What's In Your Hive?

It's time for the big day. I go over all my notes and mentally review what the fine folks at Walter T. Kelley told us about installing a package of bees, and despite all of my research, I arrive unprepared. I cannot find one reference to removing the frog from the hive, so I winged it and removed him to a more frog friendly area.

Time to pick up our package!

April 10th was the big day. Sydney and I set out for Walter T. Kelley in the beautiful Republic of Kentucky to pick up our package of bees. We had a great time, Syd enjoyed the installation demonstration and we both learned quite a bit.

Tops bar proprietary design

Okay, the last post about the notch was a bunch of BS. I could not help myself. Now you see why the bars have a notch. This is a project on a budget. Thank you to Sherwin Williams.

Proprietary secret top bar design

Notice the subtle notch in the strip of wood on the bottom of the top bar. This strip of wood is a guide and anchor point for the bees to begin building their comb. After extensive research I discovered the notch to be a key element in the design of the top bars.

Inside the hive

For those unfamiliar with top bar hives, this pic shows where the bees build their home. The bars on top of the box are where they build comb and each end is enclosed with a moveable follower board. More top bars are added as additional space is needed. This hive has entrance holes drilled in the side.

In hive feeding

This is what I came up with to supply supplemental feeding for the new colony. Notice the notched follower board to accomadate the feeder.

Finished summer roof

Here is the finished summer roof. For winter I plan to build a variation based on some ideas from the fine fellows at http://www.customwoodkitsinternational.com/ to deal with any possible condensation issues.