How safe is it to move a TBH? Without any frames, will the comb break if moved in a car? I guess the temperature is quite important in this case, and in my case the temperature will be between 15 and 20 celsius (about 60-70F) and the transport time will be around 1 hour.
The reason I wonder about this is that I got an offer from a Norwegian beekeeper that thought my TBH was a cool experiment (I know of just one other norwegian that have tried this before, so TBHs are new here). He offered to make a short TBH now with the measurements of my TBH so they could draw out new comb. If they survived the winter, I could buy the bees with the top bars and comb from him next year so my hive got a jump start. My worry now is the transport home. Will the comb break? In case you wonder why I don't just put them in my own hive now, is that it is placed a long way from home at my parent's house at the moment, it needs paint, and I need to find a place for the hive (I live in a flat with no garden), and I won't have that ready soon enough before winter. The winter comes early here.
I moved 2 hives 7 miles on a small trailer on back country roads. The only comb I had break was that some of the top bars on one of the hives shifted and they fell into the hive. The comb was a year old so it had hardened a bit. I think temperature is a big part of it as you surmised. I also think if you do it in the Spring, there should not be a lot of honey in the combs, so they should be lighter.
ummmm about the temperature part, make sure bees can get lots of air, if they can't ventilate temperature rises resulting in broken comb. otherwise as you know, temp. is constant within the hive.
Thanks for the answers. I guess a screened bottom is the best way to ventilate. As the bars are on top, there are no way to make ventilation on the top as well.
Do it early morning or late evening. The hives I moved were the plastic drum hives and they had no ventilation. I just did it early in the morning before the sun got too hot. I also only had them closed up for 1/2 hour. With a screened bottom, you should be fine.
If you have brand new heavy comb it will probably break off. If you have older more mature (and therefore tough) comb, and if the temperatures aren't too hot (like 20 C instead of 30 C) then you'll probably do ok. If you make some "swarm ketching frames" from the plans on beesource, you can always put any broken brood comb into those and harvest any honey that falls.
Quote from: Michael Bush on July 31, 2007, 10:30:22 PM
If you have brand new heavy comb it will probably break off.
The plan here was to let them build the comb in the autumn and move it in spring. Would that be old enough, or is it still to be considered as brand new? I guess there have been little brood rearing that will make the comb stiffer, so maybe it will be a risky plan? Will comb that have only contained honey become stiffer after a while too, or does this only happen to brood comb?
Brand new comb is a few days old and soft as putty. Mature comb is a few weeks old or more and is much tougher. This happens to all comb. The brood comb gets stronger from the cocoons as well.