ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
List archive
- From: Just Bee <marty AT justbeenc.com>
- To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
- Cc: "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [ocba] Top Bar?
- Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:19:37 -0500
Hi Janet, I'm guessing you've heard the old beekeeper joke by now: that is...if you ask 5 beekeepers a question you'll get 10 answers! Randal is mostly right but what's missing is a different perspective based on philosophy. It's obvious by the 10 reasons not to that it's not his deal. I and several others keep TBH's as a choice and they are done all over the world. My first comment is that I agree with him in that 3rd world countries are the locations they are used the most. It is mostly because of economics. A langstroth costs would take a families income for months to purchase. Material is scarce and limited. The "African" TBH is a way for families to feed themselves, provide a tradable good Or income. So in the end it's all about the resources you have. Bees grow and flourish just fine in TBH's. All you have to do is drill 3 holes in one of the bars to place a langstroth med honey super on top of the bars. This allows for easier honey extraction. The longer hives are managed by moving the back wall around to expand or close up the hive: the same as adjusting the space in the Lang. Screen bottoms (IPM) are the same and I use a store bought entrance feeder to feed my girls. Where we differ is on "natural" and the use of this term by TBH users. It has nothing to do w/ how trees grow! Yes bees came from trees but we put them in langstroth boxes and place them in fields. Natural to "most" is meant they draw out their own comb! Not the wax foundation sold today that is actually larger in cell size than what they would make. In short, humans changed it to go in langstroth frames so to grow larger bees- larger bees =more honey! So that is NOT natural! As for bees being confused about which way to go In a TBH yea there are cases of that, but more in langstroths because there are more of those. Mostly that happens because the "beekeeper" failed to reduce the hive size going into Winter. Personally i'm gonna side on the bees...they are millions of years old and know where they put their food. Weird stuff like this happens in ALL hives. Secondly "natural" is usually grouped with TBH's because most users want to be chemical free! it's a persons perspective toward HOW they want to keep bees. Be it lower cost, ease of back pain by not lifting the hive bodies, letting the bees decide what size cell the want, etc. For me "bee" drawn wax foundation is the way to go! Not the recycled commercial bee keeping Left overs that's made into pre drawn wax foundation. I'm very glad this new trend is becoming the norm. Recent studies have found over 80 chemicals in the wax foundation sold by retailers. I completely agree that TBH's are trickier to start with when learning but not impossible! If you can drive a car you can keep bees in TBH. Personally, I learned to drive a 3 speed on the column of a 65 ford....everything else is a piece of cake. :-) Cheers and welcome to the best hobby you can have! Marty just bee Sent from my iPhone
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[ocba] Top Bar?,
Janet Weinberg, 01/20/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Randall Austin, 01/20/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Just Bee, 01/20/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Jennifer Keller, 01/21/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Just Bee, 01/21/2013
- Re: [ocba] Top Bar?, Janet Weinberg, 01/21/2013
- Re: [ocba] Top Bar?, Just Bee, 01/22/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Just Bee, 01/21/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Jennifer Keller, 01/21/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Just Bee, 01/20/2013
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [ocba] Top Bar?, birdcr AT concentric.net, 01/20/2013
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Re: [ocba] Top Bar?,
Randall Austin, 01/20/2013
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