Subject: Re: ....Another KTBH question

From: [email-masked] (Joel Govostes)
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:08:00 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] wrote:

> 1)  Do you put ANY foundation in the hive?  If not, how do they know that
> you want it centered on the top boards etc.  I realize that when you
> remove honey you should leave some comb as a quide.

No full sheets of foundation. Rather a strip of foundation hanging down
>from  the center line of each top bar.  Similarly, a bead of beeswax or a
thin strip of wood, coated with beeswax, will guide the bees to build
their combs straight and centered along each top bar.  Some users bevel
the bottom surface of each top bar into a "V" shape to further encourage
the bees to build the combs straight along each bar.
> 
> 2)  What would make a Queen/package want to stay  in a TBH if it starts
> out as just a hollow box with no foundation, brood, etc.

Bees are not attracted to foundation, either, per se.  What homeless bees
are looking for is a dark, dry cavity with an entrance,in which to build a
nest, and a top-bar hive fulfills this requirement as well as a frame
hive.  So does a hollow tree or wooden barrel. Bees installed in a top-bar
hives should be fed sugar syrup, just like bees hived on frames with
foundation, to keep them producing wax and building comb. They will just
as soon draw natural comb from top-bars as they would from foundation.  To
"encourage" straight, removeable combs, each bar can be provided with a
guide strip of foundation or beeswax, as mentioned previously.
> 
> 3)  How about feeding, esp Fumidil, as there is no place to put a feeder
> which wouldn't incite robbing.

Others using such hives have devised simple methods of setting a feeder
into the hive where the bees can access it easily.  Or, an external feeder
would be simple to supply as well.
> Thnks
> Charles Henry

---

From: James D Satterfield <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 20:46:47 -0500

> remove honey you should leave some comb as a quide.

Yes, put a strip of some type of foundation about 2cm wide in the center
of the top bars.  The foundation can be waxed into a groove very easily.
You can use a strip sliced from bought foundation...use scissors heated in
boiling water if you want a really neat slicer.  Or you can dip brown
paper from a grocery bag into melted beeswax and cut it into strips.  I
also make sheets of wax and cut the sheet into strips.  Joel G. spoke of
someone dipping twine into beeswax and sticking it to the center of the tb
to give the ridge for building.

> out as just a hollow box with no foundation, brood, etc.

I don't think much of anything would.  You'd be better off if you had a
drawn comb to put in, but if you have foundation strips and a feeder jar,
things go pretty well.

> which wouldn't incite robbing.

Ah, but here is the beauty of a tbh.  There *is* a place to put a feeder.
Put a quart jar or jars *inside* the hive.  Let them rest on strips of
wood about a half inch thick and the bees can get under the jar to holes
punched in the lid.  Baggie feeds also work well just flat on the floor.
All of this is possible since there are no frames.

Cordially yours,

Jim

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