Bootstrapping a triangular TBH with one WBC frame?

[Cinnamon]

Hi,

after losing all my bees due to moving and a EFB problem which grounded my hives so I lost them, I took 2 years' break, and now I found someone who is selling bees on WBC combs.

My normal hive design is a triangle of 40x40x40cm dimensions, and so, fitting in a WBC frame is probably not possible.

I don't think it's possible to get a prime swarm (how I started off the first time) anymore and the old apiary still has EFB and a ban on moving stuff from there, so I have to look to starting with a small amount of bees. I can buy a colony of the guy and try a shook swarm, but then it'll get very expensive, so if I can somehow start with 1 WBC frame full of bees, that would be great.

How would you bootstrap with one WBC frame? I have a few ideas, but they all seem kinda radical, like cutting the frame into 2 pieces (so it fits) and hanging them up from tbs with thin copperwire for the bees to fix up.

many thanks for any tips,

Cinnamon

[Michael Bush]

I would build one or two of these:

http://www.beesource.com/plans/swarmfrm.pdf

Except to fit your top bar hive. Then you can cut the comb out to fit and put it in the top bar hive. Later you can use it in case a comb falls or you get a wild one that isn't down the middle of the bar.