>Be paitent. Michael will eventually post here. But he has almost 100 hives to maintain, a few horses, a job, a house, and somewhere in there his family would like 30 seconds of his time.
Keeping 100 hives would be easier. I'm trying to expand to a hundred hives. I thought I had half the equipment, but then, besides building new equipment, I started dipping the old equipment...
And then there is queen rearing...
Someday I'll get caught up... :)
>How do you start a hive in what seems to be a very large box?
I just put them in it.
>Presumably, it would take quite a while for a swarm or a package to be able to handle the full volume of the box, so couldn't pests be an issue with that much extra space?
The extra space is empty. If the extra space was combs, yes. It probably would be easier on them if I built a follower board. I have not.
>Since honey space needs to be kept open during the season, how do you remove the bees from each bar? A bee brush?
Yes.
> Methods for a Lang hive don't seem likely to work with this.
Shaking doesn't work.
>To make space for brood in the spring (empty bars), do you just remove empty combs from the bars (and any excess honey you think will not be needed) and replace them?
No. I leave the empty combs for them to fill with brood.
>Do you move the remaining honey near the cluster and let the bees build new comb and move it away, or do you leave empty bars between the current brood space and the first bar of honey?
Spring is usually not a problem. They want to expand. The problem is when they start wanting to reduce the brood nest. That's when I have to intervene. Then I put empty bars in the brood nest, usually one at a time, unless the hive is really booming then I might put as many as three at a time in. There are always some empty combs, if if there are not, it's time to harvest some honey.
>How do you reduce the entrance in the winter to keep out mice, etc, especially if the cluster is working from one end to the other?
I have a top entrance and I have not had any problems with mice. I have not reduced the entrance on the KTBH.