Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: johngoes on April 08, 2012, 09:02:15 pm
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Now for the bees.
I started with plans from online, but being an amateur woodworker with a decent shop, I tweaked the plans in several ways. I was ready to butt-join the ends to the sides this morning but it was too early for woodworking so I went to learningbeekeeping dot com where I learned that in Central Texas the high heat can result in comb failure and that he makes his Texas hives wider and shallower to prevent heat related comb failure. (Whew!!) So I chopped 1 1/2" off the sides and widened the base by 2".
Next week my county's bee club is having an installation demonstration (in Langstrom hives though...). My wife and I will go introduce ourselves and watch the action. However, they said they've already sold out of the 250 bee packages they ordered for this spring. Kind of worried we'll have a hive but no bees! :-P
Two questions - is there a recommendation on the ratio of brood bars to honey comb bars? I have 12 BB and 16 HB currently. Seems heavy on the HBs.
Anyone thought about putting a landing pad on the INSIDE of the hive? I was just planning only drilling some holes in the end. It dawned on me I could put a staging bar on the inside so that bees can defend or fan from just inside the holes.
Here's the hive, viewing port and all. All that's left is to build a roof and cover the view port.
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5467/6912523894_ef0151c65d.jpg)
This picture shows the two slots I created for the screen and a cover panel underneath.
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/7058606493_f3b0cf2efa.jpg)
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Great job!
...JP
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Very nice!
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That is a very nice looking hive. I'm not sure about the ratio for the bars, mine are all the same width.
Putting a landing pad on the inside may cause a problem when moving bars around or with how the bees build comb in the area where the landing pad protrudes. I think I would put it on the outside if I used one at all.
Good luck finding bees, you can probably still find a supplier that will mail a package to you. Another option would be to try and attract a swarm or put your name on the local swarm lists.
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Nice Job. I would get some Lemon Grass Oil and take a q tip dipped in it and place it in a plastic bag and put it in the hive. Don't seal it up, the bag slows down the drying time and keeps it from being too strong. You may get a free swarm. Add you name/number to the swarm list on this site.
Jim
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Nice! I wish you all the luck with it.
Scott
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Thanks for the friendly comments. And I'll see where I can get some lemmon grass oil. It'd be cool if the hive became a home on its own. I also decided I'd just drill the holes and let nature take its course.
One of the reasons I got curious about bees is last year I saw something interesting at work. I always park a long way from the entrance to get a bit of exercise walking in. One day I noticed bees buzzing around one of the facility's sprinkler system control boxes which has a green panel cover over a box in the ground with a single round hole to open the cover. For days I would pause at the box and stand and watch as the bees entered and exited the hole. Now that I've read the books, it's obvious I saw a natural bee swarm take up residence in the sprinkler system. The only thing is, I don't think it was a very large space to make a lot of comb. (And when I peeked into the space I could see short stubby combs in there...) I don't think it took more than a month before the hole was cleared out, probably by facilities.
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Be careful John. African bees prefer small spaces in the ground where as European bees normally prefer larger cavities higher up.
Jim
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Welcome to the forum. Nice looking tbh, and may you find some bees. Good luck
Oh almost forgot, you can go to you tube and see installing and most anything else about any of the kinds of hives. I built one a little similar last year. put bees in last week.
Joe