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I just found out there was a beekeeping seminar last weekend here in town, and I missed it! 
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Sep 17, 2009 22:41
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Chajara posted:Mother Earth News has an article on top-bar hives: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/Top-Bar-Beekeeping-Method.aspx I am very interested in that top-bar method. I have read some articles saying that the box hives promote a larger-cell build, which makes the bees more susceptible to disease/mites, etc. And that the top bar promotes a more natural comb-size, which is beneficial to the bees. Not sure of the science behind that, but the simplicity of the top-bar hive definitely appeals to me (and the price!). Ishamael fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Sep 21, 2009 |
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Sep 21, 2009 22:11
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Maximusi posted:Well I got some fall honey a while ago. It tastes delish! I'm in cali and I dunno about you guys but my bees are bringing a crapload of pollen in the hive. Spring? This made my mouth water. Awesome!
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Nov 13, 2009 23:17
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We did an early Christmas with my wife's side of the family, and they actually got me some Beekeeping books! I put them on my wish list as an afterthought, but I got Beekeeping for Dummies and Barefoot Beekeeping. Nice!
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Dec 7, 2009 15:43
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TouchyMcFeely posted:For what it's worth, if you're planning on keeping a hive next year, now is the time to start prepping. Awesome, thanks for the info. Unfortunately we will be moving between now and next summer, so it will be the 2011 when I get my hive up and running. But now I can start researching and learning stuff, can't wait! On a slightly related note, bought some local sourwood honey at the farmers market this weekend, and it is FANTASTIC.
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Dec 7, 2009 16:41
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So here is a random bee question. Let's say I was to start a hive in the spring, tend it for the spring, summer, and early fall, and then find out we had to move somewhere else. What would happen to the bees? Would they be ok? Would they just swarm out? Would they all die, or carry away neighbor's children for sustenance? I ask, obviously, because I really want to start a hive this year but there is a 50% chance we will be moving next Sept.-Oct. and I don't want to just start a hive to let it die.
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Dec 30, 2009 19:43
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OK goons I need some help! After much cajoling and convincing, my landlord finally agreed to let us keep bees in our backyard. So I am definitely putting a top-bar hive in my backyard asap! One problem: due to the delay, it's late in the season to order bees. I have heard that it is do-able but difficult. Help me find bees, please! I am in North Carolina - any ideas?
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Mar 1, 2010 22:30
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Sorry for the double post, but nevermind! I found a local beekeeper who is willing to sell me a nuc! Rock and roll... 
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Mar 2, 2010 02:00
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I've got to buy a veil now, has anyone bought one from Betterbee? I was looking at the tie-down veil. http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=611 Anyone have this one, or have one they really love from somewhere else?
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Mar 3, 2010 05:08
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Well I am definitely building a top bar hive this weekend. I will take lots of pictures to show the thread! I am meeting with my bee farmer on Saturday to discuss when I can get the bees, my guess is the end of the month. So the adventure is beginning!
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Mar 4, 2010 20:25
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Awesome, I talked to my bee farmer today, he is a really cool guy. He will sell me a 5-frame nuc for $80, plus guarantee the bees for 30 days. He also said he would be willing to stop by anytime to check on my bees if I wanted.  Also, I bought all my lumber for my top bar hive (it cost about $65 in lumber) and built my follower boards and legs. Tomorrow I will assemble the rest and put up some pictures. Overall, a good day for bees!
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Mar 7, 2010 02:29
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Sorry for the double post, but here are some pics of the beehive progress. I got most of it done, I still have to add the roof, cut the rest of my top bars, and paint. This is a Top Bar Hive, which you can read more about at biobees.com Lumber  Cutting the follower boards  Gluing the follower boards to 2 top bars  Attaching the sides and ends  Adding a mesh to the bottom for ventilation and mite removal  And here is where it stands now. The clamped part is the base of the roof, I still have to add the gables and roof pieces.  Next weekend I will finish it up, and get it ready for our buzzing friends.
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Mar 8, 2010 06:13
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Hey, that's really cool! Hard to say exactly, my first lumber trip was $65, but then I took a couple things back and got a few more, I would probably say $80 in lumber overall. The bigger expenses came because I had to buy a couple tools - I didn't have clamps, sawhorses, or a good drill bit. So that was probably another $45 or so. (Turns out I have lots of good car tools and no good woodworking ones!) But I could make another one much cheaper now, so that's good. Overall it was a lot of fun, and I learned that I need to improve my woodworking skills, because I am no expert! Ishamael fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Mar 8, 2010 |
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Mar 8, 2010 16:18
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Leperflesh posted:Are you going to build supers that stack on top, or is that the whole hive? Top bars generally don't have supers, but you can add them if you want. Top bars make less honey than a Langstroth, but I will still get more than I can handle eating myself hehe.
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Mar 8, 2010 23:48
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Slung Blade posted:GIVE ME YOUR CAR. No! You go drive your electric tractor and leave my car alone! Also, thanks. I am glad it looks beautiful from a few feet away, haha. My woodworking skills are definitely rusty.
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Mar 9, 2010 15:09
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Yet another double post, but it's been a while so I don't feel bad. Made some more progress on the beehive! Iced tea break - the gables are cut and in place on the roof.  Fitting the roof panels.  I found an old box of roofing shingles in the shed so I decided to do a shingled roof. It will work great for waterproofing, but I am a bit concerned that it's gonna get too hot in the summer. We'll see. In progress:  All my top bars are cut, once I get my beeswax in the mail I can put the beeswax strip on the bottom of each bar.   Here it is with the roof on.  Today I'll be painting the outside white to help repel some heat as well as protect my cheap-rear end wood. It's coming along! EDIT: Here it is, all painted! 
Ishamael fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Mar 14, 2010 |
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Mar 14, 2010 15:51
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TouchyMcFeely posted:That's pretty friggin' sweet that you put that all together yourself. Thanks dude! I will keep updating with pics, I should be getting my bees at the beginning of April. Maximusi posted:Just checked my hive and I think my queen is dead. Which means my hive is totally hosed. WHY GOD WHYYY?! I'm so sad. Better order another queen asap. But how do you know your queen is dead? Do you have laying workers? Also, how many queen cells do you have?
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Mar 15, 2010 01:48
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Maximusi posted:I didn't look very thoroughly because the bees were really agitated but I need to confirm whether or not I have a laying worker or a failing queen. If I have a laying worker I'm definitely hosed. I didn't see any queen cells. How many frames are filled, and did you check all of them? A queen will sometimes lay more than one egg in a cell, if that is what you are using as your indication that she is dead. If it's more than 2 in a cell, odds are you have laying workers. Basically, tell us more! What makes you think she is dead, what did you check, what did you see? EDIT: Also, you can just order a new queen very easily and not be "hosed".
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Mar 15, 2010 16:15
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Maximusi posted:But if you have a laying worker, ordering a queen will not solve your problem. The bees will kill the queen every time, guaranteed. Because they think laying worker=queen. Well, a laying worker is definitely more of a sticky situation, but it is still solveable. Usually you have to introduce a frame of new brood into the hive, or I have read about people dumping the whole swarm a ways from the hive, and the younger ones make their way back and the laying workers don't. Anyhow, glad to hear the queen is dead. As for drone comb, there isn't a set amount they will make. Some of the top bar people have seen as much as 20% of their total comb taken up by drone comb, no one is quite sure why the amount of drone comb can fluctuate so much. EDIT: meant to say "glad to hear the queen ISN'T dead" Ishamael fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Mar 22, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 14:10
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Finished up my hive this weekend, woo! First I cut some entrances on either end, and corked all but one.  Here it is in its spot in the yard.  Then I found out that my mesh bottom was made of squares that were too big (the bees could get out and wasps could get in), so I put in a new one. I found a needlework mesh at the craft store and overlapped the pieces a little. My wife sewed them together to make them bee-tight.  Then it was time to make the bars. I took my bars, measured the middles, and got some beeswax. (I used 3 sheets of cut comb starter strips, total)  Then I got a cheapo brush and some natural twine.  I melted the beeswax in a double boiler.  Then I painted the strings into place, and cut them to length with an exacto knife after the wax dried.   All done! My bees should be here in a week or two.
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Mar 21, 2010 13:10
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Rescue Toaster posted:I'm so jealous, Ishmael. Well, you can never really inhibit swarming per se, but you can create an artificial swarm by using the design that I am using, with the follower boards and flipped entrances (biobees.com). Then you can choose to move half the hive to the other end if you want. Or, if you think it's just based on crowding, you can expand the hive by a few more bars (until the hive fills up). As far as having a honey super like a lang hive, I have seen some people that have done it - it looks weird but it seems to work. Most top bars, though, operate on the principle of minimal interference, so you just wait until a bar is completely honey and then steal it, rather than trying to create a brood area and a honey area. (Obviously you only steal it once you are sure that the bees will have enough honey for the winter) The bees will naturally make their brood nest near the entrance, and then make honey moving out from there. The Barefoot Beekeeper book is decent, although he seems to be writing from an angry place ("Stupid beekeepers now don't know the damage they are doing! Raa!"), where most other beekeeping books come from a place of "this is a cool hobby that helps your plants, come join us!"
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Mar 22, 2010 14:28
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c0ldfuse posted:
Do you have your bee supplier lined up yet? If not, check craigslist, or go to the local farmers market and talk to the honey people (that's how I found my guy) Hey, are there any bee-goons in the Raleigh NC area who want to help me install my bees next weekend? I have to chop a couple frames and could use some extra hands. I have an extra veil!
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Mar 26, 2010 15:18
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woop woop
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Oneiros posted:First time bee-keeper here. My father and I are getting our bees in later this month, so we are starting to put everything together in anticipation of their arrival Great looking hive, Oneiros! Good luck. Well my bees should arrive next Saturday, if the beekeeper doesn't flake on me. So I did a couple last-minute things to the hive, including adding some screened ventilation holes to the roof gables, and creating a little patch of gravel for the hive to sit on, to make mowing easier. I think it looks pretty good.  And here is the view out of our kitchen window now.  Can't wait!
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Apr 4, 2010 23:51
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. I can't wait to see the little girls all over our rosemary.
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Nice work on the quick Top-bar hive, tanisen! Looks like you have 2 nice-sized hives of bees now. I'm surprised they stung you so much, though. Usually swarming bees are pretty docile. Here is a picture of a swarm that appeared on my car a couple years ago, it is actually what first got me interested in beekeeping, watching a co-worker deal with them and having them be so chill. He just scooped them into a box and put them near the hedges of the parking lot.   Well I finally heard from my beekeeper, he is ready for me to come get the bees! He wanted to give me a nuc hive, but since I have the top bar hive he doesn't know how to deal with that and so he is giving me a package instead. I tried to talk to him about cropping the frames to a TBH setup but he didn't seem interested in letting me try that (or doing it himself). In any case, I should have bees by this weekend! Can't wait! Ishamael fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Apr 8, 2010 |
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Apr 8, 2010 20:25
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Tanisen posted:I was kind of surprised as well. Talked to my father last night, who also keeps bees, and he said the same thing. I think it had to do with how they were draped across two limbs and I had to scoop half of them, couldn't just hit the branch and let them drop in easily. Nope, the white gravel box is just to make mowing easier, but I hope that it will cut down on bugs and critters as well.
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Apr 9, 2010 01:03
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Double post but I don't care. Picking up my bees at lunch today, then I will take them home and put them somewhere warm but out of the sun, and I will install them as soon as I get home from work! I never figured out a good feeder system for my top bar hive, so I will just be using a baggie feeder above the bars. Hope it works! I should have some pictures tomorrow. Wish me luck...
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Apr 9, 2010 15:26
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:You know try as I might, I can't find any exact blueprints for a Top Bar Hive. I guess they're all rather "catch as catch can". biobees.com has a downloadable PDF that has all the dimensions in it, the plans are not put together in a super orderly way but all the numbers are in it. Worked for me! Also, I went and got my package of Italian bees with a new queen, and drove them home. Here they are resting on my porch until dinnertime.  I have to say it's a new and unique experience to drive in a car with 10,000 bees in the passenger seat. Installation tonight! 
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Apr 9, 2010 18:39
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OK, the bees are in their new home! Only one minor snag, and that was pure idiocy on my part. The queen cage had a cork on either end, and I took the cork out of the non-candied end. So she just fell right out into the hive! I hope she stays there!! Anyhow, here is the pictorial. Unfortunately I was losing the light so the end pics are a little dark. The package, 10,000+ Italian bees! Spraying them with some sugar syrup. They really responded to that, and calmed right down.  Top off.  Can feeder out.  Putting the queen cage in.  Prying the cork out of the WRONG GODDAMN END  Shake those bees!!  Hive full of bees.  Reassembling the hive bars and removing the now useless queen cage.  Bees hanging out at the entrance.  And there we go! I will have to wait a week or so to let them get situated. I did notice a problem with my hive - the follower boards are not tight enough along the sides, and bees are in the empty portion too. I hope they get bored and go back into the main section. I will definitely be learning a lot.
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Apr 10, 2010 01:11
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Maximusi posted::s I hope they don't kill your queen! Well, they have been in that box together since Tuesday, so I am hoping they have accepted her scent by now.
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Apr 10, 2010 01:21
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Well it's been a full day and the bees are still in the hive! Thanks to the screened bottom I can lay under the hive once they are all back in at night and look up to see them. They are clustering in the corners, but they haven't started building any comb yet (of course its only been one day). I went out early this morning to see how they were doing and saw a big bunch of them had moved back into the package box. So I re-opened the hive and dumped that pile into the hive as well. I wanted to get them all in before their first day of exploration. It worked well, but waking bees up in the chilly morning makes them annoyed! I got stung once on the hand, but I got the stinger out quick so it didn't swell up at all. They went nuts all day, coming and going from the hive being busy little bees (hurr), and come sundown they all went back in. So far, so good!
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Apr 11, 2010 01:01
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Wow, those packages are huge! So it's day 2 and things are going well (I think!). The hive is crazy busy, with bees flying everywhere. I put the boardman feeder near the entrance to give them some extra food just in case, but they seem to be ignoring it. In any case, I am having a great time just sitting on the porch and watching them work. I can't see pollen on their legs, but I am not that close. Hopefully they are having no problem finding food in the area, since every plant in the world is blooming this weekend.
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Apr 11, 2010 16:46
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Leperflesh posted:It's raining. Is it OK to hive bees like, during a pause between rain showers? They say to do it in the evening, but I expect doing it between showers would have the same effect (bees stay home), yeah? The guy I bought my hive from said that he has installed them in the rain before, but he said you should button it up quickly after the bees are all in, to keep any large amounts of water out of the hive. In other news, I am having a really hard time just sitting on my hands and waiting a week to open up the hive and check on everyone. But at least with the mesh floor I can peek in at night from underneath and see a little bit of what's up. I can see that they haven't moved the pile of dead bees from the bottom of the hive yet (they got shaken in with the package) - is that normal? I was under the impression that they would move everything out to keep the hive clean. Ishamael fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Apr 11, 2010 |
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Apr 11, 2010 21:46
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Leperflesh posted:Installed Beees!!!! Nice! Hope it goes well for you. On my end, I am pretty disheartened about my bees. I took the roof off to check on the feeder and they haven't touched it at all, because the space between the bars that I made for them to get through had been closed, either by my jostling when I put the roof on, or by them. So they haven't been getting any food, which probably explains the complete lack of any comb they've built so far. Also, there are a lot of dead bees on the floor in the empty end of the hive. It looks like they snuck in the gap under the follower and then got stuck in there and died. And I have no idea if the queen is among that group of dead bees (I didn't want to actually open the hive this soon after installation, I am just peeking up from underneath). I re-opened the gap so that they could get to the feeder bag, but who knows if it will work. To be honest, the pile of living bees looks pretty darn small compared to what it was. I might be over-worrying, but if I have to start over completely in a couple weeks I won't be surprised. 
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Apr 12, 2010 13:16
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Well, some good news and some bad news. On the plus side, I can definitely see that they have created honeycomb on one of the top bars. Yay! On the down side, I think the number of living bees is now too small to sustain itself. When they are all in the hive at night, the living bees make a clump the size of my fist. When I started it was 3x that size at least. So I am going to start planning on starting over.
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Apr 13, 2010 12:41
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Slung Blade posted:If they clump up, doesn't that mean they're cold? They shouldn't be, it's 80 degrees out. Well I talked to my beekeeper that I bought the bees from, he isn't as pessimistic as me. He says the fact they have built comb is a good thing, and if the bees are still coming and going actively from the hive then the queen is probably alive. But he did say that he will replace the bees if they continue to die off.
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Apr 13, 2010 18:55
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Maximusi posted:That's weird. I wondered what happened? Have you been able to find the queen? I haven't opened the hive all the way yet, I don't want to disturb them too much. I take the roof piece off in the mornings to refill their feeder (now a plate since the bag didn't work), but that's it. I am peeking in from under the mesh bottom in the evenings once they are all back in the hive.
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Apr 14, 2010 00:01
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Well guys, it's been less than a week and almost all my bees are dead. I know I've said most of this before but everyone in real life is sick of hearing me talk about it so I turn to you, internet. I installed them on Friday, and as of this morning there is only a tennis-ball sized clump of them left in the hive, the rest are all dead along the bottom of the hive. I don't know if the feeder problems were an issue - the baggie feeder got stuck shut (and they never touched the entrance feeder until yesterday), or if it was taking the roof piece off to replace the food in the mornings - maybe they got too cold? Or they may have come with a pest when I first got them - I have no idea. It's just super disappointing to spend so much time working on their hive and getting it set up, only to gently caress up so completely and quickly.
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Apr 15, 2010 19:12
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Well here's a related question that someone might know. If my bees all die this week, I will be getting a new package (luckily free of charge!) from the beekeeper. Do I need to remove the comb that the old bees made, or will the new ones be ok using another hive's stuff?
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Apr 15, 2010 20:58
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Maximusi posted:Ishmael, you said you built the hive with a mesh underneath, right? That might make them too cold. I think the lack of access to a feeder might have done them in as well. All the top bar hives have mesh bottoms, its pretty standard. I don't think that was the problem, but the feeder might have been.
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Apr 16, 2010 18:52
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 21:30 |
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My feeder setup was a fiasco. Here we go: I had a baggie feeder on top of the bars under the lid, and I left a gap between the follower board and the first bar so they could crawl up and get to the feeder. But they didn't, because it appears that when I put the lid back on, it closed that gap by accident. On day 2 I put an entrance feeder on a platform right near the entrance, but they never touched it for days. Eventually they did, though. The baggie feeder then got even worse because the places in the bag where the syrup would pool up would harden, and then they couldn't eat it. So I replaced the baggie with a plate of sugar syrup, with some debris in there for them to stand on. But that hardened up too. So I have just been refilling the entrance feeder and not messing with the top anymore. On the good news side, I had to go home in the middle of the afternoon for something, and the hive was busy-ish! Lots of bees coming and going, couldn't see pollen in their legs but it was hard to tell. Not as many bees coming and going as last weekend, but a pretty steady traffic. Also I saw plenty of bees at the boardman feeder, so maybe they can pull through after all. I will have my first full hive inspection tomorrow afternoon, I will know more then. If I had to do it again (and I might yet), I would incorporate the feeder into the hive plan, and make it externally accessible. Basically a feeder like this guy did: 
Ishamael fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Apr 16, 2010 |
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Apr 16, 2010 21:23
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