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.

 As you can see above here is a 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.

The Beekeeper 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. "

Phillip Chandler also 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 and you can read about this edition by clicking on the picture of the book to your far right on this page. 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. "

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

Top Bar Bee Hive Inspection