# new / old bar design / first harvest



## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

I ripped up a 2x4 into 1 1/2 squares, then ripped it again at a 30 degree angle to make an equilateral triangle. cut them into 18 inch lengths. Then cut a flat edge with the band saw so it will rest flat on the top bar hive, and also it will fit on the lang hive the short way. Hope you can follow this, I will take some pictures. Then I melted some wax and brushed it on the down edge.

I have one TBH with cross comb that will not go straight. It was one that I delayed removeing the queen cage and the combed in the cage. The comb on either end is perfect but the middle is a mess. So I replaced 4 bars of cross combed bars with this new top bar. 

The "design" is based on an old Kelly style foundationless frame that my supplier has at his shop. Jst a triangle shape.

Advantage will hopefully be twofold. First it is so big and straight that it hopefully will be hard for them to cross comb.

Second, that it will permit interchanging brood into a lang style (although the frames will necessarily be criss crossed from the standard frames).

Third it is a lot quicker and easier to build.

Interested in comments.

I had some capped brood along with the capped honey that was necessarily removed. So I just removed a frame from a honey super of my lang hives and threw it in. Hope it works. Anybody ever try that? There was honey on the edges of the brood comb and they were all over it. My Langs were also started from 3 pound packages, but were started a month after my TBH's and are not nearly as strong.

Best part was the harvest payoff. WOW what great stuff! got about a pound of honey. My first harvest! Even the wife said, wow that is good stuff.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I ripped up a 2x4 into 1 1/2 squares, then ripped it again at a 30 degree angle to make an equilateral triangle. cut them into 18 inch lengths. Then cut a flat edge with the band saw so it will rest flat on the top bar hive, and also it will fit on the lang hive the short way. Hope you can follow this, I will take some pictures. Then I melted some wax and brushed it on the down edge.

I just cut the corner off a one by and added it to the bottom of the bar, but the result is similar. Your's is a wider triangle and may work better. It is the design that I've had the best luck with to date. I didn't bother with the wax. Maybe it would help too.

>Advantage will hopefully be twofold. First it is so big and straight that it hopefully will be hard for them to cross comb.

Bees can crosscomb anything. They seem to stay on the triangles better but they still start to cheat on width when they store honey on them and get off and even cross comb a bit. I wouldn't count entirely on the triangle to keep them straight. Putting it between two drawn combs helps even more.

>I had some capped brood along with the capped honey that was necessarily removed. So I just removed a frame from a honey super of my lang hives and threw it in. Hope it works. Anybody ever try that?

I'm not clear exactly what you did. How does it fit in a lang honey super? Aren't the bars shorter?

>There was honey on the edges of the brood comb and they were all over it. My Langs were also started from 3 pound packages, but were started a month after my TBH's and are not nearly as strong.

My TBH's have done well too. In fact the KTBH that I started from a package this April swarmed a while ago already.

>Best part was the harvest payoff. WOW what great stuff! got about a pound of honey. My first harvest! Even the wife said, wow that is good stuff.

Real, unheated honey is AWESOME isn't it!


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

<I'm not clear exactly what you did. How does it fit in a lang honey super? Aren't the bars shorter?

It fits the short way! the super is a rectangle, the regular frames fit the long dimension. But these bars go the short dimension. Only problems with this is that the next super will fit ON TOP of the top bars, in other words, you will have to fit another super on top of this one or the inner cover / top won't fit because the ends of the bars extend over the top of the super. But is still should work short term to transfer brood/stores I hope.

Another problem is that because I ripped the triangle the entire length there is a gap on the ends. If this is a problem I will just glue back some pieces cut from the scrap to fill in the gap on the ends

hard to explain but simple once ya see it i will try to get some pics next week.

cheers!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

><I'm not clear exactly what you did. How does it fit in a lang honey super? Aren't the bars shorter?
>It fits the short way! the super is a rectangle, the regular frames fit the long dimension.

I got that but you said you removed one frame and threw it in. So I didn't get how a short bar fits because you removed a long frame.

>Another problem is that because I ripped the triangle the entire length there is a gap on the ends. If this is a problem I will just glue back some pieces cut from the scrap to fill in the gap on the ends

That's why I just added the triangle on. Seemed simpler.


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

<I got that but you said you removed one frame and threw it in. So I didn't get how a short bar fits because you removed a long frame.

Sorry, what I threw in was some comb that I took off the old Top Bars. just threw the detached comb in the space left by the regular Lang frame.

The new top bars have just been installed. 

Michael you are correct - you could not put any other frames in the super, just the top bars, because they would run the other way.

so for the top bars to be used in a lang super you wouldhave nothing else but top bars in that super.


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