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Norm · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject: Top Bar Hives Indoors!

This unlikely looking old barn is going to be the home for my new bees!

This is the inside with two hives in position ready to accept the bee transfer.

I have made one hive with an end entrance where the holes line up with holes on the side of the barn.

The other one is a side entrance with a telescoping box entrance which slides up to the holes on the side of the barn.

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Feral bees are natures survivors and have, by the survival of the fittest principle, overcome disease and mite problems without mans intervention.

GarlyDog · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:

Great idea. I guess you won't need hay bails this season.

When I run out of space on my roof, I have been thinking about doing something similar. But I would have to build a bee shack.
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Gary · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:58 am Post subject:

And he out does himself again, Awsome idea Norm!
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With being at the top of the food chain comes the responsibility of protecting it! Not the right to destroy it.

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Norm · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 11:41 am Post subject:

OK I transfered my bees from the SVEA hives into the Top Bar Hives in the barn this morning. I did the classic cut out of the combs and tied them to Top Bars. I was going to take some photos of the process but it was such a fraught and sticky experience doing 20 frames, I didn't have the opportunity. I did take a few shots before I started however to show how I prepared for this.

I made a template of the inside cross section of of the hive to use as a cutting guide. I had a small table set up behind the hives in the barn to cut and tie the bars on. I also had a plastic bowl for the offcuts of comb.

I drilled 3 holes at both edges of the bars.

I threaded 3 strings cut to length through one side of the holes. I was intending to loop the string around the comb, thread them through the other holes in the side of the top bars. What I realized was that this was too time consuming and just tied them around the side of the bar. So I had prepared 20 Top bars with string already threaded through 3 of the holes.

I placed the hives under the entrances at the side of the barn before I let them out of the hive after the move. Notice the travelling screen under the board.

One of the problems I had was because I was bending over so much, my glasses kept slipping off my face into my viel. It is very difficult to replace them with sticky hands and a viel in the way! For the second transfer, I wore my contact lenses, this was better but I lost my close up vision from my varifocals.

I never saw either queen which was and will be a continuing worry but I will leave them to themselves now for 2 weeks so that they can attach the combs to the top bars and repair the devastation of my butchering!

I would not recommend this method for a new beekeeper and especially if the bees are a bit sharp. Luckily these bees were very docile and I didn't get stung once. I hate to think what my Spanish monsters would have done. Shocked

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Feral bees are natures survivors and have, by the survival of the fittest principle, overcome disease and mite problems without mans intervention.

Norm · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:29 pm Post subject:

Glad to report that they seem to have settled in and are out foraging quite happily.

I will be getting a couple of these to put over these entrance holes with initially the pollen screen removed.

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Feral bees are natures survivors and have, by the survival of the fittest principle, overcome disease and mite problems without mans intervention.

Norm · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

biobee · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject:

...and if you gave up beekeeping (heaven forfend) it would make a great sauna!
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The Barefoot Beekeeper www.biobees.com

CritterMap · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:21 pm Post subject:

Norm · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject:

CritterMap · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:34 pm Post subject:

GarlyDog · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:19 am Post subject:

That would be a sweet setup.

I think I am going to go with a pre-fab wooden garden shed. So it doesn't look like anything but a garden shed.
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ltg · nurse bee Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 31 Location: Norway

Norm · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:33 am Post subject:

The danger is chilling the brood. Of course you have to shake and brush off the bees first. I had several top bars in place at the end of the hive so that these shaken bees had somewhere to go. You end up with a lot of flying bees and I guess it would be easier if you could do the cutout and tieing on in a bee free environment but I found no matter how much I shook and brushed off bees, at least a dozen would fly right back on it in those few seconds. The upsetting part is having to cut right through brood and I have decided I will never do it again!
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Feral bees are natures survivors and have, by the survival of the fittest principle, overcome disease and mite problems without mans intervention.

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