Neat top bar hive stuff.
Follower Board
A follower board restricting 10 top bars to one end of the hive.
A follower board is used to partition a top bar hive. It’s the same size as an end piece. With it, a queen can be raised or a nuc run in a hive’s far end.
Some beekeepers use a follower board to reduce the hive volume. Then they gradually increase the volume as the colony grows. It’s reported that this helps the bees draw out straighter comb.
Top Bar Stand
Top bar stand with top bar.
A top bar stand is an essential piece of equipment, as most top bar comb must be held, in it’s natural position, with both hands. A simple wooden frame, slightly larger than the comb can be used.
Top bar stands come in all flavors:
- Some fold up.
- Others are made of wire.
- Some beekeepers extend the hive sides beyond the end pieces.
Feeders
A quail type dribble waterer is commonly used to feed sugar syrup inside a top bar hive.
Feeders can also be incorporated into a follower board.
Plastic 2 liter pop bottles can also be used to feed bees much as they are with standard equipment. Except the access holes are drilled through a few special width top bars and not the hive cover.
If a deep frame fits below a top bar, a division board feeder can be screwed on the bottom of a top bar.
Hive Stands
Tomas, in Honduras, uses a simple, very effective hive stand which provides a comfortable working heigth and isolates his hives from disturbances and pests.
Hive stands provide most of the benefits of a top bar hive with legs, without most of the disadvantages.
Most beekeepers use something to get their hives off the ground, away from termites and damp, rotting conditions. Concrete blocks, bricks, rocks, wood, palates, pipe, etc. are often used as an expedient stand. Even top bar hive beekeepers, with top bar hive cows, often use these same methods to isolate their hive’s legs preventing rot and deterring pests.
Here are a few things to think about when designing a hive stand:
- Are they portable or permanent?
- Will they support twice the anticipated weight?
- What kind of maintenance is required?
- Are they a safety hazard without hives?
- Will they be used to isolates pests like ants, toads?
- Durability?
- Can recycled materials be used?
Much has been written about hive stands for conventional beekeepers. And most of it applies to top bar hives as well. I won’t repeat that here.
Solar Wax Melter
Why?
Solar intensity can be a beekeeping asset.
Beekeepers constantly accumulate small bits and pieces of comb. At any one time, the amount is small.
Some gather it up and store it until they get a sufficient amount to justify the hot, messy time-consuming job of rendering it down with boiling water. But stored comb is very attractive to pests, especially wax moths which consume it and create a mess in the process.
Others, who tired of the storage/rendering hassle, just toss it out in the beeyard where it inadvertently ends up on the bottom of their shoes. At least that’s been my experience :>)
A solar wax melter is an idea solution to this problem. It:
- operates unattended.
- keeps the mess outside.
- requires no energy.
- produces beeswax from scraps.
- eliminates comb storage problems/pests.
- transforms waste scraps into an asset.
This is the one piece of beekeeping equipment I just can’t do without. When moving to Florida, I gave mine away. But will soon be building another one.
There are a few solar wax melters commercially available. But they are either too small or cost too much for my needs. There are plans on the internet. But they seem overly complicated. So I will be designing my own.
Solar melters are a prime candidate for using recycled materials. I’ll salvage a double pane glass window. And I’ll build my solar wax melter around it. Some things I’ll keep in mind:
- Stow-able. Folding legs, etc.
- Easy to rotate and follow the sun.
- Use aluminum for drip pan.
- Keep drip pan inside melter for honey/wax separation.
- Shallow. About 10″ inside dimension.
- Large enough to handle 10 deep frames.
I’ll post my plans here.
In the mean time, here’s a neat video showing how one man salvaged a double door refrigerator and built a monster Hawaiian solar wax melter. It’s a high quality video well worth the look and listen. I just love the music!
And here is a solar wax melter plan commonly found on the internet.
