The First Complete Inspection

This weekend was my first scheduled inspection of my top bar hive.  Opening the hive and checking progress has to be done every 7 - 10 days.  Of course, when I say it has to be done, I'm referring to a human requirement, not a bee requirement!  I have a sneaking suspicion that the bees would have no problem with me leaving them alone for a while, if not forever!

Preparation for opening the hive is always the same; gather my tools, bee brush, hive tool, smoker, veil, gloves, note pad, pen, camera, and my lovely assistant, Sue, then light the smoker, don the veil and gloves, and head for the bee yard.  Once there, I gave a few puffs of smoke at the entrance and under the cover.  After a minute or so, I removed the cover and puffed some smoke over the top bars.

Now I can start removing top bars and checking things out.  First I removed several top bars that have no comb on them yet, giving me room to work in the hive.  I used the hive tool to pry the top bars apart.  The bees glue them together with propolis, but the tool makes it easy to separate them.

While I work, the bees that have been off foraging return and gather at the entrance of the hive, but because of the smoke, they're hesitant to go inside.  If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the full pollen baskets on their legs.

When I checked the hive two weeks ago, the bees had started to make comb on the bar in slot #14.  I removed one of the top bars on the populated side of the hive to consolidate the nest, so that moved the new comb to slot #13.  In this inspection, I found more comb on the bars in slots #12, #11, and a small comb between #9 & #10.

In my attempt to remove bar #10, the comb that was between it and #9 fell off and landed in the bottom of the hive.  I'm not sure why the bees drew that comb in the small space between the top bars.  I'll have to put a post on one of the bee forums and see what they say.

This is a lemonade from lemons situation!  I wasn't sure what to do, so I took the comb out of the bottom of the hive.  This gave me the opportunity to see the stored honey and the pollen, 

and then, well, I think you get the idea!  MMMMMMM! Warm, new honey!  And the pollen was a very interesting flavor, too!

The next bar to come out is #11.  I found that the bees had chewed through the string I had attached to the bottom of the top bar as a guide.  The comb was attached nicely, took up about 2/3 of the length of the bar, and it was straight and well formed.  This comb was about 3/4 full of pollen and honey.

Top bars #12 & 13 were fully drawn with comb, and had eggs, larvae, and capped brood.  So this comb is referred to as brood comb, and the area in the hive that has brood comb is referred to as the brood nest.  As the hive population grows, the brood nest will have more and more combs.  If you click on the picture below and zoom in, you can see a few open cells, which have eggs or larvae in them, and you can see the capped brood.  

When I was building the follower board, my angle cuts were off by about an eighth of an inch, so I attached some strips of wood to the edge so that it would fit snugly between the walls of the hive.  I should have put the strips on the back side of the follower board.  But I didn't, and this created a recessed area on the side of the follower board that faces the nest.  The bees have completely filled it with comb!  I didn't pull it out, but I assume it has pollen and honey in it.  Bees usually put their food on either side of the brood nest.

So, the lessons from this hive inspection are; first, the string didn't work.  In the future, I'll use something more substantial and permanent for the guide on the bottom of the top bar.  Two: the side of the follower board that faces the nest has to be flat, solid, and uninviting to the bees!  And C: the bees are going to do things the way they want to, not how I plan things.  My plan was for them to start drawing comb on the bar in slot #1.  After all, that's why I labelled it #1!  And finally, if your bees love you, they don't sting!

Retrieving the Feeder

I know I said I wasn't going to post again until next weekend, but it's supposed to rain on Sunday, and I really want to get that sugar syrup feeder out of the hive!

So...
This morning I opened the hive at about 6:15 am to retrieve the feeder I had placed inside when I installed the bees.  The books tell you to open hives during the late morning hours, when workers and foragers are out flying.  I figured the bees would be fairly inactive this early, even though the temperature was just over 60 degrees (bees don't fly when the temps are below 57 degrees), and I have to go to work!  So I put my veil and gloves on and out I went.  No smoker. Just a spray bottle of sugar water to spritz them with.

The bees were fairly docile when I first opened the hive.  I gave them a few squirts of sugar water to keep the busy while I worked.  I took out several top bars from the uninhabited section of the hive, and moved the follower board over.  Then I was able to start moving top bars in the active portion of the hive.  The bees had started to glue everything together with propolis, a gummy substance they make from plant resins.  I carefully pried the top bars apart with my hive tool, and moved them over to make room so I could reach in and get the feeder.  I found that the bees have started to make more comb on top bars #9 through #13, in addition to the comb I found Sunday on top bar #14.  I was able to retrieve the feeder, and I saw the empty queen cage at the bottom of the hive, so I reached down and got that as well.  With the sun shining on us, and the temps steadily rising, the bees were starting to get active, and a few were even getting a little defensive, so it was time to close things up.  I removed three top bars from the active section of the hive that the bees had yet to work on, thus reducing the open space inside the hive.  Once they've fully built out comb on 8 of the 11 top bars they have, I'll move the follower board over and give them more room.  The whole process took me about twenty minutes, so no foul, no harm!  Once again, I didn't get stung!

Here's a picture of the feeder I've been trying to get out of the hive.  It's just a chick feeder from the farm store with some hardware cloth fitted inside the dish so the bees don't drown. I'll fill it with a 1:1 sugar:water solution and replace it on the cribbing outside the hive.  I probably don't need to, but I haven't seen any bees on the sugar cake I put in, and I know they like the syrup, so they'll have some extra food, just in case.

Here's a picture of the package the bees came in.  3 - 4 lbs of bees with about 3500 bees per pound.

And here's a picture of the cage the queen and her three attendants came in.  It was suspended inside the package next to the tin can (which contained sugar syrup for them to eat during their trip).

Now that I know the queen has escaped her cage and is establishing herself in the hive, and I've gotten the feeder, I can leave the bees alone to do what they do!  I'm marking my calendar to recheck the hive a week from Sunday.  

Putting in the top bars, and an exciting discovery!

This morning my tasks were to put the remaining top bars and some sugar cake in the hive.  When I installed the bees, I put just half of the bars on and placed the follower board behind those.  I did this to restrict the bees hive space so that they wouldn't be building comb randomly, all over the place.  Here's what the inside of the hive looked like before:

You can see the white follower board on the left side, and to the right are the top bars I previously installed.  It's pretty warm today, and the location of the hive gets a lot of sun, so the bees were more active than I would have liked.  I wanted to take out the feeder that I put inside the hive when I installed the bees, but they were getting agitated, so I'll have to do that on a cooler day.  This was my second time working with them, and I still haven't been stung!  KNOCK ON WOOD!

Here's what the hive looks like with all of the top bars and the sugar cake installed.  I've moved all of the top bars as far left as they can go, which leaves some "bee space" at the far right side so the bees can come up and eat the sugar cake.  The raised bar you see in the middle of the picture is the follower board.

AN EXCITING DISCOVERY!

In my attempt to retrieve the feeder that is inside the hive, look what I found!

In my hand, I'm holding top bar #14.  Look at that BEAUTIFUL, snow white, new comb!  I was so excited I almost dropped the top bar!  The bees have been in the hive for just two days!

 As an aside, I should tell you that I've numbered the top bar slots so that I can keep record of what happens where in the hive.  I'll be recording in which top bar slots brood is laid, where pollen is stored, where honey is stored, which bars of honey get harvested, and any other information.  I numbered the top bar slots, not the top bars themselves, because there will be times when I need to move bars around.

So that's probably all I'll be posting for now.  Unless there are some interesting  events I need to record, the next time I will go into the hive will be in 7 - 10 days.  I'll need to make sure the queen has been released from her cage, and I'm going to try again to retrieve that feeder!

Preparing the Top Bars

So the key component to a Kenyan Top Bar Hive is, of course, the top bars.  These are just 1 1/2" X 15" wooden slats that sit on the top of the hive body, and the bees draw their comb on the bottom side.

However, bees don't just get dumped into the hive (well, actually they do!), and know where to build comb.  They need a little direction, some kind of a signal that says "over here, this is where it goes!".

The first thing I did was to attach a piece of all natural sisal twine to the bottom of the top bars with a staple gun.  I attached one end with two 1/2" staples, hammered the staples in firmly, stretched the sisal tight across the bar, double stapled the other end, hammered those down, then cut the sisal to length.

Next, the sisal needs to be coated with bees wax.  My friend Kevin gave me some fresh cappings (these are the wax caps off the cells in the hive that hold honey.  I melted the cappings down in a double boiler.  Extreme caution must be used when melting beeswax as it is very flammable!

The next step is to brush the melted beeswax onto the sisal.  This creates a raised area on the bottom of the top bar that the bees are supposed to recognize as ":the place" to start drawing comb.
 

Once all the strings have been coated with wax, the top bars are ready to go into the hive!

Learning

WARNING!! This post contains language about Kenyan Top Bar Hives that some beekeepers may find offensive!

One factor that has made itself incredibly clear is that, every beekeeper does things a little differently.  And most of the beekeepers I've met, at least those a generation or two older than I, believe the way that they do it is the RIGHT way and any other way won't work!  I have a keen interest in Kenyan Top Bar Hives.  These are simple hives that were designed to be used in third world countries.  They're inexpensive to build, and give people in developing countries a steady source of income without having to shell out hundreds of dollars to get started.  That concept intrigued me, so Sue and I decided that we would do two hives; she would purchase a traditional Langstroth Hive,

and I would build a top bar hive (TBH).    Whenever I've mentioned this to other beekeepers, they've poo poo'd the idea.  "It won't work."  "Good luck with that."  "It's a mistake." "I won't even discuss top bar hives with you."  These are just some of the responses I've gotten.  Many beekeepers here in Maine are less than enamored with a business person that recently started a local TBH company.  Why, I'm not sure.  But the change in the tone of the discussion is palpable when the subject turns to TBH management.  I like to think I'm open minded, or maybe it's just that I like to think I can do things that people tell me I can't!  So I went ahead and built my TBH.  Here it is:

I made it entirely from scrap wood I had around the farm.  Even the cedar shakes on the roof were scrap I had upstairs in the barn for probably ten years or more!  Sue needles me because I'm a "saver".  But here's that 1 in 1000 time that I used something I had saved!  She's right about most of the stuff I save, and this probably won't happen again for at least another ten years!

The only things I purchased were 1/4" hardware cloth for the bottom screen, four corks for the entrance holes, a quart of mismatched paint, and a small bottle of Gorilla Glue.  Total investment: $22.00 and one weekend.

The hive details:  I used 1X6 tongue & groove primarily to build the hive body, which is 4' L X 18" W X 20"T.  The side walls are mounted at a 15 degree down angle.  Inside there is a "follower board" that restricts the space the bees can use inside the hive, and there are 30 top bars that are 1 1/2" wide by 15 1/2" long.  I stapled all natural sisal twin along the undersides of the top bars and brushed them with melted beeswax that a friend gave me.  This gives the bees some guidance as to where to start drawing comb.  I'll show more details and post more photos or videos showing the parts of the hive later on.  The hive is placed on the southeast side of an outbuilding so it get's sun all day.  It's sitting on a crib work of 6X6 hemlock cutoffs that were left over from the 1999 construction of the building.  Glad I saved these!!

Like with all the other creatures on our farm, the bees will be given everything they need to survive, even thrive, in the TBH.  I left room behind it so that when winter comes, I can stack straw bales around it to insulate the hive and protect it from winter winds.  I don't know if this will work, I hope it will.  But at least, unlike many of my fellow beekeepers, I'm going to try, before I say it won't!

The Beginning

My wife Sue and I, recently decided to add a couple of bee hives to our farm.  It wasn't really a decision based on anything other than the thought that it would be interesting, and fun!  So, for the past six months or so, we've been reading, researching the aspects of beekeeping, watching LOTS of internet videos on the subject, attending workshops, and just recently completed Bee School.  This "B-Log" is intended to be a diary of our experience with our bees; a record that we can use to track our progress; a reference tool for us, but also a fun diversion for anyone interested in following the goings on in the bee yard at Pondview Farm.