Entrance problem

[Barry Tolson]

Greeting all,
I hived a swarm a few weeks ago into my first top bar hive. I had built per Mr. Bush's example and just left a 3/8" space before the first bar to serve an entrance.
All was going well...then the other day I noticed quite a few bee's on the outside near the entrance. As the day wore on the number outside grew larger. That evening I finally went and took a closer look. Upon closer examination I realized that the top bars had swollen because of the humidity and had closed up the opening. The bars had been stored indoors in a nice dry room before being used...I never thought that putting them out in the humidity would result in enough expansion that the entrance would close off. It was tight and had to be pried off. Once I realized what had happened, I removed the spacer that was in place to take up the odd amount of space after the top bars.
All is well now and the girls are back at work. I do enough woodwork that I should have considered the swelling and shrinking of wood due to humidity. Live and learn!
Apart from that little problem, this hive seems to be working great.
Anyone else encounter unforeseen equipment problems like this?
Barry

[Logan]

The only "problem" I had with my KTBH was that there was a gap at the bottom of my follower board, which allowed the ladies another entrance in the rear. I put the follower board way at the end and basically give the girls all the room they want, and only plan to use the follower board in the winter to reduce the space they need to heat. They crawl under it, then out the space on the top and then out from under the roof overhang. I don't mind, and they don't seem to either. For entrance for my KTBH, I drilled 3 one inch holes, two at the bottom and one at the top of the sides. In the winter, I'll put cork in the bottom two, leaving them a top entrance. In hindsight, I should have made the top hole smaller but it is now very difficult to make a hole smaller once drilled. Take care. -- Logan

[Michael Bush]

If the bars swell so they don't fit, remove one.

[Natalie]

The same thing just happened to me. I noticed during inspection yesterday that they were swelled tight.
I pried one out and moved the bars to do the inspection and then couldn't fit the bar back in, the space left was half the size of the bar once all the bars settled back in.
I just left the bar out but there is a one inch or so gap at one end of the hive now and I am hoping it won't cause any problems.

[Barry Tolson]

Logan, My bees also "can" get under the follower board, but once the bees were in place and working, they remained in front of the follower board, for the most part. I've been keeping the follower board close to the comb building work, but I'm not sure how necessary that is. Through experimentation, I'll learn though!