Without going off the beaten track too much, which we wouldn’t recommend for a new beekeeper, you have three choices of hive – the Langstroth, the Warre or the Top Bar.

Right off the bat – all three are very effective, proven over many years (hundreds, in fact!) and will serve you well. So this isn’t a question of which type will work, but rather which type serves your needs best.

If you are long term focused on enjoying lots of honey then the Langstroth is a great choice since it has the highest capacity and can easily be expanded. It’s also a traditional hive design supported by many manufacturers and suppliers. It might be considered the safest of choices.

If you are fascinated by the idea of natural beekeeping then the foundation-less Warre or Top Bar hives might be attractive, although it’s perfectly possible to use foundation-less frames with Langstroth too. You might also be interested that the Warre was designed to mirror what bees like in nature.

If you are not as mobile or agile as you once were, no big deal. The Top Bar hive will “serve” your frames to you at a nice convenient height. If lifting heavy weights is not your thing, then a Warre or Top Bar would be good option (with the Top Bar being the favorites, in this context) since you won’t be lifting the larger boxes of the Langstroth.