Thanks!

It’s amazing how much we care for our bees, especially with the hotter summers we’ve been having. It sounds like you figured out what works in your area. Where are you located and how hot are your summer days? One other thing I’ve done since this video is I try to harvest and get a portion of the honey out before it gets really hot. Thanks for the comments.

I have converted half of my frames from horizontal to vertical. I’ve made a few with one dowel and a few with two dowels. The vertical dowels work great especially at the Honey end when you have such weight, especially here with warmer summers. you still need to coat the rods with wax to help the bees build off of them better.

I really think you’re gonna like it. It really makes processing pretty simple. Thanks for the comments.

I do agree. My two layens hives Always seem to stay strong and healthy.

kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6DbgoWKoN98j5Ysi=-WSh8pYlngPY275T this was episode number 79 Honey press. Since I’m not a commercial beekeeper, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible for Honey for family and friends. Thanks for the comments.

Dang, you’ve got a good eye. I missed that during inspection. Are you also a good queen spotter? That is one thing I would still like to master.

Queen Spotting by Hilary Kearney helped me a lot...

Thanks for the comments.

You are correct. I have learned I opened way too many frames when I installed my swarms. Since then, I did convert some of my bars to one vertical and I tried a few with two vertical rods, just to see what they would do. I also noticed that if I wax the dowel rods, no matter which way they do attach the comb better. Do you by chance wax your dowel rods Before installing them in your hives.

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 I do not wax my dowel rods. It would probably help to get them started on the bottom half, but they will work that bottom half if they can’t go to another frame and start up top.

No, I currently do not. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to catch swarms if needed. Also, because I have built my layens and top bar hives with non-conventional measurements my frames may not fit in other hives.

Deb, thanks for the comments I also thought the birds and the bees were making beautiful music by themselves.

Hey Bob, you may want to follow Dr. Leo’s free plans on horizontal hive.com. I believe. If you use his frame size your layens hive will be universal. That way you could switch with other beekeepers if needed. I basically just came up with my own frames size to fit the 2 x boxes I was building. I did it so I would not have much waste while using the two by lumber. And my frames are thicker, etc., because they sit on top of the box frame. I’m not sure the best way I could give you the frame measurements??

I’ve never installed a package of bees into a new hive. Fortunately, I’ve been able to catch swarms, which have a 98% success rate of installing. They are full of honey and pollen and ready to find a home. I do believe you’re on the right track waxing the top bars is important to get the bees started on their comb. Making the hive smell like an old hive helps so much maybe putting the foundation in the bottom and then later taking it out. Old black comb is great for this. next year of course you’ll have more supplies helping with this. A couple of frames of wax always helps. Especially having young brood tends to help the hive stay in the new box. Maybe in your case, you should put some screen over the entrance install the Bees and you need to make sure the queen goes in that’s the secret. Leave the screen on after closing up the hive and may be feeding them 50-50 sugar water for two or three days to get them Established may also help. Then open the entrance and let them forage. You’ll learn Bees. Don’t follow a set of rules that we make. Here is a video of catching a swarm and installing in a new hive. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZLcnYKnp5d6jrcsi=o3IVve8kdXNsB6WH Hope all goes well for you, you’re starting a very addictive hobby lol.

Are you by chance located in Australia?

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Yes John Warragul Victoria where are you regards keith

@@kitrobbo1696 I am in Southern Illinois in the United States about zone six. The reason I asked I went with my wife to visit her penpal from grade school. We flew into Sydney, then to Adelaide and drove to Milang. You have a beautiful country, and we met a lot of great people. We also went to kangaroo Island and toured a bee Farm of the isolated bees to kangaroo island. After that, I’ve been keeping bees for the past six years.

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 I am glad you enjoyed your trip in Australia

Thanks for your comments. One of the reasons I started making the videos was to remind me what to do and what not to do L O L. There’s a lot of good KZbin videos of people building and working their hives. Since I did not have a Bee mentor locally, that’s what’s helped me the most past six years.

Dr. Leo has free plans on his website if you would want to build a layens that would be interchangeable with others. On my design I just looked at his plans and then came up with my own version what basically works for me when it comes to the wood Sizes, frames, etc. You could hopefully use some of my thoughts or ideas with those plans.

Kieth, check out my latest video just posted today episode 92. It may answer some of the questions you’re asking. I do believe it will work but in certain circumstances only check out the video. Thanks.

Very good advice. I usually have some used comb to put in with them, but this time I did not.

That’s a good idea. I really do not have a scoop for my swarm catching gear. Thanks.

Thanks!

Yes, retired and a beekeeper, two very rewarding careers!

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 that’s awesome! I’m not quite ready to retire yet, but couldn’t agree more, it’s the best career out there!! Love my job and my bees!

That sounds very interesting. I’m trying to envision how the buttons are. Are they laid vertically or horizontally? When I built my frames instead of making the sides 3/8 to a half inch I left them the 3/4 size of the one by twos to make it easier and I also thought stronger. I’m getting better at not squishing them but if I built a new hive I would like to try something else. I’d like to know how it goes with it this year for your new hive.

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 I also would like to understand better about commenter's "buttons", how they work to space frames.

Thank you. I’m with you on that. I do like having this size hive because it always does well. Now to perfect the beetle vac.

Thank you for the comments. I have made splits before, and that’s fun to try with top bars. This time though I had no top bar hive to put one in.

Yes I have. They are right behind the top bars on brood. Fortunately, they just have a little bit more room to expand. All hives made it through the winter.

You’re welcome. I hope my experiences can help you in someway. In my area the top bar hive works great.

Please check out this video I made, kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKm6coSZe9OKe5osi=iFGfkPZLZqCILopv after building three different styles of hives. This is the one that works best for me. Hopefully you can use some of it in your builds. Two things I would like to mention first on the top bars instead of using a wood strip, I might choose to use an inch piece of plastic foundation as a starter strip. Second the only trouble I have is the last four or five bars at the honey end the bees can build such large comb. It’s very heavy. The past two hot summers I’ve had some comb collapse on those. I saw a guy in Australia put a quarter inch dial rod vertically in the middle of the top bars. I tried that on a few last summer I think it’s going to help. Thanks for your comments. Hope you have a good year with the bees.

I’m not familiar with the topic of Trees for Bees could you please explain?

Mike Connor has some good vids talking about which varieties of tree are most useful to our honeybees, other people too.

I may not have shown it, but yes I did. It’s very important even in a 18 frame hive like this one. When you add Bees, you do not want to expand the hive too much. Otherwise they do not build comb fully down frame. I found that out by experience.

Something I learned after using these frames is the bee sometimes build around the horizontal dowel rod. I don’t know if I did not have enough wax on them or they just didn’t want to attach to it. Since then, I’ve changed some of them to one vertical or maybe even two vertical dowel rods instead of the horizontal, and they seem to be building fine on those. So throughout the hive, I kinda alternate them. Thanks for your comments. Hope you have a good 2024 bee season.

@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 I hope you do too! So far so good :)

Thank you. You may want to watch episode number 79 honey press. I purchased a honey press from Dr. Leo and it’s been great for processing my top bar and layens hives. very easy and not a lot to clean up.

Yes I have. I do believe it may help deter them a bit. But if you watch episode number 77 layens hive slimed, The peppermint oil did not keep the beetles out when I had comb collapse from the hot weather. Too many places for them to hide and take over the hive. Best thing has been strong hive with not too much open space that the bees can’t patrol.

It sure is. I was amazed at the quantity and the mount all around our place.