A few "newbee" questions...

[ktbearpaws]

I made me a couple of TBH to be installed with some package bees in April.
As a matter of fact I have already ordered the packages,and I went with the Buckfast strain for thier high resistance to the verroa mite....
My first question is this..........
"I have an orchard filled with Black Cherries, Bing cherries, Bartlet pears and several types of apples.
How will me starting these hives effect the amout of fruit my orchard will produce?"

My second question is.....
"I Know in a Langstroth hive a queen excluder can be used to keep the queen in the brood stores and out of the honey stores. How is the brood comb and the honey comb kept seperate in a TBH???"

My third question is.....
"In the event I would instert these packages, and I either lose the queen or the brood rejects the new queen and leaves her behind, in one if the new hives...What would be my next step?" 

And my final question...
" I intend on capturing some ferral swarms later on...Is there a danger of infecting or introducing an illness to my other bees by moving in a hive of "wild" bees along side my packaged bees?"  

[Robo]

My first question is this..........
"I have an orchard filled with Black Cherries, Bing cherries, Bartlet pears and several types of apples.
How will me starting these hives effect the amout of fruit my orchard will produce?"

I don't have any first hand experience with this, but I have heard others claim a noticeable difference when they started keeping bees.  I guess it is highly dependent on how many native pollinators you have in your area.

My second question is.....
"I Know in a Langstroth hive a queen excluder can be used to keep the queen in the brood stores and out of the honey stores. How is the brood comb and the honey comb kept seperate in a TBH???"

You run a TBH the same way an unlimited brood chamber Langstroth is run.  You take the frames from the outside farthest away from the brood nest.  If you have a really prolific queen,  you may have to wait for brood to hatch and the cells be filled with honey

My third question is.....
"In the event I would instert these packages, and I either lose the queen or the brood rejects the new queen and leaves her behind, in one if the new hives...What would be my next step?" 

If the queen is killed, you will need to requeen as soon as possible. Since packages have no brood, they are actually on a continual downturn for the first month until brood starts hatching to displace bees that perish, that is why timing is crucial. You want to get brood hatching and the hive on an upward turn ASAP.

And my final question...
" I intend on capturing some ferral swarms later on...Is there a danger of infecting or introducing an illness to my other bees by moving in a hive of "wild" bees along side my packaged bees?"  

For the most part feral or wild bees are your best stock.  They are already acclimatized and untreated. If they have been feral for a while,  they are already regressed and a survival stock.  I only use feral stock for my bees.


good luck and welcome to the forum

[BjornBee]

Unless your in an area void of any beneficial native pollinators, your bees will not change the amount of fruit you get. In MOST cases, there is adequate pollination to at least set the fruit. There are exceptions.

Where PROPER pollination comes into play and honeybees matter most, is in the quality of the set. If you ever seen an out of proportion apple, or a pumpkin big on one side and smaller on the other, or a cucumber that is not straight...these are examples of improper or a lack of the needed pollination to produce quality and uniform fruit.

Those farmers who sell to market, or "truck farm" their produce, want super market quality looking fruit and vegetables. You can not get that with a poor pollination set.

I hear about some people saying they had no pollination at all in their garden until they got bees. Which begs to question...Why? If you have no flies, wasps, or anything else in a particular area to provide some level of pollination, then I'd be finding out why. Whatever killed off everything else will no doubt effect your bees also.

I do a good bit of apple pollination. The difference paid between a truck load of apples being classified as market quality or juice quality, is why farmers pay for pollination. And many times, it's the honeybees that make that difference.

[ktbearpaws]

When I introduce my new bees to my TBH's, Should I use a false back and gradually increase the area in the hive as the colony increases?
Or should I just put them into the open hive and let the bees fill the bars in thier own time?

[BjornBee]

When I introduce my new bees to my TBH's, Should I use a false back and gradually increase the area in the hive as the colony increases?
Or should I just put them into the open hive and let the bees fill the bars in thier own time?

Although I have never used a follower board, I do understand and think there are benefits of using one. Certainly cutting down the overall volume of the space, and allowing the bees to benefit from trapped heat, pays off on some level.

My TBH and other trench hives all started drawing comb from the front of the hive and moved back. I think this had to do with the heat from the sun. So they will decide to draw comb in a hive based on the "warm side" or taking into accounts such matters. If your hives are faced south, I would expect the same.

[Michael Bush]

>How will me starting these hives effect the amout of fruit my orchard will produce?"

If you get the bees before they bloom, it will probably make a difference.

>"I Know in a Langstroth hive a queen excluder can be used to keep the queen in the brood stores and out of the honey stores. How is the brood comb and the honey comb kept seperate in a TBH???"

Bees are not looking to raise brood all over the place.  They want the brood together so they can keep it warm.  It's not a problem.  I don't use an excluder in my regular hives either.

>"In the event I would instert these packages, and I either lose the queen or the brood rejects the new queen and leaves her behind, in one if the new hives...What would be my next step?"

If they don't like the queen or she dies they will move next door where there is a queen.

>" I intend on capturing some ferral swarms later on...Is there a danger of infecting or introducing an illness to my other bees by moving in a hive of "wild" bees along side my packaged bees?"

Feral bees are more likely to be healthy than "store bought" bees.  They HAVE to survive on their own.  No one is propping them up with antibiotics and pesticides.

>When I introduce my new bees to my TBH's, Should I use a false back and gradually increase the area in the hive as the colony increases?

It's a fine idea if you have one.  I've never bothered to make one.

>Or should I just put them into the open hive and let the bees fill the bars in thier own time?

That's what I do.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

[TwT]

My first question is this..........
"I have an orchard filled with Black Cherries, Bing cherries, Bartlet pears and several types of apples.
How will me starting these hives effect the amout of fruit my orchard will produce?"

well, I went through this same thing about 6 years agao when I started beekeeping, I had a 12 year old apple tree that never had a apple, peach tree's would produce little to none, Black beeries not getting big enough to be able the snake on, got my hive and wam, had to put supports under the limbs to keep from breaking, apples, peaches and pairs had very fruit and they all were sweet, maybe because they come from my tree's     , but there is a very good chance your production will increase.

My second question is.....
"I Know in a Langstroth hive a queen excluder can be used to keep the queen in the brood stores and out of the honey stores. How is the brood comb and the honey comb kept seperate in a TBH???"

I dont have a top bar hive.

My third question is.....
"In the event I would instert these packages, and I either lose the queen or the brood rejects the new queen and leaves her behind, in one if the new hives...What would be my next step?" 

lets talk about this if it were to happen.

And my final question...
" I intend on capturing some ferral swarms later on...Is there a danger of infecting or introducing an illness to my other bees by moving in a hive of "wild" bees along side my packaged bees?"  

any hive could have something but if they are living in the wild with no interference odd will be they are healthy or would have died already. these are the bee's I like to get

[gmcharlie]

to address the fruit issue  you won't see a difference in the amount of fruit,  but the quality will increase dramaticly with copious polllination.  it is the reason I keep bees  the honey being a perk,  but Tree ribe peaches are gods nectar andyes I think I could kill myself eating to many as I pick......

on all fruits  if  all the lobes are not polinated you will get early dieing fruit,  or lopsided...  small fruit is from lack of polination....... 

[ktbearpaws]

What would be better a deep and short TBH or a long and shallow TBH?
How will I know how much honey to harvest and how much to leave in a TBH?
Oh......by the way Michael, I built my TBHs by your specs on your KTBH on your website.
I was just wondering.....
"Are there any problems with the bees tieing the comb together with burr comb, without using some kind of spacer to spread out the top bars, with that design?"