Анотация: In order to test various hive systems in growing and exploitation of bee colonies, and in order to estimate comparative advantages and disadvantages, assessment of biological bee comfort, as well as economic efficiency of their exploitation in small and medium beekeeping farms, was carried out an experiment on comparative study of maintaining bee colonies in different types of hives: horizontal and vertical, both with Dadant frames. Two similar batches of bee colonies were created. The first batch of 20 colonies was put in horizontal hives and second batch with 25 colonies - in vertical hives