A top bar bee feeder is an effective way to ensure your colony of bees gets enough food without overtaxing them. Additionally, it helps prevent robbery by other bees from stronger, more established hives.
Top bar hives require frequent inspections, just like any other type of hive. Fortunately, with a full length window in the window, these checks can be done easily without upsetting the bees.
Contents
The Feeder
Top bar bee feeders are an economical and convenient way to provide bees with sugar syrup. They’re especially ideal for new beekeepers since there’s minimal disruption to their hives, plus you can use them during winter to feed a colony of bees.
Top feeders function by providing bees with access to a reservoir of cooled sugar water that they store as honey in comb. They can be placed directly within the hive or separated into an independent section for easier maintenance.
Hive top feeders can be purchased from a commercial manufacturer or DIY-ed with ease. Not only is it simple and straightforward to construct, but it saves time by eliminating the need to refill smaller feeders multiple times.
Top feeders are designed to fit inside a section of your hive and feed the bees from below, helping reduce the risk of robbing by stronger, more established colonies – particularly beneficial for new colonies that are still developing.
The Hive
The hive is an integral component of bee lifecycle. It provides them with shelter, food, and safety from potential threats. Furthermore, the hive serves as a place for them to communicate with one another and stay healthy.
The Hive are an intricate group of creatures that have played an essential role in the history of our universe. Their origins lie on Planet Fundament, where three Worm Gods assigned them with collecting tribute from all life within its system.
They have pledged to fight against Light in order to appease their Worm Gods, often by taking advantage of other species’ lives.
The Hive’s technology is quite primitive compared to that of other races, but has been observed to include arcane magics tapping into Solar, Arc and Void energies. It remains unclear how they have access to this energy source but it appears to be the source of their abilities. They have also constructed Tombship transports – ships which can pass through portals into Ascendant Realm then return after delivering its passengers – for convenience.
The Bees
Top bar hives, unlike Langstroth beehives, encourage bees to colonize in a more natural fashion. They feature bars across the top for bees to build their comb off of, replicating tree hollows and nooks found in nature.
Once your hive has been set up and the bees installed, it’s time to add the feeder. To do this, open up the hive and move the follower board back a few bars so there are only 10 bars of empty space left for the bees to build their hive.
To do this, open the hive up and carefully remove each bar until you reach the cluster and queen cage. Be sure to hold the comb perpendicular to the ground when moving it.
Once the hive is open, inspect it daily for brood and honey. If you detect any problems such as supercedure cells or drone brood in more than 20% of brood cells, it’s time to replace the queen.
The Beekeeper
If you’re a novice beekeeper or want to keep bees more naturally, a top bar bee hive might be the ideal solution for you. These structures are straightforward to construct and require low physical effort levels for upkeep.
To get your top bar hive up and running, the initial step is installing your honey bees. Do this by shaking or pouring packaged bees into the hive.
After approximately an hour, the bees should cluster around your queen bee. If not, search for another queen bee and remove or eliminate it.
Alternately, you can try to induce the bees to cluster around your new queen by letting them walk up a slope towards the entrance of your hive – this technique is known as “orientation flight”.
Finally, ensure your feeder top is securely closed to prevent bees from accessing it. The most straightforward solution for doing so is by purchasing a standard Langstroth hive cover and using that on your TBH.
