Top Bar Hive

All Types of Beehives

Traditional Beehives – These types of hives for the bees are provided in a straightforward manner, it is just merely an enclosure for the bees without internal structure whatsoever. The bees will start constructing with themselves in the space provided for them their comb. In this fixture, removing the comb means destroying it because it is attached in a fixed-frame manner to the enclosure. Harvesting can be done by destroying the hive, whereas in the modern beehive, removable structures and frames are provided for easy harvesting. In some traditional innovations, baskets are placed on top of the hive for the bees to fill it with honey, and eventually being replaced by boxes of different sizes. In harvesting by traditional means, hives were extracted by crushing and compressing the honeycomb, but this kind of method produces more beeswax than honey.

To date, Fixed-frame types or the traditional method are no longer being practiced, and are banned in some countries, as this kind of method is unhygienic in nature. Bees are not being inspected for diseases and parasites may destroy their colonies.

The Three Basic Traditional Styles

The Skeps – these kinds of hives are made of baskets with single entry points at the bottom for the bees and has no structure inside. The basket provides no means of inspecting the sanitation of the bees inside, and harvesting means destroying the entire hive by killing or driving away the bees.

The Hives – These hives are made of clay, and originate from the Mediterranean and ancient Egypt. Long clay cylinders are used and stacked uniformly in rows. Harvesting usually is done by smoking the clay jars thus driving the bees away from the hives.

The Bee Gums – The hives of this method are located exactly on the hollowed body part of gum trees. Sticks are being attached to the honeycombs for easier pulling out by the time of harvesting. As with the other traditional methods, killing the bees is often practiced here by “sulphuring,” This is being done by inserting a container full of burning sulphur inside the hollow opening of the gum tree, thereby killing all the bees.


Modern Beehives – The modern type of beehives are made of squares or rectangular boxes that are well ventilated and not bounded by ceilings and floors. Frames on this hive are hung in parallel and the sizes and materials being used solely depend on the weather conditions that the bees are in. In cold climate areas a larger size frame and hives are recommended for proper storage of bee’s food, and less of that would be needed in some temperate areas.

The types of Modern Beehives

Langsroth hives – These hives are basically characterized by their removable frames that allow anybody to pull and inspect it for possible infection of parasites and other diseases. It is also convenient for the beekeeper to remove and split the hives into another colony for reproduction purposes. The thin rectangular structures are made with the wax already placed inside for the bees to start in; it is being toughened by wires that make it stable in extracting honey without killing the bees. Langsroth hives are reusable, which could spell and increase in honey production.

Top Bar Hives – Low cost and simplicity are the main features of top bar hives, which makes this method popular among developing countries. Top bar hives also use the same method of removable frames and ample spacing for the bees. Bees produce honey by hanging along the top bars provided for them, and as the name implies, only the top bar can be found as it hangs freely. It does not have a foundation as opposed to the Langsroth, and that’s why after each harvest bees have to rebuild their combs. This type of method yields more beeswax than honey.