Bees for Development Journal 107
PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING
Foundation strips for straight combs in top-bar hives Wyatt A Mangum, Mary Washington College, 1301 College Avenue, Fredericksburg VA 22401, USA Keywords: beeswax, colony management, honeycomb, saw kerf, wax dipper
Figure 2: Old brood comb from a top-bar hive built straight and centred on its top-bar. This comb and the one in Figure 1 will fit any of the author’s hives
Combs that are built parallel and straight make hive inspections easier: checking that the queen is laying eggs, or for the presence of pests and diseases is made easier with straight combs. Straight combs are also essential for enabling beekeepers to move combs of brood or honey from strong colonies to weak or starving colonies to save them, or to divide strong colonies. With top-bar hives, wooden comb guides (either wood strips or “V” shaped wedges) have a reputation for not giving straight combs, particularly those wooden comb guides that are in the honey comb area and away from the brood nest. From my studies of USA beekeeping history, beekeepers used these wooden comb guides during the 1870-1890s before foundation sheets became common. Even then, beekeepers complained about wooden comb guides causing crooked combs.
Current day
I manage 200 top-bar hives and need an additional 500-700 top-bars so therefore cannot accommodate a third of new combs being built crooked. All the straight combs in Figures 1 and 2 are typical. To ensure straight combs I use foundation strips as the starter to ensure the precise placement of combs on the top-bars (Figure 3). Besides telling the bees where they must build the comb, foundation strips tend to stop the bees from bulging the top of the honeycomb into the space meant for the next comb (because the next foundation strip is there). Wooden comb guides do not stop the bees from bulging the top of the honeycomb into the space for the next comb (because nothing is under the edge of the next comb guide, just open space). When the bees finish building combs from the foundation strips, the combs are straight, centred on the top-bars, and the upper honeycomb bands are the same thickness. These combs are interchangeable among all hives for management:
Figure 3: The inside of a top-bar hive looking up at the foundation strips. When there is a nectar flow (for comb construction), the bees build their comb straight from these strips: not ignoring them as they may with wooden comb guides and then start building crooked comb similar to frame hive management, but with much less expensive top-bar equipment.
Photos © Wyatt Mangum
The top-bars are flat underneath with a saw kerf (a groove the width of the saw blade) cut down the centre of the bar 1/8 inch (0.32 cm) deep. The foundation strip goes into this groove (Figure 4). The length of the foundation strip depends on the size of the top-bar hive. Do not let the strips touch the sides of the hive as that would
Figure 4: Putting in foundation strips. The saw kerfs (grooves) to the left take the foundation strips
Figure 1: A new comb in a top-bar hive built straight and centred on its top-bar 10
