ottawabee
09-19-2006, 03:19 PM
I thought I would give a brief update on my new tbh's, design lessons and harvest results.
you can see (if I say so myself) a beautiful full lang deep size of comb at http://www.flickr.com/photos/55671493@N00/?saved=1
All 3 tbhs yielded 7-8 full combs of honey, leaving 20+ full combs of brood/honey/pollen for the girls. We have had a very generous season in the Ottawa valley with long clover and early&long golden rod flows. Of 6 nucs started this spring, 5 produced, with minimum yield being the equivalent of one medium super of honey. Total harvest across 9 tbh and lang hives of ~500 lbs. Drone brood in our Russian tbh (all combs) had disappeared by harvest time. Given to start we had only one strong hive, and one swarmed, we are quite pleased.
The lang deep tbh combs are quite something. We get 10 squares of comb honey worth $50, per frame, plus scraps. Although sales have been good, we have actually over produced a bit on the comb front for our word of mouth sales. We'll crush the remainder.
As fun as the 'au natural tbhs' have been, the girls attached (and re-attached) every single comb of HONEY down the sides, and in a couple instances also the bottom. Too many engineering genes. It was a contortion exercise to harvest as the 30 bar hive was full. Access had to be gained from regular frames inserted from the initial nuc, and inevitably we broke a few combs. In the 30 min it took to harvest a hive, every bee it seemed had exited. My particular head gear sucks as in the midst of surgical concentration the face mask would often rest on my chin. The girls kept reminding me of that. Next year I'll stick with foundationless lang frames, reinforced with foundation wire around the outside (yes, the propolis was so thick, and comb so heavy, we pulled a lang frame apart). We super for honey.
Aside from that, only a couple changes in the next generation tbh design. Will shorten the box to two deeps long and will stick with supers on top of that space. This will simplify working the brood and honey seperately without the lang headache of lifting a deep. The bottom tray will become 3 layers (screen, screen, board) instead of 2 layers (slats, board) to facilitate mite counts and cleaning. Call it a compromise ala Michael Bush
The raised box has eradicated skunk hassles. We'll find out how the winter goes- I intend to screw on some blue styrofoam on the outside and add a wind skirt.
We had the provincial tech transfer team give a integrated pest management course at our apiary and mite counts were very low. I don't know if it was the fgmo fog or our hygenic blood lines (ontario hygenic selected and ontario based russian hygenic selected bees) but so far so good, touch wood.
you can see (if I say so myself) a beautiful full lang deep size of comb at http://www.flickr.com/photos/55671493@N00/?saved=1
All 3 tbhs yielded 7-8 full combs of honey, leaving 20+ full combs of brood/honey/pollen for the girls. We have had a very generous season in the Ottawa valley with long clover and early&long golden rod flows. Of 6 nucs started this spring, 5 produced, with minimum yield being the equivalent of one medium super of honey. Total harvest across 9 tbh and lang hives of ~500 lbs. Drone brood in our Russian tbh (all combs) had disappeared by harvest time. Given to start we had only one strong hive, and one swarmed, we are quite pleased.
The lang deep tbh combs are quite something. We get 10 squares of comb honey worth $50, per frame, plus scraps. Although sales have been good, we have actually over produced a bit on the comb front for our word of mouth sales. We'll crush the remainder.
As fun as the 'au natural tbhs' have been, the girls attached (and re-attached) every single comb of HONEY down the sides, and in a couple instances also the bottom. Too many engineering genes. It was a contortion exercise to harvest as the 30 bar hive was full. Access had to be gained from regular frames inserted from the initial nuc, and inevitably we broke a few combs. In the 30 min it took to harvest a hive, every bee it seemed had exited. My particular head gear sucks as in the midst of surgical concentration the face mask would often rest on my chin. The girls kept reminding me of that. Next year I'll stick with foundationless lang frames, reinforced with foundation wire around the outside (yes, the propolis was so thick, and comb so heavy, we pulled a lang frame apart). We super for honey.
Aside from that, only a couple changes in the next generation tbh design. Will shorten the box to two deeps long and will stick with supers on top of that space. This will simplify working the brood and honey seperately without the lang headache of lifting a deep. The bottom tray will become 3 layers (screen, screen, board) instead of 2 layers (slats, board) to facilitate mite counts and cleaning. Call it a compromise ala Michael Bush
The raised box has eradicated skunk hassles. We'll find out how the winter goes- I intend to screw on some blue styrofoam on the outside and add a wind skirt.
We had the provincial tech transfer team give a integrated pest management course at our apiary and mite counts were very low. I don't know if it was the fgmo fog or our hygenic blood lines (ontario hygenic selected and ontario based russian hygenic selected bees) but so far so good, touch wood.