Sunshine, 78°. Removed sticky board and placed in front of hive below entrances; later saw bees returning with big sacks of pollen doing the figure 8 dance on the board. Found one adult mite on board when removed from below hive; no bees with deformed wings…will continue to watch for that. Saw several drones returning to hive…they are huge, at least 1½ times the size of the workers. Bees working on bar 13 and resting on 14, have put propolis between 13|14 (w/spacer). Added 2 more bars, 15 & 16 w/spacers. Wondering if I started spacers too soon, between 8&9. Info below from Matt Reed in Portland , OR Boulder
From Matt Reed: https://www.beethinking.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4
1) Even in my vertical hives (Langstroth and Warre) I run an unlimited brood nest and I've had NO issues with brood in my supers or in the comb I'm planning to harvest. The same goes for horizontal top bar hives. I start my colonies in one end of the hive (with the end follower board butted up against the end of the hive -- to be discussed more in the next answer) and allow them to build in one direction, moving the second follower board over until they have the whole space. The bees usually build brood in the first 10-15 combs and after that it's all honey storage. I harvest once they begin filling up the hive.
2) I've tried both end entrances and side entrances and I much prefer side entrances for a number of reasons. First and foremost I like them in conjunction with two follower boards as it allows me to easily access both ends of the hive (brood and honey). With one follower board and an end entrance it can be difficult to access the first comb (the one right next to the entrance) as it may have attachments and tear apart. With a follower board in place I can pull the follower board and then cut off attachments if there are any. Secondly, ventilation seems to work better when they have 6 side entrances through which to fan air.
3) The hives we sell are 42" and I wouldn't recommend going any smaller. Many of my hives are 48" and I find anything between 42" and 48" provides ample space for honey surplus and the minimization of swarming. While I haven't tried overwintering two colonies in one top bar hive, it can certainly be done, and this is another advantage of the side entrances. The issue will be that the colonies, once they start building up, will quickly run out of space and will need to be split.
Best, Matt Top Bar Hive and Warre Hive Supplies: http://www.beethinking.com/
2) I've tried both end entrances and side entrances and I much prefer side entrances for a number of reasons. First and foremost I like them in conjunction with two follower boards as it allows me to easily access both ends of the hive (brood and honey). With one follower board and an end entrance it can be difficult to access the first comb (the one right next to the entrance) as it may have attachments and tear apart. With a follower board in place I can pull the follower board and then cut off attachments if there are any. Secondly, ventilation seems to work better when they have 6 side entrances through which to fan air.
3) The hives we sell are 42" and I wouldn't recommend going any smaller. Many of my hives are 48" and I find anything between 42" and 48" provides ample space for honey surplus and the minimization of swarming. While I haven't tried overwintering two colonies in one top bar hive, it can certainly be done, and this is another advantage of the side entrances. The issue will be that the colonies, once they start building up, will quickly run out of space and will need to be split.
Best, Matt Top Bar Hive and Warre Hive Supplies: http://www.beethinking.com/
This hive is 32” long, which was the optimum recommended by xxx to Ken.
And here’s what Micharl from Bushbees says about space and bar width:
Michael Bush 08-29-2007, 07:25 PM
I make mine half and half with a few extras of each. In other words, in a 48 3/4" long top bar hive I made about 20 of each. I juggle them around as I see what the bees are building. When they are expanding the brood nest I keep it at 1 1/4" next to where they are building. When they start building honey comb that is thicker, I move those off and put the 1 1/2" next to where they are now storing comb and feed the 1 1/4" ones into the brood nest one empty bar at a time, to get them to expand the brood nest more. When that comb is drawn I put another empty 1 1/4" bar in the brood nest again.
Will open hive and look thoroughly at comb this weekend if weather nice and Jody around.
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