Top Bar Hive Tool

[sierrabees]

What kinds of hive tool do you make for cutting loose the comb in a Top Bar hive?

[D. Murrell]

Hi Doug,

I wouldn't recommend using any kind of hive tool. They are too blunt and short. When used they tend to bulldoze the attachments and most of the force is directed downward.

Get a long, thin, flexible serrated bread knife. And use it to cut attachments from the bottom upward. Don't use it with a sawing motion. But rather, let it 'melt' its way upward.

Various neat tools have been built by tbh beekeepers. Check out:

http://www.geocities.com/five_watsons/combcuttingtool.html

And the PODCINACZ at:

http://homepage.interaccess.com/~netpol/POLISH/Ule/ul%20bezramkowy.html

Regards
Dennis

[stangardener]

i use a butcher knife as a hive tool. a serrated steak knife is in the tool bucket.

[chemistbert]

I actually do use a hive tool but it's one of those Italian tools. A little thinner than a regular tool. I also scrape sideways and not down to break the attachment. Works for me anyhow! I've heard a hacksaw blade works too.

[Tomas]

I use what's called a lettuce knife. I happened to see it in the kitchen secion of a store one day and it looked like something that would work as a psuedo hive tool. It almost looks like a paint scraper except instead of coming to a flat scraping edge at the bottom, it's angled with one side longer than the other. It comes to a point at that one side. Two of the edges are sharpened so it works well when cutting. It's fairly long so I can reach down to the bottom of the hive. It's also a bit thicker than a normal knife so it doesn't bend if I have to scrape propolis off the sides of the top bars or pry some bars apart.

----------
Tom

[suprstakr]

Anybody knows how I could translate Polish.

[betrbekepn]

suprstakr...

>Anybody knows how I could translate Polish?


http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?from=dan&to=eng&type=url

[suprstakr]

ITS start only translated half,but that works

[Wojtek]

suprstakr...
What do you want to translate? My be I will be able to help if this will be not too long tekst.
My English is very imperfect but it could be sufficient for this kind of translation.

This program for translation works, but works awfully, one big nonsens, at least when I try it.

[betrbekepn]

http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?from=dan&to=eng&type=url I agree, translation sucks using this but it was the only web page translator I could find that translated Polish to English. This website http://www.poltran.com/ translates better but you'll have to copy and paste paragraphs to their website and read it there.

[ November 15, 2006, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: betrbekepn ]

[suprstakr]

I'm from europe and know a little russian and german and I get the jest of the article
Thanks

[sierrabees]

Is that a SBB at the bottom of the TBH they show in the pictures?

[suprstakr]

kind off its not open to the outside varoa could climb back

[Wojtek]

sierrabees
"Is that a SBB at the bottom of the TBH they show in the pictures?"

What is "SBB", and on the bottom of which picture, and who is "they".

[jdb5949]

Wojtek,

SBB is Screened Bottom Board. It looks as if that is the purpose of the metal mesh (or screen) at the bottom of the pictures showing how to use the hive tools (or podcinacz). "They" is whoever is responsible for the website content. I remember that you were the first to tell us about this site. Is this your site?

[Wojtek]

Hi James.
I hope you all forgive me my imperfect English.
Now I know what you are talking about, and since you mentioned "podcinacz" I am sure that these are my picturs and my site since I made it.
There are two bottoms or rather kinds of bottoms. The first from a top is a plastic grille with squares of about ½". This serves as a stop for bees to build combs on this level. It is removable, consists 3 or 4 segments, and can be wider or narrower so it can be positioned higher or lower. It also serves as a floor to put on it a jar with syrup if necessary or whatever necessary.
The second bottom is permanently fixed screen, aluminium or fiberglas, usually used for house widows against insects. This covers the gap of about 1" between two side panels. This is the simplest technical design I used in my first 2 hives I initially build. Later, in my next hives I used more elaborate design or designs since I am experimenting with two different kinds in addition to that first simple solution of what you call Screened Bottom Board.

[sierrabees]

Wojtek

It sounds like the screens are primarily to make it easier to work the hive by limiting bottom comb attachment. The SBB I was asking about is used primarily to aid in Varroa control and is usually a wire mesh about 1/8 inch square. I had never thought about using something to interfere with bottom comb attachment. I just assumed it would be necessissary to have some kind of hooked tool that could be pushed under the comb to free it up before trying to lift the top bar. I'm looking forward to getting some top bar hives going this year but I expect I will have to break a lot of old habits before I learn to work them without a large amount of damage to comb.

[Wojtek]

Certainly experience will cam proportionally to amount of stings and number of damaged combs and other kinds of damages. These unpleasant things could be only reduced by advices from other beekeepers, but not eliminated.

The first screen (grill) is limiting vertical dimension of combs but not eliminates attachment to it. Usually jest but often some attachment sooner or later will happen, and some kind of tool is necessary especially when trying to get to the first comb after pulling out the "fantom". I am using "podcinacz" which is versatile, with good success but any wire, thin but stiff enough in a shape of letter "L" with slightly higher angle than 90 degrees will work too. Start from bottom if attached and then on sides using vertical movement, avoiding movements perpendicular to the plane of comb.
The second screen serves ventilation and theoretically problem of varroa.
This screen in my other hives is removable and serves a few other practical use.

[Rich M]

I use a hacksaw blade (very thin and flexible) and I ground off the teeth to create a sharp blade. Works very well, no tearing of comb. I still need a conventional tool for prying on one hive that the bees propolize everything. Interesting to me that my second hive the bees use almost no propolis and no prying is required. That hive is also more gentle, I wonder if the propolizing is a sign of defensivness? Regardless I'm going to try a split from the gentler, less propolized hive this spring.