Brood Frame Wax

[doak]

How often do you change out your brood wax in a top bar hive? :)doak

[Michael Bush]

Me?  Never.

[JoshMcCallum]

I was wondering if I could get a little clarification on this answer. I am only a 1 hive 1 year beekeeper(just build 2 new top bar hives this weekend) so I know very little but I have been doing a lot of reading. From your website Michael you suggest that you should regularly expand the brood chamber(by adding empty bars) in late spring to help prevent swarming and give them the space to raise a large colony. Wouldn't this be an indirect method of changing the wax in the brood chamber as old combs are pushed to the outside filled with honey and later harvested? Any insight would be wonderful.

Thanks!

-Josh

[RyanB]

I imagine it is a preference thing.  If you hived a package of bee's that may have been raised on larger cell's. Thus over the course of a few years you may want to continue to cycle out comb to get them to regress.

Yes, you want to continue to expand your TBH as the bee's build out. It will give them space for brood as well as space for honey. You will always be expanding the hive until the flow is over. Essentially, as long as they are building new comb, continue to monitor and expand. Once they stop building comb they are probably backfilling.