A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[ChickenCanoe]

LOVE DirtRooster's channel....just mesmerizing to watch those swarm removals and I love his easy breezy approach to things.

...

Yeah, he was pretty good, simple and straight forward. Obviously very experienced. His videographer friend didn't know much. The discussion about black queens and big butts was awkward and revealing.

 

[Beekissed]

I run both Warre and HTB hives, they both have their advantages.
Yes, Warre aren't easy to extract, but for me the point isn't easy or maximum honey extraction, but happy healthy bees. So far I've never lost my Warre colony, and it's been running for five years now. I get about a gallon of honey each harvest. The HTBs are easier to run, IF you can get them building comb the right way. It's far easier for them to cross comb in a HTB, unless you work it often. I'm more of a 'leave the bees to be bees' school of keeping. I lost my HTB last year, and one the year before. They tend to eat themselves into a corner and starve, even though there's still pounds and pounds of honey left. I'm not really a fan of HTBs any more...
I also have an Austrian style log hive I built, that I'm hoping to house a swarm in this year. We'll see how that goes...

Michael Bush was talking about that issue in the TBH and said if the entrance is located in the middle of the hive that this happens more....said the bees seem to forget where the honey stores are in the winter months and only consume to the space where those mid hive entrances are. He said if the entrance is located at the far end of the hive from where the brood is stored, that they will consume winter stores appropriately. Not sure of all that but he's a pretty practical guy so I trust his summation on it all.

I'm trying both the Warre method of framing and the top bar in this same hive build, with the Warre style bars/half frames in the storage part and the plain top bars in the brood box. Will be able to evaluate both types of bars for how comb is constructed on them to see which I prefer. There may come a time in this hive where I'll switch to all of one or the other. Since my hive will be mostly for providing a home for pollinators, it's not as important to me that the comb is more easily removed for harvesting.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah, he was pretty good, simple and straight forward. Obviously very experienced. His videographer friend didn't know much. The discussion about black queens and big butts was awkward and revealing.

Yeah...I got all of that. I didn't much like this vid for various reasons, but DirtRooster's other vids are good viewing and very educational on many points. I love his teaching methods and how he works with the bees...very calm, very gentle and both he and his dad seem pretty fearless.

 

[CSWolffe]

Michael Bush was talking about that issue in the TBH and said if the entrance is located in the middle of the hive that this happens more....said the bees seem to forget where the honey stores are in the winter months and only consume to the space where those mid hive entrances are. He said if the entrance is located at the far end of the hive from where the brood is stored, that they will consume winter stores appropriately. Not sure of all that but he's a pretty practical guy so I trust his summation on it all.

I'm trying both the Warre method of framing and the top bar in this same hive build, with the Warre style bars/half frames in the storage part and the plain top bars in the brood box. Will be able to evaluate both types of bars for how comb is constructed on them to see which I prefer. There may come a time in this hive where I'll switch to all of one or the other. Since my hive will be mostly for providing a home for pollinators, it's not as important to me that the comb is more easily removed for harvesting.

I use an end entrance, just for that reason, and they still got stranded away from the rest of their stores. The trick, I think, is to drill a small hole through the middle of each comb, up at the top, so the cluster can move from comb to comb that way, not just by crawling around the edges.

 

[Beekissed]

I wonder why this is such an issue with TBHs and not so much with the Lang and Warre...do you think it's just unnatural for a bee to move horizontally through a hive as opposed to vertically? Or is it that the warmth is differently distributed in a long body or tbh than it is with the vertical styles...maybe all that biomass of the comb above them helps them conserve heat and also gets them more willing to move in the direction of that heat that is moving upward through the hive?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Michael Bush was talking about that issue in the TBH and said if the entrance is located in the middle of the hive that this happens more....said the bees seem to forget where the honey stores are in the winter months and only consume to the space where those mid hive entrances are. He said if the entrance is located at the far end of the hive from where the brood is stored, that they will consume winter stores appropriately. Not sure of all that but he's a pretty practical guy so I trust his summation on it all.

I'm trying both the Warre method of framing and the top bar in this same hive build, with the Warre style bars/half frames in the storage part and the plain top bars in the brood box. Will be able to evaluate both types of bars for how comb is constructed on them to see which I prefer. There may come a time in this hive where I'll switch to all of one or the other. Since my hive will be mostly for providing a home for pollinators, it's not as important to me that the comb is more easily removed for harvesting.

Quote:

I wonder why this is such an issue with TBHs and not so much with the Lang and Warre...do you think it's just unnatural for a bee to move horizontally through a hive as opposed to vertically? Or is it that the warmth is differently distributed in a long body or tbh than it is with the vertical styles...maybe all that biomass of the comb above them helps them conserve heat and also gets them more willing to move in the direction of that heat that is moving upward through the hive?

If I had to hazard a guess it would be because the space is so large (at least in those I'm familiar with) and when it is cold, they will cluster in one space and not be able to access the other stores because when leaving the cluster when cold, they can't move.

 

[Beekissed]

So...likely to be a heat issue rather than a horizontal movement issue. Could be why they use a lot of TBHs in warmer climates but not so much in colder ones. Maybe moving the brood combs directly to the center of the hive on a TBH~smack in the middle of honey stores~ before winter would be advisable, or would that totally confuse the whole colony?

 

[Beekissed]

Was just reading on Bush's site and he answered that question....seems bees only like to move in one direction, so they would likely eat all the stores on one side and starve while there were stores on the other side. That creates a dilemma. He states that it's best to locate the brood in the back of the hive and leave a top entrance at the front of the hive.

Hmmmmmm.....will just have to see if my hive is winter worthy when that time comes. By next spring I hope to have a vertical hive in place for any swarms that may happen.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Was just reading on Bush's site and he answered that question....seems bees only like to move in one direction, so they would likely eat all the stores on one side and starve while there were stores on the other side. That creates a dilemma. He states that it's best to locate the brood in the back of the hive and leave a top entrance at the front of the hive.

Hmmmmmm.....will just have to see if my hive is winter worthy when that time comes. By next spring I hope to have a vertical hive in place for any swarms that may happen.

Again, that points to a temperature issue. When the space is below the mid 40s, they can't leave the cluster. If temperature stays there, they could starve when there is more food in the space.

 

[Beekissed]

Bush states it's important to locate the brood comb to the back of the hive for winter in a tbh, but another site says it's more important for that brood comb to be at the front of the hive so the eastern facing front will help warm the bees......CC, do you have tbhs and, if so, where do you try to center the brood/colony for winter months?