Author Topic: Question for Beth Kirkley? (Read 5728 times)

latebee · « **on:** May 07, 2005, 10:42:24 pm »

Hi Beth,

Last year you posted pictures of a modified hive you built that was (if I remember correctly) 20 frames wide on the bottom hive body with slanted covers and another hive centered on top of this. I am very interested in how your experiment went with this modification?

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2005, 10:45:20 pm »

It would have been great.. but she forgot the control tower. Midair collisions kept costing her pilots and their rio's.

Sorry Beth... I couldn't help myself.

Horns Pure Honey · « **Reply #2 on:** May 07, 2005, 10:49:09 pm »

LMAO :lol: :lol: :lol: crash and burn, 1 for GP, 0 for Beth. :D

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2005, 10:54:29 pm »

Actually, not to make light of it, the large brood chamber and center supering is often a great system. Fewer supers to move for brood nest inspection and all that. We just like to razz beth a bit.

Especially now that she is a chicken farmer instead of a beekeeper

Horns Pure Honey · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2005, 10:59:21 pm »

Hey darn it, lol, I was a chicken farmer so watch it, lol, bye :D

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2005, 11:01:48 pm »

Luuuuuuuuuuuuke.... come back!!! Come back from the Darkside!! It's meeeeeeeeeeeee.... Obiwan!!..

Michael Bush · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2005, 12:49:10 am »

I have a lot of long hives. Some with frames. Some with top bars. Some with supers on top. Here are some of my pictures.

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
(not sure where it went the first time, but here it is now)

Most of my long hives are mediums and are 33 frames (48 3/4" or three Lanstroth boxes).

Jerrymac · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2005, 06:13:59 am »

thanks

Miss Chick-a-BEE · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2005, 11:06:27 am »

That long hive of mine has done well. Last year it grew much bigger than the other hive. Only problem with that was that they also ATE much more. They had stored alot of honey, then it rained every day, so they ate it all up. I hadn't closed off their screened bottom over the winter, and they still did great. But I do live in central Georgia (no snow), and we don't get freezing weather for extremely long periods.
They did some things I thought was interesting, but was expecting and hoped for. They built their brood starting from the FRONT of the hive - from the entrance going back. So last March I put a box above the front area, and need to take a look to see how things are going. Want to see if they have brood above the front, or continued to move back.
Today is a great day to go look.

Beth

latebee · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2005, 10:38:40 pm »

Thanks everyone,
I think I will give this a try just for kicks and giggles. Every time I try something new (because I am a bee junkie) it facinates me,and usually the bees teach me a new lesson or two in the process.This is besides all the good stuff you all have to offer.

Miss Chick-a-BEE · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2005, 10:59:22 pm »

I did get into that long hive today, and saw some interesting stuff.

I had found after winter that they had STILL not touched the new frames I had put in on the upper BACK of the brood area. Also, this winter, they had stayed near the front and the queen laid her eggs nearest to the entrance. SO - I had put the used frames in a box and placed it above the front part of the brood. Then put a honey super above that of top bar frames. I also moved the untouched frames to the back of the brood box.

The bees did what I expected...... sort of. They moved up, and laid more eggs in the box above the brood area they already had. They also finished up the comb on the top bars and had nectar and brood up there. So basiclly 2 1/2 boxes of brood. But they still refused to go BACK and start making foundation on those new frames that I had now placed there.

So what I did this time was split the brood, and placed the brood above the back of the large (long) brood box. Plus left the top bar frames there. I'm going back in tomorrow to put a queen excluder under the honey super so those bees can just hatch out and the queen can't lay in all that beautiful fresh comb (still VERY white, but bees are capped).

I expect it to be another large hive this year. It really does raise more bees for me, but of course that's always a tricky thing to manage. A large hive can collect more honey, but they can eat more too if the weather turns on you like it did last year. Here's one frame I took (top bar) that had only nectar, some capped. Part of it we had cut off the frame before I remembered I wanted a picture.

It was about 3 lbs of honey.

Beth

latebee · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2005, 11:22:21 pm »

Beth, I was cornfused at first, but see that you are now Miss Chick-a-BEE.Nice pic and see that the long TBH is going to be a challenge,and thats a good thing.

Miss Chick-a-BEE · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2005, 12:04:14 am »

Yeah, I'm still Beth Kirkley. :) Just got a little cute nic.

The long hive I have is tricky. Maybe because of it's particular design, which is just a made up thing of my own. The top bar hives are very long, but typically they don't put extra boxes on top of them. Some people do, but typically it's not seen.

I'm enjoying the experiment. For me, that's PART of having the bees. Anyone can just MANAGE the bees the way all the books say to. Or do it the same as it's been done for hundreds of years. All that's fine, but I want to actually see for myself what happens when you do whatever. Within limits of course. I'm not out to kill off my bees with strange and unusual tecniques. And I found so far that the long hive WILL give you more bees, just as I read they would. Now if I can just get all those bees to work efficiently to get more honey.

Beth