Blue Top Bar Harvest 2014

[blueblood]

Pulled 7 top bars for a total crushed harvest of 18 pounds.  I made up 5 jars of chunk honey and the rest went in squeeze bottles.  Crush and strain is a slow process but it was nice to avoid cleaning the extractor.

[Jen]

Oh Man, Blue! Really nice post! the vid and the pics of comb honey are just... delicious!

[Slowmodem]

Those are sure some well-behaved bees!

Do those combs adhere to the sides of the hive?  If so, how do you get them loose, especially the first one when you can't get down in there?

(watched the video at work but no sound)

[Perry]

Great stuff Dave. The goldenrod is in full bloom up here (has been for about 2-3 weeks) and the bees are just starting to work it. They never seem to work it in the beginning. The honey from the goldenrod is much darker.
I see you even had a step ladder next to a hive in the vid. 

[blueblood]

Those are sure some well-behaved bees!

Do those combs adhere to the sides of the hive?  If so, how do you get them loose, especially the first one when you can't get down in there?

(watched the video at work but no sound)

Yeah, top bar bees have always been gentle for me.  I run my hive tool down each side before pulling the top bar out.  A thinner and more flexible piece of metal would be better.  It would lessen the honey loss from the edges.

[apisbees]

Very nice Dave, what is the honey production from a TBH verses the Langstroth hive?

[blueblood]

Very nice Dave, what is the honey production from a TBH verses the Langstroth hive?

Ironic.  I just summed my pounds from the harvest.  I believe I pulled 6 bars and ended up with 20 pounds.  This is the first and only harvest I will do this season on the tbh.  I can pull 20 from just one shallow Lang and 30 from a medium Lang.  So, the Lang wins hands down.  However, I tell folks that are interested in keeping a hive in their back yard, TBH, is the way to go.  They will get one harvest per season but it will be enough to supply them until the next year and the wax is beneficial for cosmetics/candles.  Easy and cheap to build, maintain and extract honey.  The bees are nicer also.

[riverbee]

thanks dave! beautiful jars of chunk honey, hmmm, hmmmm!

[Slowmodem]

However, I tell folks that are interested in keeping a hive in their back yard, TBH, is the way to go.  They will get one harvest per season but it will be enough to supply them until the next year and the wax is beneficial for cosmetics/candles.  Easy and cheap to build, maintain and extract honey.  The bees are nicer also.

Crush and strain is cheaper than an extractor, too.

[apisbees]

I think with a bit of manipulation on a top bar you may be able to increase bee population, and production. By adding empty bars in to the middle of the brood super as the population expands and providing fresh bars between the brood and honey to encourage the bees to draw and fill the space left in the colony.
My thinking is. The value of the extra honey you can produce with a Langstroth, will pay for the higher equipment costs and extractor.