Top Bar Hive - an alternative to the langstroth hive
The top bar hive is not a new invention. There are historical references to the top bar hive dating back to the 1600's. Most of today's top bar hives are derived from work done in the 1960's. It was perfected for use in Kenya, Africa, and is also referred to as the Kenya Top Bar Hive. Today it is also used in many other developing countries because of its simple design and cost effective management methods. In recent years it has become more popular in the United States.
The traditional Langstroth hive consists of several boxes called supers and many other parts that are difficult to build and expensive to buy. In addition to the hive, the Langstroth hive requires many other pieces of equipment to harvest honey and manage your bees.
Top Bar Hive Advantages
The top bar hive has only a few components: the hive body (box), 20 to 30 top bars (frames), and a cover. That's all you will ever need. Compare that to your Langstroth hive. Bees build their own comb which eliminates the need for complicated frames. The top bars are re-used after the harvest.The top bar hive is also healthier for your bees. To inspect your bees, you will not have to take the whole hive apart. Hence, your bees will be less disturbed by your presence and inspecting of the comb.
To harvest your honey, you simply remove the bars with honeycomb. Not only is the top bar hive less stressful to harvest for you, it also does not disturb the bees as much. In addition to honey, the top bar hive has more beeswax to harvest. You also do not need a honey extractor/centrifuge or uncapping knife which saves you thousands of dollars. Smoking is almost unnecessary and many top bar hive users do not wear protective clothing either. (For the beginner I do advise to use some kind of protection, gloves and veil.) Once you remove the honey comb, the bees will go about their business as usual. Try that on a Langstroth hive.
The top bar hive is designed for the bees' optimal living conditions. This makes a colony much stronger and enables it to fight off pests and diseases on their own, much better than in a Langstroth hive. Besides healthier bees this will save you hundreds of dollars in medication as well as disappointment.
The top bar hive is not designed for maximum honey production. For the hobby beekeeper a few pounds less honey are well worth the ease of management. But you will harvest more beeswax with a top bar hive. Any hobbyist should have more of an interest in keeping healthy bees than in squeezing out a few more pounds of honey from a stressed, overworked colony. With just one top bar hive, you will still have more than enough honey for your whole family and friends.
Resources
If you are already asking yourself where to buy a top bar hive, here is the answer: You can purchase a complete top bar hive or get just construction plans on www.NetShed.com
For more information on bees check my website about the Top Bar Hive.
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