The strange hive smell of sour dirty socks slowly turns to the brilliant scent of butterscotch! I have been walking by my hives in the last several weeks and smelling the peculiar scent of dirty socks or sour laundry. At first it kind of smells like bee bread, that wonderful smell of baking bread that is so familiar in the spring when bees are rearing brood.
It's fall and there are only a few bees when I look through the window. There could be several reasons why in the Fall you might be seeing fewer bees through the window of your top bar hive.
The spacers are the thin strips of wood (1/4" thick) that come with our top bar hives and are described in our hive plans. Bees in natural habitats do not create equally-spaced combs. In a tree hive, for example, the bees will create two basic spacings.
It's nearing fall and your hive is full of beautiful combs. The number one question everyone wants to know: How much honey do I harvest and when? We have a very different idea about the needs of a colony during the winter months. Typically beekeepers harvest in the fall and often feed the bees back sugar water to replace the honey. Obviously the sugar water would have to be evaporated and all that moisture will chill the bees.
I want to share with you a very simple method of processing harvested comb from a top bar hive. This should give you an idea of the potential yield and the relative simplicity of working with the top bar hive. The best part of this single comb harvesting method is that it can be done in less than 30 minutes and you will still get to the office on time!
