was a busy bee today

[ratcatcher]

having had last night off (night worker) I woke up earlier than normal, and after my normal morning watch of the bee's, decieded to get started on a top bar hive with a difference, Ive had ideas mingling in the old brain box for weeks,

wanted a 4ft hive and this is what Ive ended up with, still have the roof to make

it is a square top bar hive, meshed floor with a closing board as well so it can be opened a little for ventilation, or total opened so I can view from underneath

it has two ply follower boards, so I can split the hive in two, with a void area inbetween the two

the difference in this design was that within the bee keeping club I belong too, Im the only one interested in tbh, everyone else uses nationals, my thoughts were if housing a queenless swarm again, adding a queen cell could be difficult, therefore I wanted to be able to insert a couple of frames into the hive, either plain wax foundation, or brood etc to get them off to a start, it also makes me think that including two frames with wax on, the bee's would use this, and carrying on hopefully building comb in the direction we want them too, rather than cross combing, which many top bar users seem to suffer from

entrance holes and small platforms both ends

I'll get the roof finished tomorrow

 

[nosmoking]

Nice one. I like that.

 

[fox403]

Bit like dartington set up

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

 

[alanf]

Elements of continental long hives, dartingtons and top bar that takes national deep frames. Should be an interesting experiment. Let us know how it works out.

 

[parkranger]

Looks good and interesting to see how it goes but remember that national frames are narrower at the top than top bars and you will need to space them properly and try and close the gap which will be approx 3/16, otherwise the bees will be in the roof space. On a recent chop and crop, I closed the spaces with lengthened national bottom bars.

 

[ratcatcher]

Looks good and interesting to see how it goes but remember that national frames are narrower at the top than top bars and you will need to space them properly and try and close the gap which will be approx 3/16, otherwise the bees will be in the roof space. On a recent chop and crop, I closed the spaces with lengthened national bottom bars.

you probably cant see it on the pictures, but the 14x9's have a rebate that they slot into, making their tops, sit level with the bottom of the top bars, 2 top bars are then situated directly on top, giving no access to roof space, I did think of this before assembling the hive, I wanted an easy system that would take frames without any modification to the frames themselves, save destroying frames in crop and chop type situations, I have space for 2 frames at each end,
although I forsee the bee's glueing the frames in situ, if it gives them the heads up on what way we want the comb built, then I can live with that

 

[parkranger]

Brilliant!. Missed it originally but looks like you have thought of everything. Good luck

 

[ratcatcher]

I will be adding sides to the top bars, as the bee's will prob build comb to the walls otherwise

 

[ratcatcher]

mostly finished now, just a little light sanding here and there, quite happy with results so far, 2 days of work and a total outlay of around £10
on attending our bee club last night was amazed at how everyone wanted to hear about its design/reasons etc, all agreed that the "theft of a national" was a very good reason to try these
Ive also got the chance of being given apiary space on an allotment not too far from home
so need to get started on making a second on of these, should just have enough timber left

do you think bee's will like the red
and yes I will be coating the outside with something