I started beekeeping this spring and have yet to actually have any bees. Still, learning about and preparing fo my bees is taking up a lot of my brain energy. I dream almost every night about bees.
I check my automated digest site: Beekeeping Digest regularly. I noticed an article on Top Bar Hives. The website is one of those wonderful amateur websites, Top Bar Hive Beekeeping, without the slick design, but so rich in information that you want to read every word.
Bees in the wild will find a hollow tree or a hole in a cliff face or a sheltered place under a tree limb. They will attach their combs to the ceiling an the comb is drawn downwards. They will not attach comb to slanted sides, usually.
The Top Bar Hive takes advantage of this by making a hive with top bars and slanted sides. The bees naturally build their comb down from the bars and the bars a easily lifted to inspect. It is more economical than a Langstroth hive to build and there are no critical measurements so they can be built from scrap lumber in a variety of sizes.
Since they don’t have supers the hives don’t produce as much honey and it is more difficult to keep the bees from swarming.
Top Bar Hives are a fun alternative to commercial style beekeeping. The hives are smaller, much prettier (they look like bird houses) and more cheaper to make and maintain.
