# any one use Top Bar Hive



## totrllamas (Dec 6, 2009)

I am wanting to get some bees. I am curious about the TOP BAR hives. has anyone used them? any suggestions on them. I would like to keep the initial expence down but not at the risk of loosing the swarm. Any advice is appreciated.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

http://thegardenhive.blogspot.com/


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Yes.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm


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## Kent (Nov 30, 2009)

Yes, I have three hives going now. I discovered Michael Bush's web site about four years ago.


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## Homesteader at Heart (Aug 11, 2003)

I just recently found out about top bar hives, and if I was in a position to keep bees, I woiuld definitely consider using them.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

Dennis Murrell has some good info & pictures on his site:
http://beenatural.wordpress.com/top-bar-hives/


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## glazed (Aug 19, 2006)

Homesteader at Heart, when I am in a position to keep bees I will definitely go this route ... I've been collecting information about top bar beekeeping for a little while now, and am fascinated by it.

I want to thank y'all for the additional links ... it is much appreciated.


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## eatmorechicken (Dec 13, 2009)

Just curious if anyone has seen or made any plans for a TBH with entrance holes and ventilation at the top instead of the bottom?

I read it was beneficial to help keep predators out, allows for better moisture control and is much better since you don't need to keep disturbing the bees by having to keep the grass short.

I know it is probably very simple to alter - but I am a person who likes to have something concrete on paper before I begin. So I thought I would ask the experts here.

Thanks in advance,

Steve


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

>Just curious if anyone has seen or made any plans for a TBH with entrance holes and ventilation at the top instead of the bottom?

My entrances are all at the top. There are no "holes". Just the first bar back from the front to make a gap.

>I read it was beneficial to help keep predators out

That's why I went to them.

> allows for better moisture control

And that was one of the benefits.

> and is much better since you don't need to keep disturbing the bees by having to keep the grass short.

Exactly.


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## dogrunner (Mar 2, 2009)

Are there any reasons a first time beekeeper should not use top bar hives from the beginning? We are looking to start this spring and are just wanting to learn, get a bit of pollination in the garden and some honey would be a nice bonus at some point. How many bars need to be left in the fall for wintering over? Which leads to another question when do you harvest comb and how much??


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

>Are there any reasons a first time beekeeper should not use top bar hives from the beginning?

IMO no reason a beginner shouldn't. You will learn more about what bees actually do instead of what they do when you give them foundation.

> We are looking to start this spring and are just wanting to learn, get a bit of pollination in the garden and some honey would be a nice bonus at some point. How many bars need to be left in the fall for wintering over?

It is a matter of weight, not bars. You want a hive that weighs about 100 pounds going into winter here. More wouldn't hurt. Which is mostly full. I try to only harvest a few bars at a time so if the flow stops they still have enough to winter on.

> Which leads to another question when do you harvest comb

Periodically throughout the flow when the hive is close to full.

> and how much??

Only a few bars at a time.


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## dogrunner (Mar 2, 2009)

Michael,
I can't thank you enough! I have read just about everything on your site and it has been very helpful. I am starting a beginner class this weekend and am curious about how the established beekeepers putting on the class will respond to my wanting to use TBH. While I hope to be able to have some established expertise locally to call upon I am still leaning toward TBH even if I can't find someone else locally doing it. I appreciate the help.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

I would generally expect animosity towards top bar hives. You might be pleasantly surprised and find curiosity, but most old beekeepers are convinced anything but a Langstroth is heresy.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

We used a top bar this past year, but didn't have much luck. They got to the very top of the bar and ran out of food and didn't move horizontally. They had food a frame or two over, but it was so cold that they didn't move that direction, they just stopped at the top and there died. I'm not sure what we could have done to rectify that situation as this was our first year using that type of hive.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

>They had food a frame or two over, but it was so cold that they didn't move that direction, they just stopped at the top and there died.

And they do the same thing just as often in a Langstroth hive.


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## Cascade Failure (Jan 30, 2007)

Michael Bush - I am curious, what type of hive did you start beekeeping with?

This will be my first year and I am going with traditional hives. I have not discounted TBH but, I am going to start with the hives that I do have a little bit of experience watching others tend.

Next year I will try at least one TBH, if for no other reason just so I can make the comparisons for myself. It should be interesting.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

>Michael Bush - I am curious, what type of hive did you start beekeeping with?

In 1974, I bought a starter kit from Dadant and did a cutout (couldnn't afford the bees). Being a carpenter I soon tried a box hive, just to see what they would do and populated it with another cut out. Then I built a vertical top bar hive out of scrap lumber. Sloped sides etc. Then I bought and built more deeps for brood and shallows for honey... that's what I ran until I bought four DE hives which I ran for several years and then I standardized on mediums and after that eight frame mediums. I also, in about 2002 or so, started several top bar hives and several horizontal hives (deeps, dadant deeps, mediums etc.). I also started doing foundationless about then as well.

Most of my hives currently are eight frame mediums with top entrances and about half with Screened Bottom Boards and half with solid bottoms converted to feeders.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Michael Bush said:


> >They had food a frame or two over, but it was so cold that they didn't move that direction, they just stopped at the top and there died.
> 
> And they do the same thing just as often in a Langstroth hive.


Oh I don't doubt it. I was just stating our experience with the top bar. I don't know what we could have done to save them regardless of what kind of hive they were in.


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## Cascade Failure (Jan 30, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> >Michael Bush - I am curious, what type of hive did you start beekeeping with?
> 
> In 1974, I bought a starter kit from Dadant and did a cutout (couldnn't afford the bees). Being a carpenter I soon tried a box hive, just to see what they would do and populated it with another cut out. Then I built a vertical top bar hive out of scrap lumber. Sloped sides etc. Then I bought and built more deeps for brood and shallows for honey... that's what I ran until I bought four DE hives which I ran for several years and then I standardized on mediums and after that eight frame mediums. I also, in about 2002 or so, started several top bar hives and several horizontal hives (deeps, dadant deeps, mediums etc.). I also started doing foundationless about then as well.
> 
> Most of my hives currently are eight frame mediums with top entrances and about half with Screened Bottom Boards and half with solid bottoms converted to feeders.


I am, to a degree, impressed. Most people wouldn't take the risk just to see what happens. I appreciate risk.

As a soon to be new beekeeper I have,over the past 2 years, read quite a bit of material and spoken with as many people as I can. To say the least, some of the information has been a bit contradictory. I have tried to account for locality but still there is descrepancy. 

I had come to the conclusion that I would start with what is familiar and then in year two start experimenting with some of the things I had read about.


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