An older beekeeping practice involves adding an empty box, called a nadir, to the bottom of a hive rather than the top. This provides the colony with additional space to expand the brood nest or store honey downwards, following the natural building behavior of bees in a hollow tree.
Heard on the job
If that colony keeps growing at this rate, we'll need to slip a nadir under them to prevent a swarm.
Insider tip
Adding space at the bottom is less common in standard Langstroth setups, where supers are typically stacked on top instead.