Top-Bar Hive Management

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Top-Bar Hive Management

• A year on the buzz

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SPRING!

• Expansion spacers
• Swarm season

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Swarming

• Colony reproduction
• Signs queen cells, drone brood, bees outside
  hive
• What does it mean for the beekeeper?

• Find queen, move her to new hive
• Shake heaps of bees in
• Add plenty of capped brood honey.
• Try to give new hive at least 6-8 combs

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Summer

• Beginning of honey harvest!
• Keep adding spacers, evaluating queens,
  monitoring for disease, refining wax, bottling
  honey
• Might observe bearding, bees hanging out in
  cluster at entrance not adding their heat and
  humidity to interior.
• Avoid cross-combing by reversing newly built
  combs at back saves headaches

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Harvesting
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Bee products Honey, beeswax, mead, pollen, royal
jelly, venom
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Autumn Winter

• Time of contraction
• Propolising entrance cracks for insulation and
  protection
• Organic control of varroa more effective while
  weather is still warm
• Robbing can get full on
• Inspect hives to ensure bees have enough food for
  winter!
• Can combine hives if two look weak

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Nectar and pollen sources in NZ

• Main nectar flow mid-Nov mid-Dec in most
  places
• Notice when bees go crazy on a plant how long
  does it flower for? Can you plant more of it? How
  does the honey look/taste?
• When are there dearths in nectar pollen, how
  can you remedy?
• Plant polycultural paradises!!

Gorse excellent pollen source
White clover NZs premier honey source
Manuka unrivalled for antibacterial actiity