Bar Size ...Am I in trouble?

beegardenbirder · July 04, 2011, 03:52:18 PM

My TBH that i started in May is doing well, despite the hot dry weather here in Texas. There are 7 bars drawn out completely and 3 partial ones. All of them are straight on the starters, lots of brood at all stages and a couple bars of uncapped honey. But, i just realized today that ALL my bars are 1 1/2" wide.(due to the fact that i guess i can't read a ruller right)

How much trouble is this gonna cause me? Should i do anything about it now?

gardeningfireman · July 04, 2011, 11:40:19 PM

The bars in my TBH are 13/8 inches. The bees are building a lot of cross comb and I need to start swapping them out with 11/4 inch bars.

CapnChkn · July 13, 2011, 01:01:56 PM

Better late than never...

If you have 1.5 inch bars, you will need to add 1.25 inch bars for them to build brood comb on. I'm sure they've started the nest on the oversized bars, but they will move honey and stores all over the hive. My guess would be a cutout.

Making comb is expensive to the bees, and they wont like to make more unless they need it. You won't be able to just remove the bars without removing the brood, so the quickest/easiest solution I can come up with is to move the brood over to the proper sized bars with a cutout.

They will build the nest on those size bars, but will want to set the comb size to what they like, and will probably build the nest on 2 bars at the same time. If it's honey, they'll generally extend the length of the cells to take up the extra space.

Michael Bush · July 13, 2011, 01:10:44 PM

I would cut half of them if not in use down (or plane them down) to 1 1/4" and feed them into the brood nest. The other half can be used for honey as they are typically 1 1/2". Brood is typically 1 1/4". In my experience they will cheat on the 1 1/2" bars and soon will be between the bars.

beegardenbirder · July 18, 2011, 12:15:16 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on July 13, 2011, 01:10:44 PM
I would cut half of them if not in use down (or plane them down) to 1 1/4" and feed them into the brood nest. The other half can be used for honey as they are typically 1 1/2". Brood is typically 1 1/4". In my experience they will cheat on the 1 1/2" bars and soon will be between the bars.

One more question... do I put the 1 1/4" bars in one at a time between the straight comb that is there, until i get them all in? I don't want to put them all in at once, do I?
Thanks

Michael Bush · July 18, 2011, 01:18:34 PM

I always have all of the bars in the hive. Then you just juggle them to put one at a time in between some nicely drawn brood combs. When that one is drawn, put another in the brood nest.

Kathyp · July 18, 2011, 01:31:51 PM

i have some pictures from Thailand where the beekeeper used sticks from a tree. he pulled them when they were full of brood or honey (they sell both) and sold them that way. :-)

Grandma_DOG · July 24, 2011, 04:29:48 PM

Not a problem. Just put in 1 3/8 bars every other bar in the front. Shift the old 1.5 bars to the back for honey storage. They will draw 1.5 bars anyway for honey, so all you do is shift them back there.

And Texas is terrible right now in Austin, we are feeding.

Quote from: beegardenbirder on July 04, 2011, 03:52:18 PM
My TBH that i started in May is doing well, despite the hot dry weather here in Texas. There are 7 bars drawn out completely and 3 partial ones. All of them are straight on the starters, lots of brood at all stages and a couple bars of uncapped honey. But, i just realized today that ALL my bars are 1 1/2" wide.(due to the fact that i guess i can't read a ruller right) How much trouble is this gonna cause me? Should i do anything about it now?

beegardenbirder · July 25, 2011, 12:24:44 PM

So, if I put them in every other, when and how do I get the wide ones moved to the back for the honey?

luvin honey · July 25, 2011, 07:59:12 PM

As you feed in new bars, the old ones will slowly be pushed towards the back of the hive, where they will eventually be not used for brood and will be used for honey.

Grandma_DOG · October 03, 2011, 04:56:33 PM

Quote from: beegardenbirder on July 25, 2011, 12:24:44 PM
So, if I put them in every other, when and how do I get the wide ones moved to the back for the honey?

Next spring as they build out the blank bars, and fill them with brood. Then you can move the 1.5" bars, which will have brood as well, to the back. Then you put in a new bar to replace it. The nurse bees will make sure the brood hatches, but the queen will not go lay eggs in them anymore. Come honeyflow, they will fill the 1.5" with honey.

As a side benefit, this will also reduce the hives desire to swarm.