Want to see how to build a top bar beehive

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Hunter109
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Joined: February 6th, 2015, 2:32 pm

Want to see how to build a top bar beehive

Unread post by Hunter109 »

I am interested in building two top bar hives and wanted to see how much they are to build and what dose everyone's look like if they have any top bar hives
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Charlie
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Joined: February 26th, 2014, 3:49 pm
Location: Calgary Alberta.

Re: Want to see how to build a top bar beehive

Unread post by Charlie »

I'm sorry I have no direct experience with top bar hives. However a quick Google search of "top bar hive plans" will yield https://www.google.ca/search?q=top+bar+ ... 34&dpr=1.5
I believe you should find everything that you asked in your question at that link.

I have read a lot of good things about the top bar hive design however because I live in the frozen wastelands of Western Canada where we can have snow on the ground for seemingly six months of the year I chose to go with the more traditional hive design because I did not believe that a hive design for the tropics would work well where I live. This was all based around surface area of the hive, heat loss etc.

Good luck
Charlie
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Countryboy
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Re: Want to see how to build a top bar beehive

Unread post by Countryboy »

I built a Kenya top bar hive using Michael Bush's plans a few years ago. It sticks in my mind that if you buy the lumber, you can build one for less than $50. If you salvage lumber, you can build one for practically nothing...just your time and the cost of screws.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

Here's a video showing how I pulled honey from my top bar hive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii7IdoetVqQ

I had bees in it for a couple years. When they died out I stopped using the top bar hive. It's just been sitting around for the past couple years. If you just want to keep bees with minimal financial investment, top bar hives are a good way to go. If you want to keep bees and produce honey or other bee products and make money at it, I would recommend a conventional box hive.
B. Farmer Honey
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clarkcraig
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Location: Lacombe, Alberta

Re: Want to see how to build a top bar beehive

Unread post by clarkcraig »

Here are some links to detailed plans and costing info and an analysis/discussion about KTBH hives in a northern climate (the KTBH design was actually developed in Canada in about 1970 by an international development team.....for impoverished third world countries)

http://members.shaw.ca/metropropolis/Th ... 20Hive.pdf

http://members.shaw.ca/metropropolis/An ... lberta.pdf
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