All You Need to Know for Winter Feeding 

Ideally, in the winter bees will hibernate by forming a ball where they circulate in a "dynamic system", an inter-weaving pattern much like penguins in the antarctic use to keep all the members warm. In a continual flow, the bees on the outside move inward into the center of the ball, and the bees in the center move toward the outside of the ball. If you were to put your hand in the hive in the winter you would find it pretty warm in there. Honey is passed from one bee to the next until all the stomachs are well fed. Their biggest challenge is to slowly move as a ball of bees to a new honey store as the old is depleted.

I want to share with you a very simple method of harvesting comb from a top bar hive. This should give you an idea of the potential yield and the relative simplicity of working with the top bar hive. The best part of this single comb harvesting method is that it can be done in less than 30 minutes and you will still get to the office on time!  

My bee-wrangling journey began very simply, with a call to a bee supply company in a neighboring town. I was looking for a swarm to purchase; the woman I spoke with informed me that they were out of swarms (I called in June, too late in the season), but that she could put me on their “swarm list” if I wanted. (A “swarm list” is a list of people who volunteer to remove bee swarms that show up in people’s yards.) I had no experience with swarms whatsoever—I’ve never even seen one in person—but I had a friend who had told me about catching swarms and who I knew I could call for advice...

Placing the falseback (divider board) in the middle of the hive when installing the bees, helps the bees set their brood nest towards the front of the top bar hive. You'll see in this video, falseback (divider board) was not put in when the bees were installed into the hive. So the bees started building the comb in the middle of the hive.

The steps to placing the falseback when installing bees are:
1) Place the falseback about 2/3 from the front of the hive
2) Install the bees
3) Wait until they draw out about 6 combs
4) Remove the falseback, and move it to the back of the hive
5) This sets the bees up to have their brood comb near the front of the hive


The first few combs they draw out will be quickly filled with honey and pollen.
Then they draw out comb to put the larvae (brood) in. It is best that the brood
comb is near the front of the hive.

The walls of a top bar hive are sloped inward towards the bottom so the bees will build less

comb attachment to the walls of the hive. This is the reason for the angle of the sides of the hive. If the hive were a square box the bees might attach the comb they draw out along the entire side of the hive. This would make it very difficult to harvest the honeycomb from the hive. 

Bees attach a few inches of honeycomb to the sides of the hive,
this is called, brace comb.

After a long winter and you start to hear the birds chirping and the first flowers are starting to peek out, spring is around the corner and it is time to start thinking about getting set for a season of beekeeping! If you are on the fence about whether or not to go for it this year, I would say take the plunge! Beekeeping is exceptionally fun and rewarding.

How can I help the decline of the honeybee?

Become a Bee Guardian 

What is a Bee Guardian?        
A Bee Guardian is interested, in aiding bees as a species in order to recapture their genetic vitality and diversity. Bee Guardians utilize beekeeping methods that respect the honeybee and oversee the local environment, ensuring it to be safe for the bees.