TBH advice please

[steve56616]

I am thinking about trying a TBH and liking what I've been reading so far.
My first thoughts are the ease of not lifting on and off boxes and wondering if checking for swarm cells is easer? Also I understand, honey production is less and that it is collected my crush and strain?
One other question!! How easy is it to add bees from a standard national hive and how would one go about the transition?

 

[NickyJ]

I hived a swarm in mine today from the national nuc I caught it in two days ago, by 'walking' it in. I filled my other tbh by pouring the bees in three weeks ago. Downside is the difficulty of giving them drawn comb/brood/stores from the nationals. the older hive has built comb from starter strips and has brood in now. I am feeding both to help with drawing the comb.

 

[steve56616]

I hived a swarm in mine today from the national nuc I caught it in two days ago, by 'walking' it in. I filled my other tbh by pouring the bees in three weeks ago. Downside is the difficulty of giving them drawn comb/brood/stores from the nationals. the older hive has built comb from starter strips and has brood in now. I am feeding both to help with drawing the comb.

So out of interest, what hives do you prefer?

 

[Tom Bick]

Swarm cells are reasonably easy as they tend to hang off the edges of the combs, but you can get some that are molded into the comb and a bit more tricky to spot. You dont have heavy boxes to move to inspect, but then you wont get masses of honey and when it comes to moving your TBH things can get a bit interesting if on your own. The inspections are slow and at a pace that the bees like, also as you only have a small part of the hive open at any one time you get very few bees flying around during inspections. Overall I like my TBH but prefer my foundationless framed hives. The TBH’s look great and its great to watch the bees coming and going. As for populating one running in a swarm will be the best method but in the past I have part converted a national brood box with sloping sides and room for three frames, as the bees expand they move onto the top bars and when you have five or six the top bars can be transferred into the TBH and the three frames donated to other hives. Its a long way round but worked ok.

 

[steve56616]

Swarm cells are reasonably easy as they tend to hang off the edges of the combs, but you can get some that are molded into the comb and a bit more tricky to spot. You dont have heavy boxes to move to inspect, but then you wont get masses of honey and when it comes to moving your TBH things can get a bit interesting if on your own. The inspections are slow and at a pace that the bees like, also as you only have a small part of the hive open at any one time you get very few bees flying around during inspections. Overall I like my TBH but prefer my foundationless framed hives. The TBH’s look great and its great to watch the bees coming and going. As for populating one running in a swarm will be the best method but in the past I have part converted a national brood box with sloping sides and room for three frames, as the bees expand they move onto the top bars and when you have five or six the top bars can be transferred into the TBH and the three frames donated to other hives. Its a long way round but worked ok.

Hmmm I am keen to try. I also read your thread about foundationless frames which I have been trying out. One other question I wondered about...combining? if needed and I probably will if my experience is anything to go by. How is this achieved?

 

[Tom Bick]

Combining, I have this very situation as I currently have two TBH’s and a split, sort of a nuc formed when I AS the TBH into a conventional 14x12 brood box and want to reduce down to one TBH.
To me the simplest way to do this and providing the TBH has the room is one half with the queen separated from the other by a follower board with a hole in it and a piece of newspaper over the hole. I for some reason made a follower board with a queen excluder, have never used it as there’s no point but it will work fine for combining. Its not a tried and tested system and something may go wrong but will give it a go. My problem is I would need a TBH seven feet long to accommodate both TBH’s so will need to reduce the combs and bees first.

 

[steve56616]

Combining, I have this very situation as I currently have two TBH’s and a split, sort of a nuc formed when I AS the TBH into a conventional 14x12 brood box and want to reduce down to one TBH.
To me the simplest way to do this and providing the TBH has the room is one half with the queen separated from the other by a follower board with a hole in it and a piece of newspaper over the hole. I for some reason made a follower board with a queen excluder, have never used it as there’s no point but it will work fine for combining. Its not a tried and tested system and something may go wrong but will give it a go. My problem is I would need a TBH seven feet long to accommodate both TBH’s so will need to reduce the combs and bees first.

Thanks Tom.
Now to get making

 

[Tom Bick]

No problem, I would recommend you follow the biobees plans or at the very least keep your top bars to 17” long as that makes life easier as they fit inside a national brood box and gives you plenty of options.
Did you see the frames for TBH’s? they are fun.

 

[NickyJ]

So out of interest, what hives do you prefer?

Like Tom, I love to watch the bees going in and out of it, love inspecting bit by bit and not having to lift supers on and off. The feeder is a frame feeder, so easy to fill too, without fiddling about with tubs and things. So day to day its my preference. However, I haven't worked out how I am going to AS when the time comes, as I don't have any woodworking skills. I think I am going to have to up-skill at some point! And the fragility of the comb is worrying me for the brood comb.

 

[ratcatcher]

around 2-3yrs ago when I got into bees, I went the TBH route, mainly as it was cheap, I made two hives for around £15 plus skip finds, I stuck with them for around a year, took all the flak from our bee club, and have now got nationals (in garden) and commercials and rose in my woodland, although I made the tbh to take two national frames, so adding eggs/brood would be easy, Im glad I no longer use them, I much prefer box type hives that lift off, but I run them all with wax starter strips, thus cutting down costs on full foundation in hives

top bar hive
http://youtu.be/li9obrnaRZE

 

[madasafish]

I have 4 xfull size tBH and 3 xTBH nucs- and am adding langstroths- purely as I want more honey.

TBH inspection can be speeded up with experience if you don't have a lot of propolis .. Or combs attached to the sides...


AS is easy - into another TBH but I have converted frames to langs by chopping bar ends off and cable ties to frame topbar..

I have just built my fourth lang (now 3 z wood and 1x poly) and will build no more TBHs..

 

[Teebeeaitch]

I think TBH's work really well if you are prepared to have a light touch approach with minimal manipulation and minimal interference. Sure you can check for QC's but if your style is to work right through the brood every 7 days,carry out regular treatments and generally nose around just for fun, I would choose another hive.