What is a topbar hive and why bother?

Topbar hives are horizontal, as opposed to vertical like the widely known Langstroth
hive. They tend to look like small coffins, or if you have less black humor- like
a cradle. Here’s a link with a picture and a description, (disclaimer- we have not
been paid by the company that makes these hives) http://www.thegardenhive.com/

We did not buy our TBH hives. Bob made them with directions we found on the
Internet. Even so, he modified those directions. TBH beekeepers really don’t mind
tinkering or trying creative solutions. They will use any scrap wood at hand to design a
hive. As a result, if you make your own you will likely spend less money than buying
a commercially produced Langstroth or TBH hive. If you are a proud cheapskate or
recently out of a job this is a great asset.

What’s the problem with making your own? Non-standardization. Lang parts are
easily purchased on line from multiple sources. You can swap parts or frames with other
beekeepers if you buy or sell a nuke. (A nuke is a small hive of about 10 frames that you
can obtain from another beekeeper when you are starting or replacing a hive.) It’s hard to
swap frames with another TBH beekeeper if your frames have longer or shorter top bars.

Another problem with learning beekeeping with TBH’s- here in the USA most
beekeepers use the Langstroth so depending on where you live you could be mighty
lonesome and not be able to find a mentor living close enough to you. Also many Lang
owners figure, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Some will think that you are stupid or nuts.

So, why bother?

We decided to let the bees be bees and trust them. That meant no pre-formed commercial
foundation that could contain the residues of pesticides. It means that the bees make
all those little hexagons by themselves- to a size that they decide they need to fight off
possibly pesticide resistant varroa mites. The commercial foundation hexes are uniform
and a slightly larger size than the bees make themselves. The varroa mites like to lay
eggs in roomy cells, typically drone cells. The worker bees make relatively few drone
basinets (see Warren’s section about the queen) and make smaller cells for worker bee
eggs. If you read Warren’s section about HSC you know that you can buy foundation
with smaller cells but it is expensive.

Langstroth folks have said, “Why let the bees spend so much time making wax and not
producing honey? Isn’t that expensive also?”

TB folks may respond, “Isn’t it expensive buying chemicals to medicate your bees and
losing hives over the winter from compromised health? “

This is what it came down to for us. We’re going to learn both types of hives. Since
we don’t want a lot of honey to sell at farmer’s markets every weekend we have TBH’s
which produce more wax for candles and less honey. Since we are older people we want
more TBH’s than Langs because they are easier on our aging backs. Medium supers full
of honey weigh about 60 pounds (Oh, my back! Alma, pass me the walker) We also

think that the TB design is easier on the bees because we are not disturbing their home
by moving heavy supers (especially jarring them, they don’t like that!) and hive bodies.
The bees often don’t know we are there and we use less smoke. Less smoke means
calmer ladies.

If you want to see what a foundationless natural comb, full of honey, from a TBH looks
like Google it under images. They won’t all look exactly the same. The methods and
maintenance of comb built on a single top bar takes a little practice. Our TBH bees from
a package absconded our first spring because we didn’t know how to set up the top bars
properly. Failure was a good teacher and our hives are doing much better this year.

We are really glad to share what we have learned so far and answer questions. Since
there is so much to learn about the bees themselves it’s good to start out on a Langstroth
hive. You get more support from local folks, also there’s the huge literature online and
in print. On the other hand, beekeepers that start out on Langs can have a hard time
adjusting to TBHs. It all depends on your personal motivation for keeping bees. We want
to support the pollinators and contribute to sustainable, local agriculture. In contrast to
our hobbyist point of view, it’s a fine thing to have a local honey business that supports
your local economy.