Top Bar Hive Attic

Whether it is a cathedral hive or a regular top bar hive proper ventilation from a roof is needed.

Top bar hive attic. A look at a beautifully made top bar hive made by paul macdonald. There is a list in my files of what are called five percenters those are considerations in hive management or design that make a small difference in a total honey production. During the cold snap the hive that had the most insulated roof had less dead bees on the bottom screen. Each top bar is laid across the hive with one end at the front of the box and the other at the back.

With a top bar hive the combs can become very soft and fragile if the hive is overheating. The bars form a continuous roof over the comb whereas the frames in most current hives allow space for bees to move up or down between boxes. For accessories for your discontinued top bar hive see the discontinued top bar hive collection free shipping on orders over 75. The top bar hive is the oldest and most commonly used hive style in the world.

If you do not have a roof the sun beats down on the flat lid of the hive. The number of top bars the hive will accommodate varies with the width of the box but as a reference a 42 box will use 28 top bars. A top bar hive is a single story frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. Top bar hives and beekeeping supplies including top bar beehives with windows adjustable legs hinged roofs.

Generally the bars are a wooden wedge or strip with a guide to ensure combs hang straight. Hives that have frames or that use honey chambers in summer but which use similar management principles as. This unique component is what gives the top bar hives its name. Your top bar hive needs some type of roof to go over the flat lid of the hive.

I moved a colony of bees into this hive using an unorthodox method that i had never tried b. Many beekeepers will use top bars that have a small comb guide hanging down. The bees build their comb down from these bars naturally without the use of a 4 sided frame or foundation. Typically the bars are tapered and beveled at the bottom encouraging the bees to build their comb straight along each bar.

Of course those were not identical to the top bar hives we have today but the basic concepts are the same. Bee culture july 2006. Immediately i increased the top insulation of the other hives and the result was a drop in dead bees to a quarter of daily number. As the temperature went lower other hives increased the number of daily deceased bees.

It features individual bars laid across the top of the hive cavity.