# Scrap wood Top Bar Hive



## Silverbackotter (Feb 23, 2013)

Looks pretty good


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## Ravenzero (Sep 26, 2012)

Looks good, my only comment is you need the "ends" to be an inch higher then the sides, so when you put the cover on, it will not move or disturb the bars


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Ravenzero said:


> Looks good, my only comment is you need the "ends" to be an inch higher then the sides, so when you put the cover on, it will not move or disturb the bars


 no you don't mine works just fine like that one I leave the end bar set back just a little for a top entrance


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Go back to the construction site and see if they have any grade stakes they are precut 1_1/4 wide and all you have to do is put 1/4 in spacers on honey bars


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## bilder (Oct 7, 2012)

Harley Craig said:


> Go back to the construction site and see if they have any grade stakes they are precut 1_1/4 wide and all you have to do is put 1/4 in spacers on honey bars


Good idea. Will stop by on Monday when the foreman is around. He has been pretty cool with letting me haul away their garbage. 

So far I have made a few rabbit nesting boxes, chicken nest boxes, some chicken roosts, flower boxes, repaired a fence and a bee hive. Not bad for a pile of trash.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Lowes sells some "1x2" slats that are a lot closer to 3/4"x1.25-1.5" in my estimation...and super cheap; I'm sure they'd do in a pinch, just might have to put in a little extra effort keeping the bees building their combs where you want them 

Also, just FYI, that box seems a little small to me, so you may have to manage it a bit more actively to prevent swarms, and to get a honey harvest. It doesn't look "too small," just "a bit on the small side" defo not bad for "trash" though, huh? 


P.S. I ran a couple calculations, it's plenty big for overwintering, I'm sure....just kinda smallish for peak flow times


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## Silverbackotter (Feb 23, 2013)

Robherc,

What numbers were you using for your calculations on honey flow and wintering? That is a ~4 ft box and the depth and width are not too far off from other published sizes. I am asking as I am starting some top bars after only ever having langs.


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## bilder (Oct 7, 2012)

robherc said:


> Lowes sells some "1x2" slats that are a lot closer to 3/4"x1.25-1.5" in my estimation...and super cheap; I'm sure they'd do in a pinch, just might have to put in a little extra effort keeping the bees building their combs where you want them
> 
> Also, just FYI, that box seems a little small to me, so you may have to manage it a bit more actively to prevent swarms, and to get a honey harvest. It doesn't look "too small," just "a bit on the small side" defo not bad for "trash" though, huh?
> 
> ...


Yeah, I was thinking that it was a bit on the shallow side. Most designs I see are a couple inches deeper, maybe a couple wider depending on what site you are looking at. Figured it would require more visits during the peak season and a little planning to overwinter with no problems, but from what I have been reading that is the nature of TBH's anyway.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Silverbackotter said:


> What numbers were you using for your calculations on honey flow and wintering? That is a ~4 ft box and the depth and width are not too far off from other published sizes. I am asking as I am starting some top bars after only ever having langs.


Honestly, for that one I didn't write any numbers down...just built a visual image of it in my mind & compared to my 24"x19"x11.5" (19" wide at the top, 30degree tilt to the side walls) TBH boxes from last year...I ran the numbers on them, and they came out just SLIGHTLY larger than 2 Lang 10-frame Deeps (nearly identical, just slightly ahead), that's figuring based on square-inches of comb, fully drawn. As such, those functioned exactly as you would expect of a double-deep hive; brood on nearly every comb, needed constant maintenance during flow to avoid overcrowding swarming, but came through the winter beautifully (all except one that had issues with its lid).

For this year, I've changed dimensions to 48"x19"x10" to relieve some of the comb collapsing I had with the 11.5" deep hives last year, and to alleviate some of the crowding, as I now have the equivalent of about 2 deeps & 2 mediums, giving the bees space to keep some stores for me to take...without having to go in & move things around every 3-4 days (hopefully) 


P.S. If you are considering anything NEAR like the "Golden Mean" design, please do a search on other threads with that in the title here on BeeSource...from what just about everyone who's used it says, the things a swarm-thrower box, and little more


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## Silverbackotter (Feb 23, 2013)

Mine are 17 "x 11" x 60". I will probably do the next ones on a 19" bar to sub into and out of a lang. We will see how they do.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Silverbackotter said:


> Mine are 17 "x 11" x 60". I will probably do the next ones on a 19" bar to sub into and out of a lang. We will see how they do.


Langs work great for building straight comb I screwed one of my 17 in top bars to the topbar from a med frame about a week before my package arrived I pulled it and shook off all the bees and trimmed it to fit my topbar a d just pulled the screw when I installed my package the bees immediatly clustered on it , it gives the queen an immediate place to start laying and it gives a nice straight comb foe a guide


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## Silverbackotter (Feb 23, 2013)

Harley Craig said:


> Langs work great for building straight comb I screwed one of my 17 in top bars to the topbar from a med frame about a week before my package arrived .. to start laying and it gives a nice straight comb foe a guide


I was thinking the same thing but I don't have any Langs right now as I have had a long hiatus from keeping. I did cheat and split a few top bars and put small cell foundation in them.

Hank


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

If your bees are anything like mine I would put empty bars between the foundation my bees will not touch foundation until all empty spaces are filled I thought about cutting plastic foundation in the shape of the follower board only smaller to allow for bee space and put them in every other bar once they get at least one empty bar completely full then replace the bars with foundation with empties


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## Silverbackotter (Feb 23, 2013)

Harley Craig said:


> ...my bees will not touch foundation until all empty spaces are filled I thought about cutting plastic foundation in the shape of the follower board only smaller to allow for bee space and put them in every other bar once they get at least one empty bar completely full then replace the bars with foundation with empties


Interesting. I cut them some foundation with an 8" x 4" trapezoid I was going to give each 4 of these stacked next to one another and have 4 other bars with molding comb guides. This would give them 8 total bars to start on. You think I should alternate the foundation and comb guides? 

Hijacking the post a bit, sorry. 


Hank


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

I would when I added my starter bar to my Lang to have them build for my tbh it was placed when I added a new box of foundation and they built it out in 4 days and now a week and a half later they still haven't hardly touched the foundation


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