Top Bar Hive Attic

Many beekeepers will use top bars that have a small comb guide hanging down.

Top bar hive attic.

I moved a colony of bees into this hive using an unorthodox method that i had never tried b. This unique component is what gives the top bar hives its name. There is a list in my files of what are called five percenters those are considerations in hive management or design that make a small difference in a total honey production. Of course those were not identical to the top bar hives we have today but the basic concepts are the same.

Bee culture july 2006. As the temperature went lower other hives increased the number of daily deceased bees. Instead of using frames like a langstroth hive top bar hives have bars across the top of the hive body. Hives that have frames or that use honey chambers in summer but which use similar management principles as.

Immediately i increased the top insulation of the other hives and the result was a drop in dead bees to a quarter of daily number. The number of top bars the hive will accommodate varies with the width of the box but as a reference a 42 box will use 28 top bars. A look at a beautifully made top bar hive made by paul macdonald. The bees build their comb down from these bars naturally without the use of a 4 sided frame or foundation.

Top bar hives have been around for a long time in fact some suggest the design is hundreds of years old. Typically the bars are tapered and beveled at the bottom encouraging the bees to build their comb straight along each bar. During the cold snap the hive that had the most insulated roof had less dead bees on the bottom screen. Experts found evidence of its use dating back to 1686 in greece.

The top bar hive is the oldest and most commonly used hive style in the world. It features individual bars laid across the top of the hive cavity. A top bar hive is a single story frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. Each top bar is laid across the hive with one end at the front of the box and the other at the back.

Top bar hives and beekeeping supplies including top bar beehives with windows adjustable legs hinged roofs. With a top bar hive the combs can become very soft and fragile if the hive is overheating. The bars form a continuous roof over the comb whereas the frames in most current hives allow space for bees to move up or down between boxes. Your top bar hive needs some type of roof to go over the flat lid of the hive.

If you do not have a roof the sun beats down on the flat lid of the hive.