TBH - entrance?

[davemacdon]

I know it has probably been asked, but TBH entrance - ends, sides, top or bottom?

Your views before I start making mine (Will be approx 3-4ft long).

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

 

[Brosville]

Firstly, don't faff about with a 3-footer, a healthy colony will fill that in no time flat, go for 4' or close....... As for entrances, as in all things beekeeping there are arguments for all positions of entrance - I've gone with the bog standard "central, bottom" three holes, and it works well - wherever you put them I'd advise against towards the top of the hive as it's an "unnatural" spot, and heat will be lost

 

[madasafish]

I have mine at the ends. Much better in my view:
1. If you have multi hives, they can be more easily arranged facing South end on : otherwide side on you have a very wide strip of hives
2. In winter bees work through eating homey. With end on , they need only go in one direction. Mide entrance means both directions: gap in middle. Can run out of stores at one end.


If inspection ease worries you, make a half height dummy board at the entrance to prevent comb building on that frame and remove it for inspection (no I don't bother). When I inspect I work my way from back to entrance...with a manipulation cloth (fine words for old tea towe!)l to cover gaps.

 

[davemacdon]

2 replies and two answers.

I am considering all ideas before commiting to one.

Thankyou to those that are contributing, without which I would probably go wrong anyway.

Any other thoughts out there?

Dave.

 

[Lizard165]

I've got a 4' TBH which has a main central entrace on one side (3 holes), on the opposite side I put in a entrance at either side (1 hole). The thinking was that I could run a nuc from one side of the hive or introduce a swarm that I had brought on in a top bar nuc. One great thing which I would suggest is to put in a inspection window opposite the main entrance, makes for intresting watching without having to open up the hive.

Another tweek that I have found to work is a central dowl down from the top bar to help strenghen the comb, I tried starter wax strips but just rubbing wax onto the top bar and the dowl works better.

 

[tonybloke]

put 3 x 1" holes on one of the long sides, and 2 x 1" on the other side. the 2 holes can be blocked with demi-john corks while you only have 1 colony in the TBH, if you need to do an A/S you can block up the 3 holes on that side, unblock the 2 holes on the other side, turn the hive through 180 deg, and put a follower board in the middle to create 2 hives in the one box.

 

[ladyrose1956]

Re Top Bar Hive

Hi i have two four foot hives i have two holes on one side at each end but i can close what ever ones i need to with bottle corks works ok for me

 

[madasafish]

If building your own, I would consider a hinged roof. Lifting a 3 foot roof off on your own is possible. A 4 foot long roof is hernia time...

My 4 foot hive is hinged roof. Both my 3 feet ones are not - I am going to convert to hinged for ease of access and less strain on the increasingly decrepit beekeeper.

 

[davemacdon]

Good idea. I will see if the design I will hopefully be using will enable that. At the moment (having just read your post) I believe that it will be possible.

Thanks.

 

[Mike a]

I have end entrances with a landing board as seen in this picture taken in April 2011. I have a second entrance hole at the other end which is in case I ever wanted to split the colony, but I've found I use the spare space to move each bar to the back so I can get in with a spatula and cut through any brace combs attached to the walls on the next comb as I inspect.

This is a home made TBH 3ft long with 28mm thick planks and a long observation window on the far side. Word of warning though do not build it as deep as this hive approx 15" internally (underside of bar to the floor). Its too deep, last year it wasn't an issue as all the combs were no more than 10-12" deep but this year the colony has extended them down almost to the mesh floor making them very heavy and fragile to move as they are being filled with nectar. I should of modified it when I had a chance but a swarm beat me to it and yesterday when I was trying to solve a minor cross comb problem which was 1/3rd full of stores the comb sheered off diagonally.

At most I would recommend 10" deep and as suggested already go for a 4ft version.

 

[davemacdon]

Thanks for the info Mike, I will definately take note of your suggestions. Your hive does look good, however I dont think I would want that many stingers around mine. Luckily I don't have that big a problem. Will still need to consider all the posts before deciding on end or side entrance.

Dave.

 

[Mike a]

Thanks for the info Mike, I will definately take note of your suggestions. Your hive does look good, however I dont think I would want that many stingers around mine. Luckily I don't have that big a problem. Will still need to consider all the posts before deciding on end or side entrance.

Dave.

I'm happy to dig them up and send them in the post if you want some honestly. The entrance to this apiary is fully of them and it would be greedy to keep them all to myself, but most of the time they don't get in the way again once I've trampled around the hives a few times.

Once you made it and decided how you want to run the entrances let us know. Any ideas on how you intend to start the hive yet?

Swarm
Shook swarm
chop and crop some frames

?

 

[davemacdon]

I was thinking of a swarm.