Top-Bar Beekeeping

Don’t you love the Internet. We then followed different backlinks on bee blog sites and found myself searching the Dave Loveless site, an Alaskan beekeeper. I posted a comment also to reduce an extended tale short this triggered him providing to write various words on their experiences for the horizontal Top Bar Hive (TBH).

His review is rather delightful along with his photographs superb. I hope you-all appreciate it in so far as I did. Numerous, thanks Dave.

Roger asked me recently easily would-be prepared to do a review over the top club Hives. To tell the truth, truth be told there aren’t that lots of people on the market, and I fell into Top taverns very unintentionally. First, a history….

I obtained into beekeeping in the past whenever, while walking across the street, I saw a neighbor buddy on the front porch painting a number of huge wooden squares. Intrigued, I asked that which was up, and got the clear answer of “beehives!” My first response ended up being akin to Kevin in Home Alone. Practical either side of my mind, screaming in panic. My very after that effect would be to believe exactly how cool.

Throughout the the following year roughly, I studied and wondered about this. I quickly made objective because of the support of my wife to start next springtime (per year someday) simply to randomly satisfy some guy just who persuaded us to move that schedule up about 11 months, that I performed. A panicked-month later, and I had been a beekeeper!

Presently I run five Langstroth hives of Carniolans in my backyard, and I discover the experience become one of the most enjoyable and soothing things I’ve ever done. Absolutely nothing rather tops a quite summer evening out in beeyard.

The 2009 springtime, we persuaded dad to join into the fun. He retired this present year and needed a spare time activity. Final fall, he joined up with me on hives during an inspection, additionally the knowledge stayed with him. But father being father and entering pension, the two of us understood that lifting 100-pound supers just wasn’t gonna work. For This Reason Top Bars. He’s already been keeping two Top Bars since April, and I’ve aided him repeatedly inside the hives. Unfortuitously, that is the limit of my knowledge, and it also’s admittedly brief. Still, it's experience….

Picture: honeybees creating their very own all-natural comb in Top Bar Hive

I’ll summarize the professionals of Top club Hives in three areas: body weight, Simplicity, and Access.

Body weight— compared to lifting the full Langstroth Deep system, Top Bars are feather loads. A Deep can strike close to 100 pounds while a normal Top Bar might be planning max out around 15, maybe 20 pounds. At most. To make clear, the patient top taverns tend to be about the same fat as deep frames, you never need to carry the complete human body. If you lifted the complete hive, not merely would it not be a-two guy job, nonetheless it could be much more substantial than a Langstroth. The real difference is that with a premier club, often the most you would ever before lift is one bar, and also you don’t have actually hive bodies to go around.

Simplicity—Top Bars are much more prevalent within the under developed, specially Africa (a primary reason that they are called Kenyan Top Bars. A variant, with vertical sides, is known as a Tanzanian Hive.) since they're easy to develop and cheap. In a Top club, you probably have only a box and pubs. That’s about it. My dad’s hives even use a generic little bit of plywood given that address. If it breaks, he just goes and gets another from the lumber shop.

Access—Top pubs are horizontal hives and additionally they can be put at a level which convenient for your needs. My dad’s hives tend to be arranged to ensure that we can remain and work the hives without bending over. Besides, my dad’s hives have actually a window set into the side that allows him to take an instant look in the hive without starting it. For him, that takes proper care of the near continual fascination without needing to disturb the bees and gives him the chance to show the hives to interested next-door neighbors.