Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: SawBee on June 08, 2010, 10:58:27 am
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This is my second year with hives. I'm using all top bar hives. Installed a new package of Buckfast bees May 15, 2010. They have drawn 7 bars of wax and are in the process of filling them with brood and some honey. They have connected adjacent bars with comb on 5 of the 7 bars. I tried cutting them apart yesterday, but they started collapsing. I attempted to fasten one section of brood and honey to a new top bar with zip ties, but the comb was too new and fragile to hold. I closed the hive back up to take time to devise a repair strategy.
I’m considering taking all 5 the cross connected bars out of the hive in one connected group and placing them in a new top bar hive till all the brood hatch. Then combining them back together in the original hive.
But, I’m open to other suggestions.
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Take the straigtest comb on the bar and put that at the "open" end and put the rest all the way to the front. That way they have a straight guide for the next bar.
Then build five frames to fit. Cut the combs and rubber band them into the frames.
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Take the straigtest comb on the bar and put that at the "open" end and put the rest all the way to the front. That way they have a straight guide for the next bar.
Then build five frames to fit. Cut the combs and rubber band them into the frames.
That sounds like a practical and workable solution. Thanks Michael.
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I used to have a problem with cross combing in my 2 Warre hives. Check to make sure that you have the spacing right.
And now when making the top bars, I now cut some square stock on the diagonal and attach that to the bar so that the cross section looks like
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Put a bead of wax along the point and your bees will draw out nice straight comb. Works every time.
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I used to have a problem with cross combing in my 2 Warre hives. Check to make sure that you have the spacing right.
And now when making the top bars, I now cut some square stock on the diagonal and attach that to the bar so that the cross section looks like
__
\/
Put a bead of wax along the point and your bees will draw out nice straight comb. Works every time.
I used 1 3/8 inch wide top bars (maybe should have used 1 1/4 for brood) and I also have the V shaped extension on the bottom of the bar. I didn't use a wax bead. I may have to try wax next time.
Thanks for the suggestion.
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1 1/4" is, in my experience the best. 1 3/8" should work ok, but they may get off a bit, and any wider is not going to work well for brood, but may work fine for honey.