Harvesting Honey from a Kenyan Top Bar Hive, with Adrian Iodice from Beekeeping Naturally
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- We started this Kenyan Top Bar Hive colony from a swarm we caught in early spring (September here in Australia) and it was full of harvestable honey by mid-January, just 4 months later! For my video on processing your honey using a honey press and sieve click this link: • Processing Honeycomb, ...
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Great video!
I'm a Kenyan bee farmer. Now have 52 hives.
After i started using the KTBH (Kenya Top Bar Hive), i realised its much easier to handle than other hives even when it comes to inspection and harvesting.
Also it gives more honey and wax and gets colonised faster than other hives.
I’m glad you enjoyed the video, it’s great to hear from commercial KTB users! Where are you located?
@@beekeepingnaturally Thank you.
I am based in the Western part of Kenya called Kakamega.
Started off with 5 hives a year and a half ago and now I have 52 hives. They're doing well. We have very favourable climate.
My target is to have 100 hives by the end of this year. I use some of the income generated from there to help support the community.
You handle your bees very well. Indeed, horizontal hives for the win! I got into beekeeping from doing volunteer work for an elderly beekeeper who couldn't lift his Langstroth boxes anymore. That wouldn't have been an issue for him with a horizontal hive. Yet another reason for folks to consider a horizontal style. No heavy lifting! Also, consider an L-shaped cutter to cut the comb away from the side walls. Take a metal rod about 5mm thick and long enough for you. Say 18inches or so. Bend the last inch, inch and a half, pound it a bit flat so that the flat is in the same plane as the rest of the rod, then sharpen that bent bit. Put a handle on the other end. With that you can cut the comb in an upward motion by starting the cut at the bottom of the box and drag the cutter up the wall toward the top bar. Something to consider.
Thanks for your positive comments. The Kenyan Hives are very well suited for older folk and people in wheelchairs. I've taught many elderly experienced beekeepers who have decided to move away from the stackable Langstroth hives. I use to run a few Warre hives years ago and had one of the tools your describing, I can see the advantages of using it to detach comb in a Kenyan. Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can find it somewhere or get my son to make me one, he's 15 and has gotten into blacksmithing recently so it would be an easy project for him.
Very good video! Very clear and knowledgeable explanations. You have converted me to try Kenya Top bar hive. In any case am Kenyan! Thanks
Hi Victor, thanks for the positive reply, I'm glad to hear that its clear. The Kenyan Hive is a fantastic design, so simple to use. I'm happy to share my plans with you if you want to build your own hive?, just email me at www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au and i'll email you the plans. All the best with your bees. Long Live the Swarm!
Thanks Adrian, very informative. We bought one of your hives in late 2020. Our bees are thriving. The messmates (e obliqua) are starting to flower so plenty of food for the girls.
G'day Nick, I'm glad to hear your bees are thriving, its been a fantastic season so far. The messmate will do them well this time of the year, you should be able to harvest some honey in a few weeks. All the best
Good afternoon, Adrian
You have a very good video.
Did I see popsicle sticks on your top bars?
Are they better than cleats or foundation strips on top bars?
Do you have a video on how to make top bars using the popsicle sticks? I'd be very interested in watching that video.
I'm a beginner beekeeper. I'm taking my time. I plan on building a top bar hive NOW for next year. I'm in my planning stage.
Thank you, Martin
Beautiful honey. I was just gifted 4 top bar hives and just learning about them. Your video has really helped me. I am in north west Alabama in US. It’s November. We moved and I have to inspect in a few days. I hope comb didn’t break off. If it has what should I do? Really informative. Thanks
Thanks for your positive feedback. Sorry I hadn’t responded earlier. I have other videos on my RUclips channel that shows how I reattach comb. You could contact Les Crowder, he is in the US and knows all about Kenyan Hives.
The fruits look so delicious
Thank you for the teaching experience.
You’re welcome Damian I’m glad you’re enjoying the video
Огромное спасибо за видео. Есть действительно важные детали, которые приходят с опытом и которые вы показали. Спасибо!
This is a great and informative video. Thanks you make it look easy. I am starting my First top bar hive this Year so we will see. Thanks
Amen to top bar hives. Nice to hear an Ozzie for once. Ian in QLD.
Thanks Ian!
That's great, your bees have a lot of honey. I really like your beekeeping!
Fantastic video and well done with the top bar hives! I kept my bees in top bar hives for 23 years in Africa now. Normally once the comb is three quarter capped, the rest should be ripe as well. Overall i enjoyed your video. :)
Thanks so much for your positive reply, Kenyan hives are fantastic!
Thank you
your welcome!
Love the top bar hives , I got one with 24 bars it’s almost full so waiting on spring and maybe have to do a split , I have to say I enjoy it more than my langstroth hives , awesome video mate from the Central West NSW. Cheers. 👍
Thank you. Yeh I love using Kenyan hives’, I don’t understand why people would want to use something else
Great video. Do you have a video showing the next stage of removing the honey from the comb, or maybe you sell some cut comb. I will be interested to see how you do it. Thanks
Hi Adrian, I bought a beautiful timber pack from you of macrocarpa and I assembled your fantastic Kenyan hive design this spring here in Canberra. I now have my first swarm inside and its been there for about a week. I am so excited! I really enjoy watching the calm and considered way you work the hive - I hope I can learn to be that way with my hive one day too. I have a couple of questions - 1. How often would you inspect a hive in the beginning from when you first put in a swarm to check for cross combing? 2. I was wondering about your approach in using smoke? Les Crowder uses smoke whereas Phil Chandler uses sugar water spray. What is your preference and when do you use it? 3. In Canberra - in a colder climate - how many bars of honey would you leave for winter? Thanks for providing such a great video for us to learn.
Hi Pablo, i'm real happy you enjoy the Kenyan hive, they are a fantastic hive to use. I like to make my first inspection just 3 days after introducing a swarm because if the bees start to build comb across the top bars and not along them I can redirect the combs at this early stage before it gets out of hand. if I know that the combs are straight then I do a second inspection about 10 days later. further inspections will be determined by the amount of comb the colony has built in the last 10 days. So about 2 weeks after the swarm was introduced. So if they have built comb on all 10 bars in the first 2 weeks I can determine how often and how many top bars to add. In this scenario I would add 4 top bars, 2 on either end, be sure to add them using the chequer board method in my other video. Q.2. I prefer smoke, I always have a smoker lit and ready to use but often I wont need to use it. I have it on hand if the bees start to fire up, then I can give them a small amount of smoke and start to pack the hive up and leave them alone.
Q.3. In Canberra I suggest to leave a full size colony 8 full bars of honey to over winter with. A three quarter size colony i would leave 6 bars and half size colony gets 4 to 5 bars. I'll be teaching in Canberra again at some point, and will send you some information on my courses if your interested in attending. Go slow and have fun
Long Live the Swarm!
@@beekeepingnaturally Hi Adrian - thank you so much for you reply. I will put your advice into practice. What an adventure! I attended your course before COVID and it was very informative and enjoyable.
@@pabloshopen4172 Thanks Pablo
@@pabloshopen4172excellent. Subbed!
How much is one hive please?
Great information on actually managing the hive. My only observation is that when cutting the honey from the top bar you were pushing the knife toward your hand. You could accidentally push the knife right into hand.
Thanks for watching Tom. Regarding your concerns, the knife i use is blunt, the honeycomb is quite soft and easy to push a blunt knife through also the top bar acts as a stop between my hand and the blade if i were to slip.
Good job. From lao
Very informative, Thanks.
I've watched several videos about top bar hives now, and I've seen that no one is using a queen excluder of any type. What keeps the brood to only a few bars? Would it hurt anything to build one of these types of hives and build an excluder in it?
Very good explanation
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it
Fantastic looking honey
The honey was delicious I have posted the honey processing video, take a look
Im an Aussie living in Hawaii on the Big Island. A Swam nestled into an Empty top Bar Hive I have in September 2023, and I still haven't harvested any honey. They are 8 bars away from a full box. Thanks for the videos , going to see. if I can give it a go. They cross comb and it's messy
Thanks, I’m glad you like the video and it has inspired you to work your hive. Cross combing isn’t fun for anyone. All the best with it. Going forward You should try using starter strips of wax foundation.
Thanks for that tip. I'll get some.@@beekeepingnaturally
Wow, fantastic video on beekeeping! Takes me back to the 1980s when I first saw one of these hives in the UK. It was built by a master beekeeper called Peter Springhall and I was privileged to be taught bee husbandry by him on this hive. You remind me of him so much, thank you for this wonderful video.
I am looking to see the harvest method as I switched to top bar
What does the Kenyon part mean?
Wow that hive is working hard... Great video!!
Thanks Rickey. Yes they really went for it this season. I had three colonies all started with swarms early spring in the same town and we harvested from all three after 4 months!! A mixture of lots of rain and lots of sunny days.
Do you have a video on how to make the hive?
I don’t have a video but I’m more than happy to email you my plans for free, email me at adrian@beekeepingnaturally.com.au and I’ll send them.
Thats Awesome ! I am new at Bee Keeping and have a Top Bar hive also. I have heard horror stories about people losing their hives to beetles. I noticed that you had a few beetles there. How do you suggest best to deal with them and are you concerned that they might get into the centre of the hive where you didn't remove bars from ?
Many thanks :-)
I have Small Hive Beetle in all my hives but in 10 years I personally have never lost a Kenyan Hive to beetle attack! I have lost many framed hives to beetle but due to no frames in the Kenyan hives, beetle have a hard time finding places to hide from the bees. The bees are constantly harassing the beetles and herding them away from the brood nest and towards the honey area where they chase them out under the follower boards. I dont use and never have used any type of beetle trap or devise in any of my hives, the bees do all the work!
@@beekeepingnaturally oh that’s comforting news, thanks for sharing, I feel much better now 👍
When I refurbished my top bar hive I did something wrong in fitting the trap in the base where the tray with vegetable oil slides in and found that bees were getting in there and dying so I removed it.
Jason
this tickles my brain
Thanks for watching
I live in Alberta Canada. I just bought a hobby farm and want to start natural beekeeping. Will these Kenyan bee hives work in Canada when the winters go down to -30-40 C?
I don't know the answer to that, In Australia the temperature gets down to about -5 C where i live in winter so I cant offer any experience with colder climates. The Kenyan hives are popular in the United States and I have seen them in Holland and Germany where it gets cold in winter -20 and the bees manage to get through. I suggest you contact Bee Mindful Honey Farm www.bee-mindful.com/honey in the States, they specialise in the Kenyan Top Bar Hive. All the best with the Kenyan, they are a great bee hive to use, I really love their simplicity.
Great video Adrian. If the bees are added to the colony in early Spring, when would you anticipate harvesting your first honeycomb?
You answered my question at the end of the video ;)
Great video. How do you get the honey out of the comb? we cannot use a spinner I guess.
We use the crush and strain method or a food press to squeeze the honey from the combs. You can see it in another of my videos.
@@beekeepingnaturally thank you
Great video! But I have a question, where is all the brood?
Hi Aryan, in this style of Kenyan Hive the entrance is in the centre of the hive body so the colony will naturally keep their nest close to the entrance to help regulate the temperature around the brood. The bees place the honey stores towards the ends of the hive which makes harvesting so much easier. The bees tend to be less defensive during harvest because we stay away from the brood area and only work in the honey area. No queen excluder necessary.
@@beekeepingnaturally Thank you for clearing my doubt 👍
This video is helpful to me. i hope will get more helpful material materials as we interact futher'
I’m glad it is helping you. all the best
Thank you for the video. We just got a hive of this type and my bees are ordered. How do you encourage the bees to start making comb on the bars when first starting?
Do u use queen excluder on top hives?
I have always wanted bees in my yards, Gold Coast and these top bar hives seams great is there any plans available that I can do
You can email me at adrian@beekeepingnaturally.com.au and I’ll email you the plans
Wow, nice video!!
Please tell me how did you get such nice straight honeycombs??
Hi Sergui, thanks for your positive feedback. I use a method called 'checker boarding'
you can see an example of it on my video called "Checker boarding" Its really important to use this method, makes life a lot easier!
What a beautiful video!!!!
Belíssimo trabalho 👏👍🇧🇷
Thank you
Awesome mate
Thanks mate
Madu super mantap bos 👍👍👍
Thank you bos
wow super.....
Yes it was a great season
You need a warre hive-tool!
Thanks for watching. When I first moved over from conventional Langstroth hives, I started using Warre hive’s. I found them great for the bees but after a few seasons I decided to try a Kenyan hive and that’s the direction I went in. I find them so much easier to use than the Warre hives although I still have a soft spot for them. They are great hives! I still have a few empty ones and im thinking of getting them going again this spring
@@beekeepingnaturally Thanks for the reply. It is the tool I was recommending, not the hive. It would make detaching comb from the walls much easier!
I design and build my own hives. Currently I have a couple which are based on the warre, but next spring I will be trying a long-hive built out of hay bales.
Where are all these beautiful honey bees getting their nectar from show me the flowers
Hello,, iam from uganda,, I need those hives like 10,, how much is each
I’m in Australia, I don’t ship out of the country sorry.
Is this apis Millefer or apis Cerana bee
The bees are Apis Mellifera
great video
Thanks J
I have seen roundrd blades like ham bine knives
That's a pineapple knife? @4:13 I have one exactly like it thats being used as a bread knife... No wonder I can't cut a proper slice
I watched this for the title, Harvesting honey, no harvesting was done in this video. This is my first year with Topbar and so far not one video showing how to actually harvest honey. Dang…
Hi Harry, this is how we harvest the honeycomb from a top bar, I think what you're looking for is a video showing how to 'process' the comb? I have made a video showing how I process the comb. Have a look through my channel for that one. All the berst
Kenya?
Kenya?
Liars, them bees in Kenya are badass bees, this ain't Kenya.
Hi Joseph, thanks for watching. I'm not in Kenya, i'm in Australia, the type of bee hive in this video is called a 'Kenyan Top Bar Hive'. I wouldn't like to be working with bees in Kenya, I've seen the way they beehave!!
@@beekeepingnaturally ooooh, OK.
Been wondering.
The bees here are crazy, unprovoked attacks are a common occurrence
Yes, Kenyan. Made in Kenya where i come from. Our brilliant innovation😊
The hive is Kenyan, but they're maybe in US or something.
Our hived are in use worldwide 😊
Badass bees 😂😂😂 you're quite hilarious!
Yes African bees are very badass.
One must wear full bee suit when dealing with them.
Bwhahaha sorry you have such a hard time with langstrof hives but na don't have millions of bees flying out string. Takes my 1 hour to collect 6 medium supers
thanks for your comment, its refreshing to hear that the bees you keep are so tolerant. Keep up the good work and keep pouring on the smoke, your bees must really enjoy that! Just out of curiosity, how many bees do you think you crush whenever you close up your hives?
Work on grammar and spelling.
☝🏽 looks like a s***** way to keep bees