Episode #78 Bee Bath

Bees finding a water source for summer time heat

[@runningdogapiary5009]

Trying to decide on top bar hives or Layens hives for next season. I’m not going to do langstroth anymore. I kind of like the simplicity of TPH

[@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107]

I think you watched my video on building the layens hive. If you haven’t you may want to check out my video on building my top bar hive episode number 46. I currently have four top bar hives and two layens. I will say the top bar hives are the easiest to build and I love how the bees build their own comb how they like it. The only problem i’ve experienced is sometimes at the very honey end of the hive the bees can build the comb very thick and sometimes they will try to curve it a little bit I’m assuming for airflow. It’s usually not a big problem because those are the ones I will harvest. I would recommend not making the bars not much over 17 1/2 inches I would assume the combs could get too heavy full of honey. The 17 to 17 1/2 inch bars or so easy to manage. The Layens hives can be a little more expensive and harder to build. The bees have quickly filled out the comb and filled up the box. In zone six where I live I’ve never had a problem with overwintering my top bar hives. I could see the advantage of the taller frames in colder climates helping the bees move with their honey stores. I do believe the layens hives allow more room for a larger hive of bees So you will get more honey frames. I’m still working on my frames changing design a little, because on some of the frames the bees did not attach very well to my dowel rod they went around it instead of attaching to it I will try some vertical dowel rods and also coating the frames better with wax hoping to solve those problems. I do think I’ll like the harvesting of honey, I just cut the comb and press it. And I plan on doing that by the end of the month. I will then have the full assessment of the layens. Every hive has its pros and cons as I’m sure you know. If I built two more I might build layens so I would have four of each. I think you would enjoy either one no heavy lifting.

[@runningdogapiary5009]

@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Thanks for your response. Did you have bees in both Layens hives? Hope you'll post a video of the harvest.

[@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107]

@@runningdogapiary5009 only one, after the slime out never had an opportunity to catch a Swarm. I kind of thought it was too late in the season to do a walk away split. And I would rather not have to mess with feeding sugar water. I’ll have to wait till next years swarm season, they build up the hive so quick and fill the combs out fast.