Amarillo Texas TBH newbee

[gregsky88]

Good afternoon,
I am in Amarillo Texas on 5 acres a couple miles SW of the city. I intend on taking delivery of a package of bees in late April or early May from Beeweever in Austin and placing them in a top bar hive that my woodworking son is building from plans on the internet. I have finally made a connection with a local beekeeper with a dozen conventional hives and one tbh for some local knowledge. I am open to any advice or encouragement that anyone is willing to share. My concern is the wind in spring, adequate forage and the hot dry summers.
I saw a post from urbangardener in Amarillo posted in January 2012 but cannot locate it now. If any Amarillo area beeks read this post would very much like to make a connection.
Greg

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Welcome Greg!

[Steven Ogborn]

Welcome Greg.
Yay! New Texas TBH beekeeper!
If your concern with the wind is it will blow your TBH over.
You can take one of those corkscrew type dog tie out stakes, and screw it in the ground underneath your TBH, and
then put a ratchet strap over the hive to lash it down to the stake. If it won't blow off the ground, it shouldn't
blow over unless the legs brake on it.
If you can position the hive with morning sun only, shade the rest of the day. Full July sun on TBHs is hard on them down here.
When it's cooler weather like spring and fall, I get into mine in the evenings before temps start to drop for the night.
When it's hot during the summer, it's REAL early in the morning, while the temperature is relatively cool.
I can't help with the forage. I dont know what there is in Amarillo.

[gregsky88]

Thanks for the input. Thinking that I'll set mine in cinder blocks. Good advice on morning sun. We'll have some clover and a couple of country neighborhoods to forage.

[Sherillynn]

Greg-
I am putting a TBH in this year that my Father in law made for me. I usually have Langs. Some of the things I was told about TBH in my post:

1- make sure it is level and not just to the eyeball or when they build the comb, it won't be straight in your hive.
2- Also, they advised me to put one top bar and then the 2 dividers around it until some wax is built, then add the next top bar. After that, you add an empty one in between every one that's been started with wax.

Take a look and see if you can find that post. It might be helpful to you. It was under the Top Bar Hive Forum Section within the past week.

Good luck. Beekeeping is a great hobby.

[gregsky88]

Sherillyn, I did see that post as I was browsing the forum and made note of it. Hope I can get them to work in my location.