# Harvesting Honey from a TBH



## KDsBees (Aug 13, 2009)

How do you harvest the honey? With the langs you have to have a bee escape (or something) to empty the bees out of the supers, with the tbh the bees are right there. Don't they get upset?


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## Barry Tolson (May 26, 2004)

Just brush them off the comb real easy with a bee brush. http://bwrangler.litarium.com/harvest/


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## KDsBees (Aug 13, 2009)

OK, that's really cool. At the risk of sounding stupid - why are the bees less defensive with the honey coming out of a tbh than they are with the honey coming out of the langs? I am interested in trying a tbh next year and I am trying to understand the biology of it. Thanks!


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## Barry Tolson (May 26, 2004)

http://bwrangler.litarium.com/working/
I'm just finishing my first year with TBH's. It is different and I like it a lot. There are lots of resources available to you. Look around Dennis's website...check out the different pages on it. Michael Bush also has good stuff about TBH's on his website.


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## LenInNorCal (Feb 28, 2009)

Right. I simply use a bee brush and sweep them off. I then walk away from the hive and it takes no more than another brush or two. That's it.
There is a lot of anthropomorphism, like thinking they "think" like us. While some of that is may be use full, it can also be detrimental to the point of killing the bees. For example if we left them with ALL that honey, they could die. In a freeze that much honey/pollen/nectar could be a thermal mass that keeps the hive colder than need be for a longer time. And the distance from the brood could mean nothing to the nucleus. Another example that notion of being "upset".....you are correct in the description, but that may also be viewed as an incentive to build more. It is an instinct and not volitional. 
Ah, never mind....I'll go have another beer.


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## LenInNorCal (Feb 28, 2009)

KDsBees said:


> OK, that's really cool. At the risk of sounding stupid - why are the bees less defensive with the honey coming out of a tbh than they are with the honey coming out of the langs? I am interested in trying a tbh next year and I am trying to understand the biology of it. Thanks!


Maybe it's not defensive, so much as they don't know we are robbing them. Or the there are far fewer of those that "know" because we only lift one bar at a time. Take off the lid of a Langs and the whole hive buzzes change quickly. The tbh girls only sense one bar is missing, so HI HO, HI HO, it's off to work they go, and that is only right next to them. The whole hive need not "know" all at once, as with Langs.


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## Timpeti (Apr 24, 2008)

The tricky part imo is getting the top bars out in one piece without ripping the combs. If the bars are not spaced just right, the bees will interconnect the honey comb making the harvest more difficult. I had several combs rapture and a lot of honey spilled into the hive with bees getting stuck in it. I have been contemplating inserting a modified bee escape to reduce the stress on myself and the bees.


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

I think the trick to using a bee brush is to never sweep them off onto the frames you are going to take in just a few minutes. You sweep them off and (anthropomorhising here) they think "oh, that was a bother" but then get going about their business. A few minutes later a big hand reaches in and grabs the new frame they're on. Sure only a portion of these bees went for this ride before. But then it happens again. Then again. And if they're anything like me, getting swept off frames over and over would get old rather quickly.

Wayne


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## LenInNorCal (Feb 28, 2009)

Yeah. Sometimes I sweep the bar bees in the back of the hive just for that reason.
I listen to the sound when I am robbing them, or even just checking them out (turns out I am the pest) and it changes to "alarm" status depending on what I am doing. The sound is pretty up to a point and then at full blown alarm my face is attacked by their guards. What fascinating creatures!
I suppose they are just dumb, wild creatures with finely tuned instincts, so it doesn't matter where we brush them, but it is cool to think the other.


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