Transcript Top Bar Hive Management

Top Bar Hive
Management
?
By Michael Bush Copyright 2015
What is so different?
• Horizontal
• Natural comb
• Fixed size
– Many common beekeeping issues get amplified
or accelerated due to limited space
Horizontal
• This changes how they move in the winter
somewhat.
• This changes how they expand in the spring
somewhat
No foundation
• This changes management somewhat
because you are not only doing your regular
management but trying to get straight
perfect combs.
Installation
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Don’t hang the queen cage
Don’t leave out bars
Don’t dump bees on top of a baggie feeder
Don’t confine them
Don’t smoke them
Don’t let one bad comb lead to another bad
comb
Installation
• Install in minimum space
• Have equipment ready
• Wear protective equipment
First Year
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Don’t worry about honey
Try to get them built up enough for winter
Don’t feed incessantly
Don’t mess with them everyday
Make sure they have enough weight going into
winter
• Manage bars to keep the brood nest expanding
and to get straight combs
Fixing broken or crooked comb
• Make some frames to hold broken or crooked
comb
• Old dark brood comb can also be “sewn” or tied
onto the top bar
• Soft white comb is difficult if not impossible to
work with
• Heavy comb with honey should be harvested
Spacing
• Honey combs are thicker (typically around
1 ½” or more) and brood combs are thinner
(typically around 1 ¼”)
• When combs start to get too thick and bleed
onto the next bar, a spacer can put things
back on track. Having a number of these
around is handy
Curving combs
• Combs often curve on the ends. They can
often be pushed back in line when they are
still soft and new.
• They can be cut and pushed back in line
when they are tougher but empty.
• You may cause a collapse when they are
soft and heavy
Feeding empty bars into the
brood nest
• By far the best way to keep combs straight
is to put empty bars between two straight
combs in the brood nest.
• How to tell if this is appropriate?
– Rapidly filling the gap with festooning bees
– Warm nights
Spring with an established colony
• Make sure they aren’t starving.
– Feeding?
• Clean out the bottom
• Make sure there are eggs and brood
• When you start seeing drones flying look for
queen cells and keep the brood nest open
– A frame of capped honey at the edge of the brood
nest will stop the queen from expanding
Stimulative Feeding
C.C. Miller, Brother Adam, G.M. Doolittle,
Richard Taylor, W.Z. Hutchinson and Frank
Pellet quotes are here:
bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm
But all of them were against it. Here is one from
Hutchinson that covers the basic issues:
Feeding
• The concept of “simulative” feeding may or
may not work in your climate
• The concept of feeding pollen substitute in
the spring is counterproductive unless
timing in your climate makes it work
Hutchinson on Stimulative Feeding
"The feeding of bees for stimulating brood-rearing in early
spring is now looked upon by many as of doubtful value.
Especially is this true in the Northern States, where weeks of
warm weather are often followed by 'Freeze up.' The average
beekeeper in the average locality will find it more satisfactory
to feed liberally in the fall-- enough, at least so that there shall
be sufficient stores until harvest. If the hives are well
protected, and the bees well supplied with an abundance of
sealed stores, natural brood rearing will proceed with
sufficient rapidity, early in the spring without any artificial
stimulus. The only time that spring feeding is advisable is
where there is a dearth of nectar after the early spring flow
and before the coming of the main harvest." --W.Z.
Hutchinson, Advanced Bee Culture
If you have a window, use it
• If your hive came with (or you built it with)
a window, this can be very useful in
management and in learning.
The Flow
• The flow is different than when there is just
some nectar coming in
• Limited space requires frequent harvest
• Horizontal requires keeping the brood nest
open on the end
• Careful not to harvest too much
– Flows can end suddenly
Harvest
• Frequent small harvests
• Extra bars
• Crush and Strain
Winter
• Make sure the bees are at one end and honey is
in contact with the cluster and no gaps in
honey
• Empty bars at the far end
• Use a follower if you have one
• Insulate the cover
• Top entrance
Once winter sets in...
• Leave them alone
– Good news will keep
– Bad news won’t go away
• Bees are not dead until they are warm and
dead
• Dead bees in the snow are a good sign
• Heft the hive in late winter for weight
Natural Comb Spacing
• Natural comb spacing contributes to natural
cell size
• Bees naturally space brood 1 ¼”
• Spacing combs further apart leads to larger
cells
• Spacing combs further apart leads to uneven
comb
Kinds of top bar hives
•Kenya top bar hive (KTBH)
–Sloped sides for less stress on the
comb
•Tanzanian top bar hive (TTBH)
–Square sides for ease of manufacture
Misconceptions/Fallicies
• Myth: Top Bar Hives are more natural
– They can be, but you could make a Langstroth
be just as natural
• Myth: The shape is more natural
– Bees seem perfectly happy in anything from an
old dry car gas tank to the soffit of a house
Reasons you might not want a
Top Bar Hive
• Limited space requires the space be
managed more carefully which requires
more frequent interventions
• If your only reason for wanting a TBH is
natural comb, you can do foundationless in
a Langstroth
Reasons you might not want a
Top Bar Hive
• If your only reason for a TBH is to get a
horizontal hive and less lifting, you can just
build a long Langstroth.
Typical Mistakes
• Buying a deep Langstroth nuc to install in a
Top Bar Hive that does not take Langstroth
frames (they probably heard or read that
nucs are better)
• They hang the queen cage, to “be safe”
rather than direct release and that messes up
the first comb. One bad comb leads to
another…
Typical Mistakes
• Once a come is messed up they do not set
things right
• They build it too small and they swarm
constantly
• They harvest too much honey and get a fall
failure and there is no comb for the bees to
store syrup and it’s too cold to draw comb
Typical Mistakes
• Blaming failures on the hive type
– Bees colds starve sometimes in any equipment
• They won’t feed at all because it’s
“unnatural”
– Feed for the right reasons
– Have a plan for how to feed them if you need to
• They won’t smoke the bees and think
smoke upsets the bees
Contact Info:
For more info, questions, or to
discuss this further:
www.bushfarms.com
bees at bushfarms com
Book: The Practical Beekeeper