Got my Beehives today!

[poultrykeeper08]

I have always wandered how do you get all of the hive out of the honey ?

Dont you take the hive and squash it to get the honey or am i wrong ? I have always wandered how its done

 

[SamG347]

With the topbar hives.....the bees build their comb on each bar. SO say like my hives will hold 21-22 bars....that means 21-22 combs. Probably about 5-8 of those will be BROOD COMB...aka where they lay...hatch...and grow new workers.....and the rest give or take a bar will be Honey. Usually they will build the brood comb near the entrance of the hive...honey toward the back. I will take the bars out of honey that I need....leave some bars for the bees...cut the comb off and replace bars. Then you can either eat the honey in the comb or use a system of two buckets....one on top of the other...and let the honey strain/break down through the system.
The system being....

Bucket
Cheesecloth
Bucket

You break the comb up in the upper bucket....let it sit in a hot room/outside and let the honey slowly drizzle down into lower bucket.

 

[poultrykeeper08]

Oh wow cool . What is the comb made out of if you eat it ? Do you eat it ?

 

[SamG347]

Yes I eat the comb....and not 100% sure what it is made out of....but the bees make it. Unlike Langstroth hives(the classic white stacked box) hives the bees in Topbar hives make their own comb....there is noooo FOUNDATION. And it has been proven that the foundation in langstroth hives that the bees build their comb on is actually too big. And isn't what the bees would be making if they were in the wild. Small cell beekeeping is something I'm striving for. And learned a lot from a guy that knows what he is talking about....aka Sam Comfort.
Here is his site....I also belong to a topbar forum whose link is also provided below.

http://anarchyapiaries.org/

http://www.biobees.com/forum/index.php

 

[CynthiaM]

Geareduplyn. I agree with you 100%. I always work the bees without any protection, not even gloves... EXCEPT....I would not even dream of working them without a veil. Using a veil protects the vulnerable parts of my body, that being the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, neck. Anything below that is minor. I feel 100% confident when I work the bees with my veils. I am very fortunate as well, my bees are as calm as the day in summer is long. In my four years of keeping bees, I have only been stung a very few times. The worst time I got stung was when I was trying to hold up a branch that had a swarm on it, the branch tipped and the swarm landed on my head. I received a few good stings that day, and rightfully deserved. Picture someone dumping your family and clustering spot on the top of something, you'd be rather defensive too....

Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM

 

[SamG347]

Yes I too will only wear a veil....I just have a thing with potential stingers crawling on my face....