Thursday, May 14, 2009

Top Bar Hives

Hubby wants to build some top bar hives to see how they will do compared to the standard Langstroth hives so I've been gathering videos and information to see what a top bar hive is.

Here is a selection of YouTube videos that have been helpful as we start to think about new hives.

I showed the videos to a friend on Wednesday and she was so excited! We are planning on getting together (and inviting a few other families) and building top bar hives on an upcoming Saturday. It will all be an experiment since we have no experience with top bar hives.

Videos
Bee Harvest (8 minutes 39 seconds)
Queen Bee (6 minutes 21 seconds)
Bee Being Born (53 seconds)
Queen Bee Laying Eggs (1 minute 50 seconds)
Catching a Swarm, installing in an observation hive (7 minutes 8 seconds)
How To Build a Simple Top Bar Hive (5 minutes 58 seconds)

Here are some sites that have plans and FAQ's.
Bush Bees
Leonard Burton
The Beardsley's in Florida (good pictures of a TBH being built, they will send you simple plans if you email them)
Top Bar Hive Beekeeping
Bee Blog
Making and using a honey press

This post contains my 'notes' about top bar hives. I haven't searched all the sites yet, and we haven't decided exactly what style to build our top bar hive. However, these sites may be helpful as you start your own search.

I'll post pictures of ours when we build one, and post as we follow the experiment along.

3 comments:

Grandma Elsie said...

Good luck..
Hope it all goes well for you all. I will be away from my computer from Friday till Monday.have a great weekend.
Elsie <><

Andrea said...

I found your website. It was fun to look at. I think I won't try the bee thing at my house- since I live on what less than 1/4th acre!

TJ said...

I'm glad you thought it was fun to look at! I know this is definitely not your lifestyle, but your daughter has a blast when she comes to guitar lessons :o) If we have a few extra minutes she is out in the barn getting her 'animal fix'.