Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - Re: [ocba] Top Bar Hive

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: <len AT debandlen.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Top Bar Hive
  • Date: Sun, 09 May 2010 18:38:42 -0700

I am new to the bees this year, but I started two top bar hives.  I am hoping they will help with pollinating my garden.

I can not compare to how they would be doing in Langstroths.  At the last inspection there were eggs, nectar, and pollen.  There is plenty of traffic in and out of both hives.  One hive is building their comb across the top bars, so I have added some top bars with starter strips of foundation to try to straighten them out.  It is probably due to my lazy design for an internal feeder, they are building all around it.  The second hive is doing better about following the top bars, but I added some top bars with foundation earlier.

If anyone is interested in seeing them, just let me know.  I would be happy to learn from your bee know-how and share what I am doing.

Len

len AT debandlen.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ocba Digest, Vol 62, Issue 6
From: ocba-request AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Sun, May 09, 2010 1:21 pm
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Send ocba mailing list submissions to
ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
ocba-request AT lists.ibiblio.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
ocba-owner AT lists.ibiblio.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of ocba digest..."


Today's Topics:

1. Top Bar hives (Tom Wright)
2. Re: Top Bar hives (Melissa Andron)
3. Bee Advice Requested (Jane Saiers)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 08 May 2010 13:41:40 -0400
From: Tom Wright <twright AT vicksburg.com>
Subject: [ocba] Top Bar hives
To: "Orange County, NC Beekeepers" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <4BE5A254.208 AT vicksburg.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I am just curious if any on the OCBA folks have tried top bar hives.

One of the beekeepers in VBurg did and I was impressed. He made them out
of scrap lumber so cost was virtually none except for the bars
themselves. They were 1X2's that he split lengthwise and cut a groove in
to insert a one inch strip of foundation to get them started. You have
to be careful of bee space between the frames and frames and walls.

Harvesting was a snap. Used little, if any, smoke. Lid was in sections
and as he worked he moved frames with brood and most of the bees in the
shade under them, where they stayed virtually undisturbed.

You can't extract the honey and have to handle the combs carefully. He
just cut them off, leaving a one inch or so strip on the bar for them to
buil on. No hassle with wire in the foundation, queen excluders or
brood. He just put the comb honey in jars and covered with extracted.
Got a nice price for it as a gourmet item.

Lots of plans and info on the net on top bars.

Tom


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 8 May 2010 17:19:26 -0400
From: "Melissa Andron" <melissa AT realmdesignstudio.com>
Subject: Re: [ocba] Top Bar hives
To: "'Tom Wright'" <twright AT vicksburg.com>, "'Orange County, NC
Beekeepers'" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <4990DD136F034FCF9384DD4577BA9276@MelissaLaptop>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

We've got a top bar and two Langstroths. The top bar always seems to be the
healthiest, most active of the three!

Melissa Andron/Derek Walter

Melissa Andron, LEED AP, Allied Member ASID
realm design studio, inc.
sustainable interior design
2518 charlock court
chapel hill, nc 27514
919.649.2384
www.realmdesignstudio.com
or see us on Facebook!
-----Original Message-----
From: ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:ocba-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of Tom Wright
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 1:42 PM
To: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
Subject: [ocba] Top Bar hives

I am just curious if any on the OCBA folks have tried top bar hives.

One of the beekeepers in VBurg did and I was impressed. He made them out
of scrap lumber so cost was virtually none except for the bars
themselves. They were 1X2's that he split lengthwise and cut a groove in
to insert a one inch strip of foundation to get them started. You have
to be careful of bee space between the frames and frames and walls.

Harvesting was a snap. Used little, if any, smoke. Lid was in sections
and as he worked he moved frames with brood and most of the bees in the
shade under them, where they stayed virtually undisturbed.

You can't extract the honey and have to handle the combs carefully. He
just cut them off, leaving a one inch or so strip on the bar for them to
buil on. No hassle with wire in the foundation, queen excluders or
brood. He just put the comb honey in jars and covered with extracted.
Got a nice price for it as a gourmet item.

Lots of plans and info on the net on top bars.

Tom
_______________________________________________
ocba mailing list
North Carolina Beekeeping
http://www.theocba.org/



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sun, 9 May 2010 09:49:52 -0400
From: Jane Saiers <jane.saiers AT gmail.com>
Subject: [ocba] Bee Advice Requested
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID:
<g2r8e53cc9c1005090649uf4921ec8w12b554a4ae45fee1 AT mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi OC Beekeepers,

My husband and I are new beekeepers, and we got two packages on 10 April.
Neither of the hives seems to be doing well.

Hive 1: In the Benton box that we received with the package, we could
clearly identify the queen. As far as we know, package installation went
fine. When checking the frames on 30 April, we saw eggs laid singly in cells
and some larvae. We also saw what we thought might be a supercedure cell or
an emergency cell. It was a large cell (that had been opened) that was in
the midst of the other cells (not on the bottom like a swarm cell). We
identified the queen in one of the middle frames. Even to us as newbies, the
queen was clearly identifiable.

The next time we checked the frames was this morning, 9 May. When checking
the frames this morning, we saw (1) eggs, most of which were laidly singly
in cells (but a couple of cells had more than one egg); (2) larvae (here and
there, but not groups of larvae in contiguous cells as we see in pictures in
the bee books); and (3) what we think are capped drone brood as well as some
drone brood that had been opened. The capped and opened drone brood were not
on the perimeter of the brood area, though --- they were interspersed
throughout the egg-laying/larvae area. Also, the capped and opened drone
brood were not in clusters but were as single cells here and there. ***As
far as we can see, there was NO capped worker brood.*** (Could these cells
be emergency cells and not drone worker brood?) We could not find the queen
this morning although it is certainly possible that she was there and too
surrounded by other bees for us to identify her.

Hive 2: In the Benton box that we received with the package, we could not
clearly identify a queen, so we were a little concerned from the start. As
far as we know, package installation, including release of the bee(s) from
the Benton box, went fine. However, this hive has never "taken off." We have
at most two frames with bees. Through today (9 May), we have not found a
queen and have no brood. Just capped honey and nectar/uncapped honey.

Any advice that you can offer will be much appreciated! We are really
growing to love these little bees and want them to be okay!

Jane Saiers
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/ocba/attachments/20100509/130b124c/attachment-0001.htm

------------------------------

_______________________________________________
ocba mailing list
ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba


End of ocba Digest, Vol 62, Issue 6
***********************************


  • Re: [ocba] Top Bar Hive, len, 05/09/2010

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page