Top Bar Hive Inspection With Sam Comfort

Written by on in Beekeeping, Beekeeping Events, NE Treatment Free, Sam Comfort, Top Bar Hives, Treatment Free Beekeeping, Videos, Warre Hives

Top Bar Hive Inspection With Sam Comfort

Sam Comfort brought a few of his top bar hives and modified Warre or box style hives to the 2012 Northeast Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference in Leominster, MA.  Below is a picture of some of Sam’s hives in the field. Lucky me! At the end of the conference one of the top bars ended up coming home to my apiary.  So excited to have Sam’s treatment free bees and a new top bar to play with!

Hives that Sam Comfort brought to the conference.

The small hives are top bar nucs that Sam makes to sell.  Here is another photo of one.

Sam Comfort’s top bar nuc hive.

This is one of his full size top bar hives.  It is sitting on Sam’s empty modified Warre nuc boxes which I will be writing about soon.

Here is one of his top bar hives.

During the conference Sam performed several hive inspections of his hives.  He also made a package of bees from a top bar hive, moved a top bar nuc into a full size hive (see pictures below), installed a package of bees into a top bar hive, harvested honey from a top bar hive, shook bees from a top bar into a Warre hive (video coming soon for this) and more. 

In the video below, Sam Comfort is going through one of his top bar hives and talking with attendees at the conference about how to spot the queen, what he uses for comb guides, how to move the bars and answering general questions.  At the end of this video Sam makes a package of bees from his top bar hive.
Here is another video of Sam Comfort doing an inspection of his top bar nuc.  He finds out it is getting crowded and decides to steal its field force and give it to one of his modified Warre nuc hives.  My favorite part of this video is the smoker that is used – very original!

Pictures speak louder than words, so I have included a number of pictures and descriptions in the gallery below.  There are pictures of top bar nucs and hives, Warre nucs, Sam harvesting honey from his top bar hive, transferring a top bar nuc to a full size hive and more. Click on a picture to open the gallery and click on the arrows to scroll through the photos.  If you click on the picture the gallery will close. If you are reading this in an email or a reader and the gallery does not display properly, please click on the post to view the gallery on the website. Enjoy!!

 

Honey harvested from a top bar hive.
Sam uses popsicle sticks as a comb guide for his frames.
The nuc transfer is complete.
The nuc transfer is complete.
The rest of the bees are finding the entrance to their new hive.
Sam Comfort inspecting a comb of bees.
Sam Comfort inspecting a comb of bees.
Brood on the comb.
Top bar comb not fully drawn.
Sam smoking the hive.
Sam smoking the hive.
Inspecting a comb of bees.
One of the brood combs.
Getting a honey comb ready to harvest.
Brushing the bees off a comb of honey.
The top bar nuc is almost empty.
The bar after the honey was harvested.
Returning the bar to the hive.
Getting ready for another hive inspection.
Inspecting a top bar hive.
Inspecting a top bar hive.
Inspecting a top bar hive.
Inspecting a top bar hive.
Kirk Webster helps Sam look for the queen to put into a package of bees.dsc_0160
Kirk moved the follower board and is picking up a comb.
Kirk is a Treatment Free Langstroth beekeeper.
Sam was worried he would break his combs.
Still looking for the queen.
There she is!
Inspecting a top bar nuc.
Top bar hive nuc.
Top bar hive and Warre hive nuc on a top bar nuc.
Sam Comfort doing a hive inspection.
Sam uses bars to raise the cover up to give the hive more ventilation.
Top bar nuc hive during an inspection.
Top bar hive nuc.
Some top bar hives at the tretament free conference.
Some of Sam Comfort\'s top bar nucs.
Top bar and Warre hives.
Top bar hive.
Top bar hive nuc with a Warre nuc on top.
Inspecting a top bar nuc.
Looking at comb from the top bar nuc.
Top bar nuc hive.
Pointing at the queen.
One of the combs from the top bar nuc.
The follower board for the top bar hive.
One of the combs from the top bar nuc.
Bees eating honey from the top bar hive.
Pointing to the queen on the comb.
Moving nuc combs to a full size top bar hive.
The full size top bar.
The full size top bar.
The full size top bar being filled.
The full size top bar being filled.
The full size top bar being filled.
The full size top bar being filled.

 

Don’t miss out!  To get weekly blog posts by email. Sign up here!

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

  1. Top Bar Hive – A New Member In My Bee Family
  2. Top Bar Hive Honey Harvest With Sam Comfort
  3. Making A Package Of Bees From A Top Bar Hive With Sam Comfort
  4. Queen Rearing With Dean Stiglitz
  5. Top Bar Hives With Les Crowder

This post was shared on the Down Home Blog Hop.

Anita Deeley is a biologist and former state bee inspector who maintains 100 honey bee hives. She is the beekeeper, writer, owner and creator of BeverlyBees.com. When she is not spending time with her girls (the bees), she enjoys being a wife to her beekeeping cohort, Brian and mother to 3 little boys (the beekeepers in training). Read more about Anita here >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Anita on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ or Facebook here.

Twitter