So originally we ordered plans to build our Top Bar Hive. Upon reading and studying the plans, and discussing where to locate the 12"wide cedar boards and Plexiglas, the Laird and I both decided it would be much easier to just order the kit of pre-cut & pre-drilled parts for a top bar hive. Though it cost a bit more than building from scratch, we know this route was much less of a headache.
Bee Thinking has been a great resource for our beekeeping needs. I have been very pleased with the quality of their products and excellent customer service. Check them out! I got a wonderful book from them called, "Top Bar Beekeeping" by Les Crowder. Though I have read a couple books about Top Bar Beekeeping, this one had valuable information that I hadn't read in the other 2 books. It has wonderful color photos too!We have a few steps left until the hive is fully assembled and ready for bees. We will have to wait until spring to get our bees and start this journey.
This hive took about an hour to put together. The hive is made of Western White Cedar. It has a wooden top/ lid and a screened bottom. It also has a hinged observation window.
For those new to the topic, there are 3 main types of hives used in the United States. The Langstroth Hive is the most common hive- it is made of stacked boxes. The Top Bar Hive. And the Warre Hive.
The Top Bar Hive tends to provide a more natural method of beekeeping, for a few different reasons. The shape of the top bar hive mimics a hollow log that bees would often naturally build their hives in. Another reason is that unlike Langstroth hives that have frames & foundation for bees to build their comb, the top bar hive simply has top bars. These bars have a small ridge that the bees build their comb on from top to bottom. Rather than building comb cells upon a foundation with pre-designed cell sizes, they are able to do what they know how to do and make the cells sized for the different brood that will hold them (workers, drones and queens). This small detail supposedly makes a difference in that the bees fit their cell perfectly, rather than an imperfect pre-set cell size- which may account for the rise of wax moths. Just a speculation I read about. Top bar bee keeping tends to try to keep things all natural and beekeepers try to avoid using pesticides and miticides as well. Another factor for maintaining the health of the hive is the fact that you harvest the honey and wax together every time- which means the bees are constantly building new comb, and therefore lessens the chances of disease and pests storing up in old comb. Though this contributes to the fact that Top Bar Hives yield less honey than Langstroth hives, we are not entirely concerned as we expect to have more honey than we know what to do with from this hive.
Our hive has an open/ screened bottom which helps monitor ventilation within the hive, and also facilitates inspection for mites. The hive also has a cool observation window on the side, which allows friends and visitors to peek into the hive without fear of getting too close to the bees. The few times I have seen been through an observation window have been fascinating.
We are heading out to our first local beekeepers meeting this weekend. They will be discussing bees wax and how to utilize it. I am excited for this topic as Top Bar bee keeping yields lots of wax, since you harvest the wax and honey together (as opposed to reusing the wax with Langstroth beekeeping). We will also find out more about ordering a package of bees or a nuc for the spring.
I still have to finish the hive with a protective coat of Tung Oil. In time, there will be more on bees and beekeeping to document this exciting journey. This Top Bar Hive is quite fancy. An observation window. A screened bottom. A hinged, gable roof. Made of beautiful white cedar. Our bees are going to be living in style. I can't wait to see what it looks like with the tung oil finish!
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