Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: 2kooldad on May 19, 2011, 11:06:11 pm
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i am in a pinch...i want to put supers and queen excluders on my hives...i have the short supers i built but not the frames...ran out of funds and i AM NOT RICH...heck dirt poor would be a step up...i have a table saw but it dont cut very square...if i just put top bars with a stripe of beeswax in the super will the bees build their own comb on the wax stripes...its not like i have an extractor anyways so it wont matter how strong the comb is in the end...they are short...i will replace them with regular frames when the funds become available...heck part of me just wants to see if it will work...and it would give me some new comb to store away to make queens with....what do ya think...do-able ????
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They will attach comb to the strips. Maybe even one comb to 4 or 5 strips. Then attach them at the sides and the bottom, too.
Then the fun begins.
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If you can make top bars you can make the side and bottom bars as well
do a search and you will find directions
the side bars can be made out of a piece of 2X8 or 2x6
cut the dado's then slice the 2x8 you could also bevel the 2x8
The bottom bars are simple
What your asking will work but be careful when they are drawn
they may break easy or be drawn all over the place :-D
Welcome to Beemaster
Tommyt
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I used top bars in a deep lang last year during a heavy flow as an experiment. It all went really well until I left them alone for a week. They ended up anchoring the comb to the sides, to each other, to the top bars below, you name it. I think you can get it to work...just keep a close eye on it!
Scott
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I put a mix of frames in a swarm trap that I caught one in. It had one top bar which I was fooling with, and to my surprise they pulled the BEST comb on that. I did an inspection today and they attached the comb to the sides. I also have a medium and a shallow that they've built comb under the bottom bars.
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lmao...not everybody owns a dado machine...im not even sure what that is to be honest although im sure i would if you told me what a dado was...i got momentarily skeered when a post on here said NOT to build frames unless you had a realy good tablesaw...well mine is a cheap 10 year old very unsquare tablesaw...but it has a blade and when ya tell me i cant...thats when i show you i can...gets me in trouble alot...im sure most of you are the same way...i figured they would do what yall said...if they would start it on the strips whats to stop them from going crazy without a frame to guide them...my first hive was a cut out...i'd rather not do that if i dont have to...how hard can it be to make a shorty frame right...and heck...they filled in my deep frames from a little chunk of comb from the donar hive...if they did that a shorty frame ought to be a breeze...heck they are bees...they didnt outlive the dinosours for nothing...thanks yall...that was one of my easy questions...wait till i post a hard one :evil:
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If your saw isn't cutting square, look online (with model # etc) for owners manual. Someone out there has the method to do a tune up. Unless the mandrel bearings are shot you should be able to bring it back to specs. One saw I have is at least 40 years old.
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its probly more like the attachments...they are cheaper than the saw...i'll get a better one someday...its just a pain to use...however...its paid for and cuts...my two basic requirements 8-)
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A dado is a groove cut into one piece of wood
Look here dado (http://woodworking.about.com/od/joinery/p/dado.htm)
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From what I have read and researched, try moving a couple drawn frames up when you put the top bars in. That should guide them to straight comb better than the wax strip.
Most posts do indicate that without the frame bottom they will draw comb all the way to the top of the bars below, but that is no different than a Warre hive. Just use wire to separate them.
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ahhhhh gottcha...so i have a table saw/dado machine and didnt neven know it...thats kool...i was really happy when my kids got me a skill saw fer Christmas...that dang table saw was getting heavy and they didnt put handles at the bottom...see i told ya it was cheapo. (did i mention in my intro post im full of......honey) :-D
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i think it will be a mess, BUT....if you are doing crush and strain, that may not matter as much. i have taken honey from messy cutouts with crush and strain lots of times and it's fine. you would not want to do this in a brood super, but if top bar is your only option for honey super and you are very careful, you can probably pull it off.
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i use regular deep frames in my brood chambers with plasticell in them...i have beemax hives (brood chambers) except for the hives i built out of cherry or pine...i just ordered 30 perico frames not to long ago because i needed them for brood chambers...hence the lack of funds...when i checked the ferals they had almost 2 full brood frames filled with fresh honey...no pollen or brood...so im guessing there is something blooming cause its not normal (so far) for them to do that while the carnys arent taking in anything...they might be by now...i know that passion fruit and button bush are blooming right now...i have lots of it around me...i live in the withlacochee river basin so there is wet swamp land for miles...also the elderberrys are in bloom as is stinging nettle...im sure there is something i havent seen and i dont know which of those is putting out nector or pollen or both...havent found a good sorce on ''bees vrs blooms'' yet for my area...if the oppertunity is here i dont want to miss it for lack of effort :/
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If you are just bent on trying topbars. Make the top bars the right width. 1 3/8 in or 1 1/4 in wide 19 in long 1/2 in thick and cut a shallow cut, one blade width in the center of the topbars and glue popsicle sticks in them for guides. And let us know if it works. :shock: