# New Beekeeper - New Top bar Hive



## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

Hey guys, new beekeeper located in Ontario Canada. Enjoying reading all these posts on here, very informative!
Me and my father worked on a top bar hive the past few days and ordered a Carnolian nuc to take residence. I have been looking at methods of attaching the comb onto the top bars and it looks like I may be wiring it to the top bar some how. Anyways I have a bit f a background with social insects, keeping ants in formicariums(Antfarm) and I think honeybees will be just as exciting or more with the added benefit of honey production lol. We have ordered a few bee jackets and some basic equipment and are not afraid of a few stings haha wish us luck. Ill probably post when I get the bees next.

Here is a pic of the hive we built.
We have modified the entrance so it is now two holes not four. also the roof is vented with screen blocking the holes.


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## dixieswife (Apr 15, 2013)

Congrats on your new hive. We started out with a top bar; now we have a mix of those and Langs.

For attaching comb: we use the follower board as a shape guide and cut out a section of a Lang frame. Then we use little hair clips (the squeeze-y kind with teeth used to clamp long hair up on the head). The teeth grip the comb, then we use zip ties to attach the hair clips to the bar. It's not elegant or pretty but it's easy and cheap. The bees eventually just build everything in. If we ever want to remove comb OUT of the top bar, we generally take the hair clipped ones first.


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

Thanks, I am sure I will have to try a lang at some point too. That's an interesting way to attach comb lol I'll probably have to give it a shot.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Welcome to BeeSource! Nice looking hive also, good luck with your bees!


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## cgybees (Apr 20, 2015)

You've ordered a langstroth nuc, or a top bar nuc?


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

It's a lang nuc, aren't many top bars around here or even nucs close to me. Closest nuc seller was an hour away! Also pounds of bees are very hard to find u less ordered from the states.


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

Very nice! I wouldn't open that roof up on a windy day, though, without staking the legs down.


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

Haha yeah it will be in a low wind location, we thought of that a bit and I think with how much force is on the chains it should do pretty well. I have tested it in 14ish/mph and it was pretty solid. I don't think I'll be unassisted on a windy day though. I'll have someone helping just in case. Our willow bushes are blooming along with the maples and dandilions now, but we don't have our bees yet! Lol I hope they don't miss too much. I think they will have a healthy start. I will definitely be feeding them so they get lots of comb built out though.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Hi, I have a top bar as well and have used Langstroth frames when starting. 
A friend gave me some deep frames with plastic foundation that had been drawn out by a previous colony. Cutting them was easy with a circular saw. I used my follower board as a pattern and cut the wax just a bit smaller, for bee space. Use a board to cover the portion of the frame you dont want cut. You will drill holes into the foundation and use twist ties or string to tie it. Finally you need to shim the frames on each side about 5/16¨ to get where they are 1.375¨ wide again. Taking the sides off makes them skinny...you will see. 

Now, once you have one frame with comb, the field bees will fill it with nectar immediately. The house bees use the stored nectar to build comb with. It's like having materials at the job site. Later, after some comb is drawn they will empty the frame, starting at the center and build it into a brood comb. It takes a little time but that is the process.

In a top bar hive it is VERY good to start with some straight comb and then let bees build between two good ones. I ended up putting three cut up langs into my top bar with fresh caught swarm. They needed storage room and filled it OMG fast. 

So if you are a top bar beek that is new...it MIGHT pay to befriend a more experienced Langstroth beek and let them ¨help¨ you.
Having some old straight honeycombs is like GOLD!


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

Thanks for the great info aunt betty. I am curious, this is a more general question to anyone but you may be able to answer. When I get my 4 frame nuc how do i cut the comb when there are bees? Should I shake the queenless frames into the top bar hive then cut those, then secure them inside, move the queen and proceed with the rest of the frames?


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Oh. I dont know is my answer. However...this is an idea. Rig your top bar hive so you can place your langstroth frames perpendicular. You will have to do some work getting it right. You'd have to do something to fill the side triangles...plywood. basically build a five frame nuc INSIDE your top bar near the front. use a follower with a hole in it to transition from lang to top bars. I hope you get it. You will need to be handy with wood. I made a top bar nuc that goes both ways. 

I would not try cutting a frame with bees in it but people do. 
It is possible.

You would have to cover the lang frames or the bees cant defend it all. The gaps...you know.


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

I think I know what your saying, so section off part of my top bar so the lang frames can go length wise and have a hole in a 3rd follower as a transition to top bar frames as the colony grows. Not a bad idea I must say lol. It wouldn't be too difficult to do that actually. I'll have to see the frames I'm getting and how much comb I'd be removing(from the sides of the lang to fit it normally weather I'd go that route or not. I'll keep you guys updated on how things go. Still waiting on my nuc, may 15-16th, needs to hurry up lol.


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

Hey guys! It has been waayyy too longgg lol. But I finally got my nuc, it was a lang nuc so I had to chop frames.. and cut PLASTIC foundation.. what a disaster, I mean, it was just a mess, but I salvaged all I could and hung it from my bars. The plastic foundation really threw me off though. Anyways! with all that fun stuff over I check them this morning and saw quite a few doing their little orientation flights which is nice. None were at the syrup feeder until about 1pm when it was hot outside and they were familiar with their surroundings. By 4pm there were maybe 20 on the feeder at all times, and others flying to the massive amounts of honey suckle bush all over the place. I mean, we have a nice little hedge as an outline of the corner of our yard so they love it. I realized this when I saw the first few bees with pollen coming in, it was a nice light yellow/white pollen and I thought... Well that had to be from my honey suckles close by, Well! Here are a few pics! Lol I hope you enjoy!

I also wanted to note, In the last few years I barely saw any honey bees in my area, and the property is basically large open area surrounded by dense forest, would that isolate the area? There are tons of native bees of all species, but I was amazed to see so few bees, we saw 3 bees total last year. I dont think there are any beekeepers near by for at least say 20 kilometers. Anyways just a thought/curiosity.

The front of the hive, I put a dandelion there just to see if they would go for it and a bee did! haha.



Nice close up just as a bee with pollen was going in.




This is the honey suckle i was talking about, and one of my bees .


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## SWAT253 (May 11, 2015)

I know you've already made the transition, but it took me a while to find this video regarding Lang to Top Bar conversion. 

Hope this helps down the road!


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## Cdnbeekeeper (Apr 27, 2015)

SWAT253 said:


> I know you've already made the transition, but it took me a while to find this video regarding Lang to Top Bar conversion.
> 
> Hope this helps down the road!


Haha it will only help when the foundation in the lang nuc isn't plastic! But If it was wax foundation it would have went 100x better.


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## UncleRemus (Feb 17, 2015)

(This is UncleRemus's Wife). We are new to the top-bar as well. We started off this year with just two hives BUT we ended up getting a top-bar almost two weeks ago. I really enjoy them a lot. They are much different than inspecting a normal hive but it's interesting seeing the differences. Good luck with your top-bar, which by the way, is made really nice!


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## Sovek (Apr 27, 2014)

This is why any future TBHs that I run will be built to lang dimensions, that way I can just pull whatever frames I need from my current long(ish) langs and put them into a TBH and then just slowly transition the frames from brood into frames of honey by moving them further back. I had your typical trapezoid TBH last year and got a lang hive and the bees had started building up. It was a PITA just dealing with the wire in the foundation (not crosswired) I cant imagine doing to deal with plastic foundation.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I thought about doing your idea but...there are so many newbees that want top bar nucs that I'm going with the flow on some of my colonies and have a handful of top bar nucs built. Next year I may jump in with more. They are so easy to build.


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