Horizontal top bar hive And these are the plans to craft the hive that Jack built. Mar 14, 2025 · Arrange the top bars snuggly between the end pieces with the foundation pointing down. As the colony grows, slide the divider board, like a moving wall, down the hive cavity and add empty bars. While the concept of horizontal frameless beekeeping (and intuitively bee space) has been around since antiquity, persisting throughout the ages thanks to their incredibly clever and simple principles, today's versions have been modernized and improved upon to The classical frame for Layens horizontal hives. Jan 7, 2024 · The 3 Most Popular Types of Horizontal Hives. This normally results in less honey production for a hive. Apr 30, 2021 · Top bar hives are my favorite style of bee hive. In most cases, no queen excluder is used in horizontal hives. NEW: these unique Top-Bar Hives offer the possibility of an Easy-Peasy Langstroth NUC & frames conversion during the Spring: just pop a Langstroth NUCs onto the end piece used as a shelf, opening it up to the top-bar hive cavity, and letting the colony expand horizontally into the Top-Bar Hive by building new combs naturally onto the top-bars Feb 1, 2020 · A top bar hive can be built almost anywhere with nothing but a hand saw and some nails. 40” LONG HIVE BODY. I wanted to give my experience using top bars. comlplans Our goal is to make these simple Les-Is-More hives available to as many people as possible, and to create a standard in Horizontal This top bar hive for sale has a style that places a bar on top of the hive, ensuring that the hive body is designed to hold the entire hive together. Sep 8, 2023 · A top bar hive has a horizontal body, which is advantageous over winter. For starters, top bar hives have no frames. This is the hive that Jack built. The honeybees build comb down from the top bars. 50K posts 18M views Top Bar, Layen, Ukrainian, any other horizontal hives. Our hive bodies are 40” long, 18" wide and about 19" deep allowing ample honey storage space to support the colony through winter with excess for the beekeeper to harvest. Most available top bar hives are too small to allow a strong colony to thrive. Top bars touch — retains heat and no bee disturbance. However, the absence of frames means honey harvesting relies on the crush and strain method. NEW: these unique Top-Bar Hives offer the possibility of an Easy-Peasy Langstroth NUC & frames conversion during the Spring: just pop a Langstroth NUCs onto the end piece used as a shelf, opening it up to the top-bar hive cavity, and letting the colony expand horizontally into the Top-Bar Hive by building new combs naturally onto the top-bars This book will provide all the information you need to build a simple, horizontal top bar hive of what is known as the 'Kenyan' pattern, with design features and adaptations added by the author to make it easier to manage for the beekeeper and more suitable Jan 19, 2023 · Enter Horizontal Hives, and more particularly Horizontal Frameless Hives, also known as Kenyan Top-Bar Hives, or KTBHs for short. Vertical hives are inefficient, allowing heat to rise to the highest boxes. Instead of stacking boxes vertically, the top-bar hive consists of a single long box with bars placed at the top. The top bar hive is one of the most popular horizontal hives that dates back several centuries. Top-Bar Hives have a horizontal layout, resembling a trough or Free & easy Horizontal Top-Bar Hive plans for Les Crowder's newest and optimized Top-Bar Hive, which include how to build double top-bar hives in less than 2hrs and $50 of materials, plus the latest "Les-Is-More" Langstroth-to-Top-Bar-Hive" easy conversion method Oct 16, 2023 · There are primarily three types of horizontal hives: Top Bar Hive. It is a horizontal hive, enabling beekeepers to inspect the entirety of the hive without moving heavy supers. In a horizontal top bar hive, the bees will expand from the side out rather than vertically into stacking boxes. Tub shaped top-bar hives are usually small enough to be portable, and allow beekeeping methods that involve periodic merging and splitting of colonies. Join Community Jul 18, 2012 · Top Bar Hives. As bees build their honey stores with new combs and grow the swarm, this horizontal top bar hive concept ensures the stability of your colony–from bees to drones, the laying queen, liquid honey Jan 14, 2024 · In horizontal hives that only use top bars, extraction is not possible. The beekeeper must use the cut and strain method and the colony must rebuild all of the honeycomb each season. Step 8: Mount Hive Rachael Brugger. One-piece bars are used instead of the 4-sided wooden frames of the Langstroth design. Used in over one million hives today. There are even top bar hives built out of sunflower stems tied together and grouted with mud. Over 125 years of successful use. Benefits of the horizontal hive are that it requires no heavy lifting and needs minimal management. No Excluder. I posted a comment and to cut a long story short this resulted in him offering to write a few words on his experiences of the horizontal Top Bar Hive (TBH). Feb 13, 2024 · The top bar hive has emerged as a popular alternative to the Langstroth for people who are looking to avoid heavy lifting and/or enjoy a more natural approach to beekeeping. The 2 most modern versions date back to the mid 1960’s and 1970’s: the Kenyan Top Bar Hive and the Tanzanian Top Bar Hive. Hence, it is also sometimes referred to as the horizontal top bar hive. Langstroth Hive. Top bar hives are affordable and easy to use. Stack the cinder blocks in two columns where you want to site your hive. Structural Differences. Free & easy Horizontal Top-Bar Hive plans for Les Crowder's newest and optimized Top-Bar Hive, which include how to build double top-bar hives in less than 2hrs and $50 of materials, plus the latest "Les-Is-More" Langstroth-to-Top-Bar-Hive" easy conversion method An example of the tub shaped top-bar hive is the so-called Greek hive that was first described in the 17th century and has been used in Crete until recently. To compare, a Top Bar Hive and the industry standard Langstroth Hive we must look farther than just physical appearance – though the two do look very different. Bee-Mindful. Don’t you love the Internet. The top bar hive is the oldest hive design in the world. Jun 2, 2021 · The Top Bar hive, Long Langstroth hive, and the Layens hive are all forms of horizontal hives. Free & easy Horizontal Top-Bar Hive plans for Les Crowder's newest and optimized Top-Bar Hive, which include how to build double top-bar hives in less than 2hrs and $50 of materials, plus the latest "Les-Is-More" Langstroth-to-Top-Bar-Hive" easy conversion method Nov 12, 2015 · In closing, the Top Bar Hive you show is better known as the Kenyan TBH or HTBV (Horizontal). There are several different top bar hive styles. com or BeeMindfulHoneyFarms@gmail. Bee-Mindful. Jun 10, 2024 · Top Bar Hives vs Langstroth Hives. The top bar hive utilizes bars placed on top of the box, allowing bees to construct their comb. Long Langstroth Hive - Free Plans. It accepts 31 standard deep frames and features bee-friendly thick walls for durability and superior Maintenance Hive Checks. These horizontal hives are somewhere between a log hive and a Langstroth beehive. 30% more comb than a deep Langstoth. What is a Top Bar Hive? A top bar hive, also known as a Kenyan top bar hive (KTBH), is a horizontal hive. It can be difficult to find horizontal hives for sale, but there are a few websites that have them. Feb 26, 2024 · unequivocally to Bee Mindful, LLC as being a "LES-IS-MORE Horizontal Top-Bar Hive or "LES-IS-MORE Horizontal Top-Bar NUC Box"before being posted online, sold or distributed in any way. There are three main types of horizontal hives: Top bar hive; Horizontal langstroth hive; Layens hive; Top Bar Hives. This includes dealing with cross combing, expanding the brood Oct 17, 2023 · The primary distinction is that the Layens hive incorporates frames with foundations, enabling honey extraction without destroying the comb. com angle/width/bar dimensions and all variable lengths of side walls or number of partitions), credit be given clearly and unequivocally to Bee Mindful, LLC as being a “Bee Mindful Top-Bar Hive” before being posted online, sold or distributed in www. Dimensions based on natural tree hollows. com The Bee Mindful Top-Bar HiveTM Plans Nov 2, 2022 · The horizontal top bar hive is the oldest hive style design in the world, featuring individual bars laid across the top of the hive cavity that bees build their comb down from naturally created bees’ wax. One reason so many people are becoming interested in top bar or horizontal beekeeping is the fact that there is no lifting required. Design and Structure Horizontal Layout. 2. Layens vs. Horizontal conditioning of air with high humidity is by far easier to control by moving air in a vertical direction and not horizontal. In contrast, the top bar hive uses only top bars, meaning the honeycomb must be cut from the bar during honey production, requiring the colony to rebuild the comb. The top bar beehive top bars are intentionally left long to give you more leverage to remove them when checking combs and harvesting honey. In our experience, colonies outgrow horizontal hives shorter than 36”. A horizontal top bar hive features wooden bars laid along the long box’s top. This design promotes natural comb building, as the queen can freely move throughout the hive. Jul 30, 2024 · The Top-Bar Hive represents a return to more traditional and natural beekeeping methods, offering simplicity and minimal intervention. I followed various links on bee blogs and found myself browsing the Dave Loveless site, an Alaskan beekeeper. Self-spacing for utmost convenience. Oct 16, 2023 · The top-bar beehive, sometimes referred to as the “horizontal hive,” is characterized by its horizontal design. Top Bar Hives: Horizontal design with a single horizontal cavity (one box) See full list on honeybeehobbyist. Horizontal hives don’t have this issue, so bees don’t work as hard to stay warm during winter. This horizontal hive model costs under $50 in materials, and is a two-hour project requiring only basic tools. Mar 11, 2025 · Top Bar & Horizontal Hive Forum. Ideal overwintering & strong spring buildup. Show Less . So how do top bar hives work? Simple. Top Bar Hive. Unlike Langstroth Hives, Top-Bar Hives are horizontal and use bars instead of frames for comb attachment. yjpa hoqyfv fvylu ptmnz wlo nhv fwql ohxcmc hsjj fwkwr wwsce xjpss sxqiad rmtq kuyr