Love all your designs!! So interesting listening to explaining how your bees like your hives. I hope to build one this winter. Thanks for sharing and well done!!
Great looking hives! Thanks for sharing. I plan to use the 2x12 also to build mine for additional insulation! Nice picture of your bee hives in the snow!
Thank you for the comments. One thing I have learned, when you build your lid Leave plenty of room for some type of insulation on top of the frames for winter time. Hope you enjoy your top bar hive.
Nice design. I got a few of these hives from a woman that killed her bees every fall. She had a metal roof with zero insulation so I know why she kept killing bees. I alway put in the bubble wrap but I add some material to capture moister and sugar. Im going to use you double bubble rap idea with these hives on the lid idea you have. I really don't love harvesting from this style of hive but I may use this for honey squares to add to the honey for looks.
@@fitzymon Thanks for your comments. So far these hives have worked pretty well. I did have a couple problems with comb collapse on the very hundred plus degree days, on the Honey end of the hive. I’ve currently changed the Honey bars by adding a dowel Rod vertical on the bars. That’s helped a lot. Since i’m just small time I chose to use a Honey press from Dr. Leo’s website. I just press it right into quart jars and save the wax for other uses.
Some very cool design ideas in your hive. I like the solid bottom board with the screened holes, I think I'll try something like that on my next top bar. The bevelled edges on the bars is a good idea too, I write on mine so I can distinguish one end from the other, but I prefer your idea. Nice work.
Thanks again for your comments I enjoy checking out other peoples good designs and then maybe adding my own spin on it. I think I heard you say you may try layens hives someday. You might check out my episode #62 Top bar beekeeper builds layens hive and episode # 80 I give a review of the layens and top bar hives. I have chosen these two styles of hives, No heavy lifting and everything can be kept inside the hives. I just crush and strain the honey and use the wax for candles etc. The Langstroth hives of course are much better if you want a lot more honey production.
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Yes the Layens hive is one I want to try for sure. I've already got a couple of your videos saved in my beekeeping playlist for future reference when it comes time to build. There's also a guy who does a very modified version of a Langstroth hive that I'm keen to try, @vinofarm Vino Farm is his channel. I like his idea of a very deep, inslated brood box that can be easily supered during a nectar flow. Worth a look for ideas at least.
@@DuckPondsFarm I have also seen some of vinos videos on his new designs, very good ideas worth trying. Sticking with the Langstrath frames, you may also want to check out horizontal bees on UA-cam he builds some beautiful boxes horizontal like the top bars and layens using langstroth frames. A few years ago My wife and I visited her friend, we flew into Sydney and then stayed around Adelaide. You have a beautiful country and people. Are you close to either of these regions? I hope you have good bee season.
@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 no we aren't near those areas, we are more north. We are near the town of Bundaberg in South East Queensland, almost a sub tropical climate, hot summers and mild winters. We don't have to worry too much about overwintering colonies here as most days through winter our bees are still out foraging. Droughts are our hard times when not much flowers for our bees to feed from. The last couple seasons have been good though.
Hi John, Thanks for the information. I really wanted to see how you attached the top cover. I use a pitched roof on mine, but I think yours looks more organized. I know that doesn't matter but I might just give it a try. I use 1-3/8"W X 3/4"D X 19"L top bars for me the bees follow the spacing and I have not had any Problems. And I also use 2"X12" lumber for insulation purposes. But I live in florida it's also useful for the heat we have. Talk to you later, Mike B.
Mike I am fortunate enough that I get to use a sheet-metal break so I use 26 gauge sheet-metal and then bend it with lips out to shed water and then really all I have to do is put a couple screws in each side to hold it onto the top lid. My top lids are just three-quarter by boards framed together with a couple braces on the top. And then I put on some quarter inch bubble wrap on top of that before I cover it with the metal seems to work fine thanks for the comments.
Nice to hear from you Thomas. I live here in the US in southern Illinois and winter is just around the corner. I'm already waiting for spring. I hope you got some useful information from my video. I do have a question for you in Scotland do you have trouble with hive beetles?
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Nice to hear from you we don't have hive Beatles here at the moment. Most of the hive Beatles around Europe come from Italy, since coming out of the European union its getting really hard to import bees. Most bee keepers in Scotland try to keep our own bee's and buy or trade within our own country, To stop disease and hive Beatles entering Scotland.
Hi, I was just given a TBH Kenya style. I have a couple of questions. What part of the country are you keeping bees? I noticed snow in one video. I live NW Minnesota, so I'm concerned about wintering issues. What do you do to winter them? I've kept bees now for most if 20 years, but no experience with TBHs.
@@GrandpaBees I live in Southern Illinois. We do sometimes have some cold weather for a few weeks down in the 0°. A lot of times our winters spring back-and-forth which is not that great for Bees. It wakes them up and they eat more, honey I believe. I used to put 1 inch Styrofoam on the sides of my hives and on top over the winter when they were three-quarter inch thick boards. But I’ve changed all my hives to inch and a half thick wood. Now I just use double bubble insulation and inch insulation boards on the top. They seem to do fine. In your case. I’m sure you’re gonna need more honey stores. The bees do have to go horizontal, of course to use up their Honey stores and raise new bees. But in this location that has never seem to be a problem. I’ve never had a dead out where they just couldn’t find their Honey stores. I hope it works for you this upcoming winter, thanks for commenting.
I built two top bar hives this spring using Doug Bush’s method. I had to adjust for the full dimension 2” rough cut hemlock, but so far, so good. I like your bottom “garbage disposal” idea, and your bubble wrap insulation. If you have plans with dimensions, would you be willing to share them for us wanna be woodworkers?
James you need to know, I am a wannabe woodworker. Since I used boughten cedar lumber,, my dimensions are based on lumber lengths. I make the size best fit lumber for the least waste. Also height etc is what best fits me. I would love to try build a hive with 2" dimensional lumber as you did. I believe thicker is better for the bees. Thanks for your comments.
Most of the time I just use the two entrances together at the bottom. If it’s really hot in the summertime I’ll open the top one above them and I also sometimes put in the vent cap in there, but a lot of times the bees just close the vents up. When honeycomb is built all the way to the other end I have opened up the bottom entrance there also, But the bees seem to go back to using the two entrances mostly.Thanks for subscribing hopefully you can get some useful information.
Hi John I do have a couple questions. Building my hive right now. Getting all materials together today.. But I do have a couple questions for u. First question is: In a Top Bar hive. Why don’t the beekeepers use a queen excluder or two queen excluder on each side of the brood so the honey sections stay clean?. 2. How are u keeping the beetles out of your hives? Top Bars look like they are not completely sealed up tight?. I live in Canada probably have beetles and Varro mites everywhere. Lol. Anyhow a few thoughts. Regarding the 1st question, I just keep seeing the bees developing that back sections on top bars. I would like to see clean honey combs with no brown in it. That’s why I’m asking about the queen excluder? Ok thanks John. Looking forward to your answers
Good questions Marlo. There are different views on Queen excluders some believe they help and some believe they hurt. I can see for commercial beekeepers that they may be necessary. I have seen people build queen excluder‘s for top bars basically it’s a divider board with a frame around excluder. In my case I am not a commercial beekeeper and I usually just harvest 5 to 7 bars of honey a year out of my top bars. The last bars made are pretty clean. Now the queen can sometimes go throughout the hive and lay eggs but it’s usually whenever there’s not enough room in the brood area. I feel like it may be away to keep them swarming less if she feels like she has more room. In question number 2, hive Beatles just get in and of course they become a problem especially if the hive is weak. In Southern Illinois hive Beatles seem to be more of a problem later in the summer for me. If you noticed underneath I have made the Vents and a place to put oil traps and I do catch a lot of beetles in there and their larvae late summer and fall. I’ve recently watched a UA-camr hillbilly beekeeping, and he swears by peppermint candy being placed in the hive to ward off beetles or at least reduce their numbers you may want to check a few of his videos out people are trying it and saying it works I’ve just recently put some candies in my top bars to see if it does make a difference. I do love all my top bar hives no heavy lifting and it’s neat to watch the bees build comb naturally. You might want to check out my video on building a Layens hive this year they are also doing pretty good. Hope all goes well with your build.
Very nice hive! I wish I were a better woodworker! I'm trying to figure out how you put the hinges on the roof... did you custom bend the hinges?! The way the roof rests on the top of the legs for support is a nice feature. Also, what did you use for the metal plates that hold the lids underneath the bottom board? Thank you! I hope you see this comment since it's been a while from the post date 😃
Thanks for the comments. Your right I did bend the 4”hinges to fit the roof frame. I believe the metal on this hive, I used old street signs cut to fit. I have changed things though. If you watch episode number 62 top bar beekeeper builds layens hive, I found it works better for these 4 inch PVC caps to use a 4 x 4 metal electrical box cover. You do have to attach a small bar With holes to adjust up and down, but it holds the cap perfectly if you bend a couple ears up on the lid. I hope you have a great day. I hope you have a great bee season, just started catching swarms here this week.
Southern Illinois, usually we don't get a lot of snow. In late august i put oil traps under the vent holes. The bees do a very good job of herding beetles into them. Hives usually have some varroa mites, but I've never lost a hive from them. Maybe it's because I catch feral swarms and allow them to build their own comb, and allowing swarming provides a brood break lowering mite numbers. Where are you located, and how many hives do you have?
Thank you. You may want to watch episode number 79 honey press. I purchased a honey press from Dr. Leo and it’s been great for processing my top bar and layens hives. very easy and not a lot to clean up.
Greetings from Texas again, can you do a video on setting up topbar for winter? You said 10 frames brood and 10 frames honey. Is that where you put your follower board or leave it open. I think les crowder leaves 10 bars and no follower board
That's a good idea I may try to make a video in the fall for that. Depending on the size of the hive and their honey stores it averages 18 to 20 bars. I don't know if it's necessary, but when they're done building comb by fall I like to close the hive up and only allow about one empty bar next to the comb. Next I put the follower board, leaving the empty bars apart from the main hive. This gives them a little time then to seal up the hive before winter. Then in the early spring when the bees are starting to build up and nectars flowing I open the hive back up so they have more room . I guess I feel like it is less area for the bees to patrol and keep warm. Also may be less area for moisture to form on walls etc.
Polo it’s called ECO wood treatment. It’s a powder made up of minerals, you just add water to. Then paint on your hive. It’s supposed to be safe and non toxic. I liked it very easy to use and looks good when finished. I ordered it from Amazon.
Nice. Thank you for this video.
Love all your designs!! So interesting listening to explaining how your bees like your hives. I hope to build one this winter. Thanks for sharing and well done!!
I was interested in how you hinged the lid....but love the hive.
Great looking hives! Thanks for sharing. I plan to use the 2x12 also to build mine for additional insulation! Nice picture of your bee hives in the snow!
Thank you for the comments. One thing I have learned, when you build your lid Leave plenty of room for some type of insulation on top of the frames for winter time. Hope you enjoy your top bar hive.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Nice design. I got a few of these hives from a woman that killed her bees every fall. She had a metal roof with zero insulation so I know why she kept killing bees. I alway put in the bubble wrap but I add some material to capture moister and sugar. Im going to use you double bubble rap idea with these hives on the lid idea you have. I really don't love harvesting from this style of hive but I may use this for honey squares to add to the honey for looks.
@@fitzymon Thanks for your comments. So far these hives have worked pretty well. I did have a couple problems with comb collapse on the very hundred plus degree days, on the Honey end of the hive. I’ve currently changed the Honey bars by adding a dowel Rod vertical on the bars. That’s helped a lot. Since i’m just small time I chose to use a Honey press from Dr. Leo’s website. I just press it right into quart jars and save the wax for other uses.
It’s just seems like too much work to me. I’m looking at a guy that double insulates hives with foam board. I may give that a try
Very nice hive! I’m getting ready to build my first top bar hive, subscribed!
Thanks for the comments and I hope all goes well with your top bar design.
Some very cool design ideas in your hive. I like the solid bottom board with the screened holes, I think I'll try something like that on my next top bar. The bevelled edges on the bars is a good idea too, I write on mine so I can distinguish one end from the other, but I prefer your idea. Nice work.
Thanks again for your comments I enjoy checking out other peoples good designs and then maybe adding my own spin on it. I think I heard you say you may try layens hives someday. You might check out my episode #62 Top bar beekeeper builds layens hive and episode # 80 I give a review of the layens and top bar hives. I have chosen these two styles of hives, No heavy lifting and everything can be kept inside the hives. I just crush and strain the honey and use the wax for candles etc. The Langstroth hives of course are much better if you want a lot more honey production.
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Yes the Layens hive is one I want to try for sure. I've already got a couple of your videos saved in my beekeeping playlist for future reference when it comes time to build.
There's also a guy who does a very modified version of a Langstroth hive that I'm keen to try, @vinofarm Vino Farm is his channel. I like his idea of a very deep, inslated brood box that can be easily supered during a nectar flow. Worth a look for ideas at least.
@@DuckPondsFarm I have also seen some of vinos videos on his new designs, very good ideas worth trying. Sticking with the Langstrath frames, you may also want to check out horizontal bees on UA-cam he builds some beautiful boxes horizontal like the top bars and layens using langstroth frames. A few years ago My wife and I visited her friend, we flew into Sydney and then stayed around Adelaide. You have a beautiful country and people. Are you close to either of these regions? I hope you have good bee season.
@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 no we aren't near those areas, we are more north. We are near the town of Bundaberg in South East Queensland, almost a sub tropical climate, hot summers and mild winters. We don't have to worry too much about overwintering colonies here as most days through winter our bees are still out foraging. Droughts are our hard times when not much flowers for our bees to feed from. The last couple seasons have been good though.
Great video
Thanks
Hi John, Thanks for the information. I really wanted to see how you attached the top cover. I use a pitched roof on mine, but I think yours looks more organized. I know that doesn't matter but I might just give it a try. I use 1-3/8"W X 3/4"D X 19"L top bars for me the bees follow the spacing and I have not had any Problems. And I also use 2"X12" lumber for insulation purposes. But I live in florida it's also useful for the heat we have. Talk to you later, Mike B.
Mike I am fortunate enough that I get to use a sheet-metal break so I use 26 gauge sheet-metal and then bend it with lips out to shed water and then really all I have to do is put a couple screws in each side to hold it onto the top lid. My top lids are just three-quarter by boards framed together with a couple braces on the top. And then I put on some quarter inch bubble wrap on top of that before I cover it with the metal seems to work fine thanks for the comments.
Greetings from bonnie Scotland, I have a half a dozen hives I'm looking to build my first horizontal hive in the spring.
Nice to hear from you Thomas. I live here in the US in southern Illinois and winter is just around the corner. I'm already waiting for spring. I hope you got some useful information from my video. I do have a question for you in Scotland do you have trouble with hive beetles?
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 Nice to hear from you we don't have hive Beatles here at the moment. Most of the hive Beatles around Europe come from Italy, since coming out of the European union its getting really hard to import bees. Most bee keepers in Scotland try to keep our own bee's and buy or trade within our own country, To stop disease and hive Beatles entering Scotland.
Thomas Cochrane 👍
Hi, I was just given a TBH Kenya style. I have a couple of questions. What part of the country are you keeping bees? I noticed snow in one video. I live NW Minnesota, so I'm concerned about wintering issues. What do you do to winter them? I've kept bees now for most if 20 years, but no experience with TBHs.
@@GrandpaBees I live in Southern Illinois. We do sometimes have some cold weather for a few weeks down in the 0°. A lot of times our winters spring back-and-forth which is not that great for Bees. It wakes them up and they eat more, honey I believe. I used to put 1 inch Styrofoam on the sides of my hives and on top over the winter when they were three-quarter inch thick boards. But I’ve changed all my hives to inch and a half thick wood. Now I just use double bubble insulation and inch insulation boards on the top. They seem to do fine. In your case. I’m sure you’re gonna need more honey stores. The bees do have to go horizontal, of course to use up their Honey stores and raise new bees. But in this location that has never seem to be a problem. I’ve never had a dead out where they just couldn’t find their Honey stores. I hope it works for you this upcoming winter, thanks for commenting.
I built two top bar hives this spring using Doug Bush’s method. I had to adjust for the full dimension 2” rough cut hemlock, but so far, so good. I like your bottom “garbage disposal” idea, and your bubble wrap insulation. If you have plans with dimensions, would you be willing to share them for us wanna be woodworkers?
James you need to know, I am a wannabe woodworker. Since I used boughten cedar lumber,, my dimensions are based on lumber lengths. I make the size best fit lumber for the least waste. Also height etc is what best fits me. I would love to try build a hive with 2" dimensional lumber as you did. I believe thicker is better for the bees. Thanks for your comments.
Thank you so much!?o am looking forward to seeing more and I have subscribed. Which entrance position do you prefer and why?
Thank you so much.
Most of the time I just use the two entrances together at the bottom. If it’s really hot in the summertime I’ll open the top one above them and I also sometimes put in the vent cap in there, but a lot of times the bees just close the vents up. When honeycomb is built all the way to the other end I have opened up the bottom entrance there also, But the bees seem to go back to using the two entrances mostly.Thanks for subscribing hopefully you can get some useful information.
Hi John I do have a couple questions. Building my hive right now. Getting all materials together today.. But I do have a couple questions for u.
First question is: In a Top Bar hive. Why don’t the beekeepers use a queen excluder or two queen excluder on each side of the brood so the honey sections stay clean?.
2. How are u keeping the beetles out of your hives? Top Bars look like they are not completely sealed up tight?. I live in Canada probably have beetles and Varro mites everywhere. Lol. Anyhow a few thoughts. Regarding the 1st question, I just keep seeing the bees developing that back sections on top bars. I would like to see clean honey combs with no brown in it. That’s why I’m asking about the queen excluder? Ok thanks John. Looking forward to your answers
Good questions Marlo. There are different views on Queen excluders some believe they help and some believe they hurt. I can see for commercial beekeepers that they may be necessary. I have seen people build queen excluder‘s for top bars basically it’s a divider board with a frame around excluder. In my case I am not a commercial beekeeper and I usually just harvest 5 to 7 bars of honey a year out of my top bars. The last bars made are pretty clean. Now the queen can sometimes go throughout the hive and lay eggs but it’s usually whenever there’s not enough room in the brood area. I feel like it may be away to keep them swarming less if she feels like she has more room. In question number 2, hive Beatles just get in and of course they become a problem especially if the hive is weak. In Southern Illinois hive Beatles seem to be more of a problem later in the summer for me. If you noticed underneath I have made the Vents and a place to put oil traps and I do catch a lot of beetles in there and their larvae late summer and fall. I’ve recently watched a UA-camr hillbilly beekeeping, and he swears by peppermint candy being placed in the hive to ward off beetles or at least reduce their numbers you may want to check a few of his videos out people are trying it and saying it works I’ve just recently put some candies in my top bars to see if it does make a difference. I do love all my top bar hives no heavy lifting and it’s neat to watch the bees build comb naturally. You might want to check out my video on building a Layens hive this year they are also doing pretty good. Hope all goes well with your build.
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 thanks John for the answer
How did the peppermint experiment go?
How did the peppermint experiment go?
How did the peppermint experiment go?
Very nice hive! I wish I were a better woodworker! I'm trying to figure out how you put the hinges on the roof... did you custom bend the hinges?! The way the roof rests on the top of the legs for support is a nice feature. Also, what did you use for the metal plates that hold the lids underneath the bottom board? Thank you! I hope you see this comment since it's been a while from the post date 😃
Thanks for the comments. Your right I did bend the 4”hinges to fit the roof frame. I believe the metal on this hive, I used old street signs cut to fit. I have changed things though. If you watch episode number 62 top bar beekeeper builds layens hive, I found it works better for these 4 inch PVC caps to use a 4 x 4 metal electrical box cover. You do have to attach a small bar With holes to adjust up and down, but it holds the cap perfectly if you bend a couple ears up on the lid. I hope you have a great day. I hope you have a great bee season, just started catching swarms here this week.
Good
Where are you located? Your winter looks a lot like mine. How do you control shb and mites? Thanks for your videos. They are helpful.
Southern Illinois, usually we don't get a lot of snow. In late august i put oil traps under the vent holes. The bees do a very good job of herding beetles into them. Hives usually have some varroa mites, but I've never lost a hive from them. Maybe it's because I catch feral swarms and allow them to build their own comb, and allowing swarming provides a brood break lowering mite numbers. Where are you located, and how many hives do you have?
Nice video, I'm building one now. Do you process your honey by crushing.
Thank you. You may want to watch episode number 79 honey press. I purchased a honey press from Dr. Leo and it’s been great for processing my top bar and layens hives. very easy and not a lot to clean up.
Greetings from Texas again, can you do a video on setting up topbar for winter? You said 10 frames brood and 10 frames honey. Is that where you put your follower board or leave it open. I think les crowder leaves 10 bars and no follower board
That's a good idea I may try to make a video in the fall for that. Depending on the size of the hive and their honey stores it averages 18 to 20 bars. I don't know if it's necessary, but when they're done building comb by fall I like to close the hive up and only allow about one empty bar next to the comb. Next I put the follower board, leaving the empty bars apart from the main hive. This gives them a little time then to seal up the hive before winter. Then in the early spring when the bees are starting to build up and nectars flowing I open the hive back up so they have more room . I guess I feel like it is less area for the bees to patrol and keep warm. Also may be less area for moisture to form on walls etc.
Hello John, I didn't understand what type of oil you've used to protect the wood (English is not my native language)
Polo it’s called ECO wood treatment. It’s a powder made up of minerals, you just add water to. Then paint on your hive. It’s supposed to be safe and non toxic. I liked it very easy to use and looks good when finished. I ordered it from Amazon.
@@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107 thank you for the reply!
Calling a hack job like that a design is a little careless with words, don't you think
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.
Mantap bapak . Tolong ajari saya ya dari negara indonesia❤.