# How much capped honey should i harvest from my OTBH??



## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

I have a first year Observation Top Bar Hive. I captured a swarm of feral bees and installed them into my OTBH may 8th! They have done great ever since! June 7th i added a top bar to the brood area and added another bar around the end of june to the brood area! Today i went to just visually inspect in the observation window and on the outside the tbh and the stand up hive sitting next to it had new emerged bees doing their first test flights. I opened up the window and i took notice that they have 5 almost 6 top bars full of capped honey at the other end of the TBH! I was wanting to know if you harvested all the capped honey bars or do you leave a few of the capped honey bars for the bees or do you leave all of it for them???? My first time harvesting off the TBH and didnt want to take anymore then i needed and plus i heard that you want to make the area smaller for less space to heat of a winter, i didnt know if that was true or not so thats why i wanted to find out the correct way to harvest a TBH. The brood area is going strong, new bees are still emerging, the TBH is my strongest hive! Thanks for any help or advice that you might have pertaining to harvesting capped honey in a TBH! I appreciate it!


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## bakerboy (Apr 29, 2008)

Take a bar. Crush, strain, enjoy.

Keep an eye on their progress, where I am, my bees needed 10-12 bars to get through the winter. Your mileage may vary.

Let them ensure their survival first, then take any excess.

My first year of beekeeping I was excited about how much honey I harvested.
Now I get even more excited about how much I am leaving them. Around here a good early buildup takes place in march and April, way too early to get package bees.

Overwintering is important for me to enter spring with a booming workforce.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

Im not worried about how much honey im gonna get or how much honey im not gonna get! What im worried about is doing it the correct way! If there is such a thing as a correct way! So far by guessing there is about 18 bars drawn, i say the first 7 bars are brood then there is about 4-5 bars of stores,,(Nectar, pollen, probably sugar water and honey) then there is the last 6 bars that are full of capped honey! Now if a person said harvest the 6 bars cause the bees would have less room to keep warm through the winter then i would of believed them..hahaha or Just take 3 and leave them 3 and everything would be just fine...I would of believed that one to! Honestly taking one and leaving them the rest is fine with me if thats all thats your suppose to remove! Im looking at the area as well and at the same time making sure they have enough to get through winter and if i had to choose which one was more important i would say leaving it all for them to get through winter. I will just take one bite,....hahaha :lpf:


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