Top Bar Beekeeping
Top bar beekeeping is an exciting way to keep bees that you might not be familiar with! Whether you have experience with beekeeping or you’re just starting, you should consider giving it a try. Here’s some information about top-bar beekeeping and why I enjoy it!
We have been keeping bees here in Alaska for many years. Although beekeeping in an arctic climate has its challenges, we still love it! Not only is the honey amazing, but the wax is also very useful.
I love to collect what wax I can to make candles, beeswax wraps, lotion bars, and other natural products. My girls and I enjoy making homemade, all-natural items for our family and friends using wax from our bees.
I always keep a jar handy when we’re doing hive checks to put any small pieces of wax that I gather from the frames. But because the bees work hard to make the wax and need it, I only collect extra clumps that they built outside of the frames.
Then I melt and clean the wax so that it’s ready for use in all of my projects.
Top bar hives are a great way to get more wax so that’s why I wanted to give one a try. And now I love having a top bar hive! I’ll tell you all about my experience and what you should know about top bar beekeeping. I hope you give it a try!
What is Top Bar Beekeeping?
The Langstroth hive is a vertical hive where the boxes are stacked on top of one another. This is the typical box hive and the most widely used type of bee hive. There are two large boxes for brood rearing and two smaller honey supers on the top.
These are the best hives for honey production. All you need to do is pull the frames out, spin them in an extractor to get the honey out of the cells, and then put the frames back. The foundation frames have a piece of plastic in the center that the bees build the wax onto.
A top bar beehive, however, is a horizontal hive. There is no heavy lifting and stacking of boxes, and you don’t need to buy an extractor.
The bees build their comb from the top down without the structure of foundation frames. This is a great way to be able to harvest a lot of comb honey and wax!
Many hobbyist beekeepers enjoy the top-bar hive design and having lots of natural comb wax to use for various projects.
Parts of a Top Bar Hive
Horizontal top bar hives have fewer parts than the typical Langstroth box hive. The entire hive is in just one structure with a few small pieces here and there. Here’s what you’ll need for a top bar hive:
- Hive Body- This is the main part of the hive structure. The length of the hive body should be about 3 to 4 feet to give the bees enough space for brood and honey. It’s especially nice to have an observation window on the side of the hive body so you can peek in at the bees. Just make sure it can be covered as bees prefer darkness.
- Legs- The hive body can have legs attached to it or no legs and sit on something sturdy such as cinder blocks. Make sure the hive body is level for the bees to be able to build the wax combs properly. It should also be at a height that’s comfortable for you to perform hive checks.
- Cover- Your hive body might have a lid that’s attached to it as mine does. I simply open one side of the lid since it’s on a hinge and it stays up while I complete the hive check. You can also have a separate cover that must be lifted off and removed to access the inside of the hive.
Internal Parts of a Top Bar Hive
- Follower Board- These are important for partitioning off the inside of the hive when a colony is new and too small to be able to heat the entire hive body. As they draw out more comb and the colony grows, the boards can be moved out to allow the bees more space and you can add more empty bars for them to build wax on.
- Sugar Water Feeder- You can use an external sugar water feeder or an internal one, just like with a standard Langstroth hive. I use an inner feeder that was specifically built for my hive and it works great.
- Bars- These are like the frames in a standard hive and are what the bees will build the comb from. You will need 20 to 30 of them, depending on the length of your hive body. They should be 3 1/2 centimeters wide for proper bee space. You can have a small strip of foundation on them to give the bees a good starting point.
Where to Get a Top Bar Hive
You can order a top bar hive with easy assembly from beekeeping supply companies as well as the extra parts. I am fortunate to have a beautifully handmade top bar hive from a local Alaska family that builds them. I love it!
If you aren’t able to build your own using detailed plans or find a local craftsman to build one for you, Etsy has some creative options.
It’s a good idea to stain or paint the outside of the hive body to protect the wood but the inside should be untreated wood for the safety of the bees.
Benefits of Top Bar Beekeeping
I was interested in getting a top bar hive for several years to have more wax for candle-making. Now I’m hooked! Here are some reasons why:
- More wax- This is the main reason for me and many other top bar hive beekeepers. So much more wax! I am blown away by how much wax bees can produce in a top bar compared to bees using foundation frames in a standard hive. I thought I wouldn’t be able to harvest any wax the first year but they filled almost the entire hive body with wax and I was amazed! Now I have an abundance of wax for candle-making and other projects.
- Beautiful top bar design- I just really love the look of a top bar hive, they’re so cute! It’s a special addition to our little apiary on our property and visitors are always very interested to check it out.
- New challenge- It’s always fun to mix things up and learn something new as a beekeeper. Trying a top bar hive is a great experience and my husband and I enjoy doing hive checks on it.
- Comb honey- Many people enjoy comb honey for various reasons. With a top bar hive, you can simply cut off chunks of comb and package them to share with friends or sell.
- Less physical- Backyard beekeepers have to do a lot of work, lifting heavy boxes with frames full of honey. Top bars don’t involve any lifting, moving, or stacking!
Drawbacks of Top Bar Beekeeping
It is hard for me to even think of any drawbacks to top-bar beehives because I think they’re awesome! But there might be a few depending on personal preference:
- Less honey- You just won’t get as much honey from top bar hives as you will with standard vertical bee hives. The combs won’t be as large as standard foundation frames so they won’t yield as much honey. However, if you’re using a top bar hive to get more wax, like I do, then this won’t matter!
- More difficult extraction- Extracting honey from a foundation frame is easy, you simply spin it in an extractor. However, top bar frames cannot be spun in an extractor so the honey needs to be removed by hand. This isn’t too difficult but takes a little longer. Place the comb in a strainer over a bowl. Smash it up and allow the honey to drain out. Many people enjoy comb honey so you can also just cut up the comb and place it in a box or a jar.
- Space-consuming- Langstroth hives are vertical so you can fit several hives in an area and they don’t take up a lot of space. The top bar hive design, however, takes up a lot more space because they are so long and require legs. This is an important consideration when deciding where you will keep your bee hive.
Tips for Top Bar Beekeeping
Here are a few tips to make your top bar beekeeping experience even better:
- Be careful when completing hive checks. When you pull a bar out to check on the bees, pull it straight up and don’t tilt it from side to side. The comb isn’t built on a piece of plastic foundation. It can break if it’s too heavy and you tip it sideways.
- You can use a queen excluder at the entrance when you first introduce the colony to the hive so that she doesn’t try to leave. Then the bees will stay in the hive and start to build wax for her.
- Complete your regular hive inspection just like you would with a standard hive box. Suit up, smoke if necessary, and check each frame for healthy bees. Find the queen bee, signs of her laying, queen cells, and any hive management issues that need attention.
I hope you can give top-bar beekeeping a try! There are many benefits but adding enjoyment to the hobby of beekeeping is the best part!
