55 Gallon Top Bar Barrel Bee Hive. Learning Beekeeping. Top Bar Hive Lessons Top Bars present several advantages to beekeepers, yet they have drawbacks as well.
Like most things in life, the correct choice is about a trade off. . . Pros:No lifting (except the lid)Low cost to build (This means more honey per hive $ cost)Low cost to maintain (no foundation every year)Better defense to pests (Small hive beetle – Unproven, but my observation. Someone chime in on this or do a study.)No need to buy extractor, uncapping knife, cappings tank and drainerNo storage problem of unused supers during winterMore wax productionWorkable for the impaired or handicap Cons Less honey productionMore maintenance during comb-building timeLimited movabilityBad for cutouts . First – A little on how to build a Top Bar Hive How to Build Top Bars: How to make Top Bars is a tricky business.
Top Bar Beehive Inspection. Make your own Honey Cow (Top Bar Bee Hive) More information: More photos: Beekeeping is an ancient DIY art, performed by amateurs and makers for centuries.
Anyone can produce natural honey at home. People keep bees in many different kinds of hives, but we will focus on a cheap and simple design, called the Honey Cow. The Honey Cow is designed to mimic nature as much as possible. Unlike commercial hives, it does not have frames, foundation or excluders. Once you have a hive, you will want to gather a few extra bits of equipment, like a veil, a smoker, and a bee feeder.
I encourage everyone interested in beekeeping to join a local bee club. Top Bar Hive Design Plans. Top Bar Hive Design Plans Top Bar Hives are Beautiful in Simplicity They are the minimum needed for a movable comb hive.
Elegant in their design, simplistic in their management, and wonderfully inexpensive. Per dollar spent on hives, top bar hives produce more honey than langstroth. For this reason, and their ability to be produced correctly in rural third world locations without power tools, they are the right hive in the hinterlands where the poorest of the poor live. Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.6MB) Top Bars in Texas need a little design change. As for designs… The design I like best is the one from Les Crowder Top Bar Hive Design / Plans I did modify it a bit. The video on how to make them is . . . Be sure to watch my video on how to make your top bars, themselves. and . Beekeeping in Top-Bar Hives (tbh's) An Alternative to Conventional Beekeeping What's New This website is devoted exclusively to collecting and distributing information about beekeeping with top-bar hives (tbh's).
Tbh's offer many beekeepers an inexpensive but satisfying way of keeping bees that produces less (but better) honey and more beeswax. Enjoy your visit to this website, learn about tbh's, and give them a try. These top bar hives are on a stand, which permits them to be worked without bending over.