bee_pipes
10-06-2008, 01:48 PM
Today we worked the hives. The langstroths both had two supers left on. These were primarily filled with partially filled comb that we wanted the bees to complete. Results were disappointing. We were able to remove an entire super of empty comb, bringing one hive closer to shutting down for the season. When we harvested honey, two months ago, both hives had partial comb. Because it was so early in the summer and winter comes so late here, we figured we’d be good for at least one more super. We placed a super of partially completed comb on top and a super of empty, drawn comb between the top super and the brood chambers. The thinking was to get the bees to fill the empty super and complete the top super. On one hive we found very little progress on the partial combs and no nectar at all in the empty comb. The other hive had partial comb in both supers. No harvest from the langstroths today
The top-bar hives were another matter. The one with the fancy paint job is getting along, but not breaking any records. The new one, which we hived a swarm in, is going gangbusters. The last top bars had comb over six inches in thickness. This is great, a beautiful sight to behold, but not very practical from a management point of view. We have never worked with this sort of hive before, so this is all new territory. Where as the frames of a langstroth hive can be placed in an empty super and carried around, top bars are fragile and require more support than that. The best I could come up with is using spatulas and buckets to collect the comb. This is a messy business and results in getting honey everywhere. Bees don’t much care where they find honey and will rob and exposed honey. In short order there are bees on tools, gloves and everything else that has been touched with sticky gloves.
Picture below is a view of the top bar hive with a few bars removed, looking down into hive.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w__1_top_bar_hive.jpg
As stated previously, the one with the fancy paint job was not thriving. Many of the combs in back were only partially completed. Open cells with nectar and green honey were visible. The swarm hive, though, has been busy this year. It was difficult to remove top bars because the comb was so thick. It kept shearing off on adjoining bars as it was lifted from the hive. After a number of bars were removed and harvested a little more care could be taken in sliding comb back before lifting out. Even so, there was quite a mess of honey in the bottom of the hive.
The picture below is a view of a top-bar with the comb hanging.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w_1_top_bar_comb.jpg
Short of building a box to hold the top bar comb, it is difficult to handle without breaking. We may need to construct a box after seeing the behavior of the bees today. The best rig I could come up with was to stack two empty supers and put the fume board over it. It doesn’t seem to have worked too well. I returned after two hours and found the bees had pretty well ripped up the one intact comb I harvested and were filling the buckets that had been filled with broken comb. The fume board didn’t seem to bother them. Figuring the problem was there was too much ventilation, I left the intact top-bar comb to the bees – they were in a robbing frenzy by then – and moved the empty super boxes and buckets of honey comb to another location. Using a piece of cardboard to seal the bottom of the boxes, I placed the buckets inside and refreshed the fume board. A small opening was left for the bees to exit. I watched for a while – the foragers/robbers found the opening but didn’t have any desire to enter. Eventually the fumes began building up inside and I saw bees beginning to exit. This is not very efficient/effective. We’re going to have to research this and devise something a little more efficient for harvesting.
The picture below shows a six quart bucket receiving harvested comb.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w_1_top_bar_comb_harvest.jpg
Anybody out there with a top-bar hive? Got pointers on harvesting?
Regards,
Pat
The top-bar hives were another matter. The one with the fancy paint job is getting along, but not breaking any records. The new one, which we hived a swarm in, is going gangbusters. The last top bars had comb over six inches in thickness. This is great, a beautiful sight to behold, but not very practical from a management point of view. We have never worked with this sort of hive before, so this is all new territory. Where as the frames of a langstroth hive can be placed in an empty super and carried around, top bars are fragile and require more support than that. The best I could come up with is using spatulas and buckets to collect the comb. This is a messy business and results in getting honey everywhere. Bees don’t much care where they find honey and will rob and exposed honey. In short order there are bees on tools, gloves and everything else that has been touched with sticky gloves.
Picture below is a view of the top bar hive with a few bars removed, looking down into hive.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w__1_top_bar_hive.jpg
As stated previously, the one with the fancy paint job was not thriving. Many of the combs in back were only partially completed. Open cells with nectar and green honey were visible. The swarm hive, though, has been busy this year. It was difficult to remove top bars because the comb was so thick. It kept shearing off on adjoining bars as it was lifted from the hive. After a number of bars were removed and harvested a little more care could be taken in sliding comb back before lifting out. Even so, there was quite a mess of honey in the bottom of the hive.
The picture below is a view of a top-bar with the comb hanging.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w_1_top_bar_comb.jpg
Short of building a box to hold the top bar comb, it is difficult to handle without breaking. We may need to construct a box after seeing the behavior of the bees today. The best rig I could come up with was to stack two empty supers and put the fume board over it. It doesn’t seem to have worked too well. I returned after two hours and found the bees had pretty well ripped up the one intact comb I harvested and were filling the buckets that had been filled with broken comb. The fume board didn’t seem to bother them. Figuring the problem was there was too much ventilation, I left the intact top-bar comb to the bees – they were in a robbing frenzy by then – and moved the empty super boxes and buckets of honey comb to another location. Using a piece of cardboard to seal the bottom of the boxes, I placed the buckets inside and refreshed the fume board. A small opening was left for the bees to exit. I watched for a while – the foragers/robbers found the opening but didn’t have any desire to enter. Eventually the fumes began building up inside and I saw bees beginning to exit. This is not very efficient/effective. We’re going to have to research this and devise something a little more efficient for harvesting.
The picture below shows a six quart bucket receiving harvested comb.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/w_1_top_bar_comb_harvest.jpg
Anybody out there with a top-bar hive? Got pointers on harvesting?
Regards,
Pat