Apiary Update

I am getting to grips with a new word processor. Moving from an old electric typewriter is rather like moving from a bicycle to a sophisticated car. In my case that is a poor analogy as I enjoy cycling but not motoring. You know what I mean though.

As recently as yesterday, 20th November, bees were still active, collecting small pollen loads. The fine autumn weather has seen a bumper crop of nectar and pollen, mainly from ivy. With the benefit of hindsight, many colonies need not have been fed sugar syrup. Storage space must be limited in many hives, thereby restricting brood rearing space. In the short-term that could be a problem but if the mild weather continues food consumption will be high releasing space for brood rearing to boost the numbers for next spring. Of course that in turn will lead to greater food consumption so stores will have to be monitored carefully in late winter/early spring.

The honey crop from our Association bees has been disappointing. As I reported last time, the colony in St. John's Copse was transferred to new brood comb. The time and energy expended by the bees in drawing foundation meant a reduction in stored honey. One of the two colonies at Breach Farm had one-and-a-half MD supers of honey stored temporarily above a clearer board to avoid contact with Bayvarol treatment. Unbeknown to me there was a small gap in the corner joint of one of the supers where the timber had warped. You've guessed it, the supers were robbed by wasps.

I am grateful to John Cain for coming to my rescue this year by straining and bottling Association honey. I hope that an Assistant Apiary Manager will be appointed at the AGM. If I have to continue alone our bees will not receive the attention they deserve (unless there is an unexpected freeing up of some of my time) and our Association will lose revenue as a consequence.

In my Bee Inspector role, I found 52 cases of European Foulbrood and two of American Foulbrood this year in Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Surrey and West Sussex. Surrey and Sussex are not part of the Southern Region but I helped out a few times as the South East Region was short of an Inspector. In Hampshire there were 48 confirmed cases of EFB (six in the New Forest area found by my Dorset colleague) and one of AFB.

Last year my worst affected areas were Andover and Portsmouth. This year they were Farnborough, Winchester and Ludgershall/Tidworth in Wiltshire. Beekeepers are expected to be more vigilant nowadays because there are fewer Inspectors. Disappointingly the number of confirmed Foulbrood cases in the Southern Region resulting from call-outs by beekeepers fell to just 20% of the total. The majority of cases resulted from the General and Priority Inspection Programmes initiated by the Inspectors.

We all know that Varroa has been established in our region for several years. Astoundingly, I still meet beekeepers who maintain that their bees are not affected. Almost as bad, there are still too many beekeepers who do not know how to treat for Varroa or who misuse Bayvarol or Apistan to save time and/or money, thereby hastening the development of resistance among mites.

A Winchester beekeeper contacted me this week to tell me that he had been called to a garden in South Wonston in which a nest had been found in a shrub. The owner had been unaware of the presence of bees until the leaves had fallen. Apparently, the bees had brood and reasonable stores despite having been exposed to the elements. The beekeeper transferred the nest to an empty nuc box. Some of the comb was damaged and a few bees were lost but at least the colony will have a sporting chance of survival.

Coppicing has resumed for the winter in St. John's Copse. Hedgelaying too has started. A fascinating craft. Unfortunately I do not have the dates of working parties after November. However, if anyone is interested in taking part in this therapeutic and worthwhile work, please contact me on 781288 and I will supply the dates as soon as I have them.

A Happy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year, to all Association Members and other readers.

Dave Purchase (Apiary Manager)

Keeping In Touch

I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago from Betty Albery in Australia. It seems that some relatives of Hector's were trying to get in touch with his sister Edie, but had not managed to get a reply from her. Betty had seen something from me about Hector and it had my e-mail address on it. She e-mailed me and asked if I could find out if Edie's telephone number and address were still correct.

After a couple of telephone calls I had a reasonable update. The address and telephone number were correct, but just recently Edie had been a little poorly. She was now mostly back to normal.

I e-mailed the answers back to Betty who reported my findings to the relatives --- in Tadley. That may just be the longest distance a message has travelled between Basingstoke and Tadley. At least twice around the world, probably further, maybe also by satellite. Still, it arrived o.k. --- Gordon.  

Be On Your Guard
The Risk Is Yours

Norman Hughes

The recent EU directive to designate honey bees as food producing animals was put before our own Parliament in July under Statutory Instrument No. 1729 and came into effect on 11th August with the result that the purity of honey for sale will come under a greater government scrutiny than even before.

As such, from that date, only treatments registered in this country may be used within the hive and registration of a substance is given at Maximum Residual Level (MRL). In the case of varroa, Bayvarol, being the only registered treatment, if correctly applied, should produce a level of flumethrin in the honey at or below its permitted MRL.

It follows therefore that the use in this country of all other Varroa treatments, e.g. Apistan, talc, lactic acid, formic acid, thymol and so on, although freely available both here and from abroad, is in fact illegal and the likelihood of them being discovered has increased.

We now find ourselves in the position that we have only one registered treatment, Bayvarol, against which MAFF National Bee Unit have said we can expect resistance within the next two or three years!

BBKA are currently in correspondence with the Government in an attempt to resolve this issue but in the mean time...... You have been warned!

Let's Not Forget

Gordon Scott

The recent changes are something of a body blow to bees and beekeeping, particularly as they outlaw some conspicuously benign treatments (talc, lactic acid), encouraging an `unnatural' chemical (although Bayvarol as a synthetic pyrethroid is actually `natural'ish). Even Icing sugar as an alternative to talc, remains illegal as a treatment, although tracing small quantities in honey would prove difficult.

There are also however, the biotechnical methods of control. Drone trapping and brood trapping are both very effective controls, which should benefit greatly from Dr. Martin's research. Knowing when is the best time to use brood trapping may prove invaluable.

There are also other lights on the horizon, though they may seem distant at the moment. MAFF is certainly aware of the value of bees to our food supplies and economy, and you can be sure they won't let the government ignore that. They may seem only modestly interested now, but I firmly believe they won't stay so for very long. MAFF's own estimate of the value of bees to the UK economy is somewhere around UKP 7 billion per annum. A hard figure for any government to ignore.

Drone Trapping

Brood Trapping

Membership

The Basingstoke Association does pretty well with its membership in comparison with some associations, but we could still do better. We are looking for further ideas how we may encourage more people to both take up beekeeping and become members of our Association.

We already attend various f'etes, have brochures in the library, the Bothy and do talks for various groups, to whom we also offer brochures. Much information about us is on my Internet web site.

Do you know of beekeepers who are not members and why they're not?

Have a word with any of the committee if you have any ideas, whether or not you think they will work.  

Hampshire Convention
And Honey Show

As ever, a good time was had by all. Turnout seemed a little down to me, but that may just reflect the weather in the few days preceding the show. In the event, the morning of the show was bright and sunny, though it soon went wet again. The three speakers were excellent and the ploughman's lunch an example of how it should be done, with top class bread, cheese and apples.

The convention is always a good time to chat to old friends, which I did, consequently viewing the honey show a little late. Half the exhibits had already been packed away when I got there. I gather though that numbers were a little down here also, but the quality was as good as ever.

The trade stands comprised Bee Books New & Old, Freeman & Harding and Stockbridge Beekeeping Supplies (Steele & Brodie's local distributors).

Brenda Ball

Dr. Ball gave us a potted and informative history of Rothamstead, the world's first agricultural research establishment, and it's aims and purposes. Beginning with the founder, Mr. John Laws and his early research to extract the goodness from bones, using sulphuric acid, to produce the world's first super-phosphate fertiliser. Some of these experiments were done during his formative years, in a room in the families substantial house. A practice that was, apparently, none too popular with his mum. Rothamstead has continued to grow and remains one of the foremost such establishments in the world.

Dr. Ball explained the differences between Rothamstead (agricultural research) and the NBU (beekeeping research) and went on to describe how the two interrelate. She described their researches into bees (of all types) and pollination and into bees as a vector for delivering treatments and so on to plants. We were also shown photographs of bees with an attached radar transponder and how the transponder method of radar tracking removed much of the ground clutter from tracks, as well as giving a stronger return signal.

Dr. Ball also discussed in more detail her own personal involvement in the role of viruses as pathogens within the honeybee, particularly in the presence of varroa.

Dr. Stephen Martin

Dr. Martin showed us the very low-tech ways in which his research had been done, including washing mites off of frozen bees under a running tap. Apparently this is a very effective way of collecting all the mites from a sample of bees. He showed us the stop-go pattern of brood rearing that he had used to monitor how the mites really operate. This consisted of allow the queen to lay for eight days and then trapping her for 10 days and removing all the laid brood. This approach gave a pattern to mite reproduction that allowed better estimation of the laying rate per mite. His findings indicate that each mature female is capable of approximately 2.6 breeding cycles, rather then the single cycle originally anticipated.

Now that Dr. Martin has established the true reproduction rate, he reports that the well-established population modelling methods can be applied with high confidence. He is now working on a simple slide-rule, rather like the well-known brood calculator, to give a good estimate of how soon you should treat. He also explained quite carefully that the model works reliably in the winter or in the summer, but that it is very unreliable for a small number of weeks as the seasons change. I believe the slide rule will allow for that.

Whilst reminding us that his research was into a better understanding of the mite, and not into any forms of treatment, Dr. Martin indicated that he had good reports of Thymol, Oil-of-Wintergreen, lactic acid and formic acid, all used as evaporants. However he also broke to us the news that with the new regulations classing bees as food producers, all of these treatments and Apistan are not only illegal, but that honey will be tested for residues.

Apistan resistant mites are now in Italy, Sicily, Corsica, eastern France, southern Germany, the ex Jugoslavia, southern Belgium and Luxembourg. And they are spreading quickly.

Dr. Martin disclosed that varroa became a problem on Apis Melliferra only in the 1950s. Prior to that, A.M. had been kept in Asia without problems, indicating that something changed at that time.

Dr. Martin went briefly through his findings about mites on A.M., comparing various factors with Apis cerana, the mites natural host, particularly regarding a curious armoured drone cell behaviour and stated that in his opinion, natural A.M. resistance to varroa was very, very unlikely. All attempts to cross or intermix A.M. and A.C. have also failed.

Prof. Stuart Reynolds

Professor Reynolds, from Bath University, talked on Metamorphosis of Insects. He described to us the familiar exoskeleton structure of insects and described the current knowledge of how an insect moults its old outer shell, whilst simultaneously growing and tanning a new replacement shell underneath. He explained how this new cuticle has a structure like glass-fibre, comprising stiff fibres encapsulated in a glue-like material.

During the moult, the old cuticle separates from the new and the void is filled with a fluid containing an enzyme that dissolves the cuticle from the inside, allowing the insect to reabsorb the bulk of the material for recycling. He also indicated that they were not yet sure how the enzymes could break down the old cuticle whilst not breaking down the new. Immediately after the moult, the insect literally inflates itself, using either air or water, to its new larger size, then waits whilst the new cuticle hardens.

Prof. Reynolds showed pictures to illustrate the very earliest stages of a moult, allowing him to predict with good accuracy, the time when the actual moult will occur. These signs include the presence of the new enlarged spiracles and of the head cap moving forwards. He reminded us of that soft cuticle stage and said that for an insect and its relatives with exoskeletons, moulting was the most dangerous thing that they ever did. ``Get it wrong and you're dead''. He reminded us also that varroa also has to moult. ``Perhaps we may have another a way to attack them''

Another interesting factor in the metamorphosis is the balance of hormones within the insect. The balance of hormones, in particular the Juvenile Hormone controls whether the insect moults to a bigger larva or to an imago (adult form). Some hormone methods are already in use to freeze this particular phase and permanently trap a pest in its shell.

I doubt that this would help against varroa, though, because varroa are live-bearing and skip the larval stage -- Ed.

Gordon  

Honey Show

Our Honey Show, again in conjunction with Basingstoke & Dean's Apple Day celebration went well. This time the weather was also very kind to us, perhaps to atone for last year's miserable cold wet day. This time it was a really lovely day!

We shared a nice large marquee with the WI and had plenty of room to organise a good layout of the honey show itself, our sales stand, observation hive, display boards and copious leaflets.

Thank you everyone who participated in your various ways, helping to get things up and running and to fill the show with excellent examples of our beekeeping produce.

Results are shown: 1st; 2nd; 3rd; commended.

Rather embarrassingly, it seems I've won my own trophy. It will of course be nice to see it at home as I'd only expected to have it for a few days before passing it on to a winner. I hope someone else takes it next year!

Gordon  

Ultra Violet Vision

FLORENCE COOPER, RN email@omitted.anti.spam

My son is a sixth grader and was asked to find further information about the following by his teacher: Bees use certain wavelengths of light to find their way between sources of food and their hive. Use a reference source to find more information about this.

We consulted The Hive and The Honeybee and found only a few oblique references to the above and nothing that really explained it. I would really appreciate some information about this.

Lisa M. Buttonow email@omitted.anti.spam

When I was much younger, in a class somewhere, I saw pictures of flowers taken with some kind of UV filter. Different species of flowers had different patterns when viewed with UV. So a human sees solid yellow flowers, but bees see patterned yellow flowers. The thought at the time was that, flowering plants used this as a strategy to keep a bee interested in its species, creating a greater chance that its individual pollen will rub off on a flower of the same species. Supposedly in a garden full of different cucurbits, one can see an individual bee visiting all the cucumber blossoms then all the squash etc.

wd6esz email@omitted.anti.spam

Yes, it is fascinating to look at the UV patterns produced by flowers. And some people are able to see these patterns with their naked eye. When asked to describe what it looks like, they will say that it is an entirely different color, as different as green is from blue. And these few people who have this added visual perception are recipients of older cataract operations, before they started to use UV opaque lens material. Human retina are actually capable of seeing UV, except that our lenses are opaque to it. Early cataract patients received non-opaque lenses until it was realized that their retina were getting ``sun burned'' from the lack of UV protection.

Michael Haberl email@omitted.anti.spam-muenchen.de

According to the following two references honey bee eyes show maximum sensitivity at about 340 nm (UV), 430 nm (blue) and 530 nm (green- yellow). These maxima can be interpreted as 3 different kinds of receptors. Together, they are sensible in the range of 300 to 650 nm. Therefore, honey bees are not able to see red light. (Humans: range: 400 to 800 nm) I do not know whether honey bees use light of different wavelengths for different purposes.

• K Daumer 1956 Reizmetrische Untersuchung des Farbensehens der Biene Z. vergl. Physiol. 38, 41-478.
• H Autrum, V. v. Zwehl 1964 Die spektrale Empfindlichkeit einzelner Sehzellen des Bienenauges. Z. vergl. Physiol. 48, 357-384.

The best time to replace queen?

Michael Reddell email@omitted.anti.spam

I prefer to requeen in late summer to early fall. This allows the new queen to get settled in and ready to go in the spring. That way you don't have to worry about whether or not she will be up to the job of spring buildup.

If you buy queens from a known breeder whose stock is selected for traits you like, such as gentleness, you will have a known quantity in the spring. If you wait you may have a failing queen in the spring and no way to replace her until the breeders start shipping.

I don't like to let the bees make their own queens because they tend to get a little too defensive after a couple of generations in my experience.

Another advantage of summer/fall requeening is that the queens are less expensive and often better mated than the spring queens.

Aaron Morris email@omitted.anti.spam

If for some reason the new queen is rejected there is still time for another try prior to the onset of winter.

email@omitted.anti.spam

The only drawback with fall requeening is that the populations are much larger in the fall and the queen is harder to find.

W. G. Miller email@omitted.anti.spam

In Maryland, we advocate requeening in early September. We still have about 1.5 month of brood rearing time left then, so the new queen has plenty of time to get established.

We also advocate the nuc method of requeening. With the nuc method, you are running 2 queens at once for about 2 weeks, so you get double the brood production. And, if the new queen doesn't take, the old queen will still be available to keep the colony going.

Finally, we advocate replacing two year old queens. A queen that old is almost certainly past her prime, and very likely to swarm next Spring.  

The Top Bar Hive

A little of the history and use of the top bar hive.

The top bar hive (TBH) is a movable comb hive. Narrow bars, normally of wood, rest across a container (usually a long box or trough), which forms the cavity containing the bees' nest. Bees build comb from the bars which are wide enough to give proper spacing between combs. A bar with its attached comb and adhering bees can be removed from the hive and examined. Each comb is built naturally by the bees, suspended only from its top-bar.

The top bars (TB) are the slats to which comb is attached. Placed side by side across the hive, they form a basic covering for the hive. Bars may be made from a variety of materials. They can be cut from scrap or purchased lumber, may be made from tree branches or bamboo of appropriate size. The bars may be of any suitable length to reach across the hive, but it is critical that they be of appropriate width to provide proper spacing of combs for the species or strain of bees involved. An outer lid or covering over the bars, provides additional protection from the elements.

The Greeks for centuries have been using upright, woven baskets as hives. Bars placed across the top of each basket individually support the combs. By removing each bar, the attached comb can be examined or moved. Evidently, due to the slope of the basket shape (narrower toward the bottom), the bees do not attach their combs to the sides (or do so only minimally). Therefore each comb is movable by removing the top bar from which it has been built.

In Britain and North America, bar-type hives of various sorts were often used in days of old. However, the combs were invariably attached to the sides of the hive as well as to the bars. Therefore the side-attachments had to be cut away in order for the combs to be removed. This was not much of an improvement over straw skeps or simple box hives.

TBHs were probably invented to provide a means of keeping bees, rather than of just having bees. With a TBH it is no longer necessary to kill the bees to harvest honey, nor are brood combs disturbed. In many areas of the world today, TBH's are used because their low tech aspects meld better with the social and economic conditions at the present time.

I think of a container of bees with no movable frames as low tech, the TBH as moderate tech, and the Langstroth as a high tech. hive. I often talk to people about the natural, simple aspects of the TBH. I think the TBH has a lot to offer people in more developed countries if we are willing to step away from the monster named technology and embrace the beauty of simplicity.

The modern TBH was designed as a transitional hive, helping beekeepers in developing countries make the step from log hives to the much more ``advanced'' Langstroth hives.

The TBH has many advantages in my opinion. The hives are inexpensive and can be made from recycled wood, bamboo, reeds, clay, and so on. There are no supers to lift, no frames to make, no foundation, no supers with sticky combs to store and no extractor. Bees are disturbed less as the hives are worked. More beeswax is harvested since the combs are removed from the hive. A well built TBH is also very attractive

There are some disadvantages, of course. The hives may require more management in that the brood may have to be spread or harvested regularly to manage buildup or congestion. Because surplus honey-combs are detached from their top bars in harvesting the crop, and are not reused, the TBH's are probably not capable of producing as much honey as a conventional hive. Newly drawn and filled combs must be handled carefully, though older brood combs are very tough. They may not be suitable for a beekeeper who demands perfection in their equipment or who must get the biggest crop.

Tim Haarmann though, feels that they require less management. ``I remember back when I was using Langs and a beginning beekeeper. One of my biggest frustrations was knowing when to add a super so my bees didn't swarm. I always had to have a super put together and ready to go. The only management of a TBH is to make sure the bees don't get honeybound. This seems like a simple thing compared to the confusion I felt when I first started using Langstroths. Of course, it has become almost second nature knowing when to super a Lang now, but back then it was troublesome. I just don't see this same frustration in new beekeepers using a TBH''.

Mike Allsopp has some reservations. ``They are fun to work with, and quite suitable on a small scale, but I am doubtful that we should be encouraging their general usage. I think I differ from others on this due to four things:

• There is a lot of misinformation on the importance of certain features of TBH's, such as the slanting sides and the reduction in defensive behaviour. In effect, TBH's are just low technology, horizontal Langstroths. In East Africa these days they have given up the slanting sides as they make no difference.
• No-one has yet to adequately test and compare the performance (in monetary return) of TBH's and Langstroths. I have a guy in Cape Town doing just this at present. At first glance the TBH's are very impressive, but over a couple of seasons their total honey yield is far below that of standard Langstroths.
• TBH's should only be used if suitable hive material is available. How can we countenance the destruction of hard wood trees to produce TBH's or log hives, as is the practice in much of Africa?
• And the major reason: All of us bee people in South Africa are involved to a lesser or greater extent in beekeeping development programmes - advancing beekeeping in the rural and disadvantaged communities. In this respect I believe advancing the use of TBH's is the wrong approach. The aim of the programmes I am involved with is the rapid development of semi-commercial beekeepers that can compete with the established beekeepers, not the provision of one or two hives to each member of the programme. I suggest that using TBH's for these people retards their chances of ever becoming successful commercial beekeepers, rather than advances it. You can't easily follow honey flows or do commercial pollination with TBH's.

It would seem that it might be best for a beginner to start with a pair of conventional hives and the associated equipment if it is financially possible. But the honeybees don't care, and I really can't think of anything that should prevent a beginner from using and enjoying a colony of bees in a TBH.

Tim Haarmann, has started a few people with TBHs and claims after about a year, they are almost embarrassed to tell other beekeepers they don't use the high tech Langstroth. Sometimes he suggests a TBH to a new beekeeper, and tells them that if they like beekeeping after a year or two, then they can purchase some Langstroths and all the expensive equipment. A TBH is not a very big financial investment, so perfect for a beginner. Most never want to give up their TBH.

Construction of Top Bar Hives.

A TBH is nothing more than a cavity with top bars and bees. Make the cavity in any way you can: new or used lumber, plywood, particle board, reeds, straw, brick, clay, bamboo, old cabinet drawers, metal or plastic drums, large hollow logs. Hives made of reeds or straw have been plastered with cattle dung on the inside, then smoked over a fire to cure the inside coating. Sturdy cardboard boxes might work if they could be waterproofed in some way.

Dimensions are not critical. A good starting point would be the size of three full-size, deep, standard brood chambers placed side by side. This should produce a TBH that would require 30 TB's. Try 85cm long, 30cm deep, 50.5cm wide if you're more comfortable with specific dimensions. The only really important dimension is the width of the top bar. This varies with species and for European honeybees should be 35mm, for Africans, 32mm.

I cut a centered groove 1/4 inch deep the length of my TB's and wax a foundation strip into the groove. On one side of the center of the bar, I cut a 3/8 x 3/4 inch notch. This notch is useful to observe where the bees are, and how far comb has been drawn out. The notches are covered with thin strips of some material such as plywood unless I wish increase ventilation or provide more entrances.

There are two general styles of hive, the Kenya with sloping sides and the Tanzanian with straight sides. The hives with sloping sides supposedly allow the bees to build a natural, crescent-shaped comb that is attached to the sides very little. In practice, I have seen little difference in the amount of comb attachment whether the sides are sloped or straight. If you wish to build a hive with sloping sides, try an angle of at least 14 degrees from the vertical according to Ron Brown.

The entrances can be holes either down the sides or at one end. I have one hive with a series of 3/8 inch holes down both sides, and the bees use mostly the center holes on the east-facing side only. The remainder of my hives have a series of one inch holes (usually seven) on one end.

Since I keep my hives side by side on waist-high stands so that I can work the hives without bending over, I have found it convenient to have the entrance holes at the end away from where the hive is opened for harvesting the surplus or inspecting the colony. With the holes at the end, the combs are oriented the warm way and form a series of baffles which might help overwintering by reducing drafts.

I usually reduce the entrance holes to two or three in the winter. Entrances could be made as slits the length of the end or side.

In the summer I open the notches in my TB's near the front of my hives so that there are more entrances for the bees. The TB's also warp occasionally and make additional entrances. I haven't tried a hive with entrances only at the top. I think entrances are very over rated. In nature, bees can use 100 different kinds and seem to be equally as happy.

It's probably desirable to place some sort of cover over the bars to protect them from the weather. I have taken sheets of cardboard and tried to waterproof them with paint or a water repellent mixture. These sheets seem to last about a year.

I place bricks or stones along the center line of the TB roof, let the tin cover arch over them, then load the tin cover down with four bricks. No cover has blown off yet in the Georgia summer thunderstorms. The tin covers can also be tied on easily.

Covers could be made from plastic sheeting, thatch, large leaves, or most any other suitable material.

Tim Haarmann always makes a cover out of plywood and then either paint it or put metal on top. He usually puts a piece of 2x1 as edging so the cover doesn't slide off in the wind, and always weighs down the covers with rocks. A disadvantage is that spiders and ants love to hang out in this space where the bees can't get to.

Harvesting Honey and Beeswax from Top Bar Hives.

The combs are cut off or broken from the TB's after the bees have been removed by brushing or some other means. The combs can be used directly to package cut comb honey. TBH's produce some beautiful combs that can be cut into sections and boxed. I think I'll try marketing full bars of honey, complete with the TB, taken directly from the hive and sold to customers who can appreciate comb honey directly from the hive.

If it's desirable to have ``extracted'' honey, then the honey can be crushed in a bag, squeezed by hand, squeezed with grooved paddles, or can be hung in a warm, sunlit window to let the honey drip into a container below the bag.

I have made a press which has vertical plates that are pressed together by a scissor-type automobile jack. The honey flow downward and collects in a tub below the press. The pressed combs have very little honey left in them, though there is a little clinging to the mesh bag which contained the comb. I wash the bag in a tub of water, use the honey water to make honey pop, mead, or sometimes feed back to the bees. The crushed comb goes to my solar wax melter, and since it is virgin comb the resulting beeswax is exquisite.

No sticky combs and supers to be concerned about <grin>. The press is much easier to clean up than an extractor. The result is less honey, but more beeswax. If I ever want more honey, I'll make more TBH's.

I prefer to remove combs as they are capped and press the honey out. Ron Smithwick told me of uncapping combs (in frames) and putting them upside down in an ice chest which was then placed in the sun. The chest heats up and the honey drains from the combs. This might work for trying to uncap and reuse the TB combs, unless the combs became too hot and deformed.

Pressing, squeezing, smushing seems the best way to extract. Seems that I have seen ads for a grinding centrifuge that separates wax and honey. That might work well, but I'll bet that the aeration of the honey would impair the flavor in comparison to honey gotten from the combs by pressing only.

Joel Govostes has another method of extracting natural combs, once described by the late Mr. Allen Latham in his famous bee book:

Take a large container, such as a pail or drum, and droop strainer cloth (about the mesh of fly-screen or a little larger) across it, hanging down about halfway. Nylon mesh is a good material for this. Secure the cloth well with clothes pins, drawstring, tape or whatever, around the edge of the container, to ensure it will not sink down in any further.

Next construct a simple square wooden frame which will fit over and around the top of the container snugly. Staple or tack 1/2" mesh hardware cloth (wire mesh; Ed.) across this frame. Set the frame onto the pail or barrel, over the drooping strainer cloth.

Now...extract! Simply lay a large piece of honeycomb on the screen surface, and using a wooden paddle or other implement, mash the comb through the screen. This is easy and rapid. The crushed wax and honey falls down into the strainer cloth, and you proceed with several more combs until you have loaded up the strainer well. Cover it up and place it in a warm place, and over the next couple of days, almost all of the honey will drain through the wax and down past the strainer into the pail. It is remarkable how well the wax will drip-dry of honey this way, especially if the unit is kept warm. A number of the units can be made up very inexpensively to handle even a fairly large crop.

The unit can be set into a warmer made up of an insulated box or modified old refrigerator, with the heat provided by an appropriate arrangement of light-bulbs. Just don't let it get too warm! A temperature of about 100 degrees works out well.

After pretty much all the honey has drained (2-3 days), lift the strainer cloth with its mass of wax out of the pail, and then treat the drained honey as you would any that came out of a centrifugal extractor. The cloth containing the wax can be tied and hung out near the bees, who will collect much of the residual honey through the material. Then the wax is ready for rinsing and melting into cakes.

This method is quick, neat, and reliable, as long as the honey is not unusually thick or granulated. (Not to mention--it's cheap!) The finished product will not look any different from honey taken from an extractor, and will retain its fine, fresh aroma and flavor.

The framed hardware cloth atop the container serves to rupture all the cells thoroughly as the comb is mashed, so that draining is very efficient.

Another way to support the mashed comb in the strainer for draining is as follows:

Cut a round piece of the same 1/2" mesh hardware cloth, the same diameter as the inside diameter of the pail about halfway down. Tack this round piece of metal screen to some wooden legs or a frame which, when placed down into the pail/barrel, will hold it about half way up off the bottom. Then you droop the strainer cloth down in over it as described above. The round piece of screen will thereby act as a sort of table, inside the pail, supporting the weight of the wax/honey mash, and letting the honey pass through.

Note: Some of your harvested combs are bound to be of very high quality particularly attractive, and they can be cut to fit into cut-comb honey containers. The leftover scraps can then be processed into liquid honey as described above.

As with any extracted honey, a froth of air bubbles and wax particles will rise to the surface of the honey over the ensuing days or weeks. This is skimmed off prior to warming and/or straining a second time through fine mesh such as nylons. The honey can then be bottled as desired.

It is important that if comb is anything other than fresh, it isn't advisable to squeeze the comb too much, it seems to disflavor the honey. I gently break up the comb full of honey, put it in a butterfly net, hang it, and let it drip into a container. I then take the rest of the comb and squeeze the honey out, but I keep this honey separate from the other. I like the stronger stuff, but some people don't.

TB combs probably could be extracted and reused, but I really don't care to get into that aspect for it takes me back closer to my former days of beekeeping.

I strain the honey through nylon hosiery (kneehi's work well), let it settle overnight, then bottle it if needed; otherwise, it stays in bulk containers. Some very small bubbles may rise in the honey for several days after pressing. I thought at first the honey was fermenting, but I have come to the conclusion that pressing puts some air into the honey under high pressure and this air is slow to come out. I don't know for sure.,.. I may be wrong about this, but the honey wasn't fermenting.

You will get more beeswax by keeping TBH's because of the management methods you will use. Passive solar rendering of the wax works well, moreover, solar melters can be cobbled up from scrap wood just as the TBH's. A solar melter is a low tech kindred philosophy to TBH beekeeping in my opinion.

Contributors: Primarily James D. Satterfield, with contributions from Tim Haarmann, Kevin Palm, Mike Allsopp and Joel Govostes.

Further information on TBHs and links to other web sites can be found on James D. Satterfield's web site http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm

I also have some some further information (from which this was extracted), including information on a Top Bar observation hive. --- Gordon.

Edited for the newsletter by Gordon Scott.  

Recipe

Christmas Ice Cream

Honey Ice-Cream with a distinctly Christmas flavour.

• 0.5 litre Single Cream.
• 100g Honey.
• 3 eggs.
• 75g mixed dried fruit, soaked overnight in a little brandy.
• A pinch each of cinnamon and nutmeg.
• 1tbs of lemon juice.

Heat the cream to boiling point. Whilst it's heating, beat together the honey eggs and lemon juice until light and fluffy.

Pour the hot cream over the mixture, stirring quickly, then return it to the saucepan and, stirring constantly, cook it gently over a low heat until it thickens.

Allow to cool, then freeze in a freezer tray, beating several times to break up the ice crystals, or using an ice-cream maker.

At the end of the process, stir in the soaked fruit.

Remove from the freezer about 1/2 hour before serving.