Does anyone here keep a TBH with Straight sides Tanzanian style.?
Do you find the comb is heavier and more prone to failure and detaching.
What about comb attachments on the inside
In his 1984 paper 'Beehive Designs for the Tropics', with regard to the KENYA TOP BAR HIVE, Townsend comments:
"The major drawback, which restricts its use to stationary-type beekeeping, is that the combs will break away from the top bar quite readily."He then goes on to describe a method of supporting the comb with thin vertical sticks of bamboo or similar:
"When the comb is drawn out over these sticks, the comb will be strong enough to withstand transportation."He then describes THE MODIFIED AFRICAN LONG HIVE, saying:
"The modified African long hive with movable frames is a very useful transitional hive for use with the tropical African bee. If the frames are made with sidebars and a median cross bar or a thin cross strip of wood or bamboo, the colony can be moved and the combs handled without breakage. This hive also has all the advantages of the Kenya top bar hive, at very little extra cost."For myself, I have made every straight-sided Long Hive with rebates in the upper walls so that either Top Bars or Frames (or a mixture of the two) may be installed. This involves very little extra work for a huge improvement in flexibility. My only KTBH has now been dismantled and re-built with straight sides in exactly the same way. And - despite what some people are saying, LESS wood (pro rata), is required when building boxes of a larger volume, not more.
Thus far, I've been using standard Hoffman frames in these Long Hives, but I'm now moving over to the use of a 'framed Top-Bar'. The difference between these and the Hoffman frames lies in the form of the Top Bar, which will be solid and about an inch thick - so forming the top of the hive cavity - and as such, are only suitable for single-story Long Hive use.
These Top Bars will have a frame beneath them - which might seem a strange development of the Top Bar concept - but noting that Townsend recommends adding support to the combs, then why not have this support at the sides of the combs, and gain the additional advantage of dissuading the bees from making attachments to the hive walls ?
Which seems like common sense to me.
LJ