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hey all, i thought i would share with you what it is like keeping a top-bar hive. First, i built the hive, using heavy duty planks (good for insulation in winter). I built the sides at a 120 degree angle to the bottom board. each top bar is 1 3/8 inches wide, with a wooden strip waxed into a saw kerf along the center of the top-bar. the end bars are 3/16 of an inch wider to accomodate the extra bee space neede at the end. then you build a top, and the bees will build natural comb starting at the wood strip in the saw-beautiful white honey comb. you can get cut comb honey from a tbh by just cutting the honeycomb off the top-bar, or you can crush the comb honey to get extracted. you cannot put top-bars in an extractor, unfortunately. another word of advice: when lifting top-bars out of a hive, make sure there are no connections to the side (the reason for the 120 degree angle is to minimize these connections) and keep the comb perpendicular to the ground. any twisting of that top-bar will make the comb snap right off, because it is not designed to deal with stress in that direction. enjoy,
justgojumpit
if you have any questions about my hive, please feel free to ask!
justgojumpit
if you have any questions about my hive, please feel free to ask!