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Adam B House Bee
Joined: 24 Mar 2019 Posts: 16 Location: St Albans UK
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Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 10:53 am Post subject: Clarity on the "Additional Maintenance Required" |
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I read in many (most) forums and blogs that "Top Bar Hives Require More Constant Maintenance than Boxed hives" (Boxed being National, Langstroth, etc. depending upon location of the article.)
What is difficult is no one seems to say exactly what this additional maintenance IS or WHY it's needed.
Can anyone enlighten me on this? |
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imago Nurse Bee
Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 29 Location: Switzerland, Rhone valley
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Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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I'm curious to know where you read such things because I think it's the opposite. |
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Adam B House Bee
Joined: 24 Mar 2019 Posts: 16 Location: St Albans UK
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wa1ter New Bee
Joined: 10 May 2018 Posts: 3 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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Adam B wrote: |
Bees are often crushed between top-bars as the beekeeper rearranges the bars after removing them from the hive body. This problem can be serious when colonies are manipulated at night. When bees are crushed in this way, it is difficult to fix the last top-bar into place. Crushing bees is usually not a serious problem with frame hives.
A top-bar hive is relatively easy to steal, as it is light and compactly designed. It is more difficult to steal hives and supers arranged one above the other. |
I didn't read all the links as I unfortunately don't have time for that right now. But, crushing bees when handling top bars doesn't happen more than when handling frames so it really shouldn't happen at all. Also, you don't have to remove and put back supers which is where a lot of the crushing actually happens.
As for the top bar hive being easy to steal because they're light and compact... I guess most people haven't moved, or even seen, the average horizontal top bar hive yet . Is it easier to steal warre boxes because they are lighter? I guess but I doubt it's easier to steal 3 or 4 warre boxes than it is to steal a langstroght with supers. |
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wa1ter New Bee
Joined: 10 May 2018 Posts: 3 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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Forgot to say, as for the extra maintenance part... during expansion of the brood nest you'll have to pay a bit more attention to make sure your bees don't run out of space. Same during a heavy flow. But that's the only extra maintenance I can think of. And it's as easy as checking if they have enough space and if not, inserting a bar in the right place. If that's the extra maintenance they are talking about, I think I can live with that
Oh, and if you use warrés, according to Warré's principles, instead of horizontal hives you have a lot less maintenance than in most other hives. |
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imago Nurse Bee
Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 29 Location: Switzerland, Rhone valley
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:45 am Post subject: |
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I've read through the linked pages. There are some interesting views but they never really get into the details of this extra maintenance.
I've two half dadant hives (originally bought to host dadant frames for futher transfers but they re-queened over the years) and they require more maintenance than my TBHs.
One must also note that there are differences between colonies : some build straight combs and do not fix them against the walls, some are weird, so it's difficult to generalise over a small sample size.
Anyway, it is true that modern hives were built with the idea of honey production, easy maintenance and easy move. I switched to TBH because I'm an hobbyist, I don't like to open a frame hive with a lot of smoke, I don't have to invest and store honey extraction material, I don't want to buy frames and waxes, I don't want to break my back. With the KTBH, hive inspection is a pleasure, does not require smoke and most of the time I even don't need to inspect it fully.
BTW it is true that it can be difficult to insert the last bar, in my recent hives I've added an extra 5 mm length to cope with bar expansion due to humidity or crushed bees. |
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Quality Top Bar Hives by Andrew Vidler
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Conserving wild bees
Research suggests that bumble bee boxes have a very low success rate in actually attracting bees into them. We find that if you create an environment where first of all you can attract mice inside, such as a pile of stones, a drystone wall, paving slabs with intentionally made cavities underneath, this will increase the success rate.
Most bumble bee species need a dry space about the size a football, with a narrow entrance tunnel approximately 2cm in diameter and 20 cm long. Most species nest underground along the base of a linear feature such as a hedge or wall. Sites need to be sheltered and out of direct sunlight.
There is a spectacular display of wild bee hotels here
More about bumblebees and solitary bees here
Information about the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
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