Book recommendations?

[SavvySalli]

We're considering a TBH for next year, we really like the natural method. However we'd like to know a lot more about it first and wonder if anyone can recommend something we can work our way through before we start asking questions! Preferably a book so that we're not confined to reading online.

Thank you.

 

[For want of a better word]

Phil Chandler's Barefoot Beekeeping... is there another ?

( That's a pint you owe me Phill!)

Yeghes da

 

[Erichalfbee]

Also their web site
http://www.------------/

Edit
Oh well. Google biobees

 

[Fritillary]

Books (downloadable) yes... but have also found lots of tips and advice posted by people here and also on the "natural beekeeping" forum indispensable.

 

[madasafish]

Just be aware that Phil Chandler's book was written when he appeared to have zero practical experience of running TBHs .

If you want to run them successfully in anything but a warm climate, you need to change the design and usage a lot...

 

[For want of a better word]

Just be aware that Phil Chandler's book was written when he appeared to have zero practical experience of running TBHs .

If you want to run them successfully in anything but a warm climate, you need to change the design and usage a lot...

Speaking for myself and a few others who are successfully keeping bees in Top Bar Hives, made exactly to the specs and drawings in Barefoot Beekeeping, here in the

Greatgreygreenslimeytamarvalleyallsetaboutwithemptyunaffordablesecondhomes........


no problems, only change I have made is to the roof... I use alpacca wool as the insulator/condensor material.
There is not a lot of honey to been stolen from the bees in a TBH... but then I use them for drone flooding from a top quality queen... and use BHS Polly hives for honey production.

I could see that the management of the TBH may be an issue up in the frozen Norf and in the East where the cold Norwegian sea can send cold winds across the Dogger!

I wonder if Finnmann has ever attempted to keep bees in one?

Yeghes da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I wonder if Finnmann has ever attempted to keep bees in one?

Yeghes da

Probably got a doctorate in it.

 

[user 6228]

...
I could see that the management of the TBH may be an issue up in the frozen Norf and in the East where the cold Norwegian sea can send cold winds across the Dogger!

I wonder if Finnmann has ever attempted to keep bees in one?

Yeghes da

Note OP is in Devizes Wiltshire so that may not be that bad a problem
But you were putting it in for any Geordies lurking weren't you unless of course you regard wiltshire as the cold frozen north East compared to plymouth

 

[Fritillary]

Speaking for myself and a few others who are successfully keeping bees in Top Bar Hives, made exactly to the specs and drawings in Barefoot Beekeeping, here in the

Greatgreygreenslimeytamarvalleyallsetaboutwithemptyunaffordablesecondhomes........

no problems, only change I have made is to the roof... I

I'm surprised, as I've made quite a few additions & changes since building my first one - and it would have been a lot easier if I'd known about the usefulness of these beforehand!

Learn from other people's practical experiences where you can. - Would definitely ask anyone local to you who's using TBHs, and go and have a look at their hives if poss.

 

[For want of a better word]

I'm surprised, as I've made quite a few additions & changes since building my first one - and it would have been a lot easier if I'd known about the usefulness of these beforehand!

Learn from other people's practical experiences where you can. - Would definitely ask anyone local to you who's using TBHs, and go and have a look at their hives if poss.

Orientation along a Leyline also makes the girls a lot happier and healthier, more prolific and much friendlier!

Yeghes da

 

[REDWOOD]

Can someone explain to me what the natural method is. I would have thought that it was a bees nest in a hollow tree.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Can someone explain to me what the natural method is.

According to my grandmother - 'take it out before it boils over'
Seemed fairly effective, my man is an only child.

 

[madasafish]

Can someone explain to me what the natural method is. I would have thought that it was a bees nest in a hollow tree.

It's using only natural materials, not feeding sugar and getting no honey. And killing your bees through no treatment or ignorance (applies to may new TBH keepers)

Edit: hence my refusal to sell nucs to anyone who is new and has not attended a course in beekeeping..

 

[Fritillary]

Can someone explain to me what the natural method is. I would have thought that it was a bees nest in a hollow tree.

Well you'll have to ask someone who reckons they practise it!

I think most are not happy about the expression "natural beekeeping". Phil Chandler did try to find a better alternative to describe I guess what he calls "low-cost, low-impact, balanced beekeeping for everyone" but a suitable name didn't materialise as far as I know.

- I still like the name "horizontal beekeeper" for those with horizontal TBHs!

 

[Erichalfbee]

If I ever get round to making another TBH ( got husband to make one from biobees recipe before I ever got bees, looked at it, went to bee keeping classes and ended up putting plants in it) I would spend a long time drawing up plans to make it double skinned and filled with PIR. It might get planted up again though

 

[Fritillary]

If I ever get round to making another TBH ( got husband to make one from biobees recipe before I ever got bees, looked at it, went to bee keeping classes and ended up putting plants in it) I would spend a long time drawing up plans to make it double skinned and filled with PIR. It might get planted up again though

Yes here's my first, covered with slabs of insulation for its first winter, as everyone seemed to mutter darkly about the chances of any TBH bees getting through a winter! - The bees probably would have been okay without, but I'm sure it helped them to a good start in the spring.

 

[madasafish]

Yes here's my first, covered with slabs of insulation for its first winter, as everyone seemed to mutter darkly about the chances of any TBH bees getting through a winter! - The bees probably would have been okay without, but I'm sure it helped them to a good start in the spring.
View attachment 13648

My first TBH overwintered in 2010-2911 when we saw -16C. The bees survived.. A stalactite of ice 30 cms long hung from one end - pale honey coloured. It tasted nice.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

MMM HMM a bee p!ss lolipop

 

[Millet]

If its all about el natural would the Rose Hive method suit the bees better, in fact i quite like the rose hive method to some extent as everything is the same size.

 

[REDWOOD]

Well i'm glad supers are smaller, have you ever tried moving a 14x12 full of honey