Ideal Top Bar width?

[Lauren]

Hi all, I just finished my first KTBH with the help of my father. He is quite a builder and tends to run away with the project. Usually that is GREAT! But on the TBH he decided that it would be alot faster and easier if he made all of the bars 1 1/2 " wide. They do have the triangular guide.

I am wondering if I need to cut these down before my bees arrive this weekend. What is the optimum size?

Thanks! Lauren

[Sam-Smith]

1-1/2" is fine for the honey end but the broodnest needs to be 1-1/4
some people cut all their bars the same and use 1/4" spacers, some cut them all 1-3/8", I think you will have trouble in your broodnest at 1-1/2" they tend to build off center to get the spacing down to 1-1/4.

[adamziegler]

I would cut off the extra 1/8" from at least the first 1/3 of the hive.

[Lauren]

Thanks guys! I will cut 1/3 down to 1 1/4.

[FindlayBee]

If you make your bars larger than 1 1/4" for the brood area, the bees will most likely build 2 combs on each bar. I attempted to use all the same bar size for the brood and honey and the best advice out there is use smaller bars for brood and the larger bars for honey.

I am in the process of adding 1-1/4" bars into my brood areas. I started one hive with the 1-1/4" bars and the bees have built the best on these bars compared to the 1-3/8 bars I have in my other hives. For the most part the 1-3/8" bars have comb being built ok, but I find that when the bees get of bit off, they build 2 combs side-by-side on one bar. I tried to make things simple but made things more complicated by trying to use 1-3/8" bars for everything.

[mmiller]

I have 2 hives with only 1 3/8". One hive has 13 bars drawn and the other 15 bars. All are great so far. I guess we'll see with the remaining bars. I wanted to keep things as simple as possible since I am known for overcomplicating things. If I have issues I change at that point. Alot of beeks stick with
1 3/8ths for everything.

Mike

[Michael Bush]

I have tried making them all 1 1/2". They cheated a little small on each bar until the combs were between the bars for brood, but did fine in honey storage. I have tried making them all 1 1/4". They did great in the brood area and then started cheating them bigger in the honey storage area. I tried making them all 1 3/8". If you're going to make one size, this works best, but again they cheated them smaller in the brood area, (but didn't get off as far) and bigger in the honey storage area (but didn't get off as far), so now I make them half and half. Half 1 1/4" and half 1 1/2". Besides that way I only have to cut half of them down, as 1 1/2" are the width of a two by...

[Lauren]

Thanks! I have cut 1/3 of them down to 1 1/4 inches. I also intended to add ventilation, but ran out of time. I don't have a router.
Going to get my bees tomorrow~ I am trying my nuc attached under the TBH kind of gondola style; I would show pics but I am not sure how.

Wish me luck!

[Sam-Smith]

I have tried making them all 1 1/2". They cheated a little small on each bar until the combs were between the bars for brood, but did fine in honey storage. I have tried making them all 1 1/4". They did great in the brood area and then started cheating them bigger in the honey storage area. I tried making them all 1 3/8". If you're going to make one size, this works best, but again they cheated them smaller in the brood area, (but didn't get off as far) and bigger in the honey storage area (but didn't get off as far), so now I make them half and half. Half 1 1/4" and half 1 1/2". Besides that way I only have to cut half of them down, as 1 1/2" are the width of a two by...

Yea this is exactly what I have observed so far, I'm using 1-1/4" so when they get to the far end of the hive I can see the comb slowly moving out of center as the cell sizes increase for honey storage. At this point I start adding 1/4" spacers.