# 2nd swarm this season from a new TBH



## DrWeevil (May 16, 2010)

I've got 2 hives in my field, one a Langstroth which is doing great (its 2nd year) and one a TBH which I started this year. I'm the only one in my area with a TBH and don't have that much experience on top of that, so I feel like I'm winging it a bit.

The TBH is one of Phil Chandler's 48" designs. It has a screened bottom, a deep top cover with a white plastic corrugated roof, with plenty of ventilation in the space between the roof and the top-bars, four 1-1/4" entrance holes on the side, and no special provisions for top ventilation other than leaving an opening between top-bars. The hive is in the shade of an oak tree most of the day and has struck me as a cool hive. At any rate I've never observed those bees fetching water from the nearby birdbath.

This spring, about 4-5 days after introducing the new package I removed the bottom board and the very next day half the package and my queen were gone. I immediately put the bottom board back on so the rest could keep warm. Since the hive was a bit of an experiment, I allowed the remaining bees to re-queen themselves, which they did successfully (they were mighty thin, so that was quite an achievement!) 3 weeks after the new queen started laying the population exploded and in a very short time they had 10 bars built up completely. I opened the bottom again during that massive heat wave the entire east coast experienced in July.

A couple of weeks after opening the bottom I noticed that they weren't building comb any more, and that foraging activity had fallen off dramatically (the Langstroth bees were really bringing it in). Eventually they started bearding, which I attributed to heat and humidity. But they persisted even when it started cooling off and today they were gone, leaving a skeleton crew again.

I have a few questions for the experienced TBH keepers here:

1) I have a strong dislike of the screened bottom now. Is this justified? Or was that a coincidence? I'm almost certain the open bottom is what caused them to swarm/abscond the first time. Not so sure about the second time. Lack of room was not the problem, as I tried to keep ahead of them. Does the open bottom make them feel vulnerable? My Langstroth also has a screened bottom, but the hive's vertical design and the frame bottom bars tend to minimize that open feeling.

2) Is it worth re-queening at this late juncture? Or should I allow them to re-queen again and hope for the best? (I've heard weird "peep peep peep" sounds that could be piping in there today, but I'll have to check tomorrow.)

3) Can they be got through the winter, and what is the best way? They don't have much by way of stores. I live in West Virginia, and it gets quite cold from late October through early April, which is a good long stretch.

Any advice and thoughts are appreciated.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

Dont you think that having them next to the shade all the time is why they dont need to drink that much water??...Alot of people have problems with SHB when they have that much shade all day! My TBH is in the direct sun all day up until 4:00-4:30pm and then they have shade during the hottest part of the day! You should try a different location for your TBH before you start to blame the structure of the TBH! Then you would see them drinking water, sitting underside of the screened bottom fanning their wings and being happy!... Try direct sun and then shade or direct sun all day and facing east of course!!:thumbsup:

About the requeening, let them do their thing is best but if you do not have a queen at all then get one right away.

If they are low on stores or no stores at all you can feed them right now 1:1 sugar/water!! Make sure they have enough for the winter!


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## DrWeevil (May 16, 2010)

Both hives get full morning sun until 11 AM and the TBH until noon. They are shaded the entire afternoon. When the trees lose their leaves they get sun all day. So the Langstroth gets even less sun. Does this matter less for that hive design?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Isn't that what TBHs do? Swarm?


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

nope, they don't swarm. Tbh's hive bees.

Bees swarm you silly.

I myself am of the thinking that there is too much exposed area with a screened bottom tbh. that's just me though.


otherwise, I agree with honeybeekeeper.

Big Bear


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## madasafish (Aug 24, 2010)

Experience of others suggests unscreened bottoms on TBHs with a new hive means the bees tend to leave.

In the UK I have 2 TBHs started from new this year and I keep a bottom board on all the time.. No problems at all..
Can't comment on US weather...


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