# Transfer bees from Langstroth to TBH



## Kyo Un (Jun 7, 2015)

Simple:
Artificial swarm.

Preparation:
Swarm board:
A peace of board ling enough to go from floor to flight hole.
White cloth to throw over the board

Use plenty of smoke so the bees get some honey for emergency.
Find the queen.
Cage it.

Attach the cage to a top bar.
Take all the combs and push the bees off them into a bucket.
Wet them with a fine mist of water so they cling together.

Leave enough bees on the brood-combs (400/comb) so the leftover bees are able to hatch the brood.

Hang the caged queen into the bees.
They form a swarm.

Hang the swarm into a tree for a little.

Push all the bees onto the cloth/swarmboart which leans in front of the new hive toward the flight hole.
Hang the queen into the TBH.
Let the swarm walk into the hive.

Open the cage after one day.
If you want to be perfectly sure the swarm stays you might take one comb with open brood and cut it and fix it to a top bar. That will keep the bees from moving out again.

The leftover bees on Langstroth will hatch the brood. maybe you put some queen pheromone in there so they don't make a new queen.
After 21 days:
Add the hatched bees to the TBH.
No hack n' slash.
No loss of brood.
Wonerful sight – the bees on their march into the TBH. 

Kyo Un


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

exmar said:


> Long story short, built a TBH about a year ago as I was intrigued by the whole idea. Coincidentally, becoming interested in beekeeping, I ended up with two Lang's (feral swarm transplants) and about to get another one with a strong colony. When I initially built the TBH thought I'd just order a package of bees and go from there. Reading on the internet has persuaded me that may not be the way to go as my other hives are feral from the woods and non medicated and seem to thrive. The TBH was set up as a trap hive last spring with LGO and old comb "rubber banded" to the TB's. Nothing. This spring, again the TBH was set up as a trap hive with Swarm Commander, again nothing.
> 
> My issue is with three hives, I certainly have adequate brood, etc. to transfer to the TBH. Obviously, the lang frames won't fit in the TBH. I did find this video on youtube which seems straightforward and viable. However, the comment,"this is an experiment and should work," is a bit concerning. Also wonder if the bees will make the transition from frames running parallel to the hive body to perpendicular?
> 
> ...


 Oops, been a while since I looked at the TBH, I was thinking the TB's were longer than the lang frames and it's the reverse. So, how about putting a couple of wood blocks in the lang and hanging the TB's on them in the hive body, and super's. I have spare deeps and mediums so could prepare those, then transfer frames and bees.


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## Life is Good! (Feb 22, 2013)

I've heard, never done, something like a walk-away split: that you can take a pair of TB's, install them in the Lang (just off each side of the brood nest) and have them draw it out for you - when they fill it with brood, move those TB's, with nurse bees attached, into the TBH. Move the TBH into the same position as the former Lang and relocate the Lang. Then, foragers will return and help fill out the new hive, while the hive figures out to make a queen. 

Again, I've not yet need to do something like this - but it should work. If your TB's are too long to fit inside the Lang, trim the bars to fit the Lang, then once drawn out, attach the TB's to the right length bars by simply screw the ends of the bar together, it'll be a double-thick wood bar, but the bee's won't mind a bit.


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## jamman (May 19, 2015)

I'm new to beekeeping as well. But I did have a mentor suggest a method of making a transfer frame like I have in the post below. I put a few pics of what I did. The bees attached the comb and it has been working fine.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...is-my-experience-so-far-And-what-is-this-cell

The reason for it is to go ahead and move all that brood over as well as stores.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

I ran a TBH my first yr, I taped a couple of bars into empty med lang frames and stuck them in a lang. once drawn out, cut the tape, trimmed the corners, then dumped a package in there. You could do that, then do a teranav swarm and make your own "package"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETgWMMZr4So


Of course if they are on wax foundation the easiest way is to cut them out of the frame cut into pieces that will fit and stab onto pre-made bars like this






once they are fully attached to the bar, you can gently pull the staples holding the wire and slide it out of the comb.


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

jamman said:


> I'm new to beekeeping as well. But I did have a mentor suggest a method of making a transfer frame like I have in the post below. I put a few pics of what I did. The bees attached the comb and it has been working fine.
> 
> http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...is-my-experience-so-far-And-what-is-this-cell
> 
> The reason for it is to go ahead and move all that brood over as well as stores.


OK, that is a great idea!!! That's what I'm going to do, just build a nuc, hang on the end of the TBH and transfer brood, pollen, and honey provide access only via the TBH and let the bees take it from there. This seems the easiest and most panless way to do a transfer. However,I've learned that whenever I think something is "easy and painless, logical,etc." the bees don't see it that way.  Leaning toward letting the bees provide their own queen, but will consult with my mentor. 

Many thanks,

Ev


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## jamman (May 19, 2015)

Exmar,

Please let us know how it goes. Mine was an experiment, and I have learned from it.

I am using 7/8" holes for all my entries so I can cork them. Well, I drilled 3 of them from the nuc box into the end of the TBH. I reasoned that since they MUST pass to the TBH then all would work great. What I didn't realize in my newness was that not all bees head out every day AND the major importance of pheremones.

What happened is I did get bees to move into the TBH and start to build some comb. However, it is my belief that the holes were too small and it ended up being treated as a whole different hive. I then cut some more of the comb and moved it to the TBH as I wanted to take the nuc off. But I just cut the brood out and moved it and left the honey in the nuc so I wouldn't have such a nasty mess on the cut out. In doing this, I was trying to be very careful. I used a separate TBH nuc box to set my bars on as I worked. I shook the bees into the hive, cut them out and set the bars in the nuc (I think, it's a blur now!) and then reassembled. Somewhere amidst all my care, in my clumsiness I evidently killed the queen or they decided they didn't like her.

I ended up with 12-14 queen cells, both in the TBH and the Nuc. I shared some with my mentor, as he lost some hives over the winter so he did some splits and queened them. I was happy to be able to give back so quickly to him, he has given lots of time and lots of small equipment to save me ordering things. Beekeepers are great folks!

But anyway, I have made lots of mistakes. I still am undecided on how I would do a nuc to TBH in the future. I can see why Chandler(I think) took the loppers to the frames and whacked the comb and put them in the TBH. But I couldn't bear to lose so much beautiful brood. Seriously, it was side to side brood. Probably, I should have just shook all the bees in and cut the frames the first time. ORRRRR..... Drill a much larger hole between nuc and TBH. Maybe 1 or 2 1-1/2" holes (so I could use bathtub stoppers to fill them later) so the pheremones freely flow with air and it is more attractive to the queen to move freely as well.

That's what has happened for me. I am a newb and making plenty of mistakes. But I am trying to learn from those mistakes. But man, am I having fun in the process. I love these bees. I didn't keep them for years due to fear of allergic reaction. I have found I have the large local reaction. But now I always wear the smock and gloves and just deal with it it. So interesting! I regret not doing it sooner.

I was just thinking as I wrote this.... If you made the nuc box side with a huge hole in it, you could just cap the end of the TBH with the nuc box and after the bees have colonized, replace the nuc with the THB endplate. Actually, that would possibly be disastrous trying to hold those sides in place later and screwing on a board. I see a way of doing it in my head, but not sure it is worth it. I'll think on it some more.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

PS. I love Harley's hanger for the comb. But I'm not sure it would work on new comb. It would have on the foundation base nuc I got. It would work great, but I still would have had to MAKE myself cut through all that beautiful brood.


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

Sigh, that'll be next spring's project. "stuff" got in the way here. :-( We're into July and don't think I want to try to start a new hive now. However it will be a nice winter project to tailor a nuc to fit. Maybe come up with some way to hang a nuc on the side with a "runway" from the nuc into one of the existing holes. 

Don't know about the rest of you folks, but "stuff" here in the Ohio valley is RAIN, flooding, power outages, etc. Wettest year I can remember. e.g. Like a lot of folks have a small generator for the occasional power outage. After the last two months, busy buying a new and bigger one which will connect to my large propane tank and feed directly into the distribution panel with a disconnect. Running extension cords got old fast. Sorry, off topic.

Thanks for the responses.

Ev


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