Kenyan Topbar Hives
I have built and populated 2 topbar hives with bees this year.
Unlike the "Langstroth" hive, used predominantly in ths USA by commercial beekeepers for both pollination and honey production, the topbar hive does not consist of "boxes" stacked on top of each other. In fact, there is no bottom board, per se, no frames filled with foundation and no inner cover.
The bees build all of their own wax, where the queen rears her young and the bees store up honey for winter.
Honey is normally not extracted, but rather pressed or squeezed out of the wax.
So, why use topbar hives?
Top bar hives are
- more natural to the bees
- less stressful to the bees
- a great way to get more wax
- likely to make healthier colonies, because of the lower stress factor
Click on the photos at the right to see a larger photo
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