Top Bar Hive Management

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By Michael Bush Copyright 2015

What is so different?

• Horizontal

• Natural comb

• Fixed size– Many common beekeeping issues get amplified

or accelerated due to limited space

Horizontal

• This changes how they move in the winter somewhat.

• This changes how they expand in the spring somewhat

No foundation• This changes management somewhat

because you are not only doing your regular management but trying to get straight perfect combs.

Installation

• Don’t hang the queen cage

• Don’t leave out bars

• Don’t dump bees on top of a baggie feeder

• Don’t confine them

• Don’t smoke them

• Don’t let one bad comb lead to another bad comb

Installation• Install in minimum space

• Have equipment ready

• Wear protective equipment

First Year• Don’t worry about honey

• Try to get them built up enough for winter

• Don’t feed incessantly

• Don’t mess with them everyday

• Make sure they have enough weight going into winter

• Manage bars to keep the brood nest expanding and to get straight combs

Fixing broken or crooked comb

• Make some frames to hold broken or crooked comb

• Old dark brood comb can also be “sewn” or tied onto the top bar

• Soft white comb is difficult if not impossible to work with

• Heavy comb with honey should be harvested

Spacing• Honey combs are thicker (typically around

1 ½” or more) and brood combs are thinner (typically around 1 ¼”)

• When combs start to get too thick and bleed onto the next bar, a spacer can put things back on track. Having a number of these around is handy

Curving combs

• Combs often curve on the ends. They can often be pushed back in line when they are still soft and new.

• They can be cut and pushed back in line when they are tougher but empty.

• You may cause a collapse when they are soft and heavy

Feeding empty bars into the brood nest

• By far the best way to keep combs straight is to put empty bars between two straight combs in the brood nest.

• How to tell if this is appropriate?– Rapidly filling the gap with festooning bees– Warm nights

Spring with an established colony• Make sure they aren’t starving.

– Feeding?

• Clean out the bottom

• Make sure there are eggs and brood

• When you start seeing drones flying look for queen cells and keep the brood nest open– A frame of capped honey at the edge of the brood

nest will stop the queen from expanding

Stimulative Feeding

C.C. Miller, Brother Adam, G.M. Doolittle, Richard Taylor, W.Z. Hutchinson and Frank Pellet quotes are here: bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm

But all of them were against it. Here is one from Hutchinson that covers the basic issues:

Feeding

• The concept of “simulative” feeding may or may not work in your climate

• The concept of feeding pollen substitute in the spring is counterproductive unless timing in your climate makes it work

Hutchinson on Stimulative Feeding"The feeding of bees for stimulating brood-rearing in early

spring is now looked upon by many as of doubtful value. Especially is this true in the Northern States, where weeks of warm weather are often followed by 'Freeze up.' The average beekeeper in the average locality will find it more satisfactory to feed liberally in the fall-- enough, at least so that there shall be sufficient stores until harvest. If the hives are well protected, and the bees well supplied with an abundance of sealed stores, natural brood rearing will proceed with sufficient rapidity, early in the spring without any artificial stimulus. The only time that spring feeding is advisable is where there is a dearth of nectar after the early spring flow and before the coming of the main harvest." --W.Z. Hutchinson, Advanced Bee Culture

If you have a window, use it• If your hive came with (or you built it with)

a window, this can be very useful in management and in learning.

The Flow• The flow is different than when there is just

some nectar coming in

• Limited space requires frequent harvest

• Horizontal requires keeping the brood nest open on the end

• Careful not to harvest too much– Flows can end suddenly

Harvest

• Frequent small harvests

• Extra bars

• Crush and Strain

Winter

• Make sure the bees are at one end and honey is in contact with the cluster and no gaps in honey

• Empty bars at the far end

• Use a follower if you have one

• Insulate the cover

• Top entrance

Once winter sets in...• Leave them alone

– Good news will keep– Bad news won’t go away

• Bees are not dead until they are warm and dead

• Dead bees in the snow are a good sign

• Heft the hive in late winter for weight

Natural Comb Spacing

• Natural comb spacing contributes to natural cell size

• Bees naturally space brood 1 ¼”

• Spacing combs further apart leads to larger cells

• Spacing combs further apart leads to uneven comb

Kinds of top bar hives

•Kenya top bar hive (KTBH)–Sloped sides for less stress on the comb

•Tanzanian top bar hive (TTBH)–Square sides for ease of manufacture

Misconceptions/Fallicies

• Myth: Top Bar Hives are more natural– They can be, but you could make a Langstroth

be just as natural

• Myth: The shape is more natural– Bees seem perfectly happy in anything from an

old dry car gas tank to the soffit of a house

Reasons you might not want a Top Bar Hive

• Limited space requires the space be managed more carefully which requires more frequent interventions

• If your only reason for wanting a TBH is natural comb, you can do foundationless in a Langstroth

Reasons you might not want a Top Bar Hive

• If your only reason for a TBH is to get a horizontal hive and less lifting, you can just build a long Langstroth.

Typical Mistakes

• Buying a deep Langstroth nuc to install in a Top Bar Hive that does not take Langstroth frames (they probably heard or read that nucs are better)

• They hang the queen cage, to “be safe” rather than direct release and that messes up the first comb. One bad comb leads to another…

Typical Mistakes

• Once a come is messed up they do not set things right

• They build it too small and they swarm constantly

• They harvest too much honey and get a fall failure and there is no comb for the bees to store syrup and it’s too cold to draw comb

Typical Mistakes

• Blaming failures on the hive type– Bees colds starve sometimes in any equipment

• They won’t feed at all because it’s “unnatural”– Feed for the right reasons– Have a plan for how to feed them if you need to

• They won’t smoke the bees and think smoke upsets the bees

Contact Info:

For more info, questions, or to discuss this further:

www.bushfarms.com

bees at bushfarms com

Book: The Practical Beekeeper