In general, top bar hives also require more frequent inspections to prevent overcrowding/swarming. For example, a centrifugal honey extractor can not be used to remove honey from the natural comb, so the comb and honey will both need to be removed from the bar. This results in the honey bees having to make new comb each year. Top bar beekeeping does have a few challenges, however. Unlike the Langstroth hive that requires moving several heavy hive boxes, management of a top bar hive is much easier on the beekeeper’s back. There are several advantages to a top bar hive. In addition to not needing foundation sheets, there are no wooden frames to assemble. Perhaps the biggest draw of the top bar hive: no heavy lifting. No foundation is required, but the hive should be elevated off the ground with some sort of stand. A horizonal top bar hive features wooden bars that are laid along the top of the long box. One-piece bars are used instead of the 4-sided wooden frames of the Langstroth design. The honey bees build comb down from the top bars. The top bar hive is the oldest hive design in the world. Bottom Board - The base of the hive. Bottom boards are available as a solid bottom or with a screened bottom.Ī Langstroth hive can contain any combination of the three sizes of super boxes: deeps/brood, mediums, or shallows.Brood Chamber (Also called: deep super or brood box) - The brood box contains larger frames than the shallow super. Here, the queen lays eggs for the next generation of bees. In this maternity ward, nurse bees care for the young.Foundation - Most beekeepers use sheets of beeswax (or plastic) foundation as a guide inside the frames. This helps to encourage the bees to build straight comb inside the frames.Bees build honeycomb inside the wooden frames (often using beeswax foundation/plastic foundation as a guide.) The comb cells hold young bees, pollen, nectar, and honey. Frames - Removable frames (wooden or plastic) fit into the hive boxes. Frames come in different sizes to fit the three different sizes of supers. ![]() This is an optional piece of equipment that prevents the queen from laying eggs in the honey collection supers. Not every beekeeper uses an excluder. Queen Excluder - Allows only worker bees to pass through, keeping the queen and drones away from the honey.Shallow/Honey Super - Shallow supers are most the commonly used size for honey production.It can be used with a bee escape when harvesting honey. ![]()
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