My Tanzanian Top Bar Hive

I placed the hive in the back of the garden area surrounded by eleven fruit tree's.


The hive with lid that hangs over the entrance. The lid is a layer of plywood and then the metal. Right now it sits on the top bars, but I am changing that next time I check on them. It will then sit off of them a little bit to provide some dead air space for insulation.

The two on top show how I made my top bars. They are the triangle design with melted wax along the tip of the triangle. The four slats on the left are covering the langstroth frames that I used to transfer the bee's. They have slats in them that the bee's could get through if I didn't cover them. And about three bars over from these slats you can see (through the hole) the follower board I use to keep the hive small until they build up to a stronger colony.

Here you can see the entrance feeder and my super high tech entrance reducer. In this case it was an old stake or something that was laying there when I put the hive up. To change the size of the entrance I just pull the stake to the left.

This shows how I attached the follower board to a top bar. I chopped a little off of the bar so that it would remain the same dimensions as the others.

First Comb From The Top Bar Hive

Here is a short video clip of the first comb that the bee's have drawn in my top bar hive. It is neat to see the bee's festooning (hanging on each other) while making the comb.

I transferred the bee's from their nuc hive in four standard langstroth frames. I built this top bar hive to be compatible with the langstroth frames for this reason. The bee's have been busy filling up these four frames and finally started building comb on the top bar. Besides the top bar in this video, there is one other that has some comb on it.

Beekeeping Demo at The Honey Store (Noyes Apiariers)

On Saturday a good buddy and I made a trip down to Fruitland to pick up a couple nucs and see a beekeeping demo put on by the Noyes. The weather cooperated enough for about 50 beekeepers, many from the Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club, to enjoy the day.

I'm about to transfer my two nucs into their hives today. One will go into our Langstroth hive and the other into a nice top bar hive that another friend and I made.

I will post the results of this soon with some photos.

Vegetables, Chickens, Fruits, Nuts and Bee's - An Update

Just a quick update.

Vegetables
On the 13th, I started a bunch of my vegetables and herbs, including:

Asparagus- Mary Washington
Broccoli- Decicco
Siberian Pepper- Grandpa's Home Pepper
Bell Peppers- Early Mountain Wonder
Early Tomato- Sub-arctic Plenty
Early Tomato- Gem State
Brussel Sprout- Long Island Improved
Leeks- King Richard
Kale- Red Russian
Early Cabbage- Early Mountain Wakefield
Chinese Celery- Kan Tsai
Mache/Corn Salad- Verte De Cambrai
Red Romaine- Cimmaron
Spinach- Bloomsdale Long Standing
Red Leaf Lettuce- Red Saladbowl
Sweet Basil- Ocimum Basilicum
Italian Parsley- Plainleaf

Chickens
Last night I finally took the 34 chicks out of our walk in shower. We moved them to a heated room in our barn. I think they are enjoying the new casa.

Fruits and Nuts
Today we planted two new walnut tree's as well as two new peach tree's. I'm not sure how many fruit and nut tree's that makes between my parents and us. It must be 50 or more. You can never have too many though, in my opinion. And nothing beats a freshly picked peach in the summer.

Bee's
When we arrived home this afternoon, my bee hives were sitting on our porch. My good friend had finished fixing them up and had dropped them off for me. He gave them a nice red paint job so they'll be the sharpest looking bunch of bee's in the neighborhood.
These are the traditional looking langstroth hives.
For my other hive, I think I've decided on the Tanzanian top bar hive rather than the Kenyan top bar hive. This is only because the sides are straight and I will be able to transfer the foundations from my nucs into these hives.

Quick Update

Just a quick update on what I've been up to.

I received thirty-four new little peepers that arrived last week. Of course I've already got a favorite. She runs up and jumps in my hand every single time I see them.

This shot is the day they arrived. Their wing feathers have already grown in since then and they are a bit larger now.

I bought them from Dunlap Hatchery in Caldwell. http://www.dunlaphatchery.net/

Not only did they ship a day early, but they sent ten extras, making a total of sixty-six. Five, unfortunately, didn't make it. After splitting the order with a friend of mine, I ended up with twenty-eight bantams and six standard size.

I also ordered two 4 frame nucs of honey bee's from a guy in Fruitland. I'll pick them up on the 11th of April and weather permitting he'll be doing some demonstrations. Although we had bee's when I was a kid, I have never actually owned any or worked with any, so any chance to soak up some information is appreciated.

I'm actually really excited about working with the bee's. My dad still has all of his equipment that I'll be able to use, so there isn't much of an expense. I didn't really plan on trying for a few years. But like I mentioned before, a good friend fixed up the old hives and gave them to me for Christmas, so it was a nice kick in the butt to go ahead and try it.

I think that I am going to start one hive with these traditional boxes of my dad's and then try one in a top bar hive as well. I'm drawn to the top bar hives for some reason, although they produce a little less honey and more wax. I guess I'll just be making more candles. Notice the board on the side for an observation window.
And here is a drawing of a Greek top bar hive described in 1682.

Not only do I want to keep these bee's for the honey and wax, but also for the improved productivity in our garden and orchard. Not to mention the excitement and challenge of it all.
I'll definitely keep everyone posted on how this little endeavor works out.

Raising Honey Bee's

My good friend surprised me this winter with some of my dad's old bee boxes that he had fixed up. It has me seriously considering raising some bee's for honey this year. We still have most of the equipment, so that won't be a problem. And honey just happens to be one of my favorite things.

Look for posts to come about this little adventure and about the uses of honey in food, first aid and to help with allergies.

In the mean time enjoy this web link page from Bad Beekeeping that has hundreds and hundreds of links about beekeeping.

http://www.badbeekeeping.com/weblinks.htm