Our Experience With Top-bar Hives

Some first hand accounts of experiments and experiences with top-bar beekeeping.
  • The Top-bar Hive Idea ( 3 Articles )

    Building a Hive

    The idea to start beekeeping with top-bar hives didn't come from nowhere. Our ultimate goal appeared after a slow dawning and evolution of the whole beekeeping idea.

  • Top-bar Research ( 3 Articles )

    Netbook

    Thank goodness for the internet. Almost all of the information available on top-bar beekeeping is found there, and that's where we began our research.

  • Building Our Top-bar Hives ( 4 Articles )

    Plywood kenyan hive

    We didn't know much when we started, but we forged ahead anyway. In the course of building four top-bar hives, our knowledge improved and our hive designs evolved.

  • Buying Beekeeping Equipment ( 2 Articles )

    Beekeeping Equipment


    In some areas, beekeeping equipment is not that easy to find. Before our bees arrived, we had to provide ourselves with certain necessities of the trade.

  • Setting Up Our Top-bar Hives ( 2 Articles )

    Top-bar hive on blocks

    We encountered many trials and tribulations in finding a location for our new top-bar hives and getting them set up on site.

  • Installing Nucs in the Top-bars ( 3 Articles )
    For start-up bees we were only able to purchase nuclear hives ('nucs') derived from Langstroth hives. Getting the bees from these nucs installed in our new top-bar hives was one of the most challenging operations we have faced.
  • Inspecting Our Top-bar Hives ( 2 Articles )
    We had a lot to learn about how to inspect our top-bar hives and what to look for. Fortunately, we received a lot of guidance through our membership in a local beekeepers' co-operative and a course offered by a beekeepers' association.
  • Re-queening A Top-bar Hive ( 3 Articles )
    Early on, we became convinced that the queen in one of our top-bar hives had been lost. Now what do we do? Solving this little problem was a fascinating experience.
  • Experiments in Top Bar Design ( 3 Articles )

    Making Top Bars

    Our internet research suggested that we needed a better solution to making the top bars for our hives. In the course of building four hives, that original concept was modified several times.

  • More Notes and Observations ( 2 Articles )

    Here is where we'll continue to record our ongoing adventures with bees and foundationless hives.