Hello Beepeeple!

[babsbag]

I would love a bumper crop of honey and be able to try making meade. Honey never goes to waste and it makes great gifts too.

 

[mikiz]

@babsbag that's exactly something I've always wanted to try!

 

[Maggiesdad]

I could just get a couple of the TBH and a couple of Langs, and see which do better in my area.

This is a great idea!( it's what I did - and now I have 8 hives going into winter!)

The TBH needs to be managed more intensely, like once a week or even twice a week during a big flow. The nature of the brood nest and the way the bees see the 'honeywall' means they shift into swarm mode much more easily than in a Lanstroth box. TBHs can be swarm machines... which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Maggiesdad]

@Latestarter -If you see your honey wants to crystallize, go on and seed it with storebought creamed honey to keep the grain size small and make your own that way. I love me some creamed honey it's even better than eating cake icing out of the can!

 

[mikiz]

See I didn't know that TBHs are swarm machines @Maggiesdad ! I want something I don't have to fiddle with too often, so that way if I'm out of action or want a holiday, I won't feel bad leaving for a week or so.
If I wanted a spring/summer holiday, I might come back to empty/dead hives!
Maybe Langs or a Warre would be better in my case after all, I could pop on an extra deep if I was unsure, and they'd be ok for a week or so.

 

[Latestarter]

I'm sorry if I made it seem like it's work intensive... it really isn't. After you first install your bees, it'll be a month or so before you'd need to put the 2nd deep on (Lang), then maybe another 3-4 weeks before you'd need the super for honey. If you're having a heavy nectar flow, you'll want to put a 2nd super on just before the 1st is filled so they have room to draw out more comb and store more honey. After that, you can pull the honey supers and put new empty ones on and just go from there.

 

[Maggiesdad]

See I didn't know that TBHs are swarm machines @Maggiesdad ! I want something I don't have to fiddle with too often, so that way if I'm out of action or want a holiday, I won't feel bad leaving for a week or so.

The TBH has lots of pluses - ease of getting into, minimal disturbance to the colony while you're in there inspecting, minimal weights to lift... no 30kg boxes to tussle with while angry bees wait just below.
No matter what kind of box you put them into, bees are still livestock, and they need tending. I'm inside my boxes weekly, and I check the landing boards morning and night. I wouldn't dream of not checking on my pigs and chickens for a week.

 

[babsbag]

@Maggiesdad, you are much more attentive than most. Commercial beekeepers aren't checking that often. I would walk by and look at mine every day when they were here but the ones that are miles away from home get visited once a month in the summer, and less often in the winter. The home ones didn't get much more attention than that either. With our drought most of the hives are barely existing and don't need much more than food and mite treatment. Would probably be different if they were gathering a lot of stores and outgrowing their space, but they aren't.

I admire your watchfulness.

 

[Maggiesdad]

I would love to be commercial someday (sooner than later) but I know I must learn the bees' ways. There are no mentors around here, so I apprentice myself to Mother Nature and Father Time.
I watch so closely because I know I'll have failures and I want to know what they look like in the early stages.

 

[mikiz]

Oh I wouldn't leave them so long by themselves if I was home, I like to check everyone is ok every day, even if just to watch them for a while, just that I would like to not have to have someone go and mess around with it if they didn't have to. Not a lot of people really fancy pet-sitting bees these days haha.
I'd probably rarely want to go on holidays, I'm not that much a fan of travelling, but if they would look after themselves for a week if I popped a box on before I left and made sure everything was all good, that's a plus.
Unless you can do the equivalent of that with TBH by joining them end to end or just making sure they have room?

Although I do like the idea of Lang frames and being able to spin them for the honey, I would feel terrible doing a crush and strain and ruining all their hard work!