Marty Hardison Writes of TBH Beekeeping Marty and Dawn Hardison of New Mexico. Marty and Dawn Hardison of Jemez Pueblo, NM USA Marty's Beekeeping History Marty Hardison started beekeeping in 1977 when he acquired two of the meanest colonies in Texas for Free! He is married to Dawn and has two children, Joshua and Kira. He has taught school for most of the past 15 years. Presently he and Dawn live in rural New Mexico. Marty began beekeeping using Langstroth hives exclusively. In 1980 he tried a topbar hive. For the next ten years he experimented with topbar beekeeping and shared his evolving system with students and local acquaintances. He sponsored the formation of a local beekeeper's association which successfully quarantined the area against mites. One of his prime goals was to end up with a beekeeping method suitable for a development project in Haiti. In 1991 that goal was realized when Marty traveled to Fon-de-Blanc, Haiti, under the auspices of the Haiti Christian Development Fund and set up a topbar beekeeping project. For the past six years Marty has taught topbar beekeeping in various settings: Ghost Ranch, Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, Earthworks Institute, and at various individuals homes. He has talked to groups about topbar beekeeping at the University of New Mexico, Santa Fe Community College, Capitol Beekeepers in Austin, and the New Mexico Beekeeper's Association. For the past two Springs he was employed by a commercial queen rearing company. Marty has no plans to teach beekeeping seminars in 1997. He is concentrating on building up his stock of mite free bees. _________________________________________________________________ The Appropriate Bee Hive by Marty Hardison The following pages are a rough draft of four chapters of a book Marty is writing about topbar beekeeping. He also includes a plan giving the specifications of the topbar hive he builds and uses. Although there are other works on the subject, he has felt compelled to add his voice. None of the works he has read gives the topbar hive sufficient credit or gives enough information to keep bees well. As for copyrights, he will consider giving his approval to the use of his material for any project that promotes developmental beekeeping. Address any correspondence to: Marty Hardison, 570 Vista Hermosa Rd., Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico 87024 (505) 829-3697 ©1996 Marty Hardison Table of Contents Chapter 1: That Doesn't Look Like a Bee Hive Chapter 2: A Topbar Design for Your Locale Chapter 3: Colonizing the Box Chapter 4: Seasonal Management THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A BEE HIVE! A stack of white boxes abuzz with activity - that's what a beehive looks like. You could even stretch the mental picture to include those bell shaped straw structures called skeps. They're printed on honey labels and seen in medieval drawings. But skeps are more a symbol of the real thing - you know, white boxes stacked up and buzzing. In the history of beekeeping the white boxes, called Langstroth hives, are a relatively recent invention. It wasn't till 1851 that the Rev. L.L. Langstroth discovered the bee space which led to the development of hives containing movable frames. Even then it took a generation or two for a "standard" hive to come into general use. But it's no wonder that today the universal picture most people have in their heads of a beehive is a Langstroth hive. It made beekeeping a much more efficient and productive pastime. A hive no longer had fixed combs. The combs became movable. No longer were hives partially destroyed with each manipulation. And so is was that the Langstroth hive became a means of unprecedented honey production. It has enabled a quaint pastime to evolve into a multi-million dollar industry. So why consider any other hive? Well, there are reasons of money, complexity, and health. Most people who undertake to keep bees have in mind producing their own honey instead of buying it. There are other considerations but few beekeepers keep bees just for the fun of it. Somewhere in their minds is the notion that the honey they now buy will be produced in their own apiary, not purchased at the store. There are even some who go into the venture with the idea of making money. So lets consider some of the monetary aspects of Langstroth beekeeping. One of the most practical and helpful books on bee keeping that I've run into is called The Beekeeper's Handbook. On page 21 of that book there is a list of the supplies needed to begin keeping one hive of bees. The price tag on this "Beginner's List" is $219. Bear in mind that these are 1978 prices. (Sammataro, p.21) To buy the same supplies from the 1988 A.I. Root Co. catalog would cost about $265 plus shipping. One charge that they overlooked, however, is the cost of some bees to go with the gear. A package of bees complete with queen currently runs about $25. (Costs like these remind me of my first honey producing season. At the conclusion of that year I added up my expenses and divided by the pounds of honey produced. My own honey cost me $5 a pound!) But unfortunately, this is not where the spending ends. If a person continues to keep bees on past that first fiscally traumatic season there is more to buy. To operate a Langstroth hive efficiently one needs a centrifugal honey extractor and an uncapping knife. These cost about $250 and $50 respectively. Once a person has taken the plunge and sunk about $600 in honey producing hardware it no longer seems sensible to keep just one little hive. So each year the continuing bee keeper spends a few more dollars on hive bodies, frames, foundations, covers, bottom boards, ect., ect., ect. When one has invested about $1000 then s/he is in a position to gain yields commensurate with the expenses. Well, almost ready. One thing that is lacking is a place to store all this equipment when it's not in use and a place to process the honey. A spare corner of the garage might serve for storage. And if there is water available in the garage then it might serve as an extracting and bottling facility too. But if you try to use the kitchen you'll have to add in the cost of a divorce! Then too if you have no available storage area or no adequate place to set up and run your extractor you might have to add in the costs of providing such space to keep the tally honest. Given all these potential costs how does anyone justify the extravagance of becoming a beekeeper? In point of fact many people who become beekeepers could get more honey for their dollars by buying it at the store. But don't be too hard on them. They didn't know all the facts before they began. For one thing most bee supply companies sell a relatively inexpensive "starter kit." The 1988 Dadant catalog lists one for a mere $99.50. These kits have everything you need to begin except the bees. If a beginner buys one of these kits from any of the reputable dealers then by season number 2 s/he will very likely replace several of the pieces of equipment. The veils in these kits are usually a bit skimpy and the gloves aren't sting proof. Also by the second season s/he will have to provide for some honey supers, an extractor, uncapping knife and another hive or two. Other new bee keepers get hives given to them by those who want out. These unsuspecting people get drawn in a little at a time till they have spent a lot more than they ever expected to. There are still others who do beat many of the cost factors by manufacturing their own hives and frames. But the specifications for these are more exacting than most non professional woodworkers can achieve. And when the labor is added in I'm not sure they save all that much. One final discouraging word about finances. Once all this expensive equipment is purchased it begins to wear. After a few years most bee keepers experience about a 5% loss in hive parts due to wear. So once its bought it still has to be bought again later. No matter what actual expenses a bee keeper incurs, the all too easily made assumption that the honey is worth the money when produced in a Langstroth system is not necessarily the case. Perhaps that's why so many commercial beekeeping operations are currently for sale. In the January 1988 issue of the American Bee Journal all or part of 30 such businesses are advertised. In fairness I would add that these commercial outfits are not experiencing difficulty primarily because of equipment costs. The overall picture of commercial beekeeping in the U.S. is clouded more by energy and labor costs, the competition of foreign honey, bee diseases and predators, and diminishing nectar sources than by the cost of tools. Enough about monetary costs. Let's consider material complexity. Each box of a Langstroth bee hive contains 44 precisely machined pieces of wood and ten sheets of manufactured foundation. The average hive utilizes 5 or 6 such boxes during the honey producing season. Aside from the costs or efforts used to produce these materials they require special care for their use. During winter the boxes used for honey are removed from the hive. These boxes contain 9 or 10 frames with drawn comb. These are combs the bees have build on the manufactured foundations. The combs are extremely vulnerable to heat, moths, and rodents. They must be stored in a place where none of these can affect them. Manipulating the boxes (or supers) also requires a complicated system. If the hive has too much space for the occupying bees the colony will fail to thrive. But if space becomes too scarce then the hive may decide to divide or swarm thus greatly diminishing the year's crop of honey. Manipulating the addition and subtraction of boxes to accommodate the bees needs is a demanding chore. Many chapters in beekeeping books and many more magazine articles are devoted to the subject. Suffice it to say for the purposes of this discussion that the notion that all one does to get honey from a Langstroth hive is to sit back and let the bees do the work is a mistaken one. The third consideration that one should make when contemplating a bee keeping system is that of health - the bees' health that is. In my opinion, the use of Langstroth hives has had a negative impact on the overall health of bees in this country. The first health hazard is a direct legacy of finances. Combs in the brood chamber of a hive should not be used for too many seasons. European bee keepers are very critical of Americans for using their brood combs too long. Some believe that for optimum health they should be changed every two years. But when the cost of a frame plus foundation runs at about $1 each, many bee keepers are reticent to expend the necessary funds. The result is that disease can develop in these combs. Another result is that each successive generation of bees is smaller due to the buildup of secretions in the brood cells. These smaller workers make less honey, but that is another matter. Another health hazard of the Langstroth hive derives from its greatest strength - interchangeabililty. All the combs in a Langstroth apiary can be interchanged. This feature facilitates many of the necessary manipulations a beekeeper makes. New hives can be established readily. Honey can be extracted and the combs returned to the hives to be filled again. Colonies can be inspected with little negative impact. But, in the process of these manipulations any disease which affects one hive can in a short amount of time affect all the hives in an apiary. Current beekeepers have more health hazards to cope with than ever before. A system of beekeeping whose parts are freely interchanged may not be the best way to minimize bee health threats. My purpose in this chapter is not to malign the use of Langstroth hives. But they enjoy such universal acceptance that I wanted to raise some of the negative reasons for considering an alternative. And since the alternative bee hive doesn't look like a bee hive at all, potential users must have some good reasons to give it a try. Instead of vertically stacked boxes this device is horizontal. It's not even square. It's trapezoidal! However, it does buzz quite nicely. The hive I refer to is called by a number of names: the David hive, the Kenya hive, or simply the frameless movable comb topbar hive. These hives were designed for use in Third World development projects. The David hive was developed by an Israeli apiculturist J. Linder for use in Senegal, Africa. The Kenya hive was developed by two English beekeepers, E. J. Tredwell and P. Paterson. It was designed for use in Kenya, Africa. (Sperling:1980, p. 285.) Both of these situations lack the kind of material and monetary resources that facilitate Langstroth beekeeping. But I believe that their necessity has been mother to a great invention. The topbar hive is an appropriate technology tool for beekeeping. It's not an inefficient primitive instrument nor is it a high cost convenience. It lies somewhere in the middle. It operates by the same discovery that enabled the Langstroth hive - the bee space. In this hive independent movable combs are suspended from carefully spaced topbars. The hive holds about 30 of these. The combs are built entirely by the bees. A small strip of commercial foundation or a thin piece of wood is used to establish the center of each comb so that the combs are built centered on each topbar. The trapezoidal shape of the box that these combs hang in discourages the bees from attaching combs to the sides of the hive. These features qualify the topbar hive as a legal hive for beekeeping in the United States. The hive can be inspected without undue damage to the colonies. Combs can be removed for inspection, establishing new hives, harvesting honey, and queen rearing. In 1975 the Department of Agriculture of West Virginia published a bulletin describing this type of hive. It's called "The Kenya Hive." They drew their material from the work of Dr. Maurice Smith who used this type of hive in a project in Kenya, Africa. (The Kenya Hive, 1975.) The single sheet gives a brief description, rationale, and specifications for building and using a topbar hive. The purpose for publishing this material was to encourage back woods beekeepers to adopt this type of hive in preference to the traditional log gums and box hives which are still in use there. The bulletin states that this hive is not offered to replace the Langstroth hive but as a method for keeping bees that is legal (by reason of their inspectability) and economical. I found this information extremely useful as I began to experiment with the topbar hive. But after several seasons concluded that the specifications needed to be altered to accommodate the bees and conditions here in the United States. And I take exception to their conclusion that the topbar hive isn't a viable alternative for Langstroth equipment in many bee keeping situations. To promote the idea that a topbar hive is potentially a reasonable alternative to a Langstroth hive I'll present some comparative data. First let's look at cost. A topbar hive can be constructed out of readily available materials with a minimum of woodworking expertise or special equipment. The first one I built was constructed entirely out of wood salvaged from palates. The lid was covered with discarded aluminum printing plates. The entire expense was limited to nails, $1 worth of commercially manufactured foundation, and about 2 hours time. For tools I used a circular saw. a small table saw, and a hammer. However, a friend to whom I had introduced the idea of a topbar hive built his entirely out of wood purchased at the lumber yard. He covered his lids with galvanized tin sheets and painted the finished product with a high grade white enamel. His cost was about $50 and about 5 hours labor per hive. In addition to the hive cost, a beginner must also provide for a smoker, hive tool, gloves, hat, and veil. These cost about $50 at 1988 prices. Add $25 for some bees and the total comes somewhere between $90 and $125 for the beginner to start one hive. This compares favorably with the $125-$290+ of starting with a Langstroth hive. By the second season the savings become even more radical. A topbar hive needs no supers. It requires no centrifugal extractor or uncaping knife. A solar wax melter can be of use in harvesting the honey, but even if the second season bee keeper opts to buy one they only cost about $50. Keep in mind that these are the maximum costs. If there is need to limit expenditures then the whole system can be set up for next to nothing. A group of elementary age student bee keepers that I worked with began their hives by scrounging some wood and spending $1 for netting to sew a veil and $5 for a queen bee. The worker bees were shared by myself or one of the students and we passed around a communal smoker. Another money saving feature of the topbar hive is that once it is built it isn't subject to the same wear factors that a Langstroth hive is. Since I've only been keeping bees in this type of a hive for 10 years I don't know how long a hive can be expected to last. But none of the hives I've built have worn out yet. And few of their parts need periodic replacement. Keeping bees in a topbar hive won't eliminate the need for a place to work. But the requirements are less demanding. No combs or boxes need to be stored during the winter months. The hives are self- contained. Space is needed to store a solar wax melter if one is used and a place to process and bottle the honey. But be warned even with the topbar system if you opt to use the kitchen, the result can still be a divorce. The issue of complexity has already been addressed to some extent is the discussion of costs. There are many less parts to a topbar bee keeping system. There are also many less necessary manipulations. The bees add combs as the honey producing season progresses. No supers need to be stacked on top to provide honey storage space. During extraordinary production periods honey must be removed more often to insure sufficient space, but this procedure is much less complicated and time consuming with a topbar hive than with a Langstroth. Another procedure which is made more simple with the topbar hive is relocation. >From time to time hives are moved. Langstroth hives must be banded, stapled or nailed together to be moved. The single unit of a topbar hive can be moved without any of these. Preparations for season changes are simple. As with Langstroth hives entrance restrictors should be put on in the Fall and removed for Summer. Periodic inspections should be done to insure that the hive is healthy and the queen in good condition. These procedures are essential to any good beekeeping system. The issue of health is one in which the topbar hive has an automatic advantage. The combs are not interchanged between hives during honey production and harvesting. This means that if disease problems occur they can be contained more easily. The problem of brood combs being used too long is easily avoided with this type of hive. Since the combs have no frames or foundation the beekeeper can insure that some of the brood combs are replaced each season. This can be accomplished with a little planning and no expense. In its time the Langstroth hive was revolutionary. It was the best available hive. Now there is an alternative that is appropriate for many beekeeping situations. For development in poor areas it's ideal. For backyard beekeepers who want to limit their costs and the volume of their hardware it meets the needs. It may even have some commercial applications especially in the pollination business where portability is a high priority. It may not look like a beehive now but one day it most certainly will! References Sammataro, Diana, and Avitabile, Alphonse. 1978. The Beekeeper's Handbook, Dexter, Michigan:Peach Mountain Press, Ltd. Sperling, Dan, and Caron, Dewey M. "The Movable-Comb Frameless Hive: 'Appropriate Technology' Alternative To the Langstroth Hive?," American Bee Journal, (April, 1980), 284-289. West Virginia Department of Agriculture, Plant Pest Control Division. 1975. "The Kenya Hive" Bulletin. Charleston, West Virginia 25305. -end- Return to Top of Page A TOPBAR DESIGN FOR YOUR LOCALE Once a beekeeper has decided to try a topbar hive the next step is building one. The mechanics of doing so are simple enough. But first there are some important decisions to make. I've been experimenting with this type of hive for 10 years and have settled on a design that fits the bees and the climate of the area I live in. Some thought about one's own local will be necessary before the best hive can be constructed for one's own local conditions. The most important consideration is size. A size must be provided with a volume appropriate for the conditions where the hive will be used. Good background information for this decision is available in a book called The Archaeology of Beekeeping by Eva Crane. On page 17 of this book there is a chart showing the volumes of a variety of hives. Natural hives have been discovered to occupy from 12 to 443 liters. But most commonly they have 20 to 100. Langstroth hives provide 40 liters of space for each deep super. This means they can be expanded to 120 or even as large as 240 liters for the honey producing season. Kenya hives used in Africa range from 40 to 130 liters. Skeps used in Briton range between 9 and 50 liters. Experiments with bees in New York state show that they prefer cavities of about 35 liters. (Crane, p.17) All these figures provide good background. They show that the optimum hive is somewhere between 20 an 240 liters in volume. But that's too broad a range to start building with. Only experimentation can narrow it. My own experiments began when I read an article in the April 1980 issue of The American Bee Journal entitled, "The Movable-Comb Frameless Hive:'Appropriate Technology' Alternative To the Langstroth Hive?" It gave the rationale and some pictures for a Kenya hive but didn't include any specifications. It did include, however, the address of the Department of Agriculture of West Virginia where plans could be obtained. I wanted to try one of these hives so I sent off immediately for the plans. However, since the swarming season was already underway I didn't wait for them to arrive to start building. I built a hive with a volume of about 100 liters. Later when the hives arrived I found that the Kenya hive has a volume of 105 liters and its dimensions were a little different. Since I already had a colony established and thriving in my non-standard hive I decided to ride out the season and see how they did. That first colony was a success! I was delighted with it. So the next season I built another the precise dimensions of the Kenya plan. To my dismay it didn't thrive. It just poked along and produced just enough honey for survival. At this point I didn't know what was wrong but a happy accident occurred. I initiated a beekeeping project with some elementary age students using topbar hives. I didn't think they would be able to handle the large combs produced in the Kenya hive. So we built smaller hives. They had a volume of only about 58 liters. The colonies in these hives thrived. The only problem was repeated overcrowding. This helped me understand that the important variable was volume. Using the results of these experiments I postulated that a hive somewhere in between would be big enough to avoid overcrowding and small enough for the colony to do well in. So I built a hive with a volume of 76 liters. Colonies in these hives have done extremely well. This size is adequate for conditions here in New Mexico at an elevation of about 5500 feet. So should you build your hive with a volume of 76 liters? Not unless your conditions are similar. If you live in a harsher climate your hive should probably be smaller. If your conditions resemble those in semi-tropical Kenya your's should probably have a volume of at least 100 liters. Whatever volume you decide on you will want all your hives to be of the same dimensions for simplicity sake. So starting with one or two hives as a test would be wise. If the size you've chosen serves you and the bees well then make all your hives that size. Another consideration is the shape of the hive. The front and back of the Kenya hive was designed to measure 18" across the top and 9" across the bottom and to be 12" high. The rationale for this design was that this angle discouraged the bees from attaching their combs to the sides of the box. It's been my experience that the bees were rarely discouraged from doing so. It was also my observation that the bees did better in a hive that had more compact combs. In fact that first hive I built was 16" at the top and 10.5" at the bottom and even though its volume was generally too large for conditions here it did much better than the bees in hives built to Kenya hive specifications. Since bees in both hives persisted in attaching their combs to the sides of the boxes I decided to design my hives with less of a slant. Another benefit of this more compact comb is that the bees are more successful in keeping their combs centered on the shorter topbars. The dimensions of the hive I settled on for my locale are: top 16", bottom 10", height 10", length 40". Detailed plans for this hive are found at the end of this chapter. Here are links to the plans which Marty produced: The assembled topbar hive The dimensions of the hive components The cover for the hive The list of materials for building the hive If I were living closer to sea level I would probably increase the height to 12". If I were in a semi-tropical locale I would make the height 12" and extend the length to 45". If my conditions were more severe than the mountains of New Mexico I would probably reduce the height to 9". This should give a person starting out some frame of reference for establishing the size of a first hive. The second most crucial component of the topbar hive is the topbar itself. There are at least three important decisions to be made about its design: width, centering device, and overall shape. The width of the topbar will facilitate or frustrate the bees efforts to center their combs on one topbar each. The African version, the Kenya hive, uses a topbar that is 1 1/4 inches in width. This is too narrow a dimension for the bees I keep. I've seen hives with Italian bees that had topbars of 1 1/4 inch width. The first 2 combs turn out OK but after that it all goes bad. The bees built combs that bridged the topbars. Hives that are allowed to develop like this are no better than fixed comb hives. They are illegal because it's impossible to inspect them and they're a pain to work. So getting the topbar the ideal dimension is imperative. The topbar that has worked best for me is 1 3/8 inches in width. I've used ones that are 1 1/2". The bees were able to center their combs on these bars but a larger than average proportion of the comb was built as drone comb. This size of comb promotes the production of an excess of drones and the honey stored in these type combs is rarely capped. From 1 1/2" I gradually reduced the bar size each season. 1 7/16" bars worked pretty well. The bees were successful in centering combs on those bars but still there occurred too much drone comb in the overall hive. I suggest that topbars be 1 3/8" in width unless this dimension causes the bees some problems. But before a person jumps to alter the bar width one must calculate the influence of the second important part of the topbar: the centering device. Many comb building problems arise from an inadequate center for the comb. The function of a centering device is to give the bees a defined center on which to build each comb. This enables the topbar hive to have moveable combs. The Kenya hive plans provided by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture specify a 1/2" strip of commercially supplied foundation or a simple bead of beeswax poured in a center groove of the topbar. I've tried both. In my experience the bead of wax method supplies insufficient incentive to the bees for centering their combs where the beekeeper wants them. The 1/2" of foundation has had generally predictable results. Most of the time the bees have accepted this as sufficient cause to center their combs on my topbars. My current means of establishing a comb center is to use a thin strip of wood glued in the center groove of each comb. This provides almost as good a device as the foundation. I prefer the wood because of its simplicity. Instead of ordering foundation from a bee supply company I can manufacture my own. But this shouldn't end the discussion on topbar centering devices. The concerns of establishing a new hive and those of continuing a system after the first hives are already established are quite different. I can easily say that a strip of wood is plenty of incentive to get bees to build their combs where I want them since I already have some combs built. The bees have a pattern of combs to follow. Even when I'm establishing a new hive I use some combs (the best I can put my hands on) to give the bees an idea of how new combs should be built. Once a hive has begun right it's easy to keep it going that way. The best beginning I've ever seen with topbar hives was made by a beekeeping doctor friend, Leonard Cain. He had been keeping bees for many years and became intrigued with the possibilities of a topbar hive. In order to begin new hives with uniform combing he hung a full sheet of pure beeswax foundations from the center of each of the first 12 topbars in his new boxes. I've never seen such remarkable results. Every one of the hives he established was filled with uniform, perfectly centered combs. For an investment of $3 to $5 per hive he insured trouble free combing for many years to come. Once this investment is made it doesn't need to be repeated. The combs that are harvested are cut off with enough comb left on the bar so that future combs will be centered just as well as these first ones. The final consideration for the topbar design is its shape. The Kenya hive topbar is notched so that the ends are less thick than the center of the bar. This feature makes centering the comb in the hive chamber easy. The notched portion of the bar fits down into the hive chamber. I don't make my topbars like that for two reasons. It is more complicated to manufacture the bars with notched ends. I use a flat bar. These center on the hive cavity and the combs fit naturally into the cavity without the notches. The bees quickly seal any remaining spaces with propolis so the seal is equally good with either shape of bar. The second reason I manufacture my bars flat instead of notched is that the notches provide an irregular surface for propolis to collect on. Even the flat bars must be scraped off from time to time. I don't want to use a bar that is more difficult to keep clean. References Crane, Eva. 1983. The Archaeology of Beekeeping, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. -end- Return to Top of Page COLONIZING THE BOX Designing a bee hive and conforming that design to the specifications of the bees is a interesting science project. Even transforming the design into a reasonable facsimile of the plan can be predictably satisfying. But predictability takes a nose dive when you add bees to the box. This isn't true just of topbar hives. All hives are subject to the idiosycracies of bees. No colony is exactly like another and if that's not enough, all colonies are impacted by such a multitude of variables that results are typically messy. But don't despair, good results are possible. It just takes an attitude that pays more attention to the bees than to any outside advice. I don't advocate ignorance. One should read everything s/he can about bees and listen to anyone with hands-on beekeeping experience. These sources will enrich a beekeeper. But when it comes to figuring out what a colony is doing, observation is the best tool. Sometimes one's questions will exceed one's ability to answer. When that happens the solution is rarely to call up someone long distance. One should call the nearest beekeeper who can come over and join his confused comrade in an on site inspection and discussion. Together they will solve the problem or they will fail to solve it but learn a valuable lesson. Either way they win. With that said let's get on to some of the possible ways to put bees in a topbar beehive. Catching a swarm of bees is a great way to populate a beehive. It's an awesome experience. The bees are almost always in good health, else they wouldn't be swarming. They also have tremendous momentum for building comb and organizing themselves into a productive colony. The first bees that I put in a topbar hive were a swarm. Those bees filled the nuc sized box with twelve new exquisitely white combs in a week. If you get the chance start a colony with a swarm! There are many descriptions in existing bee literature advising one on hiving swarms. I would advise the beginner to read at least three authors on the subject. The local library is a good source of bee books in my community. I have just a couple items of advice specific to topbar hives. The bees have less of a context in a topbar hive than in a Langstroth hive for a swarm to feel at home. The Langstroth hive is full of foundation made of or coated with bee's wax. Bees usually waste no time but begin drawing out combs and setting up housekeeping. But in the topbar hive the bees are more likely to have second thoughts and even to abscond in hopes of finding a better home. To lessen this possibility it would be well worth the investment to hang a couple of pieces of commercially prepared foundation from the center of anywhere from two to six topbars. This provides added incentive for the swarm to make the box their home. Another method of persuading the bees to stay put is to screen the entrance for a day or two. This should only be done if the weather is not extremely hot. Finally, a sure way of keeping the bees in your box is to find the queen and cage her for three days. The swarm won't leave without their queen and if they stay around for three days they will most likely stay on. After having said all this about the wonder of starting with a swarm, I must add that in many locals this is a remote possibility. Swarms do happen but in a lot of areas they are rare. A beekeeper can wait around for years hoping for a swarm to happen at a time and a place where s/he can make use of it. I would advise that all beekeepers be ready to catch a swarm if it happens, but to plan to populate the hive as if there will be no swarms. There are other methods available to get bees. The second easiest and most predictably successful way to add bees to one's equipment is to make a split from an existing topbar colony. To do this a willing donor of three or more combs of brood with adhering bees and a suitable queen is needed. An empty box is placed near the hive from which the combs are to be taken. The front entrance of the hive should be blocked with screen. The screen will keep the bees in the box until they have been moved or they are more accustomed to their new living arrangement. A comb with mostly honey should be placed in the front of the new hive. This will give the new colony something to live on and will act as insulation for the brood. Next a comb of capped brood should be place in the hive directly behind the honey comb. Now it's time to add the queen and then any remaining brood combs complete with adhering bees. Typically when making a split a queen is added from a source other than the hive from which the bees and brood are being taken. The queen should be caged so as to prevent the bees from hurting her. Her cage can be nailed to the side of the hive toward the top of the brood chamber between the second and third comb. It can also be dangled from a wire between the combs, or even attached directly to a blank topbar and placed between combs. Whatever position is chosen one should be sure to place the queen cage so that the worker bees can get to the screen and feed the queen during her confinement. Also, she should be placed in a position so that she is well inside the natural cluster of the bees. A queen shouldn't be allowed to get cold. After 3 days the queen should be released. By then the workers should be ready to accept her. Another variation on establishing a new colony by making a split is to supply the queen by moving the queen from the existing colony to the split. I often use this procedure when I'm splitting one of my own colonies. The advantage is that the bees that are being moved have a very good reason to stay with the split, their queen is there. But is does leave one with the need to supply a queen for the original hive. I do this by setting the original colony up to raise a new queen. Because I'm moving some of the combs out of the original colony I have the opportunity to control which eggs the bees use to raise their new queen. I also have a group of bees with a strong sense of colony and the organization to raise good queen cells. When a split is made the challenge is to get the bees to stay together long enough to develop a sense of colony. If the queen of the parent colony is used for the split the bees will already have good reason to stay. But if the new colony is located near the original colony then many of the worker bees will drift back to the parent colony even though their queen is no longer there. This drifting can be limited if the bees in the split are confined for a couple of days. Another option is to move the split a mile or more away until the bees are organized and functioning as a colony. Two weeks should be sufficient. After that amount of time the split can be moved back to a location near the parent colony with no loss of working personnel. If a queen from a source other than the parent colony is being introduced to establish a new colony then the drifting of bees back to the parent colony can be used to advantage. Worker bees will often kill a queen that they identify as not theirs. But the younger the bees are the more adaptable in this respect. So, if when you make a split a substantial number of brood combs are moved and the split is allowed to remain close to the parent colony, then in a day or so all the bees in the split will be young bees. The older ones will have drifted back to the parent colony. A queen can be introduced to this young population of bees with high expectations that she will be accepted. Another source of bees for a topbar hive is existing Langstroth hives. Over the past five years I have been converting more than a dozen Langstroth hives to topbar hives. The success rate has been high. In most communities there are some Langstroth hives around. In fact there are probably some that are no longer tended and are in ill repair but still house a viable colony. The simplest way to utilize the bees from a colony housed in Langstroth equipment is to move the hive from it's stand. Place the empty topbar hive in it's place. Open up the Langstroth colony and begin searching for the queen. When she is found transfer her gently to the empty topbar box. It is best to cage her to protect here and to induce the colony to stay put. Once the queen is in the new hive begin shaking the bees from the original colony directly into the topbar hive. Place the Langstroth frames where the bees cannot get to them. When the process is complete remove all the Langstroth equipment from the scene. Be sure to let the queen out of her cage in a day or two. What will be done with the old combs depends on whether there are any Langstroth hives in the apiary. If there are then any viable brood can be added to a hive that needs strengthening. Honey and pollen combs that are in reasonable condition can be used too. But I advise ruthlessness. One of the most insidious sources of bee diseases is the use of old combs. With that in mind, if there are no Langstroth hives to give the brood to then portions of capped brood comb can be cut and attached to topbars and given back to the colony. There are many ingenious ways to do this but no easy ones. The method I have had the most success with is drilling two pair of small holes through the topbars to be used. Then I thread wire down through the topbar looping it directly through the comb and up through the opposing hole. Then I twist the two ends of the wire together on top of the topbar. A comb connected with two such wires usually hangs acceptably. A way to use some of the bees from a Langstroth hive is to shake several pounds of bees into an empty topbar hive. This is the least stable way to make a start. The bees are put into the hive with a caged queen. The topbar hive is then moved away from the colony from which the bees were taken or the box is closed with screen to keep the bees in the box. This procedure can work, but it is a much less viable start than a split or a swarm. Once I placed a batch of bees near another existing colony and opened the new hive box. The bees began flying around aimlessly. Some alighted on the landing board of the nearby hive and began fanning the come home signal that swarming bees use. The new box emptied of bees. They all joined up with the existing hive. My new queen was left with only the attendants in her cage and I was obliged to start over again. The final way to put bees in a topbar hive is to order a package of bees complete with queen from a commercial apiary. This is the method you will read about in most bee books. It can work. But we don't use it here in Jemez Valley. The problem is that we don't have any mites here and we are bound and determined to avoid bringing them in by carelessly importing bees. So we don't. We raise our own queens and share to provide the workers that are needed. The natural topographical barriers of our location make it possible to maintain this type of quarantine. But if one's situation is such that no such protection is possible, then ordering a package of bees with a queen is a reasonable way to go. I would order a mite resistant strain if at all possible and hive them in the same manner suggested for starting a colony with bees shaken from an existing hive. No matter what source is used to add bees to one's equipment, timing is crucial. If the weather is warming and there is a nectar flow in progress its time. If the weather is still partly cool it is better to delay beginning the new colony. Favorable conditions can go a long way to insure success. Finally, all the above is just advice. I encourage every beekeeper to be an independent practitioner. One should make a plan using as much or as little of the above information as fits his/her situation. -end- Return to Top of Page Seasonal Management If one is going to establish a symbiotic relationship with the bees in one's hive, then it is imperative that a beekeeper know what to do and when to do it. The name commonly used to refer to the whole of this body of wisdom is "seasonal management." On the surface it seems like a straightforward kind of topic. As a neophyte beekeeper in Georgia put it, "Just make a list of what I need to do and when I should do it." Such a list would constitute a minefield for mismanagement without a thorough discussion of the variables that must guide every action taken on behalf of one's bees. To further complicate the matter, management styles vary radically from one beekeeper to another. Put simply: there is always more that one can do to improve the possibilities for a colony's success. This batch of endless possibilities leads those so inclined to manage their bees intensely. They undertake numerous manipulations to maximize brood rearing, heat conservation, honey production, disease and parasite control, overwintering and other aspects important to a colony's survival and productivity. On the other hand, there are those who keep bees but who do so in a laid back manner. These beekeepers value the bees' ability to do most everything needed without any interference from their keeper. And between these two extremes can be placed everyone else who keeps bees. One list of management options won't meet everyone's needs. A great deal has been published on the topic of seasonal management. Most of the information available aims at informing those who keep their bees in Langstroth-style hives. If a person is a new beekeeper and a topbar beekeeper then s/he encounters a double disadvantage. However, this article will aim at discussing the basic needs of every colony of bees and the range of management procedures used to meet them. It is written from the point of view of a topbar beekeeper. Every colony of bees needs space, food, workers, a queen, and air conditioning. When a swarm settles into a hollow oak, it sets about providing these entirely on its own. The casual beekeeper can follow suit. S/he can install a package of bees or small colony in a topbar hive, wish them well and check back in the Fall for honey. What the bees do to meet their five primary needs and what the beekeeper can do to enhance those efforts will be discussed one need at a time. A swarm begins by searching for a cavity that meets its space requirements. Bees like to work in a dark interior which has but one entrance. To be ideal it should have enough room for the colony to manage both brood combs and honey combs. The topbar hive provides this kind of space. And the space available to the bees can be altered according to immediate needs. When a colony is just begun, it needs to conserve heat for initial comb building and brood rearing. A false back can be used to shorten the space available to the bees for their first 30 to 50 days in a new hive. When the bees have made full use of the space available to them, it is time to extend the lengh oftheir living space. At the height of the honey-producing season the whole box is typically the space needed. However, in the Fall when the last honey has been harvested, it pays to reduce the living space the bees will occupy for Winter. In New Mexico an average colony can survive the average Winter on twelve combs. The false back should be moved forward to about the 15th bar. This allows the bees to loose the minimum amount of heat and increases their chances of surviving the cold season. Another way to serve the space needs of a colony is to remove honey at times when the bees are running out of room. This happens at two times of year; during honey production time and in early Spring. Honey production will happen when colony strength is high enough and nectar is available. In some areas enough honey is produced that it can be harvested three or four times between May and October. All one must know is how much of the honey in the hive is capped. When there are only three or four topbars left for the bees to use, take out the capped honey. The other time the space needs of bees can be served by removing honey is in the early Spring. If there are three or more combs of capped honey left in a hive at the end of Winter the bees may feel crowded. These combs of honey are usually the combs furthest from the entrance of the hive. As the brood nest expands in Spring the bees are hemmed in by this honey. It is a difficult job for them to relocate the honey at this time of year because temperatures are usually not very high and the colony number is at it lowest. At this time of year it helps the bees to move the combs of capped honey. The best action is to move them further back in the hive. This gives the bees more space to expand the brood chamber but keeps the honey available if Spring turns cold. However, if the Spring is one in which moisture, flowers, nectar and sunshine abound, then take the honey out altogether. The bees won't need it and it will be in the way at best and contribute to swarming at worst. One more function can be performed when one is checking a hive in the early Spring; it's called Spring cleaning. The quality of the combs in a colony has a lot to do with the success of a hive. The topbar beekeeper can achieve a better environment for the bees by simply inspecting the combs in a hive each Spring and cutting off those that have become misshapen (those that are not well centered) or pollen bound, those containing too many drone cells, or ones excessively blackened by age. Taking out the worst three or four combs each Spring and moving the remaining combs toward the front of the hive enhances the living space of a colony. The second need shared by every colony is food. The swarm deals with this by carrying honey with it when it sets out to establish a new home. As soon as housekeeping has begun in the new colony site, combs are built and field bees are sent out for nectar and pollen. The managed equivalent of a swarm is a package or small colony of bees called a "nuc." A new hive can be populated using either method. A beekeeper can help the bees at this juncture by feeding them as soon as they are installed in their new home. A ready supply of syrup which the bees don't have to work to get will encourage the bees to build more combs to live on and to raise more bees to insure the colony's success. Spring feeding is not only appropriate for new colonies. Routinely in some locals and during harsh conditions in others it is a good idea to feed one's bees early in the Spring. This practice is referred to as "stimulive feeding" because it stimulates the colony to begin raising brood. The advantage is in raising the colony numbers in advance of the nectar flow, putting the bees in a position to start making honey earlier and in larger quantities. Still another condition which warrants feeding is drought. When Spring and Summer moisture doesn't arrive, the bees will suffer. If drought conditions continue for a long period of time the bees' very survival is in question. Weekly feedings can prevent colony loss. In all these cases feeding is done with a sugar or corn syrup or granulated sugar. The granulated sugar is less often used because it is more difficult for the bees to process. Bees must carry and add water in order to eat the sugar. This takes time and energy and is not as likely to stimulate colony buildup. But it may serve to keep colonies alive during extreme nectar dearths. Most small-scale beekeepers mix granulated sugar with water to make syrup for feeding. Two parts sugar to one part water by weight is a suitable mix. There are several ways to give syrup to bees. For feeding to have the desired effect the syrup must be easily accessible and come at regular intervals. This is most easily achieved with a boardman feeder. This device goes into the entrance of the hive and holds a jar full of syrup. The drawback to this type of feeder is that it delivers the feed slowly. One the negative side its use could encourage neighboring bees to start robbing under pinched conditions. If one chooses to use this type of feeder it is best to use two of them and to put them inside the topbar hive just to the rear of the comb furthest from the entrance. Another way of delivering feed inside the topbar hive is to use a cut-off plastic gallon milk jug. A milk jug would provide an inexpensive container that would hold between two and three quarts of feed. In order to use this type of feeder one would have to add some means of preventing the bees from drowning (e.g. floating sticks). Finally, the feed should be given once a week for three weeks to stimulate brood rearing or once a week until adverse conditions relent. Food is an issue for the bees in the Fall. That is a time of harvesting honey and the beekeeper must make some determination about the bees' prospects for surviving the winter. In the topbar hives kept in New Mexico for the past fifteen years the standard has developed of leaving 12 combs for the bees. This practice has yielded good results for colony survival. The third category of need for every colony is workers. This may seem obvious. But there are times when a beekeeper can help a colony that has too few or too many workers. The more common situation is for a colony in the Spring to have too few workers to be able to gain enough momentum to be successful. The beekeeper can help in this situation by moving one or more sealed brood combs in from a stronger colony. This procedure is called "brood equalization." To use it one must have at least two hives. If a beekeeper has but one hive and wants to strengthen it s/he can get a queenless package of bees from a dealer or another beekeeper. The queenless bees can be poured right into the exiting colony without endangering the queen. This booster package is an excellent way of curing underpopulation instantly. The other extreme is a situation where a hive is overly strong and in danger of swarming. In this case it would serve that beekeeper to make a split from the strong colony. To do this the beekeeper should remove up to five brood combs with adhering bees. The queen should be left with the parent hive. A queen should be added to the split and it should either be moved a mile or more from the parent colony or screened shut for a day. The parent colony will feel like it has swarmed and settle down for the season and the beekeeper will have a new hive. The fourth need common to all colonies is a queen. What this means to the beekeeper is that s/he should check on the queen from time to time. The most critical are the couple of weeks after any large disturbance. For example, after a hive is established, after a hive has swarmed, first inspection of Spring, after a hive has been moved, or even after honey has been harvested. Any large disturbance can hold danger for a queen. To check for the presence of a queen one does not need to see her each time. It is enough to find eggs in the brood comb to be fairly certain that a queen is present. Knowing that the queen is present is not always enough. Sometimes the queen is doing an inferior job. This usually happens when the queen gets too old. The beekeeper should check the brood combs of each hive that seems to be lagging in population. If the brood pattern is patchy then the queen's performance is suspect. However, it is good to get a second opinion. Other factors can contribute to patchy brood. Brood disease can be the cause. Sometimes bad weather (unseasonably cold), or lack of pollen and nectar can contribute to inadequate brood. If the beekeeper is relatively sure that the hive could profit from a new queen then one should be ordered from a reputable queen company. Raising one's own can consume a lot of resources for the small-scale beekeeper and a lot of production time can be lost. Even if one is not one hundred percent sure that the queen needs to be replaced it is a stimulating force to have a young queen. It helps production, disease control, and overall health of a hive. So if a queen is changed even if wasn't absolutely necessary there may still be benefits received. Finally, bees need air conditioning. They take care of this need largely by themselves. They prefer a single entrance cavity that they cool or heat by fanning and evaporating water or by clustering and eating honey. The beekeeper can assist the meeting of this need by opening or closing down the entrance to a hive. An "entrance restrictor" is put on in the Fall to help the bees conserve warmth and is taken off in the Spring so the bees can more easily cool the hive. In times of drought an entrance restrictor can come in handy to help the bees guard against robbing. This treatment of the bees needs is far from exhaustive. But it should assist the new beekeeper as s/he begins to make decisions about when to do what for one's bees. It should also make the following list a little less of a hazard to the bees. THE LIST March Inspect colony for a queen. Do Spring cleaning. Feed if needed. April Be sure brood chamber is not honey bound. Move honey if needed. Feed if needed. May Move false back so that bees have enough space. Observe bees in a contented manner. Make encouraging noises. June Check to see that the bees have enough room. Harvest honey if space is needed. Check on condition of queen if colony is not prospering. Consider requeening if there is need. July Check to see if more honey needs to be removed. August Check to see if bees have enough room. September Harvest the last of the season's honey. Put on entrance restrictor. Move false back forward giving bees less space in which to Winter. Determine whether feeding is necessary. October through February Check on hives occasionally to be sure a cow hasn't overturned them or the wind hasn't blown the lid off. Don't open a hive unless absolutely necessary; the bees have a difficult time resealing the hive in cold weather. -end- Return to Top of Page _________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: The information contained within this Web page does not necessarily reflect the views of Georgia State University. Return to Home Page James D. Satterfield email: jsatt@gsu.edu