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JimWWhite
Deeply Rooted
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- Mar 14, 2010
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Jared, Thanks! I went to your web-site and it's top notch. I've been wanting to start one myself but just haven't invested the time to learn how. My son set up a super web-site for the business he owns and it's really professional looking. But anyways, I saw one thing on your site I wanted to give you some insight on. You mentioned you wanted to do top-bar hives. They're good and easy to build but there's one drawback from the traditional framed hives. When you harvest the honey you have to remove the comb by cutting it out. At least that's what I understand. That's fine if you want comb with your honey and a lot of people do. But think of this: When you harvest the honey from a top-bar hive the bees will have to expend a lot of energy and time rebuilding and replacing the comb. They actually have to exude the wax from glands on their abdomens. That's less time for them to forage and it consumes a lot of energy, i.e. food, i.e. honey. But with a traditional framed hive you use a knife to slice off only the tops of the comb cells on both sides and you put the frames in a centrifugal extractor which slings the honey out of the cells where it drains down to the bottom of the extractor and it can be drained and strained. The frames with 90% of the comb material still intact then goes right back into the hive where they go right back to work filling them up again. Just my 2-cents worth. Hope you don't mind.Jared77 said:Jim that is just amazing! I'm so impressed and utterly fascinated by that. Tell her to keep up the good work! I'm dying to get a set up but I have a feeling it might be a couple more years before I can get them. (Few other more pressing matters to deal with first). By the way that picture you posted is REALLY something else too!