This Sustainable House

Posts Tagged ‘hive’

In the case of TSH, we have approx. 20,000…

This week saw the arrival of a hive of bees, plus some additional equipment, thanks to a friend of mine. It’s great to finally have bees on the property even if they are only agisted at this stage.

The bees that arrived are European Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) and they are currently living in a top bar, as opposed to the usual langstroth, hive. The top bar hive is really very interesting as it was developed to make a hive which more closely simulates the bees natural building methods, but also to create a hive which is easier to build. If you have ever put together a langstroth hive you will know that, should you wish to build one from scratch, you would need to be a master cabinet maker. The dimensions of the langstroth are quite exacting, to the very ‘mm’.

Of course they get around this by making most of the pieces in a factory where jigs and computers can be used to reliably cut the pieces to size. All the beekeeper needs to do is to put the bits together, and bingo he has a hive. Unfortunately, all this effort increases the cost of the hive considerably making them unavailable to a good portion of the worlds population. Enter the top bar hive.

The top bar hive is a very simple construction that uses simple tools, and no timber more complex than a sheet of ply. I am told, having not had the opportunity to turn my hands to making a top bar hive yet, that a full hive can be built over an afternoon in the shed.

The key difference between the top bars, apart from their shape, is the fact that it is a frameless hive meaning that the bees will built their own honeycomb from scratch. More like nature intended it to be.

In the meantime I am just going to enjoy our new arrivals, and learn more about beekeeping with top bar hives.

Note: For more information on top bar hives head over to Biobees.