Drum Top Bar Hive

Today I decided to rip the top bars with a hand saw and that is exactly what I did ... hrmhmm ... well I did 3 top bars that way and man its hard and time consuming. One would need a whole day or two to rip all the top bars for this hive. So I pondered what to do ... and after a while I managed to fasten my old circular saw  my new work table and this is what it looks like (BEWARE!!! circular saws are very dangerous tools);

The saw is very old and very liley needs sharpening. It went slow buts still much faster than ripping by hand. I guess its not the fact that I had to invest so much energy to rip the top bars with a hand saw but that the mind knows that there is an easier way. The mind already ripped many top bars this year on a circular table saw and it was a piece of cake. I bet 100 years ago I would not even think about it and would simply carry on ripping the top bar with a hand saw since there was no other way of doing it.

The result is satisfying. All the top bars are 38mm wide and 450mm long

Then it came time to make a follower board ... well in my case its called a follower hessian cloth ;) I have seen a few beeks using this in long hives without solid dividers just a hessian cloth. I decided to nail it to the top bar.

this side is facing the bees ...

and this side is the one opposite to the bees where the feeding station will be. To let bees get to the inverted syrup jar only lift the cloth a bit.

zoom into the conection

I did not cut the cloth to suit the round shape of the hive. Like this I get extra cloth to make it bee tight

The roof is made of some white plastic sheet I have in the garage. The sheet is screwed to the wooden frame. I placed blue insulation under the roof.

Since this hive is oval and bees are known to attach comb to the walls I will need to use a very elastic knife for detaching the brace comb with. I have a perfect one for it ;)

Now its only left to coat the hive with wax and linseed oil and to apply wax guides onto the top bars with a soldering iron. One hive ready for the next season. I will start another one tomorrow. I also need to make a few swarm traps which will also be used as nucs (8-9 frames)