Top bar hive –-introducing eggs

[psafloyd]

OK, I know TBHs are not the most popular on here, but I am using one for the first time this year and have a problem/query.

I used the hive to house a healthy swarm that alighted in my apiary just before my holiday. I left the QE board near the entrance until they became used to it, but then forgot to remove it.

Anyway, it has built up quickly In my absence, got to a point of swarming. On my return, there were hundreds of dead drones, signs of a couple of hatched queens, but I fear it is now Q-.

The question is this: how does one introduce a 'test frame' or new material into a TBH if one only has one TBH? Has anyone out there just rested a frame inside or found some other workaround?

Many thanks.

 

[Finman]

Make a hole into a comb and put there same size piece into the hole.

Or put a bigger piece of comb hang between natural combs.

 

[madasafish]

Take one topbar bar.
Cut a small piece of comb with eggs. about 2cms high and 10-20cms wide.
Rubber band comb to bar.
Insert bar in hive.

 

[Anduril]

Cut a piece of comb out of a frame with eggs and larvae, then take a topbar bar with comb, cut some of the comb to size and using you fingers squeeze both combs together. The bees will do the rest and strengthen the comb.

 

[bingevader]

Kenyan? Warre?
More effort and messier, but you can put a whole frame in by doing a chop and crop.
In a warre you can cut the frame down to the correct length and then cut the comb to the size of the box.
You may need to cut a small piece of the bottom off the end of the frame too if it's too thick for the warre recess.
In a Kenyan, you can cut the the whole comb out , crop it to the trapezoidal shape and then suspend it from a top bar using gardening twine (or string) and one of the frame bottom bars as a support so the wire (or string) doesn't just cut through the comb.
Done both successfully.

 

[ranaboy]

To add to the above suggestions, Ive put nicot cups on a flat top bar and grafted lavae to add to a suspect Q- swarm in a top bar hive. I have also bent some mesh into a C shape leaving prongs, pinned mesh to topbar and then secured a section of (older)brood comb onto the wire by laying comb on a flat surface and pushing it onto the prongs of the C shape mesh to place in topbar hive

 

[psafloyd]

Make a hole into a comb and put there same size piece into the hole.

Or put a bigger piece of comb hang between natural combs.

Thanks, Finman.

 

[psafloyd]

Take one topbar bar.
Cut a small piece of comb with eggs. about 2cms high and 10-20cms wide.
Rubber band comb to bar.
Insert bar in hive.

Thanks, Madasafish. I had wondered about doing something like that.

 

[psafloyd]

Kenyan in this case, Bingevader, though I have a couple of Warrés not currently being used, so I'll bear that in mind for the future.

Many thanks.

Kenyan? Warre?
More effort and messier, but you can put a whole frame in by doing a chop and crop.
In a warre you can cut the frame down to the correct length and then cut the comb to the size of the box.
You may need to cut a small piece of the bottom off the end of the frame too if it's too thick for the warre recess.
In a Kenyan, you can cut the the whole comb out , crop it to the trapezoidal shape and then suspend it from a top bar using gardening twine (or string) and one of the frame bottom bars as a support so the wire (or string) doesn't just cut through the comb.
Done both successfully.

 

[psafloyd]

To add to the above suggestions, Ive put nicot cups on a flat top bar and grafted lavae to add to a suspect Q- swarm in a top bar hive. I have also bent some mesh into a C shape leaving prongs, pinned mesh to topbar and then secured a section of (older)brood comb onto the wire by laying comb on a flat surface and pushing it onto the prongs of the C shape mesh to place in topbar hive

Thanks for the suggestion.