New Hive

[turtle]

How would you start a new top bar hive from a langston split. I am just getting the top bar set up and it is a little late to buy a package of bees or I would go that way.

[Tomas]

Howdy turtle,

The easiest way would to make sure you make the top bar hive to accommodate frames. This is what I did last year with some of my tbhs in Wisconsin. I knew I was going to be starting them with nucs so I made the Tanzanian top bar hive—which are rectangular in shape. I just put a piece of plywood over the frames to keep them covered and filled the rest of the box with top bars.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s313/Tomas_fotos/Bees%20in%20Wisconsin/nucinstalledintbh.jpg

Now if you have the trapezoidal Kenyan top bar hive, that would make things a bit trickier. Last year I got hold of some plastic frames with drawn out comb, but empty. I wanted to give a swarm a boost with some extra comb so I cut them with a jig saw to fit my trapezoidal boxes and then screwed a top bar to them. Worked well. But now if the nuc you get is full of brood, you probably don’t want cut those frames/comb and lose any of that.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s313/Tomas_fotos/Bees%20in%20Wisconsin/plasticframeintbh.jpg

I caught a couple swarms last year and these I started in the trapezoidal top bar hives. I make my trap hives the same size and shape as these permanent boxes so transfer is made easy.

So, unless someone else has another idea, I believe it would be easiest to start a Kenyan tbh with a package. That’s what I did this year to fill more of my trapezoidal boxes.

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Tom

[Aram]

How big is your top bar hive? Kenyan or Tanzanian (sloped or straight walled)?
Here is a picture for a sloped hive, provided it's wide enough and deep enough to accommodate a frame:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d60/Oarceas/bees/hivesection.jpg

[Aram]

If the hive is too small you can attach the frame to the top bar as in the picture, then use pruning clippers and cut the bottom and sides of the frame, and carve the comb to size. It's messy and upsetting to the bees but it can be done.