Stocking
Let's get some bees into that top bar hive.
Bees cluster near the entrance of their new home.
The best source for bees is a beekeeper's own hives. A standard hive is moved off to one side. A top bar hive is leveled on that spot. All the bees are shaken or brushed into the hive. The vacant standard equipment is set on other hives in the yard.
If standard frames can set beneath the top bars, a split can be made. It's the least disruptive choice. The bees quickly re-orient themselves, and continue rearing brood. Standard frames are attached to top bars and put near the entrance. Eventually, the bees incorporate the standard frames into the top bar comb. Or standard frames are set below the top bars. Once the bees construct some new top bar comb, the standard frames are moved to the hive's far end and set on the floor.
The second best source of bees is a swarm. These bees are already organized for a new start. They quickly orient and start to work. But their character is unknown. The bees are requeened later if they have some undesirable traits.
Package bees can also be used. They are convenient. But they are my least favorite source. The usually have fewer bees than is available from a hive or a swarm. Queen acceptance can become a problem. And their character and health is often unknown.
Timing
Three factors, heat, feed, and time, need consideration before installing bees. Bees need a warm environment for comb building. That heat comes from the environment. And the bees can create it, if there are enough bees and they are well fed.
So, if bees are plentiful and well feed, comb is quickly drawn, even when it's too cool for bee flight. If the weather is warm and feed is available, a smaller volume of bees can draw comb. But if it's cool, and the cluster size is too small to generate sufficient heat, little comb is drawn. Hungry, cold bees don't draw out comb.
Time is a critical element. A large cluster can raise enough brood to replace colony losses. A smaller cluster, struggling with comb building or cold weather, can't raise enough brood to replace colony losses. Starting a smaller colony later, when the weather is warmer, improves their chances. But don't start them too late, as a colony must develop enough strength to successfully over winter.
The best gage for determining the installation time, is the bees themselves. Watch what bees naturally do. It's always best to work with the bees when possible. When do the first swarms appear in your area? That is a good time to start a smaller colony. A larger colony could be started a brood cycle or two before that.
In my climate, the dandelion bloom is a good reference. Bees are installed two brood cycles or about 6 weeks before dandelion bloom. With fewer bees, installation shouldn't be more than one brood cycle before dandelion bloom. Remember, I live in Wyoming. If you live in Florida, dandelions probably won't work for you.
Situation
Choosing a hive location has the same criteria for both top bar hives and standard hives. Don't forget that bees need a water source. In addition, a top bar hive must be level before installing the bees. The bees use gravity as a vertical reference when building comb. A cocked hive results in cocked comb, which must be cut out when the hive is worked.
Don't forget bees need water, too.
Feeding
The bees don't have any stores in a new top bar hive. So, feed must be available inside their new home. Providing feed outside the hive is risky. Weather may interfere with the supply. And honey bees, from other hives, are attracted to the feed. Once the feed is gone, they rob the honey stored in the fledgling hive.
Your own honey is the best feed. But sugar syrup works. If it's cold, a thick, 2:1 sugar syrup is best. Minimize the disruption and use methods that conserve the colony's warmth. For warmer weather, a thinner, 1:1 sugar syrup works.
There are several ways sugar is fed to a top bar hive. If the bees aren't clustered and there's room at the back, a container is filled with syrup. Floats are used to prevent the bees from drowning. A quail or dribble type feeder can also be set at the back of the hive.
A special top bar can be built that accepts the capped end of a two-liter pop bottle. Drill a hole, through the top bar, that admits the cap but is smaller than its collar. Drill three or four very small holes in the bottle cap. Completely fill the bottle with syrup. Tightly, screw the cap on the bottle. Set it in the hole in the special top bar. The collar, on the pop bottle, keeps it from slipping into the hole. This special top bar is placed close to the cluster when the weather is cool. There's no need to open the hive. Just replace the bottle. This approach is used by commercial migratory beekeepers and some queen rearers using standard equipment.
Baggie feeders could be a good choice. I've tried using them, but found them leaky. I apparently don't understand some important element about baggie feeders, as others have used them successfully.
Solid sugar is fed if the bees are flying. Just dump some sugar in the free space at the hive's rear. The bees liquefy what they need. Don't put too much sugar in as the bees haul it out as trash once nectar becomes available.
Bakers sugar is used like granulated sugar. Bakers sugar is a very fine granulated sugar. It isn't confectioners sugar. The bees won't haul baker's sugar out like the coarser, granulated stuff.
Honey can be fed by placing standard honey frames, on their sides, at the hive's rear. The bees move the honey forward into the broodnest as needed. If honey storage space is limited, the bees use them to temporarily store some surplus there as well. Queens won't lay brood in these horizontal frames.
My friend Barry, has a top bar hive with room for a deep frame beneath the top bar. He screws a standard division board feeder to a top bar and uses it to feed his bees.
If the weathers is bad. Be sure to put the feed where the bees can get at it. Relocate later when the weather improves.
David's follower board feeder.
David, a top bar hive beekeeper in Ohio, has incorporated a syrup feeder into a follower board. Neat idea, huh!
Several variations are possible for a follower board/feeder. If it's several top bars wide and given a lid, it could be used to feed scrap comb or sugar. Divided down the middle, it could be used to feed a different colony on each side. Each side having access to only its half. This next season, I'm putting one of David's follow board/feeders in all my top bar hives. I plan on running a nuc and a full size colony in each one.
Pollen substitute can be fed as patties. But the patties must be thin and pushed directly beneath the broodnest. Unlike sugar, pollen substitute isn't consumed from the bottom, beyond the broodnest area. And they reluctantly take it directly below the broodnest.
Top bar hive ventilation is often channeled along the bottom board. Patties quickly dry out when placed there. Once they're dry, the bees stop working them. I haven't found a good way to feed pollen substitute inside a top bar hive.
When feeding, don't block or interfere with hive ventilation. And don't let any feed push against the bottom of a comb. That leverage can cause a comb failure.
Other Considerations
Shaking or brushing an active colony into a new top bar hive, is very disruptive. If the bees aren't from a swarm, it takes more than a week for them to re-orient and organize enough to effectively start a broodnest. Except for feeding, don't disturb them until they settle down. Some bees abscond or leave a hive when it's disturbed. Others kill their queen. Sometimes this disruption is so great that bees will draw a small amount of comb at the hive's far end or in several separate locations. But after they re-orient, the cluster moves forward and begins constructing a typical broodnest just inside the entrance.
