Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: nietssemaj on March 11, 2012, 07:48:05 pm
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Bee's should be here soon. I've got 2 medium frame nuc's coming. I am planning on attaching the frames to top bars and just dropped in them into the hive separated by top bars with chamfer molding as guides. The medium frames will fit, thanks for checking that for me robo. Those frames will get rotated out as soon as the bees stop putting brood in them.
For the time being both colonies will be residing in the same hive with separate entrances of course. I've got 2 follower boards and plan on making a hole in the back end of the barrel. I can fit 8 frames on one side and 9 on the other with the dual followers. If I got brave and yanked one of the follower boards out I could do 9 and 9.
I plan on building another just like this one if I like the way it performs. Though the roof will not be shingled... man that roof is heavy.
Still haven't decided if I am going to drill some holes a the bottom of the bands in the barrel for moisture to drain.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/cf2843c4.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/34d7eb10.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/29b97b0b.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/942f637c.jpg)
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Cool looking hive.
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Pretty slick. The only suggestion I might offer would be to add a screen bottom for mite control.
Regards
Joe
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Very Cool. Can you post more pics?
Alfred
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Though the roof will not be shingled... man that roof is heavy.
:shock: I single piece of metal roofing works great.
(http://photos.beevac.com/albums/userpics/10001/Picture_006.jpg)
BTW, I found drain holes to be a positive. But I'm in the North and have colder weather than you. Though without drain holes, you can feed by just pouring syrup in the entrance. It doesn't get any easier than that.
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Very Cool. Can you post more pics?
Alfred
I'm not sure what else there is to post. Anything in particular you looking to see?
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Though the roof will not be shingled... man that roof is heavy.
:shock: I single piece of metal roofing works great.
BTW, I found drain holes to be a positive. But I'm in the North and have colder weather than you. Though without drain holes, you can feed by just pouring syrup in the entrance. It doesn't get any easier than that.
Yeah sheet metal is my plan. My root is peaked as an attempt to avoid the bars getting too hot and losing combs. It can get above 100°F here in the summer. From the looks of it, this summer is going to be a scorcher.
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Your weather is definitely hotter than mine, but I have found the corrugations in the metal allow air flow on top of the bars. My roof has been hot to the touch, but the top bars remained cool. The wood top bars aren't a very good heat conductor either. I think I would be more worried of the plastic barrel heating up in the sun that a metal roof.
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Alfred,
Not sure what you are looking for, but here are some pics and details of mine that may help -> http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/barrel-top-bar-hive/ (http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/barrel-top-bar-hive/)
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Thanks, those are great pics. I have a barrel sitting in the back yard. I just might have to make one.
Alfred
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Very nice!
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just curious, how heavy is a frame full of honey in one of those contraptions ?
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Robo could tell you he's got one.
Hived my bees today. Medium frames fit fine as long as I centered the frame on the top bar.
Putting the top bar on the top of the medium langstroth frame.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1411.jpg)
Said frame attached to the top bar.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1420.jpg)
By the way.. is it possible to edit a post? My pictures from the first post have moved.
Edit: Ok I figured out how to edit this post but not the original one.
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I couldn't keep my hands off the hive today so I went in.
Forgot my smoker, won't make that mistake again. Started off with no gloves and no veil. When I noticed I forgot the smoker I put both on without getting stung as the bees made their displeasure very evident.
1 colony the bees have already started drawing on the first top bar. 2 discs one the size of a quarter the other a silver dollar. Lots of new comb being drawn on the bottoms of the frames as well.
Other colony should be drawing on the first bar soon, they too are drawing on the bottoms of the frames.
One of the nucs came with SHB, killed a beetle when I hived them and I've seen them flying around. Yesterday I killed 9 beetles on the follower board.
I placed traps,
corrugated plastic board plugged with crisco with boric acid inside. Put one in the back bottom of the hive near the follower board and one on top of the bars as my 'roof' is open and vented.
I'm wondering, everything I've read and heard regarding these types of traps is to put them on the bottom board. Since my bottom is curved they won't sit flat against the bottom. Will that be a problem? What about attaching them to the follower board. The only problem I see with that is the bettles eat the crisco and the boric acid falls out into the hive.
Really want to get the beetles under control quickly.
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I'm not a SHB expert, but I don't see why they wouldn't work on the bottom. I believe the crisco is suppose to lure the SHB, so they will find it even if it is not sitting flat on the bottom.
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I think my bee's are starting to read my mind. Last week I cut off any comb they build on the bottom of the frames and tied it to open bars. This week other than one hive drawing out a queen cell they've stopped building on the bottom of the frames and have gone nuts on the bars.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1422-1.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1420-1.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1419-1.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1418-1.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1417-1.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/PIC_1416-1.jpg)
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very cool
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nice idea for recycling old barrel in a quality thing, thumb up and greatings from croatia.
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My bee's are quickly outgrowing their shared hive so I've been working on the other half of the barrel.
I've made some slight modifications to the stand. The barrel now floats on the stand and can be removed. I'll be building a short stand for loading one of these into the back of my truck.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/2nd%20PBTBH/46491a53.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/2nd%20PBTBH/d24ac369.jpg)
I'm also having some crazy SHB issues. Lots of nooks and crannies for them to hide in. I've decided to add a #8 hardware cloth screen bottom to the new 1/2 barrel. The bee's are doing there best to herd the beetles as it is now, Hopefully with the screen they can just push them out the screen bottom and out of the hive. I'm also having a tray custom made from galvanized sheet metal to use as a lime tray.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/2nd%20PBTBH/29b97d72.jpg)
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/2nd%20PBTBH/e568b1bb.jpg)
I can close the bottom with a sliding board if I need to.
(http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg634/nietssemaj/Bees/PBTBH%20-%20Plastic%20Barrel%20Top%20Bar%20Hive/2nd%20PBTBH/450241a9.jpg)
I've moved both colonies into this new barrel and I am trying to quickly add these modifications to the original barrel so I can split them up before they swarm on me. (I may already be too late to prevent it).
Edit: Photobucket didn't like me moving my photos... man I wish the links weren't album dependent.
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Has anyone tried this with a wooden barrel- like a wine barrel? I am wondering how that would work. Does the comb get attached to the side with the barrel shape?
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I don't know about the comb being attached. But a wine/beer barrel stays together due to the bands. I don't think it would be easy to 'cut' one in half. There is another thread about a 'strip' built TBH. Wasn't from a barrel but is that shape and made of wood.
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,36092.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,36092.0.html)
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nietssemaj
Did you realize your pics in this thread are no longer linked to the forum?
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Yeah, I moved them on photobucket and broke all the links. I'd edit them but I can't seem to edit anything other than the last message I posted.
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Installed PBTBH #2 yesterday afternoon and split my 2 colonies into their own hives. Was pleasantly surprised to see they've torn down all the queen cells they were building. Saw the marked queens in both hives so I guess the colonies have decided to keep them.
Still have SHB everywhere but I didn't see any in the comb and the bees were really chasing them down when they tried to run.
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Both hives are dead. The beetles took over. I combined, compressed, over-crowded, the bee's just couldn't manage.
Once the beetles started getting the upper hand it was inevitable. The size of the combs meant I couldn't freeze them. (Would take a very large chest freezer to fit them.
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Sorry to hear it. I lost a few to the SHB this season as well. Like you finally had to build new hives with traps and transfer colonies, that and changing to pvc pipe entrances w/ sticky tape seems to have turned the tide. I've got a video I'll get up @ some point of the bottom of a Perone (2'x2') with 3-4" of SHB larva piled in it squirming around. I was expecting the, "Hatch", from a recent cutout but it was worse than I've ever seen. Absolutely disgusting !
Cheers,
Drew
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I put a swarm back in mine this year. They seem to be in good shape for winter, time will tell.
Rob...