Natural Beekeeping

Top Bar ApiRevolution has begun! Lets make some inexpensive Top Bar Hives and let them be pesticide free on their own natural comb! Che Guebee is a rebel bee fighting for the survival of the Biodiversity we all depend on and which is seriously endangered by deforestation and mono-crop agriculture! What kind of teaching have you got if you exclude nature?

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Is my new KTBH too deep?

Now that I've placed an old comb from my "Phil Chandler size" top bar hive into this new hive which is much deeper I wonder whether the combs will collaps or not. As you can see the diference is huge. The hive is 45cm deep and 45cm wide at the top. I know the bees will attach the comb to the side of the hive but at some point I will be inspecting combs and to do so I must cut them off the wall. This will put the whole comb weight at the top bar connection.

One is sure, there will be no flipping around with this long comb ;) otherwise it sure will break.
This hive's body is adapted to the swedish hive called "Lagnormal" and is an equivalent to its two deep boxses. The idea is to let the bees have a big uninterupted brood nest. The honey will be harvested from the super which is placed on top of the bars.

Will this deep comb collaps?
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3 comments:

  1. Dusko Bojic aka Che GuebuddhaNovember 9, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    I asked about this on Bee Source forum and got some answers;
    http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?275825-Will-this-deep-comb-collaps

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sophie's ReviewerNovember 10, 2012 at 8:50 PM

    I think your going to have a hard time dealing with brace comb, and honey bars will be so heavy, they may break off the top bar.

    Let us know how it goes

    ReplyDelete
  3. Patrick SellmanDecember 16, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    I will do quite the same experiment as you but I will make it with the same measurement as Chandler ordinary measurements but 400 mm hight on longside instead of 300 mm. There should be an reinforcement with a vertical stick in the middle of the topbar. I think its the hight of the wax which is of importans and therefor you can make it smaller at he lower edge. The edge against the topbar will carry less weight/cm and you will have the center of gravity closer to the bar.

    My hive experiment include a broad and overwintering chamber in form of a ktbh with a volume a bit bigger then Dadant and put suppers on the top with a management including a cut downsplit in the turn of may/june, two weeks before the raspberry and merge again to the heather in the beginning of august.

    Its a system to try optimizing the honey harvest with a lot of extra options its not place here to describe.

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