The Hive is Ready

We have decided to build a top bar hive as mentioned in our previous post. Instead of the frames that the traditional bee hive has, a top bar hive only has a bar at the top with a guiding notch to help the bees decide where to build their comb, then they build the comb from that spot. The hive has sloping sides to minimize attachment of the comb to the hive box, and there is a false backer board that you can put in anywhere, that will help the bees get started in a smaller space then increase the space as they can use it to fill with honey. Unlike traditional hives there are no supers. If the bees fill up the entire hive you simply harvest some honey and they have more room. The hive has windows in the side so you can watch what is happening without disturbing the bees much.

The finished hive

The finished hive with the window open.

We built our hive entirely out of scraps we had laying around, or found at my parents house. The wood was some mohogany trim that my Dad had been saving for just the right project. I hope he thinks this is the right project, at any rate the wood had been sitting in his garage for a number of years and he was ready to part with it. The top bars were from scraps of oak from Dad's wood pile, I think they were originally part of an oak bedroom set.

The bottom has a screen to help ventilate the hive in the summer and helps the mites from infesting the hive. Bees clean off the mites and drop them, if the floor is solid they can crawl back up and get back on the bees, with a screen floor they fall through, either to the ground in the summertime when the bottem is open, or onto a bottom board under the screen to help keep the hive warm in the wintertime. The board ideally has sticky paper attached that the mites stick to. Either was they can't get back to the bees. I also found the srca piece of screen on Dad's woodpile.

While Dan (Mike's son) was visiting a couple weeks ago he did a little welding for us. He was having so much fun that he welded up the stand for the hive from scrap metal that was on the property when we moved here.

I guess I lied.. we did buy the Plexiglas for the window and a couple hinges, and some good waterproof glue. Oh and Mike found the piece of corrugated roofing somewhere on the property. Pretty cool eh? The thing sticking out the front door of the hive is a feeder that we bought at the bee-club auction last week.

The hive with the Lid off, three top bars and the false backer board.
When the hive is full it fits 30 top bars.

A closer look at the top bar, and sitting on the false backer board.