my first tbh "DIY"

[Dishmop]

No, an observation.

Most confusing!! Observations with question marks..

 

[Heather]

Can you explain how you do varroa treatment with a top bar hive, please. I looked at one recently and there is no access...

 

[madasafish]

I place Apiguard on a shelf# at the bottom of the TBH hive at the far end from the entrance.. Seems to work OK...

# Shelf is a fine word for a small piece of wood perched end to end on the two sloping sides and bridging the mesh floor.. You could just place it on the mesh floor.

 

[Mike a]

I use a very thin Palette knife similar to this one when managing my TBH so its easy to spread the top bars to make a tiny gap between them.

I am going to dip several long lengths of wool into Apigard and carefully spread several bars to suspend the wool between the bars. As some of my bars weren't cut perfectly along their length I will also leave the rest of the tray on top of the bars so it can fumigate down between the gaps once any properlise seal has been broken using the knife.

 

[Brosville]

"I looked at one recently and there is no access..." - doesn't compute........
There's umpteen ways - for sugar dusting you move the bars apart and apply the sugar, or some enterprising souls blow it up from below through the mesh floor - you could use the former method for oxalic, lactic or thymol.....

 

[oliver90owner]

Most confusing!!

Ahh, easily confused. That explains it.

 

[Dishmop]

Most confusing!!

Ahh, easily confused. That explains it.

It does seem that you are.

Warre? Doesn't sound like it. With a warre, you only open the hive with great difficulty for the honey harvest?

Warre? A question. Doesnt sound like it. Doesnt sound like what????? Can you please explain?

You state that a Warre hive is only opened for harvest,, but turn it into a question.

As I am a new beek I dont think that you are asking me something that you dont know so I assume you are telling me that I should only open my hive for the harvest.... Surely thats not right.

 

[Brosville]

The classic way of running a Warre hive is to only open it for harvest - the theory being that the bees themselves can deal with most problems themselves if left undisturbed.(With a mesh floor you can do varroa counts without disturbing them)
A swift Google of "Nestduftwarmebindung" and a following of the links should make it all clear.......
They tend to be run on a total "hands off" fashion - swarming is normal, natural, and not to be discouraged- whoopee, new queen and free colony time!

Here's a fairly scholarly article on Warre hives by David Heaf, produced in response to a frankly deeply ignorant article slating them in a regional bee publication - http://www.dheaf.plus.com/warrebeekeeping/heaf_replies_to_davies.pdf

 

[Dishmop]

Thankyou Brosville....

Thats a very interesting article. Expands a great deal on what I had already read.