Top Bar Hive - Progress

I'm loving my top bar hive. The bees seem to be loving at too. After my initial attempts to populate the hive failed I was a bit discouraged but its all go now. I've discovered a few design flaws (or design opportunities?) which I'll details a bit later.

There are two main features of the hive that increase the enjoyment for me. The first is the bees are so much calmer. I'm fairly careful about managing my queens so my bees are very calm normally anyway but being able to remove one comb at a time seems to agree with them. I assume that when a Langstroth hive is opened there is quite a draft that cools the entire hive, from bottom to top. This is not the case with the top bar. The second is no heavy lift while bending over the hive. I sit on a stool (upside down flower pot) for the duration of the inspection and can take all the time I like.

Progress

Bar 8, 24 October

Bar 8, 16 October

 These two photos were taken a week apart. The first shows the bees just starting to build on a new bar. In the second they have stopped building and start using it for pollen storage.

Bar 7, 16 October

Bar 7 also shows significant expansion. An inspection of the second photo reveals a small amount of capped honey and some freshly capped brood. These photos were taken four weeks apart. It is interesting to note how the comb shape has changed from round to matching the shape of the hive.

Bar 7, 7 November

 

Bar 9, 16 October

Bar 9, 7 November

The progress on bar 9 is more dramatic. This bar was moved from the far end of the hive to directly above the entrance on the 16th. The bees seem to have taken to the bars very readily.

Bar 9, 24 October

Design Flaws

Bowed Comb

There are two issues I have discovered so far. The first is a simple fix. The bars are grooved down the center then the groove is filled with wax. When I manufactured the bars I thought a patch of wax in the middle would be sufficient to encourage the bees to build in the correct place. This proved to be the case but once the comb was bigger than the patch of wax the bees avoided the groove, resulting in bowed combs. This has a knock on effect for the next few bars and some of the combs are overlapping bars because of this bow. This can be easily remedied by making the patch of wax larger but I don't want to encourage them to attach the combs to the side wall by making the patch too big.

The second issue is the installation of the viewing window. This is a CD case glued to the outside of the hive. This leaves a large recess in the wall, which the bees have expanded the combs into. The combs are not attached to the wall but they will not fit elsewhere in the hive. This makes it difficult to arrange the frames as I'd like, to encourage the growth of the hive. The next version will have to have another piece of window installed on the inside. I'm sure they won't complain about having double glazing installed.