Natural Beekeeping Network

Beginners start here :: RE: Slatted Racks

Bush_84 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:08:15 GMT

Author: Bush_84
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:08 am (GMT 0)

BoBnh wrote:

Here are a couple pictures of my slatted rack used on a Langstroth hive.
[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xl0CqBlPlcg/Tyx1Y_Gz0tI/AAAAAAAAATM/SwmVHeAdAHY/s640/100_2782.JPG [/img]
[img] https://picasaweb.google.com/113708807857871269885/SlattedRack?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_YtLGq6M6xxgE#5705063895971351010 [/img]

The frame is 3/4" x 3/4". The slats are 3/4" x 3/8".

So in my Warre should I have them running opposite the combs?
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Doing my best to keep bees alive and healthy since May of 2011.

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Kit_McConnico — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:06:16 GMT

Author: Kit_McConnico
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:06 am (GMT 0)

Trip wrote:

Kit,

To pour wax into the top bar grooves I found using a childs medicine syringe works great. You can get them at any drug store for a couple of bucks.

Trip

I might give that a go when I build the full size hive. Is it messy? I got a little hot wax on the counter today and it instantly set up.

My other idea was to put about an ounce of wax in the oven (200F seems perfect) on a baking sheet with parchment paper and let it melt until flat. Let it cool then slice into thin curf width strips and melt those into the top bars. I tried it on a few and it worked very well.

Brainchild wrote:

Hi Kit! Welcome to to the treasure trove of honey bee wisdom.
I,too am in the Houston area, to the north.

Excellent! My family is from Montgomery and my bees are coming from Navasota. I'm in Huffman.

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: East Texas

Brainchild — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:35:52 GMT

Author: Brainchild
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:35 am (GMT 0)

I'm to the north of Houston, also new. But we can all learn.
_________________
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration."

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Brainchild — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:32:13 GMT

Author: Brainchild
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:32 am (GMT 0)

Hi Kit! Welcome to to the treasure trove of honey bee wisdom.
I,too am in the Houston area, to the north.
_________________
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration."

Beginners start here :: RE: Slatted Racks

BoBnh — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:13:49 GMT

Author: BoBnh
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:13 am (GMT 0)

Here are a couple pictures of my slatted rack used on a Langstroth hive.
[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xl0CqBlPlcg/Tyx1Y_Gz0tI/AAAAAAAAATM/SwmVHeAdAHY/s640/100_2782.JPG [/img]
[img] https://picasaweb.google.com/113708807857871269885/SlattedRack?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_YtLGq6M6xxgE#5705063895971351010 [/img]

The frame is 3/4" x 3/4". The slats are 3/4" x 3/8".

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

biobee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:40:35 GMT

Author: biobee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:40 pm (GMT 0)

You can make almost any vertical transfer work if you put a squeeze on the bees in the upper box. If they can't go sideways, they will go down.
_________________
The Barefoot Beekeeper
The podcast
Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Trip — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:32:35 GMT

Author: Trip
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:32 pm (GMT 0)

Kit,

To pour wax into the top bar grooves I found using a childs medicine syringe works great. You can get them at any drug store for a couple of bucks.

Trip

Beginners start here :: RE: Another way to create a package of bees

Yaribee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:40:50 GMT

Author: Yaribee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:40 pm (GMT 0)

I agree, lovely hive! I notice you've used thin boards joined toegether for the sides, are they tongue and groove to stop them warping and leaving gaps? As in also had trouble finding wide boards for my top bar without paying a fortune, but did get some warping and splits in my ends after some months (took a few reinforcements is all).

How are your beesd getting on now?

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

Yaribee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:35:36 GMT

Author: Yaribee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:35 pm (GMT 0)

Wow thanks for all the advice, I'm very grateful to hear this before I make another slow mistake, would have taken me weeks or months to find this out on my own.

Is there any evidence to suggest a Warre hive would work ontop or under a Langstroth? I haven't looked up this topic yet but it occurred to me, I mean they build down without any frames in a Warre right?

Chees

Yari

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Kit_McConnico — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:34:04 GMT

Author: Kit_McConnico
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:34 pm (GMT 0)

Thanks Pat!

I got my mitts on some beeswax today and filled the grooves in my top bars with it. I don't have anything with a spout tiny enough to pour wax into them so I sliced it into thin pieces and worked it into the curf cut and tossed them into the oven to melt a bit.

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: East Texas

Kit_McConnico — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:29:44 GMT

Author: Kit_McConnico
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:29 pm (GMT 0)

Hi I'm in the Houston area but am new too

Beginners start here :: Rats in my old comb

Solarpat — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:19:30 GMT

Author: Solarpat
Subject: Rats in my old comb
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:19 pm (GMT 0)

When I lost my hive last year, my mentor told me to keep the old comb to use as bait in the swarm bait hives I planned to build. Well I'm starting to build them now and I noticed rat droppings in and around the old combs. The question is, can I still use those combs? Should I put them in a plastic bag and freeze them 24-48 hours? I hope that comb is still good.
Thanks,
Pat
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This forum is a great place to learn the buzz on bees.

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

biobee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:24:32 GMT

Author: biobee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:24 pm (GMT 0)

jumbleoak wrote:

For all their supposed natural inclination to build downwards, it just goes to show that bees do whatever they want!

That's for sure. It's their adaptability that got them through the last 100 million years.
_________________
The Barefoot Beekeeper
The podcast
Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

jumbleoak — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:25:49 GMT

Author: jumbleoak
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:25 pm (GMT 0)

For all their supposed natural inclination to build downwards, it just goes to show that bees do whatever they want!

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

biobee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:23:03 GMT

Author: biobee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:23 pm (GMT 0)

I have not used that exact method (the one in the linked thread) specifically to move bees from one type of hive to another, but I have successfully used it to reinforce a split from a National to a TBH. The only difference was that the National was left to raise another queen.
_________________
The Barefoot Beekeeper
The podcast
Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

Barbara — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:25:25 GMT

Author: Barbara
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:25 pm (GMT 0)

Hi Again

Hopefully this is the link to the thread in question:-

http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11084&highlight=crop+chop

Regards

Barbara

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

Barbara — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:21:06 GMT

Author: Barbara
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:21 pm (GMT 0)

Hi Yaribee

As regards your idea to make a top bar hive to fit on top of your Lang and hope they will build into it like a super, I think you may have problems with that because there is no means for the bees to climb up into the box above. In a super, they climb up the frames of foundation and draw it out but what will probably happen in your set up is that they will build up from the top bars of your Lang frames and you will end up with a mess that will be difficult to sort out. It is unlikely that the bees will climb up the walls of the box above and then chain down from the top bars above without some means of a ladder in the centre and even then you would get some bees building upwards either side of it.

Biobee recently suggested a different way to transfer by moving the original hive 3 meters away and turning it through 180degrees so that foragers can't find their way back and putting new hive on old site. Fastening some of their comb to top bars in new hive so that when the foragers arrive it smells like home and they start to deposit their loads. After 20mins when the old hive has less bees, locate the queen and carefully transfer her to the new hive and then brush in a couple of frames of nurse bees. (The new hive may need feeding to help with comb building). Close up both hives and leave them. You may end up with a split if the nurse bees in the old hive manage to rear a new queen or wait until all the brood has hatched and then brush all the remaining bees into the new hive or as Phil says "feed the brood to your chickens!"

This should only be undertaken when weather is settled and there is a good nectar flow.

Not sure if Phil has used this method or if he was just postulating....
Will try to find his post and link it, just in case I've got some of that wrong.

Best wishes

Barbara

Beekeeping books: recommendations and reviews :: RE: The Bad Beekeepers Club

biobee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:03:25 GMT

Author: biobee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:03 pm (GMT 0)

I am reliably informed that he imported a top bar hive into the UK last year...
_________________
The Barefoot Beekeeper
The podcast
Guide to Swarming and Swarm Management

Beekeeping books: recommendations and reviews :: RE: The Bad Beekeepers Club

HMcEwen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:16:42 GMT

Author: HMcEwen
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 2:16 pm (GMT 0)

I just finished this book (US version) and had the same observations you did. If I'd read The Bad Beekeeper when my interest was just developing I may have gone into growing tomatoes.

I plowed through the last third of the book when it gets off the topic of beekeeping. I think I may have had a harder go of it since, as an American, I had no idea who any of the celebrities he writes about are.

Horizontal top bar hives: construction and use :: RE: Transferring Langstroth Bees to a Top Bar Hive

Yaribee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:13:09 GMT

Author: Yaribee
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:13 pm (GMT 0)

I had a similar result late 2011 here in Byron Bay Australia, the bees wouldn't move down to my top bar hive and ended up swarming... I still have the langstroth and am about to try another method by putting a small top bar hive on top, much like a super, but without the queen excluder.

I'm hoping the queen will lay brood in this top bar, if not I'll have to get a queen and split the hive. will post a pic once it's in place.

Ps i did get a swarm to move into my original top bar and they are doing well

Yari[/img]

Sales and Wants :: RE: Black Bees

ChristianPoulsen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:42:01 GMT

Author: ChristianPoulsen
Subject: native northern europe
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:42 am (GMT 0)

Hi the black bee is native to northern europe, but today almost extinct.
beekeepers belive it has more problems with desiace than other races.
I belive it is because other 'exotic' races has been bread more with, as the normal bee was 'boring' to work with.

Friedrich Ruttner has written a very nice book about the black bee, it is named The dark european honey bee, i bought it from amazon prolly still availeble there

I my self has just aquired two pure or as pure as they can be black queens, I hope they overwinter, we have -15C here in Denamrk at the moment...

Checked two weeks ago they were still alive, just 2 -3 months to spring can't wait : D : ): ): :
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Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

newwoman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:45:59 GMT

Author: newwoman
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:45 am (GMT 0)

Hi Kit and welcome to the forum-your little hive looks great-and this forum is the best place to ask questions and get very good advice-there are some very knowledgable and helpful people here
Our temperatures at the moment here in North East Wales are a shivering 1 degree (C) in the daytime and who knows how many degrees minus at night
Even in a good summer 70 degrees F is a very rare occurrence
Good luck with your bees in April and hope that you catch a swarm soon for your little hive
Pat
_________________
Happiness is a journey not a destination

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Kit_McConnico — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:35:30 GMT

Author: Kit_McConnico
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:35 am (GMT 0)

I agree with the snow/ice situation. I will still ride in the 20's but not with snow or ice. The CanAm is a great ride period, trike or otherwise and is very, ahem, spirited with some heavy throttle. It just doesn't lean like a 2 wheeled machine.

I can go on about bikes all day but am trying to keep things bee related. In the last few weeks I've had bees in the roses and in my asparagus gathering pollen. They're some local girls from the neighborhood and I haven't been able to find the hive... yet.

For those not from the area today was in the mid 70's, well within bee flying temps. It's hot and I feel like I've been cheated out of winter this year.

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

MObeek — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:39:54 GMT

Author: MObeek
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:39 am (GMT 0)

Cool! I have a Dyna superglide/motortrike coverted trike. My husband and I just ride for fun. But in the winter, we dare not ride when there's snow or ice on the road or when the temp is below 35 degrees F.

I heard a CanAm Spyder is a great ride (for those who like trikes). Maybe when my current trike gives up the ghost, I'll consider getting a CanAm next.

Happy riding.

Make Contact: introduce yourself :: RE: Happy Groundhog Day from Texas

Kit_McConnico — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:35:27 GMT

Author: Kit_McConnico
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:35 am (GMT 0)

Hi MObeek

My daily driver is a 2005 BMW R1200GS. It's a touring bike really but can easily hop curbs or handle some light dirt. It's not the best at anything, but it does everything well. Our weather allows the luxury of riding every day and the fuel economy/use of HOV lanes/fun factor is too good to pass up even for commuting. I keep an '02 Ducati Monster 620 tucked away in the garage for fun and my wife rides a CanAm Spyder.