Top Bar Hive - Top Bar Beekeeping

Searching for the right top bar hive design

So my hunt for the right top bar hive design started. I saw couple of designs on beesource forums and on biobees.com website which I found on forum also but I was looking for plans and I went to your best Internet buddy google.com! I already decided to go with similar design as that on BioBees but still I searched around and found this plan which is perfect for a guy to just put those measurements on wood and cut it, glue or screw it and it is done.



You can find a plan on Smart Hives - Tanzania



It is SIMPLE and everyone can do it! The article on the link I posted is also very good and you should read it if you are interested in top bar hives!

I built my top bar hive with screen bottom board but made bottom desk also which I will just attach to the hive during winter since it can get quite cold in this part of the world. (Prlekija - Pomurje, Slovenia). I also made follower boards and made entrance for bees as biobees.com suggested in how to build top bar hive ebook including "painting" outside of the hive with mixture of beeswax and linseed oil. I went with all top bars 1 3/8 width since this is appropriate width for Carniolan bees that are being kept here in Slovenia.

By the way, how to build tbh ebook is free for download on BioBees.

I was able to make Top Bar Hive even if I never ever made anything from wood in my life ;) This is my first woodworking project and it only took me couple of hours !

Here are some sketches of Top Bar Hive from Smart Hives - Tanzania and some photos of my finished top bar hive ready for bees !