Beekeepers are known to be cheap, or to put it more nicely, they are a frugal lot and try to make do with whatever they have lying around that is not being used.

Top Bar Hive Beekeeping is most prevalent where people have very little money [and cannot afford to be buying beekeeping equipment as we do here in the United States], such as in Africa. A 'Top Bar Hive' can be homemade out of whatever junk you have lying around or can find and bring home. It can afford you a wonderful way to be uniquely creative.

Here are three top bar hives mounted on a stand so you don't have to bend over when you open one up to examine it. This photo is from my friend Jim Satterfield's web site on Top Bar Hive Beekeeping.

Generally speaking most people who start beekeeping here in the US spend anywhere from $200 to $500 to get started. You can really do it a lot cheaper then that if you put your mind to making your own Top Bar Hives.

A Homemade Kenyan Type Top Bar Hive

[ Download a free jig-saw puzzle of the above picture ]

As you can see above here is another homemade Top bar Beehive. Under the top cover of the hive you can see pieces of wood laid across the top to fill the entire inside of the hive. When these pieces of wood are first put inside the hive a bead of beeswax is laid across the middle of the botton of each stick. Think of this as a guide to help the bees who first occupy the hive to start builidg their own free hanging bee comb, such as you can see on the piece of wood lying in front of the smoker and on the wood leaning up against the side of the TBH. Notice also that this TBH is elevated up off thebground which makes it much easier for the beekeeper to open up the TBh and examine what is going on inside. being ekevated off the ground also protects it from maruading skunks who love to scratch on the front of normal beehives, enticing the bees inside to come out and subsequently get eaten by the skunk.

Click the arrow to play the above video about Top Bar Hives.

A Top Bar Hive made by Philip Chandler who lives in the UK.

Above is Phillip Chandler who has a web site on Top Bar Hives known as Bio Bees. Phillip has written a most interesting book on Top Bar Hive Beekeeping entitled "The Barefoot Beekeeper". The second edition of "The Barefoot Beekeeper" (published January 2008) is now available from Amazon.com. Whether or not you buy the book, if you are interested in top bar beekeeping you are welcome to join the discussion forum on the Biobees web site.

Phillip also has made available a free downloadable book on How To Build A Top Bar Hive in Adobe pdf format. His Introduction states: " My woodworking skills are little more than basic and I have written these instructions with fellow amateurs in mind. I doubt if I could follow a 'proper' woodwork plan myself, so this is a combination of written instructions and photographs, which I hope will prove easy to understand. I suggest you scan through the following pages more than once before starting work. "

Working bees in a Kenya Top Bar Hive (KTBH)

How To Make The Wax Starter Strips For Top bar Hives [An Adobe PDF File]

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A different type of top bar hive

This is a Warre Top Bar Hive - a bit different in shape then the above Top bar Hives. Click here to download a free pdf file all about this type of Natural Beekeeping Top Bar Hive Illustrations show how these Top Bar Hives are made

© 2008 Albert W. Needham