First Harvest

**sevenbravo** · 07-24-2011, 06:13 PM

I inspected my TBH and it was completely full! I harvested two bars of delicious honey.

**TIMER** · 07-24-2011, 06:21 PM

Beautiful, try not to eat too much

**Intheswamp** · 07-24-2011, 06:25 PM

Nice!!!

**100 td** · 07-24-2011, 06:44 PM

That looks absolutely scrumptious! Beautifully formed as well.
Can you give me the dimensions of your hive please, especially width at top and bottom, and depth? Ok, so how long is it as well, width of top bars........?

**sevenbravo** · 07-24-2011, 06:50 PM

Sure. The hive is 16" wide at the top, 10" at the bottom, 9 1/2" deep. The golden mean hive according to plans is about 32" long. I made my second one over 42" as I recall.

**sevenbravo** · 07-24-2011, 06:51 PM

The bars are 1 3/8" wide, but I add 1/4" spacers where the honey is stored.

**Adam Foster Collins** · 07-24-2011, 08:26 PM

Congratulations. It's an almost religious ceremony to me - the harvest. I like to take a bite right out of it and pass it around to anyone who is with me. The kids love it. It's a miracle of nature that the bees can do that.

Enjoy.

Adam

**garden angel** · 07-25-2011, 02:56 PM

Hope not a dumb question..... when putting comb in honey jars, what part is the softest? Is all of it edible? A friend asked me and I honestly didn't know the answer. That is beautiful comb! Bet that child was smiling pretty big behind all that honey!

**sevenbravo** · 07-25-2011, 03:02 PM

All of it is delicious and edible! Yes she was smiling. I don't think any parts are softer than others.

**100 td** · 07-25-2011, 09:19 PM

Thanks for the previous reply re dimensions, another Q, in the pic it appears the comb was attached for part of the way down the left side, is this an observation hive with a protruding window?
Curious to know as I am building one and I was thinking I might set my window flush with the wall to hopefully make things easier? It also appears the right side has a slight indentation where they may have built around the window on the other side?

**sevenbravo** · 07-25-2011, 09:52 PM

The hive does have a window, but it is flush with the sides of the hive. Comb is constantly being attached to the sides and constantly detached by me. :-) There is only one window, on one side so any deformity you see is probably from detaching or just handling after removal.

**Adam Foster Collins** · 07-25-2011, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by garden angel

Hope not a dumb question..... when putting comb in honey jars, what part is the softest? Is all of it edible?...

As long as it's honey comb, yes. But if it's honey that's been stored in comb that had brood in it, then no. You don't want to eat comb that has cocoons in it. Maybe you already know this, but just in case...

Something to keep in mind as your top bar hive has no queen excluder, and she might lay all over the place. One of mine has brood three quarters of the way back through the 4 foot hive. They will eventually fill a lot of that in with honey, but having had brood in there means I can't eat the comb - extraction or crush and strain only.

Adam

Adam