In a horizontal top bar hive, the bees will expand from the side out rather than vertically into stacking boxes. The site has a wealth of info on beekeeping and plans for a top bar hive and you can also find phil chandler on youtube with some very informative videos and i recommend it is he has changed a few things as through time and experience with the. Best top bar hive plans for happy and productive bees. Compiled by the author of the barefoot beekeeper, this book will get you started in beekeeping at the lowest possible cost. Building a top bar hive once you have built your hive, i strongly recommend a practical training course before you add bees. I am always looking for different designs of bee hives as i build a different one each year for auction prizes at the louisiana beekeepers association each year. How to build a top bar hive 44page fully illustrated pdf now free. How to build a top bar beehive, free plans on website. I am guessing this is ok, but this might also cause problems that i do not foresee. These include the free top bar hive plans from philip chandler, author of the barefoot beekeeper and several top bar hive management books. The top bar hive does have a big advantage over the langstroth hive. Top bar hives require less initial investment due to the frameless nature of their design. Tbh and bee box is a type of beehive that you can build out of almost any type of wood. The bees build their comb down from these bars naturally, without the use of a 4 sided frame or foundation.
How to build a simple top bar hive free download as pdf file. Mar 21, 2015 heres a how to video on building a new top bar beehive using thermally treated poplar. The beekeeper harvests honey by cutting off the comb at its junction with the top bar, and comb cut from the top bars is not recycled within the hive. History of beekeeping harvesting the honey the golden mean hive with a ventilated roof. Dec 10, 2015 top bar beehive for sale, top bar beehive inspection. The following tables break down the kenya topbar hive into its individual components and provide instructions on how to cut and build those components. My hives have low, central, side entrances, sloping sides and a pair of follower boards to enclose the colony. Made from different materials that are often repurposed or recycled, top bar hives can be observed around the world. Beehive plans diy beehives top bar bee hive, bee hive.
Sep 19, 2010 forget beekeeping ideology, im a pragmatist. They will be trimmed a little to accommodate the roof see below. While this obscures some of the effort involved in manufacturing a top bar, this simplicity is. Chandlers plans is that the download provides a printable shopping list for the supplies needed that you can take along to your home improvement or hardware store. Mar 28, 2015 this is part 2 of building a top bar horizontal beehive. You can also print the complete design plans, and parts list which is posted below to build your own hive. Top bar beehives may be one of the oldest forms of domestic beekeeping. Oct 15, 2018 a top bar hive is a singlestory frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. Top bar beehive for sale, top bar beehive inspection. Nov 24, 2011 top bar hives are low tech, old style configurations of hives. Design for standardized top bar hives pdf notes to accompany the standardized tbh design pdf other tbh plans. It recognises that the bees have their own lives and they would. We recognize the langstroth hive as an optimized design for largescale. The free plans will enable you to build a working top bar hive, using simple tools and readily obtainable timber.
Our top bar beekeeping kit comes unassembled, so its a great way to learn the basics of building a top bar beehive. Complete parts checklists for both 1 and 54 wood thicknesses. In a region with a high nectar yield one can harvest more. If you prefer to use top bar hives in your apiary, we have those too. This is first part of a 2 part series in making a top bar hive from free plans you can download from. The author draws on 15 years of experience with many types of hive in the both amateur and professional beekeeping contexts. If a quilt is used, it is very close to the warre ideal, yet you are able to use standard equipment like medium frames. If you do not have a roof, the sun beats down on the flat lid of the hive.
You could easily fit four production colonies on just one hive stand, and if youre using only nucs, you could put even more. The free plans will enable you to build a working top bar hive, using simple tools and. An introduction to the top bar hive the ploughshare. Managing a top bar hive if the barefoot beekeeper was the harbinger of the natural beekeeping movement, then this is the workshop manual. Download the pdf version with more notes characteristic top bar hive langstroth notes easy on your back a tbh is a dream for anyone with back problems. This is a building bee hive plan for the warre or vertical top bar bee hive. Hive plans narrative 360 degree view you can also find the most recent addendum showing hive ventilation here. Les crowders simple and practical topbar hive plans can be found here. Can i simply make the sides of the hive out of standard boards and just adjust the other dimensions so all fits together. The top bar hive differs from the langstroth both in how the bees build their combs and in how we harvest the honey. Apr 12, 2010 albuquerque beeks, tj carr and john bradford, share their plans for a gorgeous tbh diagram above.
It acknowledges that our desire for honey may not be matched by the bees willingness to give it up. Building a top bar hive, which is much more comprehensive and contains a discussion of hive design theory as well as going into much more detail. When you download garden hive construction guide 2. 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. Carr and john bradford have a beautifully engineered plan for a top bar hive.
Distinct in shape and size, the top bar beehive commonly features a single, rectangular or tubshaped hive body with parallel bars. It allows you to see the brood and some honey comb in its entirety you can see the bees making new comb, feeding and cleaning out the hive. How to build a simple top bar hive by philip chandler. The second option is a set of physical drawings of the plan plus the necessary hardware to put the hive together. Also, tj carr, a beekeeper in albuquerque, has posted amazingly detailed and professional plans for what looks like the ultimate top bar hive, complete with a window so you can watch the bees at work. Heres a how to video on building a new top bar beehive using thermally treated poplar. Top bar hives are low tech, old style configurations of hives. I have a proper see with information about my experiments with sustainable beekeeping in top bar hives.
Each top bar hive has various color options available, which includes painted. A warre pronounced warray hive is simple to manage and maintain. Top bar hive kit we provide premium top bar hive kits that are simple to assemble and built from precisionmilled pine for ecological impact. Together with its companion volume balanced beekeeping i. The top bar hive plans below, created by pj chandler are very easy to follow. If you have multiple hives you want to elevate, you may want to consider a hive stand. Balanced beekeeping is a continuous quest for the improvement of our relationship with bees.
How to build a simple top bar hive by philip chandler ebook. Customers lauded the plans as being easy to read and follow. A topbar hive has bars from which the honey bees attach and hang wax comb, an array of hexagonal six sided cells. The quilt is filled with a suitable insulating material of plant origin such as chopped straw, wood shavings, dried leaves etc. This is the introductorylevel hivebuilding book you need to get started in natural beekeeping and check out the authors web site at. As well as a topbar cover cloth there is a cloth fixed to the bottom of the quilt to retain its contents. I came across three plans, but most use non standard board widths which will require gluing of boards. Generally the bars are a wooden wedge or strip with a guide to ensure combs hang straight. Bee hives boxes bee boxes top bar bee hive bee traps langstroth hive bee hive plans backyard beekeeping bee happy bees knees here is the plan for the langpohl top bar hive. The length of the top bar is 315mm, the floor board can be measured from 15 to 20mm, the floor boxes should be 1mm and the entrance notch in the floor should be 40mm to stay rigid. With a top bar hive the combs can become very soft and fragile if the hive is overheating. There is far less danger of chemical residue buildup in a top bar hive than in a. As well as a top bar cover cloth there is a cloth fixed to the bottom of the quilt to retain its contents. Be among the first to hear about new courses and events join our free email list.
The length of 955 mm is to allow for 27 top bars of 35 mm width, plus 10 mm for expansion. This means that i will only need to be assembled using gorilla external wood glue and wood screws that will be purchased from our local screwfix. The modern top bar hive a simple, sustainable approach to smallscale beekeeping so what is a top bar hive. While this obscures some of the effort involved in manufacturing a top bar, this simplicity is one reason it has been so popular.
How to build your own diy top bar beehive if you are looking to become self sufficient, a good place to start is to have a beehive in your backyard. The cost is about onethird to onefourth the cost of one standard ten frame langstroth hive. In comparison to the langstroth hive, top bar hives provide an environment much closer to the conditions found in nature by wild and feral bees. Learn how to build the hive stand in this great video tutorial below. The one critical dimension in this whole design is the width of the top bar, which. For a 48 hive recommended for more productive areas and vigorous bees, you obviously need an extra foot on each side and the floor, plus enough for another 8 or so top bars. Hello, does anyone know of any good websites with top bar hive plans. Plans for constructing a warre hive the peoples hive the plans shown below are based as closely as possible on those in the 12th edition of beekeeping for all published in 1948.
Top bar hives pdf notes to accompany the standardized tbh design pdf. If a beekeeper has a bad back or cant lift heavy things then the top bar hive should be considered. Free diagram and plans for a top bar hive mistress beek. Topbar hive plans new mexico beekeepers association. Biobees has published an ebook with photos on building your own tbh. Packed with clear photographs and diagrams, almost anyone can build a top bar hive in a weekend even if you have never done anything like this before. Building a kenyan top bar hive tbh natural beekeeping. It has been a great success here at bello uccello honey bee sanctuary, with lots of brood, bees and honey. And heres what ive come to realize about the benefits and drawbacks of top bar and langstroth bee hives.
How to build a top bar bee hive diy plans from biobees. The standardized top bar hive design by tj carr i recommend using a standardized tbh design for innumerable reasons, including the ability to share resources between your hives and with others in your community. The plans and instructions to build the bee hive are kindly provided free of charge in the form of pdf documents you can view and print out on your computer. Top bar beehive beekeeping top bar bee hive kits for sale. Also known as tiered or supered top bar hives, a vertical. The top bar hive is designed with the beekeeper in mind, both in terms of the construction effort and the management of the hive once installed. An embedded popsicle stick, or, as i do, a simple piece of jute string lain along the middle of the bar and glued by dripping hot wax melted with a cheap soldering iron from an electronics store, gives the bees a guide to build their comb along the bar. Top bar hive kit top bar hive accessories beehive kits. Jun 21, 2010 these hives are called top bar hives because a single bar of wood lays on top of the hive. You can download the design plans on my website for you own beehive build project.
Top bar hive exploded view from phil chandlers pdf plans. They are readily available for you on our web site. When using only medium supers, 8 frame hives have about the same volume as a warre hive. My topbar hives design topbar bees, part of the fun of starting beekeeping in topbar hives was designing my own. If it is extended close to 12 916, then it better spans the rebates and leaves no cavity for pests to occupy.
How to build a simple top bar hive bee friendly austin. To obtain the correct width you can use narrow planks, joined together using battens. The kenyan was designed to be low tech, low cost and simple to build using available materials. You can find the newly updated plans, released october of 2012 here.
Download both the plans and the the accompanying narrative to build your own. Whether it is a cathedral hive or a regular top bar hive, proper ventilation from a roof is needed. Under that roof, along the top of the hive, are 24 removable wooden bars. In the height of beekeeping season, we recommend staying 3 bars ahead of their built out comb.
At a high level, it is effectively a box on legs, with a cover. Proper ventilation for a top bar hive is critical to help the bees be able to regulate the temperature of the hive. If the barefoot beekeeper was the harbinger of the natural beekeeping movement, then this is the workshop manual. Ventilation detail plans for a top bar honey straining rack, designed by t. I have had my top bar hive for some time with an entry slot in the end about 150. I have built a regular top bar hive with roof, a bee hive that was made like an old cajun house with porch, windows, chimney, ect in the past. If you want more detail, with backgtound information and more pictures, you may like to buy my book balanced beekeeping i. Biobees has published an ebook with photos on building your own top bar hive pdf.
Albuquerque beeks, tj carr and john bradford, share their plans for a gorgeous tbh diagram above. I have been trying to find plans for the warre hexagon bee hive so that i can build one. A warre hive is a vertical top bar hive that is simple to build and easy to use. I would appreciate any leads on plans to build one if anyone has any or has built onescratch. Building a top bar hive this book will lead you gently into a fascinating relationship with the most engaging of natures workers. I built a kenyan style topbar on legs with a screen across the bottom, and my beekeeping students can climb under the hive and watch the bees at work. A group of us natural beekeepers have formed a charity called friends of the bees, with the aim of raising funds to do more. Easytofollow instructions to make a simple, functional top bar hive for beekeeping the natural way. Ventilation detail plans for a top bar honey straining rack, designed. Top bar hive plans for 1220 x 2440 ply the quote from our local timber yard is. It recognises that keeping bees is not natural, because in nature, only bees keep bees.
Also, tj carr, a beekeeper in albuquerque, has posted amazingly detailed and professional plans for what looks like the ultimate topbar hive, complete with a window so you can watch the bees at work. Top bar beehives are known now as one of the most economical ways to keep bees, and they require no heavy lifting and no extra equipment, such as supers, foundation, or extractors. For this topbar hive, i made 24 bars at 1 14 wide for brood and 10 bars at 8 wide for honey. As the colony grows, slide the divider board, like a moving wall, down the hive cavity and add empty bars. Complete plans, cut lists and materials can be found on my website so you can build along with me. Bee built offers two options with their top bar hive plans. There is no direct passage of air from the top box to the vents under the roof. Top bar hive plans archive beesource beekeeping forums. You can also find the most recent addendum showing hive ventilation here. Thus, top bar hives may provide a substantially lower cost for entry into beekeeping, and they are the predominant hive in some developing and underdeveloped countries. When i lived in the somme, i had an average annual harvest of 25 kg per hive. For a 48 hive recommended for more productive areas and vigorous bees, you obviously need an extra. How to build a simple top bar hive beehive beekeeping scribd.
The top bar hive is the oldest and most commonly used hive style in the world. As well as htbh such as the kenyan and tanzanian there are also vtbh vertical such as the warre. How to build a top bar beehive, free plans on website youtube. Beekeeping for all by emile warre pdf ebook, 9mb v6 beekeeping for all by emile warre pdf, 3mb version warre hive plans pdf johannes thurs book about beehive scent and heat retention nestduftwarmebindung excerpt, pdf delons warre hive with removable wire frames pdf. This is the introductorylevel hive building book you need to get started in natural beekeeping and check out the authors web site at.
How to build a top bar beehive part 2, free plans on my site. Tj carr also has plans for a honey strainer for top bar hives. Lumber in a store is identified by its nominal size, which is its rough dimension before its trimmed and sanded to its finished size at the lumber mill. How to make a home made bee hive the permaculture research.