A 60" long hive? Read Les Crowders book on top bar hives. He did many experiments to determine the ultimate size. I made a 44' hive as per his recommendation, which he states should give them plenty room for lots of brood and then enough extra for honey storage. Especially this time of year they tend to fill the hive with so much brood. I'm still waiting for those honey bars to fill up myself as I just did a split into this hive, so I'll report back once they've filled it up. My 36" hives are the same as yours, except one has 3 honeycombs.
I am wondering about how re-postioning the bars could create more honeycomb without brood in it. We've been taught to expand the brood nest by dropping in empty bars in order to supress the swarming urge, but perhaps this creates this issue of more brood combs with only bulging honey at the top. Any thoughts on this?
I have also read about moving honeycombs to door, or in front of the brood nest. Why would one do this?
I realize the manipulation of combs is a great advantage of top bar hives, but sometimes I'm just not entirely clear on why and where to move them, and to create what end result. Les's book has a good chapter on it, but I'm a first year girl and still have so much to learn.
And I love every minute of it!
ShannaRose