Top Bar Hive Attic

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Top bar hive attic.

The bees build their comb down from these bars naturally without the use of a 4 sided frame or foundation. If you do not have a roof the sun beats down on the flat lid of the hive. This unique component is what gives the top bar hives its name. Bee culture july 2006.

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. Top bar hives have been around for a long time in fact some suggest the design is hundreds of years old. Hives that have frames or that use honey chambers in summer but which use similar management principles as. I moved a colony of bees into this hive using an unorthodox method that i had never tried b.

Your top bar hive needs some type of roof to go over the flat lid of the hive. It features individual bars laid across the top of the hive cavity. Of course those were not identical to the top bar hives we have today but the basic concepts are the same. 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.

During the cold snap the hive that had the most insulated roof had less dead bees on the bottom screen. Typically the bars are tapered and beveled at the bottom encouraging the bees to build their comb straight along each bar. 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. A top bar hive is a single story frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars.

With a top bar hive the combs can become very soft and fragile if the hive is overheating. A look at a beautifully made top bar hive made by paul macdonald. Each top bar is laid across the hive with one end at the front of the box and the other at the back. Whether it is a cathedral hive or a regular top bar hive proper ventilation from a roof is needed.

Top bar hives and beekeeping supplies including top bar beehives with windows adjustable legs hinged roofs. 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. Generally the bars are a wooden wedge or strip with a guide to ensure combs hang straight.

Many beekeepers will use top bars that have a small comb guide hanging down.