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Hi,
I have a couple of TBHs. I am up near Hagerstown. I am relocating soon so let me know if you need any info, or would like to see the hives.

I have tried similar feeding strategies in my KTBHs some have worked fine, but some of my hives, at some times, for some reason , will not feed behind the divider board. Weather and nectar flow do...

Hi,
I use mostly 1 3/8" width brood bars. I also use 1 1/2" bars in the storage area. They seem to draw out the 1 3/8" bars nicely with little to no overlap or cheating once you get them building...

I number my frames, front to back with a sharpie. If I rearrange the bars I cross out the numbers and write new ones in. The numbers help me to remember what I have done as far as bar insertions,...

I just drill holes in the end, sized to match the stoppers that I had sitting around in case I nead to close them up. some have upper entrances as well as lower. Those with both tend to get the...

My experience is pretty much the same as Bwrangler's, I just harvest from the ends and move unruly combs to the back. They do not seem to have trouble if a space is made between combs, in the brood...

very cool

It sounds like you are on the right track.
I think you need a smoker some don't. I rarely use mine for other than a light puff before I get to work, but I sometimes need it for a "hot" hive or when...

My experience is that:
They attach when they feel they need it.

They seldom reattach brood combs.

It doesnt matter if they attach storage combs because I steal those anyway.

I have a long...

Hi all,
I hope everybody is having a better year with their tbh than I am.
In April I had 4 nice strong hives.
In the beginning of may I caught a swarm from my strongest hive and started a new...

If by moving the cleats over 1mm you mean that you now have bars with off center guides, I would pull them all out before they get glued together. Comb gets attached over a wide portion of the bar...

I have top bar hives that are raised up off the ground. I weedwack under them then I mow right up to the front and between them (they are in the front yard and my wife likes it pretty) Mowing is...

Last spring when I returned home from a trip I saw a swarm in a tree in my front yard. One of my TBHs had swarmed. I ran back to my shed, cut up a pallet and some scrap wood, ripped some top bars...

You got it this time Michael, for me this is the ultimate for lazy beekeepers, as it lets me easily and automatically follow the rest of the lazy beekeeper advise. The only real problem with this...

Wojtek,
I love your "phantom comb" Idea. I think I will make a couple for next year, simple and elegant it doesn't get any better than that.
As far as the holes goes, I think the bees will build...

I have a small spacer built into the end of the box that holds the first top bar away from the end wall, That way there is only a bee space between that comb and the end wall. As this is often not...

<It will work fine except for the expansion issue. If you add boxes on top then your top bars would need spacers or gaps to allow the bees to move up and down and then there would be the problem of...

BjornBee, It was great having you, It was the first time I had ever gone into the hives with someone over the age of four, who was interested in TBHs and had something to offer other than "I think...

BjornBee, I hope you enjoyed the look at the hives. It was nice to see a beekeeper in person who didn't think I was just plain crazy for "wasting my time on those silly top bar hives". When I first...

"There is one reason to interfere and that's because you start with artificially large bees."

Ok, you got me there. What I meant was once the TBH is established and the bees are happily doing...

I have four TBHs. They draw small cells in the broodnest in the spring, larger cells in the summer. The draw huge cells in the storage areas, and sometimes smaller cells in the storage areas. The...

I thought about doing that, never did. And now I have decided that it would not be worth the effort. Once the hive is established, and has drawn some nice straight comb everything seems to just...

Thanks guys,
I think that maybe I will play it safe and feed a bit through the winter, I have some warm weather on the way supposed to be 60 today smile.gif .
You are right about not catching it...

I was just wondering how many full combs you guys overwinter with. Last year I went into the winter with at least 20 combs per hive (16" wide, 11" deep to 6" bottoms). All hives had russian hybrid...

Hi,
I am in Washington county and have 3 top bar hives. I have only taken them through one winter though.