Next time I am in the apiary I will look for the differences between the langstroth hives and the top bar hives such as the ones from this film.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Other Hive Designs
In the video from the fourth assignment for the first two weeks, "Overview of Top Bar Hives", the first thing I noticed was that the beekeeper tapped the top of the bars with the end of his knife. I'm very curious as to why he did that. Does it have an affect on the bees? I was intrigued by the fact that top bar hives need less smoke than the langstroth hive. It was interesting that there were brood patterns and honey stores on the same bar.
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I noticed the tapping too. Not sure why he did that. Any time I tap on the hive at all it seems to irritate them. You get brood on the same frame as honey in langstroth too, which is annoying when you are trying to extract honey. For this reason, many beekeepers use a queen excluder to keep the queen in the lower boxes and prevent her from laying near the honey.
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