2 New Top Bar Bait Hives

Bait hives are used to catch bee swarms with. They are to be installed at 2-5 meters above the ground. Lemongrass essential oil is the best lure for attracting swarms. Bees just adore this smell since its similar to the Nasonov pheromone they release when a new home is found. Bees wax should be applied to the top bars to add some more bee smell to it. It is known that bees rather move into a hollow which was previously occupied by the bees.

Constructing the bait hive. Im using the follower board from another TBH as a template so all hives are the same size. This helps when splitting a collony into another hive (same size top bars and same comb size)

When not catching swarms I will use these hives as nucleus hives.

Drum Nuc Covered

The Drum Nuc Hive got a new roof today;

The hive got new legs and a brand new name too

I have decieded to name this hive "Green Bee" :) and I screwed on the legs so I can work the hive on a convinient height. It is a HUGE difference between working the hive with a bent back and a straight back ;)

Every beek should have at least one observation hive with a window. Showing your friends, family, kids, neighbours the inside of the hive while the bees are contained safely behind the glass is such a treat and makes people get to know the bees a bit better :) And its a great way of peaking into the hive without opening it and stressing bees.

Foundationless Frames mixed with Top Bars

I am to get 2 colonies from framed hives. Each colony will have 6 or 10 frames (I think I will go for 6 since they are cheeper). I will need to transport them and for that reason I've built a few "conventional boxses which can accomodate swedish hobby frames (39x36x22cm). I was thinking to split them into top bar hives and leave the rest in these boxses to run them as vertical hives and see how bees thrive in both, vertical and horizontal, systems.
My plan is to have movable top bars in them and to be able to access them (and have the ability to add conventional frames) I will use a few frames on both ends. In this photo one can see too many frames. I am planning to have 8 top bars in the middle and foundationelss frames on each end. The box will be overwintered as you see it. Supers will be added during nectar flow only. I will have top entrance in all my hives during winter time.
This set up shows how Im to add the newly purchased 6 frame colony. The entrance is on the right side (warm way). One honey comb will be placed in front of the entrance then 6 empty top bars and then the rest of the brood comb and framed honey comb at the end left. This will make the colony want to expand the brood nest closer towards the entrance.

Re-designed TBH

The deep TBH is redesigned. It doesn't look that fancy anymore but it will be much warmer than the original design. The old roof doesnt fit anymore so I will have to make a new one. The old roof will be donated to one of the twin Drum Top Bar Hives.

 Original hive walls are 25mm. I added one more wall making totall wall thickness of 50mm. The ends remain 25mm since the comb is facing them (comb act like thermal walls)

To the left side I added a vertical wall which will be facing the windy side. There is lots of space behind this wall to fill it with insulating materials ...

 This wall acts like a door which is exposing the window ...

The window was the real reason for me re-designing this hive. The window glass is way too big for this cold swedish climate in my opinion. Most swedsih beeks have hive walls which are 30-50mm thick.

As I mentioned earlier the ends remain 25mm because the back end has a follower board and space behind it which will be filled with insulating material. The front end has the wax combs behind it and will be pointed toward South-East.

Now I have to make a new roof and give the hive new legs. I will varnish all hives in spring with linseed oil and wax mixture.

New Zeland Government sits on its hands as honey bees die

"I've been contacted recently by several beekeepers who are worried about what is happening to our nation's honey bees.

A Bay of Plenty beekeeper recently lost 230 of his beehives - or half of his operation. He's been beekeeping since 1981, and has never had losses like this before.

He says other beekeepers have experienced similar losses. A Northland beekeeper recently lost 900 of his 1000 hives; another has lost 400 hives, and others last year lost half of their hives.

The Bay of Plenty keeper is wondering what is causing such huge losses.

The 2012 winter was harsh, and many factors can contribute to honey bee losses -including pathogens, the Varroa mite (which weakens the immune systems of bees and puts them under stress) and more intensive farming that is wiping out forage and natural food sources for bees.

But he suspects the main cause of his losses is the cocktail of pesticides and chemicals that are used in many kiwifruit orchards where bees pollinate. Since the advent of the kiwifruit disease PSA, growers are using even more pesticides on kiwifruit orchards, and he is concerned that some growers, in their desperation to control the disease, have resorted to using illegal as well as legal pesticides and other chemicals." ... Continue reading ...

Got new pallets and resizing the Deep TBH

I went grocery shopping today and was not lazy nor shy to aks the salesman if they have a few spare wood pallets and she said yes, take four :)
So I returned home with some more material for making top bar hives. I still didnt make any bait hives yet!
I decided to resize the deep top bar hive I made last year. It was inspired by Dennis Murrel's deep Wayoming TBH which acrding to him work great in his freezing climate. On the other hand, I was corresponding with Erik Österlund (famous swedish small cell beekeeper) and his opinion was that this hive is way too deep for the Swedish winters. Even though I have huge respect for Dennis Murrel the fact that I live in Sweden made me take Erik's advice.
One can see in this photo the newly acquired pallets and the resized top bar hive on the work table;