On Fri, 8 Nov 1996, Gerry Visel wrote:
 
>    With your TBHs, do you gotta destroy the combs to get the honey?
> Restart every year?  Why TBHs?
 
Gerry, I only press the combs that have the surplus honey.  I leave about
15 bars on each of my colonies for overwintering.  I also use a divider
board or a sheet of newspaper to reduce the volume in the hive.  The bees
rebuild comb each year that I will harvest as surplus.  I made my hives 20
bars long, though perhaps 30 would be better.  Still, I am able to remove
bars of comb that have been capped at any time I want.
 
Why TBH's??  These are a few of the reasons:
 
l. No supers to lift, frames to nail together, foundation to wire in,
sticky combs and supers to hassel with after honeyflows.
 
2. Bees are easier to work and are "happier". :)
 
3. I press the honey out of virgin combs and it is, in my opinion, better
than honey extracted from old combs and exposed to air during
extraction.  I get less, but better, honey and more beeswax.  I like
beeswax!
 
4. The tbh's are cheap.  I've had bears raid two of my hives at Ellijay.
I simply pick up the tb's, harvest any wax left, merge any bees I can
find, and put in a 1/2" strip of starter foundation which I make...then
it's ready to go again.  No frames to replace, foundation to buy, etc.
 
There are many other reasons, but this type of beekeeping simply better
fits my aims and philosophy.  Queen rearing is a snap with tbh's, for
example.
 
I'll read in a file which will have some more explanation and comments.
I may eventually establish a website devoted exclusively to tbh beekeeping.
 
Top Bar Hives
 
TBH's are wonderful once a beekeeper gets over the idea that bees
must have a hive made of certain materials, etc.  I bought some spruce
and masonite for the first half dozen I made.  It wound up costing about
$12.00 for a hive which included 20 bars.  I've since started garnering
scrap or discarded materials, and except for 2" drywall screws and glue,
I'm not spending anything now.  I bought a couple of gallons of rejected
paint at Home Depot for $3.00 per gallon, but I've found at least 10
gallons of paint on the side of the road.  If I ride through the
residential areas on Sunday evenings, with trash pickup on Monday, I find
all sorts of usable stuff.  I found a sheet of 3/4" A-C plywood (4'x8')
that was just dirty a little, for example.  I try to avoid any materials
that might be treated lumber or perhaps have any type of insecticide
associated with it.  We in the good ole USA waste so much stuff!
 
As a result of this, I have hives that are white, Cape Hatteras blue,
Cape Cod red, beige, a mud brown, etc.  Bottoms are of masonite,
plywood, chipboard, flakeboard...whatever is at hand.  If a board isn't
wide enough for a side, I piece it out to make it wider.  The bees don't
care.
 
I want to try some large plastic (or metal) drums cut lengthwise.  Top
bars would rest on the exposed edges...combs built would be crescent
shaped.  It should work very well...think it is being done in South Africa.
 
SO...I'm going the frugal route and recycling when possible.  I've tried
cardboard sheets for covers, but I haven't found a good way to waterproof
them to my satisfaction.  I've settled for 5-v tin.  I paint it a light
color to reflect the heat.  It's noisy, but it will last.  If you buy the
tin, it's about $2.00 for a piece that is a good size for a cover.  I
buy a 12' piece ($7.50) and get three covers out of it, plus a cover for a
nuc.
 
I put a brick in the center of the hive, put the tin on, then  use 4
bricks to bend the tin over and hold it down.  Haven't had a cover blow
off yet.  The tin could be tied on.
 
 
You can go from a Langstroth hive to a tbh by cutting out comb and tying it
to the tb's until the bees attach it.  I noted on the BEE-L earlier that
someone had suggested using rubber bands to hold comb in frames until the
bees attach it.  That might work with tb's, but you'd need to put a
u-shaped piece of screen wire or paper or something on the bottom to keep
the bands from cutting into the comb.  If you want to hive a swarm, it's no
different from Langstroth hives, though I'd try to give a bar with brood to
help jumpstart the swarm; moreover, providing some bars with drawn combs
gives the swarm more surface areas to cling to and helps them set up shop.
I'll be glad to answer any questions that you might have about tbh's from
my limited perspective.
                               -end of file-
 
Cordially yours,
 
Jim
 
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  |  James D. Satterfield        |  E-Mail: [log in to unmask]       |
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