A lot of us started out with the notion of top bar hives ... what have you forgotten ? Probably the Haynes Manual of beekeeping and to start saving for a hive with frames. You will find the top bar hive (even one as well made and well thought out as your's clearly is) is not the ideal hive for use in the UK and for a new beekeeper it has some serious drawbacks.
Yes, a mesh floor is ideal in an established hive, to help keep the floor clean, provide ventilation and to allow you to monitor mite drops etc. However, the comment in this case was just for using your hive as a swarm trap. If bees are choosing, they prefer a solid floor. So if you're hoping to tempt a swarm at first it might be worth considering a temporary board over the floor. You can then remove this once you've got bees in the hive.
But don’t loose heart. I’m in summer 3 with my tbh. It’s not been smooth riding but I’ve not had to restart form scratch at all (yet). The harvest is small (or even non existent last year) - but it’s endlessly fascinating and a cheep way to get started.
Yes ... I think there is something wonderful about bees building their own free comb ...but its not easy in the early stages of beekeeping to do some of the things in a TBH that are easily accomplished in a framed hive. Inspections, treating, feeding all are that much simpler in a framed hive and I think, for a beginner, you get to see more of what is going on when you can see the bees on the frames and not fear the comb breaking off. They have some reputation for colony loss over winter...various reasons .. isolation starvation and without lots of insulation they tend to be very cold hives. Invented for warmer climates than ours...there's a clue in the names 'Kenyan, tanzanian'.
