Comments for Langstroth's Hive

Comment on The Health Rewards of Nutritional Bee Supplements by Fettah

Fettah — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:49:27 +0000

After some 30 years of beekeeping in many bee aiaocsstions as Chair,seccy etc largely experimenting and now ageing a little have a single Warr’e. One word of warning. Do make the hive of rough timber, pallets probably not thick enough timber in the UK. Making from any form of ply and putiing any form of safe protection coating will prove too smooth to permit an easy climb in for the bees.I have a swarm that is trying it’s darndest to make it for the third day despite my pre rubbing old comb on all the internal surfaces and giving some good drawn comb.It would seem that the rougher the timber the better.

Comment on Bee Pollen Reaction – Are You Up To Speed On This? by Guilherm

Guilherm — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:18:27 +0000

I’d love some feedback on my query I need to put my coolny in a new brood box this spring. They were given to me by a friend and I want to change them over to a new hive. I’d love to change to TBH . Can I get some advice from anyone. I have standard national boxes built by my husband. The internal dimensions are slightly smaller than the national because he used thicker timber for insulation. What do you think would happen if I put a brood box under the coolny with Warre9 type top bars and no frames. Would it be a disaster. I hate opening the coolny and so do my bees they are very productive and very strong and I don’t want to lose them or mess them about.

Comment on Getting to Know More about Bee Hives by Willi

Willi — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:23:03 +0000

I have spent the summer with 3 Warre hives and 3 Langstroth hives. I have lost 4 farmes of brood and 2 farmes of honey in the Warre hives, due to the flimsy nature of top bars only. I have ripped comb due to ladder comb. Plus, the bees just start building in another direction. I personally don’t like the Warre hive design. I think the 8 frame medium Langstroths are the best hive made. Light when full and full farmes to secure the comb are all you need. Warre doesn’t provide that.I built full farmes for one of my Warre hives. It has no problems like the top bar only hives. The thing is, it is quite an undertaking to build full farmes. The tools and shop experiance alone leaves out many people. Not to mention the time involved. Plus, some of the cuts are on small parts and quite risky for a novice.I just lifted a box off one of my Warres and two farmes of brood fell out the bottom in the dirt. I am quite pissed right now and I don’t think my opinion will change soon .ever. I will let them over winter in the Warres but next spring they are going into Langs. Think I can sell 3 used Warre hives? Full farmes in one, Partial farmes in the other two and fresh, clean comb already drawn out. The comb that ain’t broken that is.

Comment on Safety Tips on Bee Removal by Mrmr

Mrmr — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:03:43 +0000

This is my first year with a top bar hive. Have had langstroth hfvesior 7 years but not with much success. Lost my last two, 2 years agowhen we had a horrendous snow storm here in West Virginia, couldn’t see my hives for three months. I took a breather from the box hives and decided to try a TBH.I like the natural appeal of the hive. Allowing the bees to do their thing. I set it up in April and one of our friends from our beekeeping club made me 5 frames (a nuke) from a Langstroth hive but made them to fit the TBH. The nuke was queen-right and had brood on all five of the frames. i had lots of questions and not many people had answers. How to feed them, how to keep the brood seperated from the honey stores and may I include, they were some angry bees. maybe b/c they were taken from a box hive and put into this weird shape of a home. Needless to say, they built up quickly and don’t you know they swarmed! But being the considerate ladies that they were, they left me a queen cell and lo and behold the queen was hatched. I now have the 5 original frames, 5 drawn out frames with brood and honey, three full frames of honey and 2 extra to bars in case they continue to expand. I also have had a lot of drones more than I ever had in the box hives. There has to be a reason that they make so many drones. Seems to me that’s going to make more work for the workers at the end of the season, dragging those useless bodies out of the hive. i don’t usually use smoke but I do with the TBH b/c the bees always seem to want to see what’s going on on the outside and i don’t want to squeesh any of them when I put the bars back in place. Well, I’ve rambled on long enough but to all of you out there Go For It-I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well those little girls know how and what they need and you’ll be pleased with what they can provide for you if you treat them kindly.

Comment on How Much Will You Spend for Bee Removal Services by Theresia

Theresia — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:32:10 +0000

Just found your site while researching top-bar hives. We are new bpereeeeks (since July 2010), and we started off with a Langstroth setup. I intend to build a Warre hive over the winter for the next time our resident feral colony swarms. It has swarmed 3 times in the past year. We managed to capture the 3rd swarm, and they’re doing well, even at -30 Celsius for a couple of nights recently. What’s your opinion on using a kep to capture a swarm to be placed in a regular hive? I saw this done on a YouTube video from the Czech Republic, but the captions were all in Czecho-Slovak. I’m looking forward to reading more on your site soon.Thanks very much,Pete Futter, Prince George, BC, Canada