Bee Natural

A must read before working a top bar hive.

Problem – The Beekeeper

It's getting hot!

Frames

Standard bee equipment is safely worked during very hot weather. Frames are pulled, set in direct sunlight and even sag from the heat. Burr comb can melt. Yet, those sagging frames are put back in a super without comb failure.

Top Bars

That’s not so with top bar comb. Without the wooden frame, wires and plastic inserts, the comb is more fragile. As combs are cut free and removed from the hive, they are exposed to the sun. Combs moved toward the hive’s far end continue to warm. They are displaced from cooling which the bees provide toward the hive’s front.

In contrast to the worked comb, the comb the beekeeper is actively working is in the coolest part of the hive, where the bees control the temperature. Its wax is stiff and requires a serrated knife to cut. But worked comb, which is moved toward the hive’s far end or set in a top bar stand, can be overheating and suddenly fail. This comb won’t sag to warn a beekeeper that things are getting too hot. Instead, it suddenly collapses into a pile of mush, much to the surprise of the beekeeper.

Time

It’s easy to lose track of time when working a top bar hive. There’s no heavy lifting. Hive parts aren’t scattered all over the place. And there are no angry bees to move the beekeeper along. These very characteristics, which make them so attractive to work, become a deceptive liability when the weather is too hot. The heating effects become cumulative and are compounded by the longer working time required by a top bar hive. New, heavy comb becomes very weak under such conditions.

What more can I say! It was too hot, the comb too new, and I tarried.

Timber

Collapsed comb, in a closed hive, is the precursor to a catastrophe. Honey flows down the bottom board. The bees retreat toward the entrance. Ventilation is lost and other hot, weak combs also fail. This process continues until all the combs in the hive have fallen like Dominoes.

I lost a top bar hive this way

Solution – The Beekeeper

This is more like it.

Just Cool It

When it’s too hot, go to the lake or sit on the patio. Enjoy life. Drink some mead or lemon aide seasoned with fresh mint leaves from the garden. The bees are OK. They have extra room and access to water. Your early season management has prepared them for this time of year. You’ve opened all entrances. And propped the hive cover up. The hive is now running like a finely tuned engine. Bees have survived for millenia without mans help, right?

Or?

Well, if you aren’t sure, make any inspection very brief. Forget cutting all those attachments. It takes too long and new comb can’t take the stress. If extra room is needed, quickly harvest a few top bars from the hive’s rear. Then get out.

Set a time limit. Use a watch to keep track of the time. It’s too easy to get diverted. Well, it’s too easy for me to get diverted. Am I getting too old, too hot or just having too much fun?

No beekeeper would open a hive and rummage about when it’s too cold. Top bar hive beekeepers can’t do it when it’s too hot either. It’s too risky. So like much of beekeeping, it’s more art than science. But when in doubt, stay out.

Factors

What temperature is too hot? Solar intensity is probably more important than an absolute temperature in my climate. I live at a high elevation and latitude. The air is thin, humidity is low, and the sunlight is intense. It’s common for burr comb to quickly melt in direct summer sunlight, even when the temperatures are relatively cool.

Is the hive in the shade? Is it cloudy? How long is the hive’s exposed and accumulating heat? What’s the angle of the sun? Is it early morning, or late in the evening? Is the wind blowing?

Time to Mush

Here’s an interesting experiment. Get a small, scrap piece of newly drawn, empty top bar hive comb. Notice how stiff it is. How easily it’s handled. Did you have to cut it free from the hive? Now, let it set in the sun. At 30 second intervals, squeeze a edge and attempt to pick it up. How does its current physical state compare to its state when first removed from the top bar hive? How long before you can’t even pick it up to check it? For me, at early summer, two minutes is the most time it takes for the comb to loose all its mechanical strength and turn to mush.

Comb Age

The comb’s age is another factor. Newly drawn comb is extremely fragile. Beekeepers using standard equipment set aside newly drawn frames, for a season, before extracting them. Extra caution is used by top bar hive beekeepers with new comb. As comb ages, it becomes much stronger.

Problem – The Hive

Heat can cause problems in a top bar hive, even if a beekeeper stays out. In nature, bees attach their comb to something that’s:

• structurally substantial.
• has thermal mass.
• sheltered.
• insulated or ventilated.
• undisturbed.

In a normal situation they can control the environment enough to prevent comb failure. Natural comb failure is rare. But does occur, especially if a swarm takes up residence is a wall or attic.

Like most hives, a top bar hive lacks many of the factors noted above. They often set on the ground in unsheltered areas, where the hot sun can quickly heat up a hive through it’s thin walls, cover and top bars.

But unlike frame based hives, whose wooden frames will support overheated comb, an overheated top bar hive’s comb is extremely fragile. If the comb is new, heavy and hot, it can fail from the inherent top bar hive design limitations.

Solution – The Beekeeper Again

Hot Weather Management

The hive limitations, inherent in top bar hive design, are offset by hot weather management. After all, the bees on their own, probably wouldn’t chose to locate in a very hot, thin walled box setting on the ground, out in the hot sun. So, its up to the beekeeper to:

• open entrances.
• maintain water sources.
• raise covers.

Raise that Cover

It’s essential to provide free-flowing airspace between the top bars and the cover during hot weather. I prop up the thb covers using 2″x4″ blocks. The blocks are set on the top bars and the cover replaced. This elevates the cover and allows heat to dissipate. Before elevating covers, a few new and heavy comb would fail each year. But I haven’t lost a single comb since elevating the cover.

I’ve tested flat covers insulated with 2 inches of blue foam. They also required a free flowing airspace to prevent comb failure. It’s as important to dissipate heat from inside the hive, as it is to prevent heat coming through the cover from above.

Hives Compared

When a top bar hive’s entrances are opened up and the cover’s raised, the bees spend less effort ventilating the hive, when compared to adjacent conventional hives. I’ve noticed they spend about one third the time. And less than half the bees are involved. It appears that the hive environment, in a top bar hive, is much easier for the bees to control than it is in a conventional hive. A top bar hive definitely has the advantage when left undisturbed.

But when hives are opened up or disturbed by the beekeeper, ventilation and cooling is disrupted. A top bar hive, with its fragile, unsupported comb looses its natural advantage to framed comb in a conventional hive.

Comb Failure

When a comb fails, or a piece is cut out, don’t worry. Bees construct natural comb easily. Damaged comb is quickly replaced. Put the cut off comb in a container at the hive’s rear. The bees salvage it. Make sure the container is large enough. Honey flowing down the bottom board disrupts hive ventilation and can cause a catastrophic meltdown.