TBH question

[gardeningfireman]

A friend just built two KTBH's for me because I removed a colony from the wall and floor of his house. One is full size. The other is divided into two independent spaces. One holds 17 bars and the other holds 16 bars. I planned on using this divided hive to move my two nucs into. My question is; Are the two sections in this divided TBH large enough to maintain colonies in, or should I get rid of the divider board and just use it for one colony?

[luvin honey]

Last year, my 3# Italian packages quickly grew to fill 4-foot topbar hives and swarm, possibly twice. Just my experience.

[irerob]

  I would say it depends on how long you plan to leave them in there. If its just for a few months i think you would be OK.  My TBH is a little better than 4 feet with 30 some thing bars(38 I think). I housed a swarm in it this spring  and in 6 months they have filled all but the last 5 bars.
 Of course that's only my 2 cents and  they're are lots here with much more experience than me.

[gardeningfireman]

I think you guys are right! The more I thought about it, and the more videos I watched, I realized that the split hive will be good for a double nuc, but not a permanent home. I will take out the permanent divider and use the movable boards. Then I'll have a total of four 48" TBH's so I can put each nuc in their own hive, and use the other two for upcoming cutouts. Thanks!

[Tommyt]

If your TBH is growing to fast or so good and you don't want to swarm
I often wondered if a Super would work you would have to pull a bar or 2
and change your roof then the super would become ? thats what I plan
If it ever happens to me
I also spoke with the state Guy the other day and he said as a hobby I should
Keep 3 Colony's this way if one is weak or fails you have the others to Build off of
and won't get wiped out SO as I type bee-less (doing a Trap out)for free bees
I'm Planing on building two more TBH's

Tommyt