As some of you know, I have one top bar hive I made myself, which had (I thought) successfully overwintered. They did make some beautiful natural comb and there is always good activity in this hive.
However upon opening it up on one of the recent warm days, I found that there were no stores, no brood and fewer bees than I expected. I then recalled that at times in the previous season that there were bees coming in "alternative" entrances (underneath the edge of the roof), so my current theory is that they were being robbed because of my not so accurate woodworking.
Since most of the bees are still on frames (transferred from the nuc last season) it shouldn't be too hard to transfer them back to a conventional nuc or brood chamber, then take the top bar hive away for repairs and cleaning. That's my current plan. One thing I'll have to figure out is that the new natural comb is on top bars that, although the same width and length as the top of conventional frames, the top bars are about twice as thick, so wont allow for a neat fit of a conventional roof when I transfer them into the nuc. I hadnt thought I'd ever be moving the bees back to a conventional hive! Anyway I think I can sort that with some spacers.
Since I am going to transfer the bees, I was wondering if anyone had experience regarding moving bees? I have arranged to site a hive in the local town (I'm out in the country). The things I know are: close up the entrance at night, move more than 3 miles, with frames pointing in direction of car travel, leave grass at the entrance in the morning at new site. Is there anything else I need to be aware of before moving them?
Thanks!
having been encouraged to continue the topbar experiment i have not transferred the bees, and actually they are thriving now, so i'm glad i didnt do that!
i'm also experimenting with the second lot of supers on my nationals - i made my own deep national supers (about the size of brood boxes) and then made top bars for them. i haven't inspected since i put them on a few days ago but will post here once the bees have started building comb.
a couple of days ago i inspected the top bar hive while supering one of my nationals. they have filled out more comb both left and right so I have given them more top bars to work with.
noticed one of the bees had two shiny red lumps in her pollen baskets. at first i assumed it was pollen and then thought it might be a couple of varroa, but couldnt get a long enough look to tell. if there are flowers in bloom now with red pollen maybe someone could tell me what they are as i'd be interested...