Horizontal top bar hive

[louiseww]

I have been thinking of getting one of these since I saw Carol Klein on BBC take delivery of one. I shall still continue with my two national hives in the normal way but would like to try this new method.
I have been doing some research on the more natural method of beekeeping and printed off the instructions to make one of these hives myself!! Decided against that and have now found someone who makes them himself on ebay - Leeway Woodwork! They are cedar and look really good and I wondered if anyone else has bought from him and what they thought. A company in Cornwall also sells them but they are soft wood and much shorter in length. This one is 4 foot.
Thanks
Louise

 

[Friar Tuck]

I have seen these hive on eba y to. they look fine to me. I am also adding a TBH to my apiary. Variety is the spice of life. Also still keeping my 2 nationals. I thinking about building my own this coming weekend, will post some pics up of the mess i make !

Good luck with your TBH

 

[louiseww]

Did you download Phil Chandlers (Naked Beekeeper!) plans, I did, they look straight forward for someone with the tools and a bit of know how but I decided that at my age, life is too short for that much stress. Please let me know how you get on and how the bees get on when they are insitu!
Louise

 

[Friar Tuck]

Yep i got the plans and will keep you up dated.. not that good at woodwork, But i do have lots of gaffa tape lol. Pictures will follow at some point next week

 

[xwb]

I have 3 nationals and got a swarm call, didn't have the funds to buy another hive so knocked up a TBH in a day after planning on having one for a long time.
Prime swarm went in, had to wait a month or so for the them to build enough comb so I didn't break their cluster...... Despite using all the techniques to aid them to build straight comb, they didn't. It is such an awkward hive to handle especially compared to the nationals.
They seem to work very well for some people, all I would say is ask around to see if you can see someone else's before committing to your own, just incase it's not for you

 

[louiseww]

Thanks xwb will send out a call to arms!
Louise

 

[aberreef]

Just come home after checking my TBHY and national. The TB is doing just as well if not better than the national. The bees do tend to amke a bit of brace comb onto the walls at times but this is no real hardship, just cut through it with a knife and enjoy the trimmings

 

[roymichaeldean]

Another move

Hi

I also liked the idea of giving the bees more free choice...kind of democracy...so I am going to try one frame perhaps in each box of 10 frames and see if they create free comb....maybe start them off with 2 inches of foundation and just a top bar or frame.......I love excitement...
maybe 1 frame in the brood box and 1 frame in a Super....and see what happens


roy

 

[aberreef]

Hi

I also liked the idea of giving the bees more free choice...kind of democracy...so I am going to try one frame perhaps in each box of 10 frames and see if they create free comb....maybe start them off with 2 inches of foundation and just a top bar or frame.......I love excitement...
maybe 1 frame in the brood box and 1 frame in a Super....and see what happens


roy

i'm not sure but I think this will lead to the bees fixing the frames solidly to the hive walls. The idea with a TBH is the slope of the walls mirrors the natural angle the bees build comb at. When they reach the walls they think its the floor and leave a bee space.

In theory at least

 

[Friar Tuck]

I think Tom Bick dose not use foundation in his hives. I also think you can use frames with no foundation just leave the side walls of the frames in.

 

[Chris Luck]

A bee colony made between the windows and the shutters when a house is left empty is a quite common occurrence here and shows how bees build according to the space available, in this case 5 combs but very long and wide.

 

[louiseww]

I have just read 'the bee-friendly beekeeper' by David Heaf and this along with Jurgen Tautz's book made me realise that the bees do not make uniform comb and the comb is a communication system. So I am just in the process of making up some bars (rather than frames) with a central supporting vertical bar (drilled and stuck) to put in the Nationals to see how the bees like it - I will probably put a small strip of foundation at the top to get them going.
Louise

 

[louiseww]

Amazing!

 

[Tom Bick]

I think Tom Bick dose not use foundation in his hives. I also think you can use frames with no foundation just leave the side walls of the frames in.

Not 100% yet Owen I experimented a bit last year and this year will do 60 – 40 split in favour of just wired frames and if I am happy with that next year I will do 100% wired frames apart from starter strips.

 

[Gardenbees]

Fantastic comb picture! They're usually too tucked away to get a nice window on the whole colony.

I use foundationless frames, with occasional foundation-ed ones in between just to keep them on the straight and narrow, as it were. They're excellent for cut comb honey in the shallow frames, and the brood is quite varied in cell size, which I think suits them. Interestingly, the queen seems to favour these for laying both when new and when used. I don't keep old comb for very long, preferring to get them on freshly-built cells most years, but they build it so quickly even without extra feeding that I doubt it makes much difference. Besides, the business of building comb from scratch seems to make them a bit less keen to swarm (hard to quantify this though: just an impression). You couldn't go for this option without a decent nectar flow, though (or quite a lot of extra feeding).

I have a TBH as well. Both types overwintered with no trouble. I like the TBH, but have to admit the framed combs are easier to inspect.

 

[Friar Tuck]

Got the wood cut and glued. was easy when you know a chippy who can lend to some sash clamps N' some glue. He also lent me a saw and said bee careful. But what see was all cut with a hand saw. the skills saw is for the top bars tomorrow.

 

[rog]

I have a TBH just come through the winter. Started as a small nuc last year. Seem quite happy. I have two hives both built from Chandlers plans and planning to do a split later. One tip I have learnt is the top bars work best with a starter strip of foundation a few mls deep. Helps to guide the combs straightish. If they build comb across the bars you will have a problem looking at them.

 

[madasafish]

I started bees last year with 2x TBH.. home built form Chandler plans. Both survived a very cold winter and are thriving. I don't use any starter strip: just a triangle of wood pinned and glued to the topbar and rubbed with beeswax.

Inspections are a bit messy at times if cross combing: Our local apiary is nationals.. much eaiser to handle bars.

But my larger TBH appears to have lot more bees over winter than any of the 16 at the apiary... Could be the type of bees and not the hive.

I plan an AS later into a 4 foot TBH built for the purpose..

 

[Friar Tuck]

Yeah I think as long as you give a guide of either foundation or wood curve or lolly pop sticks, the bees build strait ish comb. This is going to be a 4". I plan to put the top bars in a super above my nationals to start to get the frames going, if not a super then a bodge box with sloping sides this way give them a head start. Heading down the farm this morning to glue some stuff hit some nails and get busy with a power saw.

 

[nottingham]

Not 100% yet Owen I experimented a bit last year and this year will do 60 – 40 split in favour of just wired frames and if I am happy with that next year I will do 100% wired frames apart from starter strips.

I tried to use fishing line in my frames last year and the little Sh*ts bit them off, but yet they did draw comb with the line supporting it before they bit them off. So I am going to use stainless steel wire this year. Lets see them bite through that lol