Third Consideration: Maintaining your hives
Most of the time you can do an outside check on your hives to see how they are progressing. Depending on the time of the year the bees will be more or less active. If there is no nectar flow, do not expect much activity. If there is a nectar flow, the stream of bees should be heavy coming in and going from your hive. African bees are very good at cleaning invaders from their hive. They can do most maintenance tasks without your assistance.
Troubleshooting and maintenance
Some problems you may find and answers to those problems:
Problem: There are no bees and the entryways have been closed off.
Answer: Your hive has been colonized by black carpenter ants or small red ants. Remove them and re-wax before putting your hive in another tree. Be sure you have greased the hook to your hive to ensure that ants cannot follow it to occupy your hive.
Problem: Your bees are angry and aggressive. You see large black beetles at the entrances of your hives.
Answer: Your hive is being attacked by large hive beetles. The guards at the entryways are trying to repel them. They are more agitated than normal due to these invaders. Be sure the doorways to your hive have entrance reducers or are not bigger than 10 mm. Large hive beetles cannot get in a 10 mm hole. Reducing the entryways will ensure that they do not over whelm the bees before they are strong enough to repel them on their own.
Troubleshooting and maintenance
Some problems you may find and answers to those problems:
Problem: There are no bees and the entryways have been closed off.
Answer: Your hive has been colonized by black carpenter ants or small red ants. Remove them and re-wax before putting your hive in another tree. Be sure you have greased the hook to your hive to ensure that ants cannot follow it to occupy your hive.
Problem: Your bees are angry and aggressive. You see large black beetles at the entrances of your hives.
Answer: Your hive is being attacked by large hive beetles. The guards at the entryways are trying to repel them. They are more agitated than normal due to these invaders. Be sure the doorways to your hive have entrance reducers or are not bigger than 10 mm. Large hive beetles cannot get in a 10 mm hole. Reducing the entryways will ensure that they do not over whelm the bees before they are strong enough to repel them on their own.
Problem: Your hive is not progressing well. You have opened it and found web like tunnels throughout the comb. There is a fermented, foul smell coming from the hive. Answer: You hive has been occupied by wax moths and small hive beetles. It is probably not worth saving this hive. Wax moths and small hive beetles overwhelm weak hives, as there are not enough workers to keep the hive clean of these pests. It is important to get primary swarms in your hive by baiting and placing it in the forest early in the swarming season to ensure occupation of large numbers of bees. Smaller swarms are more susceptible to pest damage than larger swarms. Remove these sick bees, burn the refuse from the hive, and start over. | Hive destroyed by wax moths: |
Problem: Your hives have been knocked over and lay sprawled on the ground. The bees are all gone.
Answer: The hives have been vandalized by people. Boys who are herding cows, or people passing by may take the opportunity in the cool, early morning hours to knock your hive over. They wait until the bees leave and then return to see if they can salvage anything worth eating. Hives hung in trees can help to prevent this problem. You should report this to your local village leadership to ensure an announcement is made in the next village meeting regarding respecting personal property.
Answer: The hives have been vandalized by people. Boys who are herding cows, or people passing by may take the opportunity in the cool, early morning hours to knock your hive over. They wait until the bees leave and then return to see if they can salvage anything worth eating. Hives hung in trees can help to prevent this problem. You should report this to your local village leadership to ensure an announcement is made in the next village meeting regarding respecting personal property.
Practical tips towards mastering African beekeeping.
1) Primary swarm occupations are essential for immediate hive production. Primary swarms can put up as much as 4 liters of honey in 2 months of occupation. To acquire primary swarms it is necessary to have baited hives in the trees no later than the first week of the swarming season.
2) The importance of ease in raising and lowering hives for inspection and harvest cannot be over emphasized. A system of hooks and wire couplings that unhook and open with little effort should be your goal!
3) Proper smoking of a swarm that has collected on a tree branch should be done before raising the hive back to its position. This avoids massive casualties of bees from the rope used to raise the hive and heightened aggression due to the release of alarm pheromone.
4) Hives must be carried at least 40 meters away from their location when harvesting so as to avoid harassment by foragers returning to the site.
5) All small species of bees should always be thrown out of all hives. They do NOT produce any sizable quantities of honey. The hives should then be moved and await occupation of Scutellata. This MUST be done before putting hives out in early swarm season. Your hive will be wasted if it carries bees of an undesirable type through Primary Swarm occupation time.
6) For an ideal size Top Bar hive, a beekeeper should make a hive containing twenty 32mm-width bars. The length of the bars is not as important as the width. A good length is 19 inches. The inside area of a hive this size is not too small, or too big.
7) Baited Langstroth brood chambers, queen excluder, and one honey super can be put out during Primary Swarm occupation season only. If any other time, only a baited brood chamber should be used.
8) If hives are too large, bees will be harassed by pests like wax moths and small and large hive beetles. They use the unoccupied spaces in the hive to breed and increase their numbers. Large hives also promote high humidity and excessive moisture, as bees are unable to control the spacious environment.
9) Proper bee space is imperative to avoid harassment by wax moths who take every opportunity to lay their eggs in spaces too small for bees to police and keep clean. 32mm between starter strips and 16mm between starter strips and the walls of the hives should be observed for African bees.
10) Proper time must be observed: 3-5 minutes before opening or working on hives after smoking them.
11) Hives should be hung at opportune heights so that easy harvesting and rehanging is possible.
12) Position your entryways so they are facing towards the East making the most of the morning light. Hives facing the West will become active a half an hour later.
1) Primary swarm occupations are essential for immediate hive production. Primary swarms can put up as much as 4 liters of honey in 2 months of occupation. To acquire primary swarms it is necessary to have baited hives in the trees no later than the first week of the swarming season.
2) The importance of ease in raising and lowering hives for inspection and harvest cannot be over emphasized. A system of hooks and wire couplings that unhook and open with little effort should be your goal!
3) Proper smoking of a swarm that has collected on a tree branch should be done before raising the hive back to its position. This avoids massive casualties of bees from the rope used to raise the hive and heightened aggression due to the release of alarm pheromone.
4) Hives must be carried at least 40 meters away from their location when harvesting so as to avoid harassment by foragers returning to the site.
5) All small species of bees should always be thrown out of all hives. They do NOT produce any sizable quantities of honey. The hives should then be moved and await occupation of Scutellata. This MUST be done before putting hives out in early swarm season. Your hive will be wasted if it carries bees of an undesirable type through Primary Swarm occupation time.
6) For an ideal size Top Bar hive, a beekeeper should make a hive containing twenty 32mm-width bars. The length of the bars is not as important as the width. A good length is 19 inches. The inside area of a hive this size is not too small, or too big.
7) Baited Langstroth brood chambers, queen excluder, and one honey super can be put out during Primary Swarm occupation season only. If any other time, only a baited brood chamber should be used.
8) If hives are too large, bees will be harassed by pests like wax moths and small and large hive beetles. They use the unoccupied spaces in the hive to breed and increase their numbers. Large hives also promote high humidity and excessive moisture, as bees are unable to control the spacious environment.
9) Proper bee space is imperative to avoid harassment by wax moths who take every opportunity to lay their eggs in spaces too small for bees to police and keep clean. 32mm between starter strips and 16mm between starter strips and the walls of the hives should be observed for African bees.
10) Proper time must be observed: 3-5 minutes before opening or working on hives after smoking them.
11) Hives should be hung at opportune heights so that easy harvesting and rehanging is possible.
12) Position your entryways so they are facing towards the East making the most of the morning light. Hives facing the West will become active a half an hour later.
Entrance to log hive after cover was removed. Notice the 'bee space' left between the comb.
 |  The bees have not found the bars to be spaced correctly to leave them 'bee space.' They have decided to pull their comb perpendicular to the bars. It is a problem harvesting such honey as you cannot inspect the bars. All bars on African Top Bar hives must be 32mm wide exactly.
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Flenki is standing next to his swinging apiary. It is suspended with six wires which are greased to prevent siafu ants from invading the hives. African bees will occupy each of these hives as they are located in prime bee habitat! | 
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