The bee keeper diaries

[Mr. Wizard]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I built my top bar hive this weekend. Not sure why but it took me quite a bit longer than I figured it would, but I know if I did another one it would go faster now that I've done one.

I had a swarm that had been in a trap for a couple of weeks that I relocated to it saturday night. I need to get some thin strips or burlap to put over top of the frames but so far I think it's going to be nice. At the rate these bees were building comb on day 1 I'm not sure how long it will be before I have to remove honey frames.


I did decide to put flashing on the top to keep water out. I like how it turned out, I'm interested to see how it compares for production.

Looks good! Yea your gonna wanna keep them in the frames or they will fill your lid with burr comb imho. Did you make a divider?

[Iowanian]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard

Looks good! Yea your gonna wanna keep them in the frames or they will fill your lid with burr comb imho. Did you make a divider?

I did make a divider to keep the hive area appropriate in size and so that I could split the box and use it for splitting hives or something.

I don't have an inner cover yet, but I will. Not sure if I'm going to run some strips through the table saw or just use burlap or something. I'm open to suggestions on that for sure.

I started with the 5 frames from the trap and added I think 10 more.


I did try something new...I've had trouble getting them to build on the black plastic frames....so I melted a couple of pounds of bees wax and had the kids paint that on them with a brush to see if it would help, and I'm predicting it will.

KS....
I'm doing it because it's a different way...just wanted to try it.
The advantage is there aren't boxes to lift or remove to be able to inspect the hive. You can pretty easily determine where the brood(babies) are located and just pull the frames you need to for inspection with less disturbance to the colony. If they fill it up, I'll pull the honey frames and place new ones in their place... Another benefit of this style is supposed to be the thickness of the wood used to build the box makes it easier to overwinter in colder climates.

[Mr. Wizard]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I did make a divider to keep the hive area appropriate in size and so that I could split the box and use it for splitting hives or something.

I don't have an inner cover yet, but I will. Not sure if I'm going to run some strips through the table saw or just use burlap or something. I'm open to suggestions on that for sure.

I am not sure burlap would seal the top. I used strips and put a short screw in each one for a handle.

I started with the 5 frames from the trap and added I think 10 more.


I did try something new...I've had trouble getting them to build on the black plastic frames....so I melted a couple of pounds of bees wax and had the kids paint that on them with a brush to see if it would help, and I'm predicting it will.
Good idea. I coat them with sugar water.

KS....
I'm doing it because it's a different way...just wanted to try it.
The advantage is there aren't boxes to lift or remove to be able to inspect the hive. You can pretty easily determine where the brood(babies) are located and just pull the frames you need to for inspection with less disturbance to the colony. If they fill it up, I'll pull the honey frames and place new ones in their place... Another benefit of this style is supposed to be the thickness of the wood used to build the box makes it easier to overwinter in colder climates.

I can walk over to my horizontal hive with nothing but shorts on and inspect the whole hive in 10 minutes.... every frame... see every bee... no lifting and the bees could care less.

I reccomend getting "keeping bees with a smile" same website. I wish I only had horizontal hives now