How to avoid crossed comb building in Top bar hives?
Hello beekeepers, thank you very much for preserving bees and helping them to live happily as we enjoy their sweet honey.
Today we are going to solve a common problem to most of the beekeepers that are moving from log hives or fixed comb hives into movable comb hives.
Many beekeepers complain about crossed comb building in Kenyan Top bar Hive being a common problem. Well this is something very simple to manage and control.
Crossed comb building is when bees build combs across the bars instead of building each comb on a separate bar as designed. Usually bees crossed comb building is when bees build one comb on two or more bars.
The following should be noted;
1. The width of bars.
The bars should strictly 3.2cm or 32mm wide. This was happily measured by our predecessors so; we just have to follow the principle.
2. Regular supervision is also very important whereby a new colony can easily build the combs in a wrong direction. Therefore when you supervise them before they build very many big combs, you can easily break the small white combs and align them correctly.
3. Repair/ clean bars. Whenever you open your beehive, make sure you scrap off all the propolis bees used to glue the bars. This will maintain the width of the bars.
4. Starter strips are also recommended for example you may use propolis or beeswax on the bars following the line you wish the bees to follow while building combs. This can avoid crossed comb in top bars. Take an example when a grooved bar is used, you can melt beeswax and pour it in the groove on the bar and when it cools, it stays there and when bees colonise the hive, they will start building combs following them.
5. Avoid hanging a beehive in a slanting position. The bees always maintain a vertical comb building position. If a beehive is slanting at an angle which is not right, the bees will not adjust to that angle but instead they will build combs following their own directions and angles.
6. Avoid leaving broken and destroyed combs in the hive which will act as barriers when bees are working. This is very common with brown combs are hard and bees cannot easily chew and repair them.
7. Maintain equal sizes of bars. Make sure that the side of bars facing inside the hive is level. This doesn’t matter whether you are using V-shaped, U-shaped, Block- shaped of grooved bars so long the sizes are equal.
Yes, beekeeping is fun, watch your bees build combs and find out why they are building them wrongly from the order you wished them to follow. I recommend breaking the combs when they are still empty, new and soft, and put them in the right position.
