- Top bar beehives are simple yet very elegant to look at. They look beautiful in the garden while still preserving a natural environment for the bees.
- Because the top bars are foundationless, the bees can build as they please. There’s no foundation telling them how to do their work.
- The beehives are often elevated using legs or a pole, meaning they’re at a comfortable height for the beekeeper.
- Since the top bar hives don’t use boxes, there’s no heavy lifting involved in the process.
- Harvesting is quite easy. It’s a simple lift-cut-replace kind of process—very straightforward.
- They’re usually inexpensive. Not much equipment is needed and the top bar hives are very affordable.
How to assemble a bee built top bar hive?
Materials
- 2 14½-by-12-by-1-inch pieces of lumber (for the hive end pieces)
- 1/2-inch hardware cloth
- 1 10-by-41-by-1-inch piece of lumber (for the hive base)
- 2 12-by-41-by-1-inch pieces of lumber (for the hive sides)
- 28 19-by-1⅜-by-1-inch furring strips (for top bars)
- 1 9-by-43-inch piece of lumber (for the lid)
How to start your top bar hive?
- Top bar beehives are simple yet very elegant to look at. ...
- Because the top bars are foundationless, the bees can build as they please. ...
- The beehives are often elevated using legs or a pole, meaning they’re at a comfortable height for the beekeeper.
- Since the top bar hives don’t use boxes, there’s no heavy lifting involved in the process.
How many beekeepers using top bar hives?
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. This provides the bees with a head-start, of sorts, from which they draw comb.
How to build a simple top bar hive?
Making the top bars
- Measure out as many 19″ marks as you can fit on a board and then cut through the marks with a circular saw. ...
- Set your table saw to rip at exactly 1 3/8″. It’s a good idea to test with scrap pieces first. ...
- Once you’ve cut all 2×4 pieces to 1 3/8″, set the table saw to 3/4″ and rip four bars out of each. ...
What are the advantages of a top bar hive?
AdvantagesSimplicity of DesignEdit. Because of the simplicity of the top bar hive's design, one can be built from readily available salvage materials. ... Price of ConstructionEdit. ... Ease of OperationEdit. ... StorageEdit. ... Bees Wax ProductionEdit. ... Comb Honey ProductionEdit. ... Natural CombEdit.
How does a top bar bee hive work?
1:106:13Introduction to Top Bar Bee Hives - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipEverything is at waist. Level the bees are growing on these slats. Right here. And as you'll see inMoreEverything is at waist. Level the bees are growing on these slats. Right here. And as you'll see in a minute they build that comb down from that slat.
Are top bar hives good?
With a top bar hive, there are no “extra” boxes to store during winter. This will help reduce the likelihood of wax moths overwintering in your hives. The bees inside a top bar beehive overwinter better than bees inside a Langstroth hive.
What does a top bar beehive look like?
1:264:54The Top Bar Hive: key features and benefits - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThis is a frame from a quadratic I've full of sealed brood. And covered in these both sides. AndMoreThis is a frame from a quadratic I've full of sealed brood. And covered in these both sides. And they're going to in their own time they're going to expand the comb either side of the frame.
How do you feed bees in a top bar hive?
4:025:06How to Make a Simple Feeder for a Top Bar Hive - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipYou can use the same board just put a piece of mesh over it so the fondant just doesn't disappearMoreYou can use the same board just put a piece of mesh over it so the fondant just doesn't disappear straight through the whole piece of course mesh over the top here put the fondant on top of the mesh.
How do you start bees in a top bar hive?
Fill the feeder with sugar water and place it in the entrance of the hive so the bees can access it from inside the hive. It is best to feed your bees sugar water at least twice a week for the first three weeks. After that, feed them once a week until they fill one comb with honey.
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 much honey does a top bar hive produce?
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. A top bar hive helps you preserve your back.
How do you harvest honey from a top bar hive?
Harvesting honey using a honey pressOne by one, slice the comb off each top bar using a serrated bread knife or an electric uncapping knife. ... When the hopper is filled, put the lid and screw mechanism in place. ... Remove the crushed wax, clean the filter, and repeat the process until all the combs have been processed.More items...•
How deep is a top bar hive?
12"The depth of the bar and the length of the bar can be whatever the beekeeper wants, but usually between 17" and 20". The depth of the top bar hive should be 12" or less. If deeper, the weight of the comb filled with honey tends to cause it to fall off the bar into the bottom of the hive.
Can you put frames in a top bar hive?
0:0617:28Making Top Bar Brood Frame - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipWhat is unusual here is top bar beehives don't typically have frames they support the come from aMoreWhat is unusual here is top bar beehives don't typically have frames they support the come from a top bar. We're just constructing a frame that will fit into a top bar beehive.
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.
What is a top bar bee hive?
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.
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.
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.
Who invented the Kenyan hive?
Just to keep you guessing, though, the Kenyan hive was actually developed by a Canadian bee researcher and the Tanzanian hive is not the same as the hive originally developed in Tanzania.
Is there interchangeability between top bar hives?
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. The size of the box can vary across numerous dimensions - its height, width, length, plus the angle of the sides.
Do top bar beekeepers use follower boards?
To address this and ensure the bees initially live in a smaller area when first introduced, Top Bar beekeepers often use a follower board.
What is a top bar hive?
Top Bar Hives throughout history. Today’s top bar hives are the modern manifestation of an ancient and very basic beekeeping method. They are beekeeping at its simplest – a protected cavity, with bars placed across the top and spaced appropriately. A popular online depiction of one of the earliest top bar hives is known as the Greek Beehive.
Why are top bar hives good for bees?
Top bar hives are good for the bees because inside them, the bees are able to make their own clean beeswax combs from scratch , just as they have done for millions (literally!) of years. This means clean beeswax - made BY bees, FOR bees. This means your bees will avoid exposure to the chemical contamination in the foundation sheets used in other hive types. We like to melt this concept down into one easy phrase: “It’s All About the Wax!”
How much space do bees need?
Indications are that cavities with a minimum of 40 cubic liters of space, and an entrance of 3 square inches most often seem to meet their discerning requirements. The volume is determined by knowing ...
What is the gold star top bar?
The quintessential feature of the Gold Star top bar hive is… you guessed it… the top bar itself. The top bars make it possible for the beekeeper to lift each comb to inspect for brood, food, and disease symptoms.
What is a hive made of?
The hive body is made of sustainably harvested, solid cypress - a tree that is growing faster than it is being harvested! The kit requires no more tools than a simple Philips head screwdriver and a staple gun to assemble it. All the holes are pre-drilled, and the assembly instructions are clear and easy to follow.
What is the space between the wax combs of a bee hive?
Bees need “bee space” – this is the space between the wax combs of the hive. It is essentially a “hallway” between combs, and its dimension is important for supporting the science of heating, cooling, and air circulation being managed by the bees inside the hive.
What is the Greek beehive?
A popular online depiction of one of the earliest top bar hives is known as the Greek Beehive. This image is found in The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting by Eva Crane. The design features of a modern top bar hive are based on some core facts about the needs and behaviors of honey bees:
Why do bees need a top bar hive?
The top bar hive helps reduce this whole problem in a very simple but effective way. When the bees build their cells the natural size , which they will do in the top bar hive, they’re just the right size for the developing honeybee.
How does a top bar bee hive differ from a Langstroth bee hive?
The top bar hive differs from the Langstroth both in how the bees build their combs and in how we harvest the honey. Top bar hives have a protective roof. Under that roof, along the top of the hive, are 24 removable wooden bars. (That’s what gives the hive its name.)
How does a Langstroth hive work?
To provide the energy to do so, they consume honey. The Langstroth hive acts almost like a chimney. It is a stack of boxes, and since heat rises, most of the warm air rises to the top. This makes it hard for the bees to keep the lower sections of the Langstroth hive warm.
How to keep bees in Langstroth hives?
To keep bees with Langstroth hives, you’ll need a place to store this equipment, along with the extra hive boxes, and the frames and combs from which you extracted the honey, until you are ready to use them again. Storing the combs also invites a problem with wax moths.
How to harvest honey from a top bar hive?
All you have to do is cut the honey comb off of the starter strip with a kitchen knife, mash it to open up the honey cells and use cheesecloth as a strainer to separate the wax from the honey.
Why is the top bar hive better than the Langstroth hive?
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. The Langstroth hive acts almost like a chimney.
What is the best hive for bees?
Even if you’ve never kept bees yourself, you’ve probably seen Langstroth hives. Although Langstroths are the most widely used hive among commercial and hobbyist beekeepers, there’s another type of hive which offers a number of important advantages, particularly to the homesteader or small-scale beekeeper. This is the top bar hive.
What is the difference between a top bar hive and a top bar hive?
A top bar hive, on the other hand, is self-contained, which means fewer options for expansion.
How many bars does a top bar bee hive need?
This size will need 28 bars. If your main box is smaller or larger, you’ll need less or more top bars. There is one useful option most top bar beekeepers will recommend that you look into: namely, a follower board. As I said earlier, it’s not easy to expand a top bar hive because it’s basically one box.
Why do bees build combs?
Because there’s no pre-made foundation, the bees can build the combs as they like, often mimicking their natural environment. So if you’re into beekeeping for other benefits, such as pollination and preserving the species, top bar hives are for you.
What do beekeepers use to keep bees away?
Some beekeepers do, however, use a solution of water and a couple of drops of cider vinegar or essential oils. This is just to spray the bees to keep them at bay. Top-bar beekeeping is also more generous on the bank account.
How to harvest honey from a hive?
To harvest the honey, take out one top bar at a time, and cut the comb off. Place the bar back into the hive to let the bees build more. How much you should harvest at a time depends on the season. A summer harvest should consist of only a few bars.
Why do you need a top bar hive?
Another reason to choose a top bar hive is that it’s easier on your back. Horizontal top bar hives are often elevated to a good height and there are no heavy boxes to lift. Conventional honey supers, which you find with box-style hives, can weigh up to 80 pounds.
What is the best part of a bee hive?
The Legs. For the beekeeper prone to back problems, this is probably the most useful component on the top bar hive. The legs elevate the beehive to a comfortable waist height, resulting in a better beekeeping experience, with less bending.
What is a top bar bee hive?
The components of the top bar hive are the result of years of fine-tuning the design throughout the 1960s and 70s. Contained within the main body of the hive is the aforementioned 30 degree slope and a covering over the top bars, which can be hinged or removable. There may also be an observation window, which can swing open to allow the beekeeper to view comb without disturbing the colony at all.
When were top bar hives invented?
The top-bar hives that are widely used today – and some of the principles behind them – were developed in the mid-20th century, although the history does not begin there. The earliest example of the top-bar method, that we are aware of, was practiced in 17th century Greece. These top-bar hives were barrel-shaped with the bars across the top opening. Interestingly, unlike most modern top bars, these hives were easily portable, which you might think would be a good feature for modern hives, prioritize, as they do, the minimal disturbance of bees.
Why is the top bar important?
The Top-bar mimics bees’ natural habitat – This can be thought of as the biggest advantage because it is surely for this reason that most beekeepers opt for this hive. Bees like to build uninhibited catenary combs – this hive lets them.
When it comes time to harvest honey, what innovations come in handy?
When it comes time to harvest honey (and, if you like, beeswax), innovations like the observation window come in very handy. The first thing to note is, like any other hive, whether the colony has made enough surplus honey for you to harvest. With a top-bar hive, however, there are a few peculiarities to this stage.
Do you need a centrifuge for a bee hive?
You might be noticing a pattern here – top-bar hives rely less on equipment than any other type of hive. For one thing, there is no need for a centrifuge to extract the honey as it is more often strained out of the crushed wax combs. Indeed, most honey centrifuges are designed with the frames of a Langstroth hive in mind. Some beekeepers also neglect to use a smoker with these hives, as the minimal disturbance when checking or harvesting means the bees remain calm. That said, a spray bottle of water infused with sugar, essential oils, or vinegar can perform a similar function to a much lesser degree.
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.
What is the horizontal hive body?
Hive Body. The horizontal hive body is angled to hold the catenary curve of naturally build comb and is long enough to hold all a healthy hive needs : lots and lots of bees, comb, pollen, brood, propolis, honey, etc.
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.
Why do beekeepers paint their roofs white?
In hotter climates, many beekeepers will paint the roof white to reflect some of the heat from the sun. In cooler climates, many beekeepers will paint the roof black to help hold the heat. Depending on the style, some roofs are hinged and lift open. Others, like mine, lift off completely.
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.
How to calm bees?
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. When you’re ready, lift or remove the lid.
What is the difference between a beehive and a Langstroth?
The beehive dimensions are wider but shorter than the more common Langstroth.
What is a top bar hive?
We talk a lot about top bar hives over here at Bee Built, and for good reason!
Where do I get a top bar hive?
Our favorite top bar hive is the Golden Mean Hive, crafted by our friends at Backyard Hive. After noticing how productive bees were in hives built in the “Golden Mean” proportion, Corwin Bell developed this hive which inspires productive and healthy hive colonies.
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 do I manage a top bar hive?
Bees are remarkably intelligent creatures--they’ve been minding their own beeswax for millennia. What does this mean for beekeepers? It means that caring for bees requires “less work than a dog, more than a goldfish.”
What should I be doing in the winter?
As winter approaches, make sure your hive has sufficient honey stores (about 30-50 lbs here in Portland, Oregon). During winter, a small population of bees ball up at the center of the hive, moving through as a group and eating honey and pollen stores.
How do I harvest honey?
Honey harvest in a top bar hive is straightforward and requires few tools. Simply cut the comb from the top bars, crush it, and strain it. For more details on honey harvesting from a top bar hive, click here.
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 th...
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. …