Topbar / Langstroth Frankenstein Hive! ...And Orange County Beekeepers Assn Flickr Page

[emo_snal]

Yesterday I was musing about making a topbar hive that was the same dimensions as a langstroth hive (sometimes known as the "standard hive" -- the typical rectangular box), so that a langstroth honey super could be placed on top of it or you could put topbars with comb into a langstroth box if for some reason you felt like doing so. Well, my

Comments

[squid_ink]

I'm confused... every TBH I've seen, you add the bars as you need them and as the bees draw out the comb. You have all your frames in already (and I'm assuming the frames are bare, no wax?)

that little girl is a dead ringer for my niece 15 years ago (she's 19 now and still has the same color hair)

[emo_snal]

Yeah that's definitely the normal way of it. But bees naturally would rather expand upwards, and langstroth boxes are more convenient to extract from.

Also a bit of a background here: I'm about to go do beekeeping with the Peace Corps in Africa. In undeveloped areas they usually use topbar hives because they're easier to construct, so I'm expecting to be working with topbar hives there. BUT to make it most convenient to eventually phase in some langstroth hives if possible it seems like this compatable design might make the transition smoother.

[emmanate]

Oh, wow! If you can, please keep us informed of your work! Sounds like a great adventure!

[thanx_n_advance]

Sweet! Did you get my email?

[emo_snal]

No I don't think so? Resend? Who will it say it's from?

[thanx_n_advance]

It's probably a moot point by now, but my wife did pass your message along to me after I shitcanned my FB account. The only thing I can see from your photo being an issue is that the super on top will channel rainwater directly into the tbh below. Otherwise that's pretty close to what I've built

oh hey

[emo_snal]

Ohhh hey yes I did, I didn't realize you had an LJ account again!! Sorry I hadn't responded yet.. was going to I swear! d