A little something I've been up to...
I've been building a TBH(Top Bar Hive). It is the only type of hive that allows one to view the natural distribution of brood and natural behavior of honeybees inside a hive. The KTBH(Kenyan Top Bar Hive) on which my hive is based, has a theory that by previding a slant the bees will confuse the walls with the floor, upon which they never build comb. In all the stuff I've read it's not exactly that simple as bees will attach any heavy comb. Anyways, here are some photos of it so far.
In the photo of the enterence I have since attached a 1 by 4 to there to previde a landing/fanning area. The whole construction is about three feet long and later I'll previde all the dimensions. The main reason I was lured to a TBH was that there's no heavy lifting of supers, the bees are easier to work whatever their aggressian level, it's the only way to observe a natural brood nest, it can saturate the area with drones and since bees naturally build small cell comb it hinders the reproduction of Varroa mites. There are also no expensive accesories needed for TBHs. A standard langstroth hive would require boxes, frames, extractors, uncapping knives and all that stuff. In a TBH all the parts are easily manufactured. The honey harvest just requires cutting off the comb and eating, no extraction required. Granted the bees will produce a lot less honey but, no one can eat 200 pounds of honey anyway. It will truely be a great adventure when I stock this hive with bees in this comming February or March.
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In the photo of the enterence I have since attached a 1 by 4 to there to previde a landing/fanning area. The whole construction is about three feet long and later I'll previde all the dimensions. The main reason I was lured to a TBH was that there's no heavy lifting of supers, the bees are easier to work whatever their aggressian level, it's the only way to observe a natural brood nest, it can saturate the area with drones and since bees naturally build small cell comb it hinders the reproduction of Varroa mites. There are also no expensive accesories needed for TBHs. A standard langstroth hive would require boxes, frames, extractors, uncapping knives and all that stuff. In a TBH all the parts are easily manufactured. The honey harvest just requires cutting off the comb and eating, no extraction required. Granted the bees will produce a lot less honey but, no one can eat 200 pounds of honey anyway. It will truely be a great adventure when I stock this hive with bees in this comming February or March.
posted by FLbeekeeper at 3:31 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah...but, no nutrition is gained from it. It's basicly a fiber like the cellulose of plants.
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