N00b top bar hive with video tour

3303 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by shannonswyatt, Apr 22, 2014

Striider

Discussion Starter · Apr 21, 2014 (Edited)

Howdy- new here and to beekeeping, and I posted a little about myself over at the Welcome forum also.

I built 2 hives, one for my primary residence (elevation 5280 ft), and one in the hills at 9400 ft. My neighbor up there is the one that got me thinking about beekeeping again, and I think she may be willing to help me with initial feedings during the week, since I am not in the mountains full time (yet). I think it will be interesting to compare and contrast the success of both hives.

Not sure if you guys are interested in people's new hives, but here is a video of mine before bees. I will continue posting videos to document my learning process.

These are Kenyan style top bar hives, design inspired by a famous youtuber - Wranglerstar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMjKjzWT_ew

Thanks!
Striider

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J-Rat

· #2 · Apr 21, 2014

Great job on the hive and video. I also like the feeder design. ( Wranglerstar inspired my hive also. ) I did make a few changes.
I installed my bees two weeks ago and they are doing great. Good luck with your bees.

J-Rat

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drlonzo

· #3 · Apr 21, 2014

Striider - just watched your video and like the looks of the new hives. There's a couple things you may want to do to help yourself now though. Your feeder jar lids have way too many holes in them. You really only need about 4 or 5 holes , more then that will cause dripping into the hive. And you mentioned about changing the jars and bees not flying up at you - #8 hardware cloth stapled across the bottom of the feeder plank will keep that from happening. The bees can still get to it to feed, but can't get out to fly up at you. Hope this helps you..

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Striider

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 21, 2014 (Edited)

J-Rat - wow- that's a cool looking hive! Great to hear your bees are doing well. My next one might have that type of bar set up, but I ordered a lot of foundation that I need to work through, since both of my hives only took 2 sheets. That eave vent may not be a great idea for my bees at my elevations and temps, but in the summer I bet it would be nice. Guess I could plug them up as fall approaches. I like the wider wheelbase mod on your legs too, but decided on eyebolts and rebar anchors for mine up in Park County. We often experience 50 mph+ winds up there, so wheelbase isn't going to work for me. Hey- what's the top bar with the holes in it for?

Drlonzo - thank you very much for the tips and the YouTube comment. You are right about the holes - the were fun to punch, so I kinda went crazy with the thumbtack. Tested it with straight water in it, and it seemed to stop dripping pretty quickly, but I fear you are correct. I thought about that hardware cloth idea, but some of my lids are 2 piece and would have space between the screen and the jar lid so I thought I might try this first. Since I need less holes and have plenty of lid inserts, I will attempt hammering the lid centers closer to the screen without messing up the seals. Also thinking that if I harvest honey, I will need to reintroduce the feeders inside the hive like J-Rat when fall comes to prevent freezing.

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WBVC

· #5 · Apr 21, 2014

J-Rat said:
Great job on the hive and video. I also like the feeder design. ( Wranglerstar inspired my hive also. ) I did make a few changes.
I installed my bees two weeks ago and they are doing great. Good luck with your bees.

J-Rat

I notice you have corks in your bars.What is the purpose of that?
Also one bar has a row of holes...I presume to let bees up above the bars. If that is the case why have you done that? With holes in the bars does that interfere with them drawing comb?
Thanks.

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Striider

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 21, 2014

WBVC - I think you are talking about the dowels for handles on the top of the bars. They are merely handles. As for the holes on top of the one bar...we will have to wait and see what J-Rat says.

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J-Rat

· #7 · Apr 21, 2014

The bar with the six holes in it has #8 screen stapled on the under side. In the summer months the temps. can be over 100 degrees. The thought is to help vent the hot air in the hive into the dead air space above the bars and then out the gable vents. ( I'm not using it yet. I'll watch to see if the bees start bearding when it gets hot.)
The #8 screen works great on the feeder. I just bent it up to meet the jar lids.

I corked 2 of the 3 holes for the first 2 days after install. The corks are out and lots of traffic in and out of the hive.

J-Rat

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WBVC

· #8 · Apr 21, 2014

J-Rat said:
The bar with the six holes in it has #8 screen stapled on the under side. In the summer months the temps. can be over 100 degrees. The thought is to help vent the hot air in the hive into the dead air space above the bars and then out the gable vents. ( I'm not using it yet. I'll watch to see if the bees start bearding when it gets hot.)
The #8 screen works great on the feeder. I just bent it up to meet the jar lids.

I corked 2 of the 3 holes for the first 2 days after install. The corks are out and lots of traffic in and out of the hive.

J-Rat

So the jar part of the boardman feeder goes on the bee free side of the division board and you make a slot to push the boardman through to the bee space?

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J-Rat

· #9 · Apr 21, 2014

Yes, the feeder sits on the bee free side of the follower board. I just cut a slot that lines up with the hole in the feeder. The feeder sits flush against the follower board.

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shannonswyatt

· #10 · Apr 22, 2014

What is the length? I think that it may be a bit short, but I could be wrong, I couldn't count the bars. You want to be close to 4 feet. Some people make them over 4 feet, but if you make it under 4 feet you minimize waste on the cover (assuming you are getting 8 foot lumber).

If they do fill it up just make a bigger one to the same comb size and then you can use this as a large nuc.

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Striider

Discussion Starter · #11 · Apr 22, 2014

shannonswyatt said:
What is the length? I think that it may be a bit short, but I could be wrong, I couldn't count the bars. You want to be close to 4 feet. Some people make them over 4 feet, but if you make it under 4 feet you minimize waste on the cover (assuming you are getting 8 foot lumber).

If they do fill it up just make a bigger one to the same comb size and then you can use this as a large nuc.

The interior is 36" long. I would love to build more, so we shall see how they do.

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shannonswyatt

· #12 · Apr 22, 2014

Cool, that is longer than I thought from the window. They may not fill it this year, but next spring they could fill it quickly. Once you get to 2ft you should probably get the tools out of the shed.

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