Top Bar Hive

Top Bar hives are mostly associated with beekeeping in Africa. It is one of the most popular beehives with natural beekeepers. Some of the reasons natural beekeepers prefer it to national hive includes the fact that it gives the queen the run of the hive, it is not designed to have a queen excluder. 

Foundation is not used in top bar hives, all that tends to be provided for the bees to build their combe is just a bar, with a strip of help guide the combe. We have a number of Top Bar hives at The Hive Herefordshire.  

Reasons a Top Bar Hive maybe the hive for you includes the following:

• Number one choice among natural beekeepers.
• Full length observation window.
• Bees are more docile during inspections since you are only opening a small portion of the hive at a time.
• Simple honey harvest.
• Relatively inexpensive.
• Can produce just as much honey as the Langstroth hive.
• No heavy lifting, crouching or bending is required for hive inspections.
• Combs are easy to remove.
• It is ideal for backyard beekeepers.  Since you cannot add on to them, the hive size will naturally be limited.
• Allows bees to build comb in a natural way.

 

Other useful information about Top Bar Hives can be found at other pages of this website.   You can also  sponsor a Top Bar Hive as part of your CSR