Maybe the Last Inspection

I inspected the Top Bar Hive again yesterday, and nothing much has changed. I am almost certain that the larvae is drones, now. About the only thing left to do now is wait and see.

Another Inspection

I looked into the hive again yesterday. It looks like there may be some larvae. Comb building has almost stopped, though, so I still don't know for sure. This may be drone larvae.

Third Inspection

I made my third inspection yesterday. My observations:

• Bees are still working, but comb-building has slowed
• There's pollen, nectar, and some capped honey
• There's still no sign of a queen or brood

I have thought about getting a queen, but the hive is at a state now that it may be too late if it is queenless.

The Second Inspection

I made my second inspection about a week after the first. I'm still concerned about the presence of the queen. The beekeeper assured me that there was a queen in there when he captured the swarm, so I'm not giving up hope. The combs are larger and there is pollen and uncapped honey.

The First Inspection

When I transferred the bees to their new home, I put one of the frames from the other hive - upside down - into the Top Bar Hive to encourage these bees to stay. After all, I'm not really keeping them, I'm just trying to create a suitable home and hope they like it enough to stay. After a few days, I removed the frame and noticed that the bees were already building natural comb on the top bars, so it wouldn't be long until I could actually do an inspection. As a note, I didn't see the queen or any evidence of the queen when I did the transfer, so I was hoping that I could see her during my first inspection.


I finally opened the hive up and inspected. During the first inspection, I was mainly just getting a feel for working around the bees and the Top Bar Hive. Still no sign of the queen or brood. All I could do was wait and see. Here's a pic of some of the first natural comb from my Top Bar Hive:

Video - The Transfer

After a day or so of admiring my new bee colony, I asked in one of the beekeeping forums about transferring the bees to my Top Bar Hive. They advised to go ahead and do it. So I did, yesterday. Here's how it went:
My First TBH Transfer

The Beginning

I constructed my first hive from 3/4" plywood and some other scrap lumber laying around. I then called a few local pest control services and told them that I was a local beekeeper and that if they got any calls for swarms that I would be glad to come and remove them, rather than have the pest control people exterminate them.
I got no calls last year, but I did see an add in the local farmer's bulletin that a beekeeper was selling some of his bees. Turns out, this local beekeeper was letting his hives swarm. He would let you bring your own hive and he would try and catch the swarm in your box, or you could buy one of his hives.
I took my first TBH over and he didn't know what to think at first, but agreed to try and get some bees in it for me. While my son and I were there, he let us watch him catch a swarm for someone else way up in a peach tree. This guy had hundreds of hives and I had a time watching him work. After about a week I called the local beekeeper and he said that he couldn't get any bees to stay in the box I built. I had acquired some lumber from a friend at a local lumber yard and built some more hives along with a smaller version to take to the beekeeper. I took the smaller hive over on May 23, and the beekeeper said that the small box would be more like it.
While I was there I decided to go ahead and purchase one of his boxes with a new swarm that he had captured a few days before. We came over just after dark, placed a strip of masking tape over the entrance, and loaded the box into my pickup. I got the hive home, set it up and my beekeeping journey had begun!