Novel design - "Thrivehive"

[Skyhook]

Some pics of my home-made top bar. Still early days for me to start boasting about it. I think it's good to be able to customize something to suit your own climate & conditions.

Looking good- keep us posted!

 

[eleanor20]

So, I put the swarm in last night.
Problems so far: (1) Putting the top bars back in place with hundreds of bees all over them - hoping this will get easier with practice (and smoke?)
(2) There are a few liitle gaps in the straw of the hive, which the bees are using to enter and exit! Will have to try to tighten the straw in a few places if the bees do not seal it up themselves.

 

[madasafish]

"if the wind picked up as that roof could slam down with some force."
I agree - my own TBH (made by my partner) has a hinged roof which I need to prop up when inspecting.
Some very useful points in this discussion have made me think about modifying the hive... adding ventilation above the bars.
However, even though it's a bit home-made and wobbly, and possibly queenless - my bees seem happier than they ever were in the National hive.

Hinged roof? Add string/wire/rope as a restraint on either side so the roof when open is JUST leaning over the vertical.. saves you needing to pop/hold it up and it's easy to do..

 

[eleanor20]

The roof has a chain the holds it just beyond vertical, has not fallen on me yet......
Anyway, so far the bees seem to be happy in the 'thrive hive'. I have not taken any honey but am confident they have enough stores to see them trough.
I did find that they suffered more with the wasps than my ordinary nationals, as the wasps were sneaking through the odd hole or two still in the straw.
Interestingly today I watched the hives for a while and found the the bees from the 'thrive hive' and my poly hive were flying whilst there was no sign of activity from my wooden nationals. Sky was overcast, temperature around 10deg.
Looking forward to see how they fare through the winter and how early they get going in the spring.