Top Bar hives are about as close as we can get to a moveable frame natural hive. The bees are able to spread their combs on a horizontal axis. This means that every comb is attached to the bars which are the roof of the hive. This helps the bees conserve heat.
Full Answer
What are the advantages of a top bar beehive?
Better Overwintering. Because the top bar hive is horizontal, it holds heat much better than the Langstroth hive, and this makes it easier for the bees to overwinter. During cold weather, bees have to actively work to keep the hive warm. To provide the energy to do so, they consume honey.
How do you feed bees in a top bar hive?
Jar Feeders We recommend you place your jar feeder on the floor of the hive toward the back, either on the same side of the divider as your bees, or you can cut a hole in the bottom of one of the dividers and put the feeder on the opposite side.
How do you manage a top bar hive?
In a horizontal top bar hive, the bees will expand from the side out rather than vertically into stacking boxes. As the colony grows, slide the divider board, like a moving wall, down the hive cavity and add empty bars. In the height of beekeeping season, we recommend staying 3 bars ahead of their built out comb.
How much honey does a top bar hive produce?
In 2016 established top bar colonies produced about the same, 62 lbs (28.1 kg), on average. However, if the top bar hive was empty enough (had plenty of storage room), some colonies gained 80 – 90 lbs (36.3 – 40.8 kgs), provided the colony was ready for honey production.
Do you need a queen excluder in a top bar hive?
Queen excluders are not a typical component of top bar hives. Natural queen exclusion happens due to the design of the hives. Top bar hives cause bees to store honey in one section of the available space and brood in another area.
How do you prepare a top bar hive for winter?
0:257:07HOW TO WINTERIZE YOUR GOLD STAR TOP BAR HIVE - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThe first thing is a Goldstar hive comes with a removable. Bottom. It's held on by 4 L brackets 2 onMoreThe first thing is a Goldstar hive comes with a removable. Bottom. It's held on by 4 L brackets 2 on each end and four Phillips head screws. If you've had your bottom board off during the summer.
How many bars do you need to start a top bar hive?
When you get your bees you should install them at one end of the hive with the follower boards spaced so that 8-12 bars are accessible to the colony.
How do you harvest honey from a top bar hive?
5:367:16Extracting honey from a top bar hive - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSo. So this this is a valuable asset this will give them an empty comb to fill up with honey theyMoreSo. So this this is a valuable asset this will give them an empty comb to fill up with honey they won't have to rebuild that comb.
Can you put frames in a top bar hive?
In the case of your top bar hive, you should first decide how many frames you will use to start. So if you use your follower board to shorten the hive to, say, 14 frames total, put the empty brood frames in the center of the 14, and put honey on both sides.
Should you harvest honey the first year?
You should never plan to harvest in your first year, but you can expect to pull anywhere from 25 - 100 lbs of honey from an established colony in a successful year.
How many times a year can you get honey from a hive?
Honey can be harvested around two to three times a season depending on climate and nectar flow, and from mid-summer to the beginning of fall. You should not harvest honey during the first year of the beehive because the colony is still growing and working on its honey production.
How big should a top bar hive be?
The length is important. The box itself should be at least 3 feet long, but larger is preferred. Any less and our bees face the risk of filling the box before they have a chance to cap any honey. This means you don't have the chance to harvest any honey, to free space which, in turn, means your bees may well swarm.
How do you get honey from a top-bar hive?
The most popular method of harvesting honey from a top-bar hive is by cutting the comb from the top-bar, crushing the comb and straining the honey. This results in honey with a higher pollen content than honey that is extracted by flinging out without crushing the comb.
How do you fill a bee top feeder?
2:173:36Fall Feeding with Hive Top Feeder and ProSweet Syrup - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipJust pour the syrup. In fills up the cavity. Fill up the other. Side. And that is all I have to doMoreJust pour the syrup. In fills up the cavity. Fill up the other. Side. And that is all I have to do to my feeding. So I'll put a lid on this.
What is the best way to feed your bees?
Medium to strong bee colonies can be fed dry white table sugar placed on hive mats or in-trays under the hive lid. Bees need water to liquefy the sugar crystals. They will source water from outside the hive or use condensation from inside the hive.
Where do you put bee feeders in hive?
To use a hive top feeder, place it on top of the upper brood box, under the outer cover. An empty hive box is often placed around the feeder for added protection from the weather and robber bees. Because hive top feeders are protected from the sun you can add medication to the syrup if necessary.
How Does A Top Bar Hive Work?
The top serves to protect the hive contents from rain and wind and the box contains the bars of comb, suspended from a frame. Each bar can be removed individually so the beekeeper can inspect the comb. The box is elevated on the legs, typically coming up to waist height.
Where do top bar hives come from?
The Ancient Greeks had a variation, which employs terra cotta pots. The modern iterations of the top bar hive come from Africa, with two notable models: the Kenyan and the Tanzanian. A Canadian researcher developed the Kenyan hive (in Kenya), which is a box with sloped sides and the Tanzanian model has a rectangular box. If you’re handy with a hammer and saw you can find detailed plans for building your own.
What is the mite that destroys bees?
When you start beekeeping, you get acquainted with the varroa mite early on. These tiny creatures cause big destruction in bee populations. There is research showing mite reproductive capabilities were reduced in hives with smaller brood cell sizes.
How to harvest honey from a Langstroth hive?
Harvesting honey from a Langstroth hive requires special tools: hot knife or capping fork, capping tank, and honey extractor. With a top bar hive, you simply remove the bar, slice the comb off of the wooden frame and you can harvest the honey using a strainer and cheesecloth, items most people have on hand in their kitchen.
How much does a bar of honey weigh?
When you get a top bar hive, analyzing the hive contents and harvesting honey is easy. Each bar, depending on how much honey is inside, can weigh 3-8 pounds. A full Langstroth box can be upwards of 50-80 pounds.
Can you harvest honey from a top bar hive?
If your main motivation for beekeeping is honey production and you plan to possibly package and sell it in jars, a top bar hive is likely not for you. You can still harvest honey, but if you plan to sell it for a portion of your income, you will be able to harvest more with a Langstroth.
Can you add more bars to an apiary?
A top bar hive is self-contained and has a limited amount of bars affixed to the inside. You cannot add additional bars beyond its original capacity.
What is top bar beekeeping?
Many beekeepers will use top bars that have a small "comb guide" hanging down. This provides the bees with a head-start, of sorts, from which they draw comb. Like the Warre, the use of top bars means a foundationless hive, which is very attractive to those following natural beekeeping principles.
Why do top bar hives have a single box?
Because it uses a single box, there is less of a requirement for precision engineering, since there is no need to accurately match the dimensions of other components. There are two broad types of Top Bar hives available, although this distinction is not always referenced when buying a Top Bar hive.
What is a single box beehive?
The single box houses a number of "top bars" (hence the name). Bees build comb directly down from each of these. This means that the beekeeper inspects the Top Bar hive a comb at a time. This contrasts strongly with the other two designs where beekeepers effectively inspect a box at a time.
What is a top bar box?
The Top Bar box is where most of the variations of these hives is evident, across suppliers. Aside from the slanted vs. rectangular sides difference between the Kenyan and Tanzanian hives, there are no particular standards for the length or depth of the box. Though this means there is less interchangeability between Top Bar manufacturers, this is not a significant factor since Top Bar hives are self-contained and therefore have few expansion options.
What is the top of a bee hive?
The top is a hinged design that protects the hive from rain and wind.
How many top bars are there in a bee hive?
The number of top bars the hive will accommodate varies with the width of the box but, as a reference, a 42" box will use 28 top bars. Many beekeepers will use top bars that have a small "comb guide" hanging down.
How long should a honey box be?
The box itself should be at least 3 feet long , but larger is preferred. Any less and our bees face the risk of filling the box before they have a chance to cap any honey. This means you don't have the chance to harvest any honey, to free space which, in turn, means your bees may well swarm.
Why do honeybees have top bars?
With growing concerns about colony collapse disorder and the resulting decline in the number of pollinators, gardeners might consider maintaining a top-bar hive of honeybees simply to increase vegetable and fruit yields through better pollination.
What is top bar beekeeping?
Top-bar beekeeping is for both urban and rural dwellers who want to keep bees on a modest scale, producing honey and beeswax . Above all, top-bar beekeeping is for people who love bees and understand and appreciate their role in the pollination of many wild and cultivated plants. -Advertisement-. If your goal is to obtain ...
How do bees get honey from a hive?
In a top-bar hive, the bees are encouraged to build their wax comb (which holds the cells they fill with honey or developing bees) from a thin strip of “starter wax” applied to the wooden bars, which simply rest across the top of the box that forms the hive. To extract honey from this wax comb, you crush it in a strainer and allow the honey to drain into a jar.
What are bee hives made of?
Nearly all conventional beehives in use in the United States and Europe are similar. They consist of rectangular wooden boxes containing removable wooden frames holding preformed “foundation” for the bees to build wax comb on, plus a floor and a roof. The queen bee lays eggs in this comb, and the bees store some pollen (their protein source) and honey in the comb. Other wooden boxes, called “supers,” with (usually) smaller frames, are stacked on top to store most of the honey crop.
What is the best way to keep bees?
Keeping Bees: Using the Top-Bar Beekeeping Method. Conventional methods of keeping bees are effective, but top bar beekee ping is simpler, less expensive, gives bees a greater degree of freedom, and still leaves you with honey and pollinated crops. By Phil Chandler. In top bar beekeeping, the comb must be handled carefully so it doesn’t break away ...
Why do we need bees?
We need bees for more than honey and tree fruit crops. Bees also pollinate squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries and other crops in our gardens. Beekeeping is a great hobby, whether you keep bees for pollination, honey, profit, medicinal uses, or all of the above.
What do bees store in their combs?
The queen bee lays eggs in this comb, and the bees store some pollen (their protein source) and honey in the comb. Other wooden boxes, called “supers,” with (usually) smaller frames, are stacked on top to store most of the honey crop.
Why are top bar bee hives designed with a removable bottom board?
Most top bar hives are designed with a removable bottom board and mesh bottom to assist with environmental regulation and mite monitoring.
What is a top bar hive?
It is a horizontal hive, enabling beekeepers to inspect the entirety of the hive without moving heavy supers. There are several different top bar hive styles.
Why are the bee comb bars tapered?
Typically, the bars are tapered and beveled at the bottom encouraging the bees to build their comb straight along each bar. They’re designed to provide the appropriate amount of bee space between comb sections as well as between the comb and the hive body.
How to remove a propolis comb?
When you’re ready, lift or remove the lid. Start at one side and remove one bar. If bars are stuck with propolis, use the hive tool to gently release it. Lift it straight up and rotate to view both sides of the comb. Be very careful to keep the comb vertical. If it tips to one side or another the weight of it will cause it to fall off the top bar and be destroyed, along with its contents. Replace that bar in the same orientation as it was removed and move on to the next one . See this video for a demonstration on handling the bars without dropping the comb.
How to calm bees in a hive?
Are the bees buzzing low and rhythmically or higher pitched and more frantically? Frantic, high pitched buzzing means they’re already stressed and you may want to come back later. If you like, use smoke or sugar water spray to calm the bees. Note that if you use smoke, it’s a good idea to puff some into the entrance, but that in doing so, you will cause the bees to think there’s a fire and in response, they will start to eat their honey stores.
What is the difference between a top bar beehive and a Langstroth beehive?
The beehive dimensions are wider but shorter than the more common Langstroth.
What is the best day to put on bee gear?
Next, and still before you put on the bee gear, check the weather. A warm, sunny day is ideal because most of the foragers will be out doing their foraging thing – meaning you’re less likely to be stung. With bee gear finally on, be sure to avoid standing in front of the entrance.
WHY USE A TOP BAR HIVE?
With a horizontal top bar hive, beekeepers don’t have to lift heavy boxes, purchase an expensive honey extractor, use foundation full of chemicals, or agitate the bees as much as box-style hives when managing the colony. Traditional honey supers and deeps can weigh upwards of 50 pounds each, which takes its toll on the body of the beekeeper. The heaviest comb you’ll need to lift with this style is a single 3-7 pound, honey-laden top bar. They do not require honey supers, extra frames, foundation, queen excluders, uncapping knives, extractors or other expensive tools; they can be incredibly easy to manage by intrepid beekeepers.
WHAT MAKES BEE Built TOP BAR HIVES SPECIAL?
The finest hives begin with top-quality lumber. We're proud to offer lumber options that are not only ideal for housing bees, but are environmentally conscious and long-lasting. All of our wood options are FSC certified®. That means they come from forests that are strictly audited to promote growth, protect ecosystems, protect indigenous rights, support surrounding communities and prohibit illegal logging. We don’t compromise our environmental standards when we source our wood, and we don’t compromise quality either. Our woods are stable, long-lasting, and provide excellent insulation for bees. All are harvested just a few hours from our mill in the Pacific Northwest. Whatever wood you choose, you're choosing a hive that is not only kind to the bees, but kind to the environment.
What is wedge top?
Wedge top bars have proven to be the most effective design to promote straight comb attachment and longevity. Our wedge bars are made from a single piece of wood without any need for glue or staple construction, allowing for optimum quality and stability. We manufacture our bars on precision equipment, and have used and trusted them for years in our own apiary. Bee Built top bars for the horizontal hive are designed to lay flush against one another along the top of the hive cavity. Appropriate bee space of ⅜” is preserves between the wedge comb guides.
How to harvest honey from a top bar hive?
Honey harvest in a top bar hive is simple with few tools needed. You will simply cut the comb from the top bars, crush and strain. Alternately, you can make a simple bucket strainer system using food grade buckets.
How big are top bar hives?
In our experience, colonies outgrow horizontal hives shorter than 36”. Our hive bodies are 40” long, 18" wide and about 19" deep allowing ample honey storage space to support the colony through winter with excess for the beekeeper to harvest.
How heavy is a honey comb?
The heaviest comb you’ll need to lift with this style is a single 3-7 pound, honey-laden top bar. They do not require honey supers, extra frames, foundation, queen excluders, uncapping knives, extractors or other expensive tools; they can be incredibly easy to manage by intrepid beekeepers.
Where were top bar hives used?
There is evidence they were once used in Greece in the form of a pot or basket with sticks laid across the top. They are one of the most basic methods of managing bees as they are simple to build, simple to manage, and are more advanced than a skep or cavity from which the comb cannot be easily removed.
Comparing A Top Bar Hive To A Langstroth Hive
A top-bar hive is a more natural hive shape. If we look at a wild hive, they arrange their combs along a lengthwise axis. This means that the roof of the hive is a natural barrier to the loss of heat from the brood nest.
Types Of Top Bar Hives
There are so many types of top bar hives out there. The reason for this is that a top bar hive is a non-standardized unit. A Langstroth hive has a standard design that has a specific specification sheet for all measurements. Much like a Langstroth hive, a top bar hive employs bee space – however, this is where the similarity ends.
Beautiful Designs
A top bar hive looks nice in your garden. This is a particularly beautiful hive. Made from Ceder wood – which is naturally weatherproof wood, the build quality is exceptional. Ceder wood is one of my favorite timbers – it does not warp much, and it does not rot.
Top Bar Hive With Langstroth Frames
If you want to have a horizontal hive, but use Langstroth frames, you can design a square “horizontal” hive. This has some advantages as the bees love the lack of vertical dimensions in the hive, and you can still extract honey. With a normal top bar hive, you have to cut comb honey but cannot spin the combs as the combs have no reinforcing wires.
Top Bar Hive and Bee Genetics
Top bar hives typically have an entrance at one, or both ends of the box. Side entrances do not work. The bees are able to easily ventilate hives which have end entrances. The bees will reduce and expand the entrance holes as needed using propolis.
Top Bar Bee Hive Ventilation
I have had friends who have tried to keep races such as Italian bees in Top Bar hives in northern locations. This appeared to be a lot of work, as they had to keep sealing and unsealing entrance holes. These bees struggle to do this on their own.
Why are top bars so common?
A variant, with vertical sides, is known as a Tanzanian Hive.) because they are simple to build and cheap. In a Top Bar, you really only have a box and bars. That’s about it. My dad’s hives even use a generic piece of plywood as the cover. If it breaks, he just goes and gets another one from the lumber store.
How much weight can you lift with a top bar?
A Deep can hit close to 100 pounds while a normal Top Bar is probably going to max out around 15, maybe 20 pounds. At the most. To clarify, the individual top bars are about the same weight as deep frames, but you never have to lift the whole body. If you lifted the entire hive, not only would it be a two man job, but it would be much heavier than a Langstroth. The difference is that with a top bar, typically the most you would ever lift is a single bar, and you don’t have hive bodies to move around.
What is access bar?
Access —Top Bars are horizontal hives and they can be placed at a height that is convenient for you. My dad’s hives are set up so that we can stand and work the hives without bending over. In addition, my dad’s hives have a window set into the side that allows him to take a quick glance inside the hive without opening it up. For him, that takes care of the near constant curiosity without needing to disturb the bees and gives him the opportunity to show the hives to curious neighbors.
Do top bars produce less honey than other hives?
I have a few complaints about this idea, namely that bees eat honey no matter what (and therefore have the ability to produce wax) and that honey production is more a matter of population, not existing wax. Yes, having the wax already there is a good thing, but it isn’t the only or even primary consideration in honey production. My opinion, of course, and what was that thing about five beekeepers and six answers?
Do top bars have hives?
However, Top Bars are not “normal” hives. It’s hard to find mentors that can help you work through hive-specific issues. If you’re a beginner, that can be a problem.
Do top bars produce more wax?
Some beekeepers like that, some don’t. Personally, I like the idea that the wax is naturally rotated in each harvest. If you like to gather wax, Top Bars will always produce more wax than other hives.
Is a top bar a good choice for beekeeping?
For my dad, the weight issues and the desire to keep bees in a simple, observable way, made a top bar with a window an easy choice, but it is not the right choice for every beekeeper.
What is a top bar hive?
We talk a lot about top bar hives over here at Bee Built, and for good reason!
How do I install my bees?
When you get your bees you should install them at one end of the hive with the follower boards spaced so that 8-12 bars are accessible to the colony.
How much honey do you get per hive?
Design. In this prairie region of Canada honey crops of 200 pounds per hive is considered normal and 250 – 300 quite common. My own record was 516 pounds average so we deemed it necessary to allow for supers to be added. Many years ago I had a hive on a scale and weighed it every day after the bees had stopped flying in the evening. On one occasion the daily gain was 29 pounds with 106 pounds for the week.
Do combs get stuck to sidewalls?
Performance. In spite of what the books say about the combs not being stuck to the sidewalls, they do, and had to be cut free at every inspection. Compared with other colonies in the same apiary the colony seemed to be progressing well, especially bearing in mind they had a major setback when they lost the majority of their brood. Then they lost the swarm.
Can you raise queens at the back of a TBH?
Most importantly to me, I have demonstrated that it is possible to raise queens at the back of a TBH without making the colony queenless.
Introduction
History
- The Top Bar hive has an interesting history. Its underlying principles have been used for hundreds of years, but it is often positioned as a relatively new hive design. Most consider its beginnings to come from the 1960's, in Africa. As we will see, the box design is very simple, which speaks to its popularity in developing countries where complex manufacturing plants are not always an optio…
Design Intent
- The Top Bar hive is designed with the beekeeper in mind, both in terms of the construction effort and the management of the hive once installed. At a high level, it is effectively a "box on legs, with a cover". While this obscures some of the effort involved in manufacturing a Top Bar, this simplicity is one reason it has been so popular. Unlike the Langstroth and Warre, the Top Bar is c…
Design Overview
- The Top Bar has three main sections. From bottom to top... 1. Legs: Elevates the entire hive to a convenient waist-high level, making for one of the most comfortable experiences available to the beekeeper 2. Box: A single box in which all the action takes place 3. Top: To protect the hive from the elements Let's take a look at these in more detail.
Individual Components
- Legs
Nothing complex here! The legs are often just four crossed legs, using a wood suitable to take the weight of a fully loaded box.
Options
- Langstroth beehives generally start off small and are expanded simply by adding boxes. This ensures that the bees have a well-defined, relatively small area in which to start building comb. This isn't so easy with a Top Bar hive since there is just one box, the same size whether you just introduced your bees or you have a mature colony. To address this and ensure the bees initially l…
Summary
- Pros
1. Self-contained: The Top Bar is a wonderfully straightforward and simple design, with everything you - and your bees - need in one elegant package 2. Convenient for the beekeeper: The waist-high box is extremely easy to access 3. No heavy lifting:The box uses relatively light top bars, from w… - Cons
1. Expansion options. Since the Top Bar is a self-contained unit it has a pre-determined, non-expandable capacity 2. Lower honey yield: The single box has less capacity than a multi-box Langstroth or Warre hive. The Top Bar hive is not focused on large-scale production of honey 3. …
Natural vs. Industrial Beekeeping
- Beekeeping does not have to be complicated. And you need none of the stuff in those glossy supply catalogs to keep healthy, happy, and productive bees. Nearly all conventional beehives in use in the United States and Europe are similar. They consist of rectangular wooden boxes containing removable wooden frames holding preformed “foundation” for the bees to build wax …
Top-Bar Hive Design
- Top-bar hives have been used for thousands of years and are still popular in developing countries. I created a top-bar hive design with sloping sides and side entrances. The hive boxes are 36 to 48 inches long. The hives are 18 inches wide (outside measurement at the top) by 12 inches deep, measured at the ends. The trapezoidal shape is close to the natural shape of the comb. It’s stron…
Managing A Top-Bar Hive
- In many ways, managing a top-bar hive is easier than managing a framed hive — but you can’t ignore the bees completely. To get started, you can capture a swarm and put it in the hive or buy a package of bees (about $80) from a beekeeping supply company. Sometimes, bees will naturally swarm to an empty top-bar hive and populate it. To attract a swar...
Use Honey to Make Mead
- If you keep bees, you can use some of the honey from your hives to make mead. Not many drinks can boast the long and illustrious history of mead — most likely the first fermented beverage known. When honey combines with water and yeast, a delightful reaction occurs. For the home-brewer, mead is one of the easiest wines to make. Traditional mead is a little on the sweet side, …