The Top Bar Hive: key features and benefits
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- Опубликовано: 7 окт 2024
- A look at a beautifully made top bar hive made by Paul MacDonald.
I moved a colony of bees into this hive using an unorthodox method that I had never tried before...
Paul can be contacted as follows:
email - higherdruid@phonecoop.coop
mobile - 07930 285690
home - 01364 642893
Love the hat! Another outstanding video!
I don't know much about hives, but I do woodworking and that is beautiful. :)
What sort of things do you make?
I made a dresser for my son last year. It was my first big woodworking project and i got hooked on it all. I love woodworking. It's too cold now where I live to build anything over the winter. But, over the summer I made some raised garden beds and covers and an outdoor structure for my cats.
That's impressive. I have always enjoyed making things - I'm slowly building a camping trailer and a mobile workshop for my beekeeping work. Too cold here, too, for outdoor work at the moment, but come the spring, I will probably make a video or two about it.
Free to Speak This is just superb, I been tryin to find out about "diy beehive stand" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Tiyia Beehive Basophilic - (search on google ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my mate got amazing success with it.
Been thinking of getting into beekeeping. I'm not really into producing lots of honey (the wax would be nice though), I just want a healthy hive of bees out pollinating as we seem to have a dearth of honeybees where I'm at. So a top bar hive might just be right for me.......
lovely to see
Very nice
Very nice work there. If I could find one in Alberta that would be awesome
Hi Phil and greetings from Tasmania, Australia. I have enjoyed watching and learning so much from your videos. I have recently become a bee keeper because a swarm moved into an ornamental Warre hive I had in my garden. After lots of research on the net I have decided to go with a horizontal langstroth hive with cover boards over the frames and a ventilated roof. The cover boards have a 3mm space along 3/4 of one edge allowing air to flow from the body of the hive into the roof space and then out through the ventilation holes in the roof. The bees can use propolis to control the air flow. I would appreciate your thoughts on this set up. Cheers, Ron
Hi Ron, the Warre is a fair mimic of a hollow tree, and works well in some areas, especially where flows are long and strong. One of its core principles is heat and atmosphere retention, which I think is what bees need almost as much as food. I would not allow heat to escape into the roof space, especially as you will regret having quantities of propolis gumming up your frames when it comes time to move them!
i would really like to learn more about the eco floor in this hive, i guess the mesh has been attached the bottom and then the matters put over the top of it, is there a solid wood screen there too? to support the mesh in anyway? how do these eco floors work with the varroa mite?
Philip is their any chance you couldd post a video of you actually building one of your topbbar hives from start to finish,i have purchased yor book but you carnt beat a proper tutorial,thxs philip your videos and demonstrations have certainly converted myself,kindregards,chris c.
That is possible. I'm planning a series of TBH videos and that would be a good one to include.
Lovely TBH. I have recently made my first one based on your periscope entrance idea which i like the sound of. However the other day i found a number of dead bees in the bottom, although the hive looks healthy. Not sure if this is because of the time of the season when the bees start reducing in numbers ??
On 2 occasions now when I have opened one end i have noticed a bee struggling to remove a dead bee by making its way up to the top.Do you think they my find it hard to eject dead bees with this type of entrance? I have now fitted your eco floor so I presume any dead bees will fall into that, decompose or get eaten by bugs etc. Do you think this is ok >? Cheers Simon
Simon Kellam Having a high-ish entrance does make more work for undertaker bees, as you observed, but the eco floor theory is that dead mites, bees and other matter will provide food for such as the Stratiolelaps mite, making it possible for the mite to reproduce and live as part of the hive eco-system.
Hello in glorious Devon from a Brit wilting in the already steaming hot (100F) Texas...
As you know, unfortunately we have to contend with pests and intruders like varroa mites, wax moths, plus small hive beetles... so the advice most experienced American TBH beeks give 'noobees', like me and my husband, is to have the follow board set at around bar 8 - 10 when installing a 3lb package of bees, feed heavily to help out while they build 5 - 7 bars of full comb quickly, and then keep the follow board positioned so there are only ever two or three empty bars available, thus reducing the chance the bees might immediately decide the space is too big and abscond without settling in, and also make it easier for them to find and tackle intruders within the hive once they have set up home.
I don't think you have SBH over the pond, do you? We've only had bees for one full year and though both TBH had a few beetles last summer they didn't seem to cause problems, not that we would necessarily know what to look for! We chose to be 'treatment free' so opted not to test for varroa mites and didn't see evidence of them.
Sadly we lost one colony this spring due, we believe, to the colony having too few bees left to handle an unexpected, late cold snap. (They still had honey.) I suppose the low number of bees could have been caused by mites, but then again the other colony seems healthy... We will try to check drone comb this year to see if we can find intruders.
Anyway, we found a couple of wax moths and several larvae trails in the dead colony's comb, but the whole lot is still stored in our freezer to kill anything else that might have been lurking, and the one bright side of the loss is a few combs full of honey which we can now harvest once we get the right sort of bucket.
How is that cute little colony you installed in this splendid hive getting on? Do you think the initial and ongoing number of bars/amount of space matter to bees?
No matter what, I'd love to see a follow-up video checking up on this hive, whenever you get time.
WebbyWunda That is far too hot for me! Anything above 90F and I melt. My preference is to stay 2-3 bars ahead of them. More than that and cross combing becomes more likely, but I've never had a colony abscond through too much space. I doubt that happens. Wax moth is not a big problem, especially in strong colonies. No SHB yet, thank goodness. Varroa is a nuisance, but we are working on breeding bees that can tolerate and/or remove them.
@@BarefootBeekeeper only way to breed bees that fight off mites is to go all natural.
Seems like it would be so much easier on my joints and back. Can I build framed frames like in a traditional hive? So comb doesn't fall off?
Top bar hives don't use frames. You can use a horizontal long hive if you want to use frames, but the top bar hive is simpler to build.
I'm setting up swarm traps and have no comb to put in the traps. Do you coat the "foundation strips" with wax or foundation comb to get them started?
Ideally, dip the lower edges of the (triangular) bars in beeswax, or rub them with a lump of beeswax (or beeswax candle) to give them a strong hint of where you want them to build. If using flat bars, best pin a thin strip of wood down the centre (about 12" / 30cm long) as a guide and add wax to that.
Hi Phil,
I'm making a Top Bar Hive following your specifications in Balanced Beekeeping: I was wondering if Spruce was ok for the top bars, or will it deform in the humid atmosphere of the hive?
Philip, does Paul sell these hives? if so can you send me contact details please.
Many thanks, I have been researching "beehive oven for sale" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Tiyia Beehive Basophilic - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some extraordinary things about it and my work buddy got excellent success with it.
What in heck is a "Quadratic Hive"?????
I don't think they exist here in North America.
ruclips.net/video/28-q6MnUrUo/видео.html
Good day Phil, can you please explain me the option with the wood chips again? Is it a good technique?
What did you said in your video from 2:35 on, to understand it right? You put a net into the wooden container and added some weed surpression material? What is that exactly and what would you recommend? I'm not sure if I understood that right..
Thanks a lot and greetings from Germany
I am experimenting with different materials. I intend to test birch bark and sawdust this year. The "weed suppressant material" is a black, fibrous, non-woven and (I assume) cellulose-based cloth used by horticulturalists and gardeners to exclude light from weeds.
@@BarefootBeekeeper Thanks a lot for your answer.
Sir what is the size of top bar .
it looks like (unless I'm mistaken) you use both vertical and horizontal (top bar) hives, which do you like the best, or do you like both types equally?
I do use both, and my preference is for the horizontal, as I find the bees tend to be better tempered and easier to handle, as the whole colony is never exposed at once. Having everything on one level is a boon as one gets older and less inclined to lift heavy boxes.
I will add his contact info in the notes above.
do the top bars fit the national hive? tia
dobe762 Yes, they are the same length.
Thank you, have been speaking with Paul and hopefully transport will get sorted.
Hello. What is the product that was used in coating? Diy or store bought? I just bought a huge top bar hive and need to prep it. Thank you!
A wax polish, made by a small outfit, somewhere in the UK. I will ask the builder when I see him.
@@BarefootBeekeeper thank you Phil! That's very kind of you :)
Did you find out? Thanks.
✅☑️
Hello Philip, it's my first year beekeeping with one hive and on my inspection this week I noticed varroa on the floor panel equal to 5 mites dropping per day.Would this be an infestation and as I wish to continue treatment free would I be naive in thinking that with dusting that the colony would survive the winter? Any advise would be great if possible. Thanks Simon
Dusting is quite effective if done 3x within about 2 weeks, to interrupt the mite's life cycle. I don't do it any more myself, though.
Ok thank you.
Ok thanks, I have reduced the varroa count quite dramatically dusting them every 4 or so. So are your colonies now completely treatment/intervention free now?
How do you get broken comb back onto the top bars? I've tried zip ties kread thru the bombs, rubber bands squash it. Help!
It's not easy, and often it's best to just leave the broken piece on the bottom of the hive and let the bees deal with it. There are methods that work, and perhaps I will make another video...
Do the bees ever draw the comb out and attach it to the sides of the hive making removing frames difficult?
Occasionally, but I always check for attachments before moving a comb and cut through them if necessary.
Just not a natural hive set up...hives build vertically
I recently did a cut out where bees had occupied a space between joists only six inches deep by about five feet long and a little over a foot wide. They had been there for at least three years.