transferring bees - first time

[Algonam]

I've found a supplier of bees and have placed my order for two and will be receiving these late May.
I'll be receiving a queen and a bunch of others with her on 2 standard frames. It is set up so that the beekeeper just installs the frame into their std hive. In my case I've built KTBH so I can't install these frames. Apparently the bees will be well on their way and strong. My question is: how do I effectively transfer these bees in to the KTBH? Will this transfer confuse them or effect their momentum?
I am asking because I am now wondering if I should be getting standard hives since the frames the bees come on are on std frames.

[doug494]

I'm just starting so I haven't done this, but ran across it while researching options.

to new for links so go to beesource.com in the tbh forum, page 15 there is a post titled "Nuc to TBH - Is there an easier way?"

[JP]

You'd be better off purchasing packages and then feeding them unless you can find someone that will supply you with a Top Bar nuc such as Sam Comfort of http://anarchyapiaries.org/


...JP

[kathyp]

can you attach some blocks or something insider your TB on which to hang the frames?  you can rotate them out as the season goes on.

i agree with JP.  for a top bar, i'd think a swarm or package would be best.  haven't done one, so my opinion is not worth much 

[Algonam]

One thought is to start up with regular hives and keep my top bar hives for when I have enough bees to split, then introduce a new queen and bees in each of the top bar hives.
I don't know enough to know better at this point.
Does this make sense? Would this work?

[JP]

You will need to add bees and a queen into your Top Bar Hives whether it be a swarm or a package or frames from a TBH nuc. Any way you want to do it will work.


...JP

[Pink Cow]

How are you receiving the bees? If in a nuc, or you have one or can get one, here's something to consider. This would require modifying a couple of your bars, and possibly the nuc.

Take a couple of bars and remove enough wood from each to make a gap large enough as if you were making a top entrance for your hive. Remove the bottom from the nuc, or drill a hole in it, then place it right on top of the bars with the openings matching, leaving no other way in/out of the nuc. This will force all traffic to go through the TB hive, and when the nuc is full they should start to build out the TB. At that point you can either make sure the queen is down in the TB or put her there, then place an excluder between the two until all of the brood in the nuc has hatched. If you start with a decent colony in spring this should not take a terribly long time as I've had swarms fill out nucs in less than two weeks.