best book for a beginner top bar hiver.

[biglongdarren]

my friend is planning on using a top bar hive,any suggestions for a good beginners book for her?
Darren

 

[the naked beekeeper]

phil Chandler's 'The barefoot beekeeper'

His website also has good info and podcasts for resources.

 

[SixFooter]

Don't do it though. Go for a proper hive. Easier, More productive

 

[VEG]

you will have to get "how to make sandals" as well lol

 

[tonybloke]

'swarms & how to catch them'

 

[madasafish]

TBHs are great if you want to take up bees with little expenditure.

But if you cannot diy, I would recommend poly hives as easier to manage..

 

[biglongdarren]

its not me thats getting the top bar hive its a friend,she has her bees in a poly national already and is looking to move them into the top bar hive.
i have givin her some nice brace comb,if she can attach that to a top bar and make up some sort of box to sit over the poly national she has now and then some how get the bees up into the top box to draw out a few top bars,and then when the queen is up there laying put a queen excluder over the bottom box to stop the queen getting back down in and get all the other bees up with her and eventually then just move the top bars into the top bar hive,and shake the rest of the bees in with her and the frames.
would this work if we done this and give the bees plenty of 1:1 syrup to help them draw the wax out?
or is there a far easier way?
Darren

 

[Pooh Bear]

I'm reading 'The Barefoot Beekeeper' - it's brilliant. I noticed that it was really warm in my TBH and I was worried the bees would suffocate. Phil Chandler writes about a combination of heat & scent that provides the beehive with its unique, nurturing and disease-resistant 'nest atmosphere'. "It is entirely possible that this combination of heat and scent may be important for the suppression of the Varroa mite, which, I have read, cannot reproduce above about 92° F (33° C)."

 

[oliver90owner]

I think you are just a litte bit 'carried away' with your interpration of the text.

Just think of brood in the middle of a broodnest.

 

[madasafish]

My TBHs have varroa.. And mine are insulated - so should be warmer overall.

So no better or worse than a "normal" hive.

 

[Pooh Bear]

My TBHs have varroa.. And mine are insulated - so should be warmer overall.

So no better or worse than a "normal" hive.

That's interesting, and I'm sorry to hear it. Are you still committed to TBH? I notice that my bees are much easier to work with in the TBH.

And Oliver, I like Phil Chandler's approach. I wouldn't say 'carried away'. He's affirming many of my own thoughts against intensive beekeeping. He says: "I disapprove of large-scale, commercial beekeeping because it inevitably leads to a 'factory farming' mentality in the way bees are treated, handled and robbed and a lack of consideration of its effects on biodiversity... Forcing 30, 50, 100 or more colonies to share the territory that, perhaps half a dozen would naturally occupy is bound to lead to concentrations of diseases and parasites that could not otherwise occur and that can only be dealt with by means of chemical or mechanical interventions, which, I and many others believe, weaken the bees' natural defences."

 

[madasafish]

That's interesting, and I'm sorry to hear it. Are you still committed to TBH? I notice that my bees are much easier to work with in the TBH.

Almost all UK bees have varroa.. Not a problem if you treat.

I like TBHs - good natured bees and easy to handle - IF you use the correct techniques of closing bars..

I light my smoker every time and very rarely have to use it. Ditto my water spray..

It's a hobby and should be enjoyable. None of this dressing like "a worker about to enter a radioactive reactor" stuff..

 

[TBRNoTB]

.....but what is a "proper hive" a straw skep? My first hive was a KTBH built whilst attending my first beginners course, which I populated with a purchased swarm! I know a complete beginner! I think (to quote a lapsed member) I learned a lot more about bee keeping using a TBH ie gentle manipulations, use of honey blocks etc. Albeit I have moved on to 14x12s(fallen into the trap some would say!) I still keep a TBH just to see how it is done the 'natural way' Fascinating.