New Top Bar Hives forum moderator

[Tomas]

Howdy everybody,

I just want to take a moment to formally present myself as the new moderator for the Beesource top bar hives forum and tell a bit about my beekeeping experience. BWrangler unfortunately had to resign from the position (but lets thank him for all the time he put in as a moderator) and Barry asked me if I would like to assume the job.

I’m originally from Wisconsin but have been living in Honduras for over 18 years. I first went there with Peace Corps and that is where I got my initial experience with bees, top bar hives and beekeeping development projects. After Peace Corps I decided to stay in Honduras (my wife is Honduran) and continued (among other things) working with my own hives.

Now for the third year I have been dividing my time between there and Wisconsin, specifically working with JohnK and Sheri and their commercial operation here (where I am writing from right now). When the bees shut down for the winter here, I go back to Honduras where the beekeeping season is just beginning with my hives there. This way I get the best of both worlds.

Most of my top bar experience has been with the Africanized bees in Honduras. Last year, however, I began several top bar hives with my brother here in Wisconsin (both the Kenyan and Tanzanian types). I’m still learning the ins and outs of using a tbh in a northern climate but several of them survived the bitter winter they had. Then last weekend we installed packages in several of the other empty boxes. So now I have 11 of my own hives to play with up here (and hopefully some swarms will show up later on also).

Anyways, I’m glad to be the new moderator for the top bar forum. I will continue to give my five cents about tbhs and beekeeping and try to help keep the Beesource forum the excellent resource that it is.

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Tom

[Natalie]

I am new to topbar hive keeping and I hope to learn alot from this forum and it sounds like you have alot of experience and insight to share.
I look forward to hearing about your different beekeeping locations and the various practices involved.
Sounds like you have alot of interesting stuff going on.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Welcome back.:applause: I think it's going to be fascinating to see what insights you might develop into overwintering up here. Last winter was brutal. Adrian.

[LenInNorCal]

We all suffer the loss of BWrangler as he moves on sans TBH but now I would like to say HELLO to you and thank you for sharing your insights into this "new" form of bee keeping. I am only about 400 years behind the curve, especially the last 40 or so, since you Peace Corps guys revived this beautiful method of watching wild beasts be natural. And a forward future thanks for letting us know about your Honduran living style and world travels. Also, throw in some stuff about the Africanized bees. I read that in Mexico some experimenting with cross breeding is occurring with an eye towards making them less aggressive. Are you doing such?
Do your AB suffer from mites or does their cell size curb that? Do you have Langstroth hives? Do they suffer mites?
Anyway, look forward to your posts, and again, thanks for taking up the cause.

[REWERT]

Tomas, looking forward to getting additional information from you; the information you've shared was invaluable so far. My 2 package installs from Sheri went pretty well other than concerns about the activity of one. Since yesterday was a bit nicer out there was some activity at the entrances.