From: ddhess@bellsouth.net
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 15:55:07 -0000
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: hive update and more pics

Rather than the page on the Jackson Horizontal Hives, I prefer Jim
Satterfield's page as my primary source, and Conrad Berube as my
secondary. The page on the Jackson hive seems more of a specific
adaptation of the general principle.
http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm -- Satterfield
http://nanaimo.ark.com/~cberube/toc.htm -- Berube

--- In BiologicalBeekeeping@y..., grizzly bearnolds <mkittner@n...>
wrote:

> Photo # 1. Your tbh have different dimensions than the normal hive
boxes? Do they just stand on the ground? No hive stand of any kind
used? What do the 2x4's do on each side - for carrying the hive? What
is the piece of wood over each of the 2x4's, right underneath the
roof, with little round holes in them - ventilation? additional
entrances?

My hive is 33 bars long. Basically it's designed so as not to use
supers. The bees just work their way back as they need more space.
To harvest, you take individual capped combs, knock the comb into a
bucket and replace the bar. My hives are on palates, hope to build a
stand eventually which will bring the top to about waist height.
Yes, the 2x4's are primarily for carrying, but I also put smaller
pieces of wood inside the ends so they also double as top-bar rests
when I take bars out that have comb on them. The pieces of wood I
think you're referring to are 1x4's to provide some structure to the
tin roof and the holes in the ends are to tie it to the 2x4's so the
roof doesn't blow off. Ventillation is provided by open mesh floor.

> Photo # 2. The hive body is made out of plywood? The pieces of wood
on top - those just go on top and the bees draw comb downwards, and
the wood pieces just get laid down side by side? The hive body is
pretty big - is that it or will there be another one on top, similar
to a honey super, or a second brood box?

Yes, it's plywood. For my next one I might make the body flimsier
and just plan on everything being supported from the 2x4 frame. The
pieces of wood are the top-bars. Those have beads of wax for starter
strips but the wax-dipped cardboard of the ones still in the hive
seem to be more appealing to the bees. The bees build natural comb
down from those. Again, I'm not planning on adding supers, but
Satterfield talks about how that can be done if one wishes.

> Photo # 3. What is the bottom of a hive box? Is this some kind of
slatted rack? And what are the pieces of doweling for? What is that
piece of wood for that is underneath the round entrance holes? Neat
way those round entrance holes.

In that photo there is no bottom. I had started my packages with
just a piece of linoleum in the floor since I didn't have any mesh
and I wanted some sort of floor for getting them started. The dowels
were to support this and the later mesh, similarly the wood near the
entrance holes was intended as sort of a frame to support the edges
of the linoleum/mesh. Shortly after the photos were taken and I
drove away my daughter in case I pissed off the bees too much, I went
ahead and stapled some 1/4" mesh to those framing pieces of wood in
the bottoms of each of the hives. In the week or so since I pulled
out the linoleum (not enough ventillation), the bees had already
extended their longest comb below the level of the dowels. The
entrance holes are designed to fit wine corks for entrance reduction.

> Photo # 4. Nice.

Thanks. :)

> Why do you prefer using tbh compared to the hives normally used?

At this point I'm keeping bees as a hobby. Since harvesting scads of
honey isn't my primary goal, I can play around with less efficient
systems. The reason these aren't as efficient is you generally
harvest the comb rather than reusing it, as a result you get more wax
and less honey. TBH's are about the closest you can get to the
natural state and still be legal beekeeping - I like having the
luxury of letting the bees do things how they like to. Also, TBH's
are apparently less disturbing to the bees when you work them -
rather than completely disassembling their home, you just make one
hole that moves along with you as you work; these apparently work
fairly well for keeping africanized bees. I haven't used smoke yet
to work them and hope never to have to. Another reason some people
use them is they have the potential to be cheaper - if you have
access to scrap materials, cost of construction can approach $0 (I
probably got a bit more elaborate on mine than I had to, they ran me
about $75 or so for the 2 of them, but I won't have to get new frames
or supers for them).

So check out the links, and if inclined I highly encourage you to try
one out. I'm always happy to share my thoughts and less-formed
notions if you have any more questions. :)

-Don