Top Bar Hive Build.....

[Beekissed]

Is there any danger with damaging the comb too much, enough to break it off, when you withdraw the spikes of the wire later on?

 

[Beekissed]

That's what I was thinking too...getting it out in just the right time before comb is built too much around it but not pulling it too soon and risking damaging new comb. Should be a fun experiment and I hope you tell us about it and take some pics of it if you can...I find this all fascinating as all get out.

That comb hanger idea charms me because one of the reasons some folks don't like the TBHs is because the bees have to use so much time and energy constructing new comb on the bars but if one could find a way of uncapping that comb, removing the honey and rehanging the comb, that would be a neat thing.

 

[Beekissed]

Nah....I agree with the new comb being built as well, as chemical build up is a problem in some commercial Langs that reuse the comb over and over.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I know nothing about keeping bees, so if this is a stupid question, please forgive me.
Why would you need to remove the comb hanger?

 

[FarmerD]

well, for one, i dont want to build any more of those things than i have to....... they look deceptively easy to make, but ill tell you they are quite tricky to manufacture. 2nd, im nearly positive the bees would build all willy wonka around those things in an attempt to bury them in the comb.

 

[Beekissed]

You might have mentioned this before and I forgot, but will you be moving these hives frequently to fields and crops where they can be used as pollinators and have food or will they pretty much stay in one place most of the time? I know you had mentioned transporting them and doing so with the legs off and such....are the legs easy to break down for that purpose or do you have to remove a lot of screws and such? If so, would having a fold up/down leg setup work...sort of like the folding metal sawhorses they have now?

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

I gotta say I love all the pictures and details! Are these very heavy and how many of the divider boards do you put inside of each hive? It looks like on the first set that you have quite a few but in the second set it looks like they are more separated with one every so many inch's...

 

[Beekissed]

It all makes perfect sense and I am eagerly waiting to see how this all works out, as you seem to really know your stuff on all of this and I could learn quite a bit from watching you work. I now understand about the legs and what you are doing with your hives.

Are you planting anything extra for bee crops and, if so, will you do a mix or have specific fields that yield mostly one kind or other of honey? I know some folks do clover, some do wildflower, some do other types of crops to influence a particular flavor, thickness and color to the honey.

Our very first bees we had when I was growing up had a deep, dark golden brown honey that was very thick and never crystallized, no matter how old it got. We found a jar of that some years back and that jar was almost 30 yrs old and looked and tasted exactly like when we put it up. Those bees used a lot of pine pollen and then some golden rod, honeysuckle and white clover, some garden pollen...but mostly the pine pollen.

 

[wyoDreamer]

For final placement, do you put those hives onto leveled bases or just stand them in place on their legs like that? I ask because the way they are made, with the grain vertical like that, the lumber will soak up the moisture and rot out the legs faster. If you put a sacrificial piece on the bottom, that has the grain running parallel to the ground, they will last longer and it would be an easy piece to replace when it does rot out.

I hope you are successful in getting some swarms to move in.

 

[FarmerD]

Usually I put them on bricks.