A kenya style sloped sides is so that the combs are more naturally strong and less likely to break and collapse when they are full of honey. There are different types of hives used in beekeeping in kenya but the most important for commercial purposes are two, the kenya top bar hive ktbh and the langstroth hives. A beekeeper can extract honey from a top bar hive by cutting the comb off the topbar, leaving about 12 inch of comb so that the bees will be able to rebuild correctly. He tells how to build a simple top bar or kenyan hive. There is nothing worse in beekeeping than to have to stop and modify a top bar or comb when thousands of. Others are the log hives made from hollowed out tree trunks, basket hives made from woven sticks which are smeared with mud, and pot hives mad. A line of beeswax or a 12 inch strip of wax foundation helps the bees building the comb in the right places. Eventually the open brood will suppress their capacity. Top bar hives are low tech, old style configurations of hives. Basic beekeeping manual africa this is a 2 volume publication written by pam gregory with assistance of gay marris of the u. This is a variation on the top bar natural comb concept. The kenyan tbh is differentiated from the other common design, the tanzania top bar hive, by having sloped sides intended to minimize attachment.
I have developed a second and third version with some more advanced features click here for calkenyan 3 pictures only. Pdf top bar hive from cheap and locally available non. Construction of the fourth design of a modified kenyan top bar hive ktbh, the calkenyan kenyan hive adapted for california. If you have spare wood you can cut and place a flat piece of plywood over the top of the top bars to create a. Beesource beekeeping top bar hive construction dennis. Hive occupancy is about 75% and up to 18kg of honey are produced. If you are starting out at beekeeping we would advise the 3 economy version as. Beekeeping or apiculture is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in manmade hives, by humans.
This design is in vertical section and has around four boxes along with floor, top bar cover cloth, roof, eaves vent and ridge vent. The follower boards represent the inside and now you are about to add the outer skin. The object of a top bar hive tbh is to be easy and cheap to construct, easy to work and having natural sized cells. Starting a kenya style top bar hive berkshire beekeeping. It is well described in his book, home honey production. Reports vary as to how well this end is achieved in practice, but it is worth noting that this design appears to be preferred among top bar hive builders and designers in the usa and. How to build a simple top bar hive free download as pdf file. Jun 05, 2011 a kenya style top bar hive well, since i started keeping bees 6 or 7 years ago, ive always wanted to try a top bar hive. Beekeepingkenya top bar hives wikibooks, open books for. The calgary top bar hive is a variation of the traditional kenyan top bar hive, built for the requirements of a northern climate. Do you part to save the bees by finding out how to give them a home. This is the bee hive plan for building a vertical top bar hive. The hive has the sides and bottoms fashioned from a single sheet of curved, thin.
Others are the log hives made from hollowed out tree trunks, basket hives made from woven sticks which are smeared. A modified kenyan top bar hive ktbh, the calkenyan kenyan hive adapted for california. A beekeeper can extract honey from a top bar hive by cutting the comb off the top bar, leaving about 12 inch of comb so that the bees will be able to rebuild correctly. A person can build a hive with scrap or rough lumber, from cane or reeds. How to build a kenya top bar hive part 1 top bars on vimeo. National bee unit fera that concentrates on top bar hive beekeeping, but many of the techniques and ideas can also be used by traditional and frame hive beekeepers.
Why you should take up natural beekeeping azure standard. The kenyan top bar hive is a troughshaped hive that originated in kenya under the direction of canadian bee researcher dr. Beehive plans for beekeeping on the homestead top bar hive. Compiled by phil chandler, author of the barefoot beekeeper, this book will get you started in beekeeping at the lowest. This hive was invented in the mid1960s in england by w. As casual urban farmers, this wasnt a priority for us.
Put it in the hive, and the bees will firmly attach it to the tb in a few days. The example pictured above the one i built was a luxury version with all new pine. Photograph 6 a brood comb from the kenya top bar hive ktbh. There are pros and cons to each style of each hive, but in this article, the top bar hive is featured. Back to my top bars they are 14 long but an inch on either end sits on the hive body, so the bees can use 12 of an original top bar. Building a kenyan top bar hive tbh natural beekeeping. How to build a top bar beehive, free plans on website. The beekeeping naturally kenyan top bar hive is a high quality product designed and built for the australian climate by people who care about the environment and who are passionate about caring for bees. Sometimes called the kenyan top bar hive, this older alternative method appealed to us. A 3 hive x25 bars, a 3 6 hive x30 bars and a 4 hive x35 bars. There are many different styles, including the traditional langstroth hive, the more beefriendly warre hive, and the kenyan top bar hive pictured above. This is the first in a series of videos on how to build the kenya top bar hive. Pdf on farm evaluation of kenyan top bar hive ktbh for honey.
As discussed in the wikipedia article referenced above, top bar hives with vertical side walls are often referred to as tanzanian, and top bar hives with sloped side walls are referred to as kenyan. Place the top bar at the top of the comb, bring the twine up to the top and tie securely. The following tables break down the kenya top bar hive into its individual components and provide instructions on how to cut and build those components. A small nail tapped into the top bar prevents the side panel from slipping off. Joel govostes has made a catenary tbh, and has kept bees in it successfully. Nov 24, 2011 top bar hives are low tech, old style configurations of hives. This will help you during harvesting, as bees should only be able to escape from the top bar gap that you lift out. Building a top bar hive this book will lead you gently into a fascinating relationship with the most engaging of natures workers. Beekeeping easy way to make lots more bees using the rose hive method part 3 duration. It is made with extrathick wood for better insulation, and has extra capacity to allow population growth and the storage of honey surplus. 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. Since honey bees in kenya are passively managed, the main decision beekeepers make is which hive type to use. Additionally, a strategicallyplaced mirror allows farmers to.
The kenyan top bar hive beekeeping naturally promotes the kenyan top bar hive as one of the most effective natural bee hives for backyard and smallscale beekeepers beecarers. The design of topbar hives has its origins in the work done in 1965 by tredwell and paterson. T h e b e e k e e p i n g n a t u r a l l y k e n y a. Tbh and bee box is a type of beehive that you can build out of almost any type of wood. Together with its companion volume balanced beekeeping i.
Give the bees brood from another hive with fresh eggs and let them raise a queen 3. Beekeepingkenya top bar hives wikibooks, open books for an. Beehive fence construction manual 2014 ss elephants and. Here beehive construction plans pdf bee coloring pages, bee hive plans. Kenyan top bar hive part 1 making our sustainable life. Entering the beehive from one side means that only a small number of bees are disturbed at a time, rather than thousands of angry bees reacting to just having their. I have to date made the kenya hive top bars the standard 19 inch length and made them installable in a standard hive body if desired transfer brood, eggs, honey between hives. Low cost, pesticide free sustainable beekeeping kenyan top bar hive. This is a variation on the topbarnatural comb concept. A kenyan top bar hive is a more natural home for honeybees than the traditional langstroth hive, although it isnt as natural as a hollow log. Reed gives an overview of the patented modern top bar hive. Take corrective action if the population of mites is heavy.
Pdf with high adoption of the modern beehive in the tigray region of northern ethiopia, there is shortage of beeswax for preparation of the foundation. A beekeeper or apiarist keeps bees in order to collect their honey and other products that the hive produce including beeswax, propolis, flower pollen, bee pollen. Free plans on how to build a top bar hive can be found here as a pdf file. The advantages of the top bar hive over the lanstroth are numerous, the most important being the health of the bee. Sep 19, 2016 to get started in beekeeping, you need to decide on what kind of hive to keep. Most such bees are honey bees in the genus apis, but other honeyproducing bees such as melipona stingless bees are also kept. This has bars hanging from the upper section with wax. Fitting the top bars into the hive should create a sealed chamber beneath. At the lecture, kim also gave us simple plans to build a kenyan top bar beehive. There are many different styles, including the traditional langstroth hive, the more beefriendly warre hive, and the kenyan top bar hive pictured above there are pros and cons to each style of each hive, but in this article, the top bar hive is featured. A top bar hive is a singlestory frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. Instead, i leave a 38inch gap before placing my first bar.
Hive sizes we offer three fullsize horizontal top bar hives. I have kept bees for years in a range of different hives and for absolute simplicity of management and. Later in the spring, add a queen excluder and honey supers to your langstroth hive if you medicate your bees, all medication must be off the hive at this time. Apr 28, 20 as casual urban farmers, this wasnt a priority for us. The impact of hive type on the behavior and health of honey bee colonies apis mellifera in kenya.
Joel govostes i have used top bar hives before, which were supered like regular hives. Smith, sponsored by the canadian international development agency under an initial four year project begun in 1971. Complete plans, cut lists and materials can be found on my website so you can build along with me. If the barefoot beekeeper was the harbinger of the natural beekeeping movement, then this is the workshop manual.
Pdf the impact of hive type on the behavior and health of. Affordable, well made, kenyan top bar hive made of pine with levels and wing. The kenyan tbh is differentiated from the other common design, the tanzania top bar hive, by having sloped sides intended to minimize attachment of the comb. For sale bee hive construction australia a closer look. Material list kenyan top bar hive 1 sheet title 12. And last tidbit, a full honeycomb weighs 56 lbs, depending on how fat and wonky the bees built it. 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. As well as htbh such as the kenyan and tanzanian there are also vtbh vertical such as the warre.
Instead of providing foundation and frames within which the bees build their combs, the bees build their own combs down from a top bar. Top bar bee hive plans top bar beehive plans image. Since i found the kenyan top bar hive i have been experimenting with various designs and dimensions. In this video we will make a couple of different top bars. The wood used in this design is timber which can go well all around the year. If your ultimate goal is to get the bees into a top bar hive from a langstroth nuc or langstroth hive, you can cut the bottom and sides of each langstroth frame off and using the falseback as a guide cut through the comb to make it the same angle as the top bar hive. Pdf the impact of hive type on the behavior and health. With growing concerns about colony collapse disorder and the resulting decline in the number of pollinators, gardeners might consider maintaining a topbar hive of honeybees simply to increase vegetable and fruit yields through better pollination. Widespread experience indicates that bees have fewer tendencies to attach comb to the sloped side walls of the kenyan top bar hive. Aug 22, 20 beekeeping easy way to make lots more bees using the rose hive method part 3 duration. Mar 21, 2015 heres a how to video on building a new top bar beehive using thermally treated poplar. Top bar hive narrative r3 25 march 2007 ebmail the purpose of these drawings and this text is to assure that resources can be transferred from hive to hive and apiary to apiary. From our experience for most colonies a 3 hive is more than adequate. A top bar length of 19 inches is also convenient, so the top bar will fit into a standard hive.
Use a screened bottom board or the powderedsugarshake method to determine varroa mite population. Top bar hives essential management strategies also available. You will probably have to catch a swarm of bees or possible find some one that will sell or give you some to get started. One can even form it from adobe or cement blocks, or use empty oil drums for the hive bodies. Figure 5 on the next page shows the construction drawing of a kenyan top bar hive. Easytofollow instructions to make a simple, functional top bar hive for beekeeping the natural way. There is nothing worse in beekeeping than to have to stop and modify a top bar or comb when thousands of bees are angry and in the air. Dejakes hybrid beehive is based on the traditional kenyan top bar hives with a few improvements, including a queen excluder and an inspection window made from glass and transparent paper. Position one of the side panels against the follower boards, resting on the top bars. To get started in beekeeping, you need to decide on what kind of hive to keep.
Apr 23, 2014 back to my top bars they are 14 long but an inch on either end sits on the hive body, so the bees can use 12 of an original top bar. If you are starting out at beekeeping we would advise the 3 economy version as it costs less and is easy to manage. My search for an alternative approach led me to the top bar hive one of the. Beehive plans for beekeeping on the homestead top bar. Although the two most wellknown styles of long topbar hives are named kenyan and tanzanian, the kenyan hive was actually developed in canada, and the socalled tanzanian hive is not the same as the topbar hive that was developed in tanzania. I followed bushs advice and did not drill any holes in the sides of my tph.
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