View Full Version : Need advice...
blkcloud
06-21-2005, 08:51 PM
i just aquired a log-o-bees..its about 6 foot long and 12 inches in diameter..bees coming out both ends..i would like to build a tbh and get them in it..any ideas on what i should or how i should go about getting them in there?? thanks,keith
Other than splitting the log, locating the queen and placing her and a few friends in the TBH I'm baffled!
iddee
06-22-2005, 07:35 AM
What is a TBH? I would stand the log on a piece of plywood,with an 8 inch "approx." hole in the center attached to the top of a standard hive body and bottom board, with a queen excluder at the entrance. Next, I would smoke, smoke, smoke, from the top, or use bee-go or similiar. When I felt like the queen was in the hive body, I would put an excluder between the hive and log. Wait one week and check hive for eggs. If not present, repeat process. If present, wait 3 weeks for brood to hatch from log, then split log and allow bees to move down. Be sure to protect top of log from weather with a piece of plywood, hive top, or similiar.
I tried this last year. I mounted the log upright with a board and hive body on top, 3" hole in the board. I baited the hive with brood. I fed on top of the hive. The bees stayed in the log. After a year, I finally split the log and manually moved the bees. I did finally find the queen. The bees are now happily resident in a hive.
iddee
06-22-2005, 11:33 AM
Your way works fine for supering a log hive and collecting honey, but to remove the bees you must force the queen down into the hive, then use an excluder to keep her from returning. She will never leave brood willingly.
Idee, TBH is top bar hive. If you can get your hands on an ABJ Wyatt Magnum has pictures and articles every month.
honeyman46408
06-22-2005, 07:49 PM
"I tried this last year. I mounted the log upright with a board and hive body on top, 3" hole in the board."
I have moved them(or let them move) up by cuting a hole in a piece of plywood but the hold must bee as big or biger than the one in the log. When I put the board on and a deep and after a few days closed the entrance they were useing in the log and gave them an entrance to the hove body in two week I had 3 frames of brood in the deep but what works for one BK may not work for another.
P.S. I have one working now but she wont move up go figuer :D
Yep, mine wouldn't move. I finally took the log apart, scooped all the bees I could find, and finally picked up the log and dropped it a few times to shake out the last few. After all was done and I was cleaning up, there sat the queen all by herself on a piece of plastic I was using for a scoop. I marked her and dropped her in the hive. Better lucky than good I guess.