilst the other has a shallow super. They've both got extra boxes on top as ekes.

My hives with a chair for scale

 There's a Wildlife Garden at Pearson Park with two hives. For reasons best known to themselves they've gone for two completely different hive types.

WBC Hive

This is the William Borough Carr hive (WBC) which is probably what most people think of when they picture a beehive.  From what I've read they sound like a complete pain to use compared to other hives -but they do look nicer and having double walls is good for insulation. However they are slightly smaller than Nationals. Some people like them, some people don't, but beekeepers don't seem to agree on anything so that's not too surprising. I think these hives are behind wire mesh to stop visitors getting themselves stung by annoying the bees.

Top Bar Hive

The Top Bar Hive (TBH) is really popular in developing countries, particularly Africa. You can make them yourself fairly easily using whatever's available and rather than using a complete framed piece of foundation for the bees to make comb on all you give them is a wooden bar with a line wax to get their attention, the bees can then draw their own comb. It's often touted as a more natural way of beekeeping than the modular hives with wooden frames and unlike the WBC, National and Commercial types it doesn't need boxes adding and removing so it's probaby easier on your back and means you don't need a couple of warehouses to store your empty supers in. I don't have a clue how you go about managing one of these but I'd assume it's very different to the modular hives. Being horizontal it has a larger footprint than the modular hives.