We create a map with one, two, and three mile radius rings around your hives allowing you to see the environment. When installing the queen cage into a top bar hive, it is best to hang the queen cage on an empty bar without comb. Find equipment, educational materials and tools for your classroom or beekeeper training, gifts, apparell, online educational courses, products from. Top bar beekeeping is a closed group on facebook that has more than 3,200 members with more joining all the time. It is a horizontal hive, enabling beekeepers to inspect the entirety of the hive without moving heavy supers. Rural extension programs, whose thrust is usually developed in urban. Oct 29, 2014 home latest posts the state of beekeeping software beekeeping software is a very niche category which has been in limited availability since the dawn of the computer age. The feeding of top bar hives presents some challenges by the design of the hive and limitations to options as compared to langstroth or other hives.
Plans and a parts list for a simple kenya top bar hive. This bar can be temporarily used in a langstroth hive, and its size falls within the range of bar sizes currently used by most american top bar beekeepers. Your best option is prevention through regular management. I asked members of beekeeping forums with top bar hives for comment. The startup costs really translates into you having the expertise and ability to actually make the top bar hives. How to install package bees in a top bar hive beverly bees.
You may have to register before you can read beekeeping threads or post. An invisible college for amateur apiarists working with top bar hives and those that have a love for honeybees and. Foster the health and productivity of your honey bees by recording important beekeeping data. Milwaukee, wisconsin prweb june 02, 2016 for many beekeepers, the ease of tracking hive health through documentation and notes is a headache. This top bar hive tool may have been a carving knife in another life but it does a great job. Beecloud is beekeeping software, online data management app, that help beekeepers manage their statistics about beehives, apiaries, inspections, harvest, increase your productivity, yet lower down costs. Watch these four videos to learn what makes beepods the best top bar hive.
Top bar beekeeping top bar hives beepods beekeeping kits. Local top bar expert jeff steenbergen will be teaching this class again this year for anyone interested in learning more about keeping bees in top bar hives. Mite management of top bar hives the varroa mite does not care that youre keeping your bees in a top bar hivecolonies in top bar hives are just as susceptible to the mite. May 14, 2014 the 5 essential it tools pack includes. Just the right size and shape for a top bar hive tool it does a great job of handling the tasks you need to accomplish in your gold star top bar hive.
There is far less danger of chemical residue buildup in a top bar hive than in a. Jan 28, 2016 dimensions and features of the proposed standard top bar. The colorado top bar hive is a modern adaption of the kenyan top bar beehive. Our top bar beekeeping kit comes unassembled, so its a. Its easy to add an observation window to the top bar hive that allows you to see inside the colony without smoking or disturbing the bees at all. For the natural beekeepers here is the ultimate in top bar hives. A fantastic intro to top bar beekeeping, and refreshingly different from most beekeeping books that ive looked at. Beekeeping record for linux i would like to create a program to create and use a flexible database for a beekeeper, either a backyard beekeeper or a professional. A topbar hive has bars from which the honey bees attach and hang wax comb, an array of hexagonal six sided cells. Find equipment, educational materials and tools for your classroom or beekeeper training, gifts, apparell, online educational courses, products from sustainable beekeepers and much more. Beetight is a free web application for beekeepers and is the best way to manage your hives and track them online or on your phone.
Relax, well show you exactly what to do regardless of the hive types you use. Traditional top bar hives david tromp beesource beekeeping. The beekeeper harvests honey by cutting off the comb at its junction with the top bar, and. Regular hive inspection and the removal of old combs helps to keep bees healthier and naturally. The question of which hive is best for beekeeping in the developing world goes. Topbar beekeeping hive design pros and cons reader contribution by lindsay williamson 4292014 9. With all of these software tools, you have everything you need to effectively manage your small business.
Top bar hive beekeeping puget sound beekeepers association. The state of beekeeping software beekeeping software is a very niche category which has been in limited availability since the dawn of the computer age. Conventional methods of keeping bees are effective, but top bar beekeeping is simpler, less expensive, gives bees a greater degree of freedom, and still leaves you with honey and pollinated crops. For the top bar beekeeping disciples that christy has already launched this book will support sustainability and serve to draw more practitioners into the adventure. The depth of the bar and the length of the bar can be whatever the beekeeper wants, but usually between 17. Organic practices for honeybee health by les crowder, heather harrell isbn. In backyards and on rooftops all over the world, the topbar hive design is revolutionizing the art and practice of beekeeping. Youll wonder how you ever survived with the old notebooks and spreadsheets.
Beekeeping software is easy way to manage bee yards designed for use by beekeepers to track and record main items and parameters in world of beekeeping beekeeping software is a very niche category which has been in limited availability since the dawn of the computer age. Youll wonder how you ever survived with the old notebooks and. Unless you are running a truly miteproof bee stock, you can expect the same sort of buildup of mite populations as in langstroth hives in late summer, and i have seen. Top bar hive kit we provide premium top bar hive kits that are simple to assemble and built from precisionmilled pine for ecological impact. Mite management in top bar hives scientific beekeeping. There are some lively discussions that can provide you with basic information and help you start thinking more about a subject. Pictures and descriptions of a tanzanian top bar hive that doubles as a long langstroth hive. A fantastic intro to topbar beekeeping, and refreshingly different from most beekeeping books that ive looked at. Top bar hives produce perhaps 20% less honey than langstroth hives, but they are far less expensive to build, require less maintenance, far less storage space there is no need for extra supers and frames and they do not require the heavy lifting necessary to the care of conventional. The main focus of this book is the proper management of a topbar hive for healthy bees. Honey is either harvested as comb honey, or it is crushed and the wax rendered for other purposes, such as candlemaking. The beekeeper harvests honey by cutting off the comb at its junction with the top bar, and comb cut from the top bars is not recycled within the hive.
Top bar hives should not require lots of regular care and attention and should only require infrequent inspections. Web help desk, dameware remote support, patch manager, servu ftp, and engineers toolset. For the beginner one advantage of using a top bar hive that i have found to be indispensable is the ability to actually watch what goes on inside of the hive. Topbar hives yield slightly less honey but produce more beeswax than a typical langstroth box hive. The top bar hive has emerged as a popular alternative to the langstroth for people who are looking to avoid heavy lifting andor enjoy a more natural approach to beekeeping. Beekeeping software is easy way to manage bee yards designed for use by beekeepers to track and record main items and parameters in world of beekeeping beekeeping software is a very niche. There are some lively discussions that can provide you. Topbar hives produce perhaps 20% less honey than langstroth hives, but they are far less. You have made a significant contribution to the top bar craft.
This is the second practicality of the top bar hive. The cage in the picture below came with a tab attached that made it easy to hang from a top bar by using a thumb tack. The only way to remove bees from a top bar hive comb is to use a bee brush. The kenyatopbarhive ktbh as a better hive in the developing. Dimensions and features of the proposed standard top bar. Colorado top bar beehive overview wikifactory fablabs. Top bar hive kit top bar hive accessories beehive kits.
Top bar hives require some finesse when it comes to preventing the bees from building comb that can no longer be manipulated easily. We propose there are good reasons to keep bees in top bar hives and. Whether you are outdoors on a nice day, inspecting your hive, or indoors on a rainy day, using our healthy hive management software, you will find our top bar beekeeping system full of educational. We propose a standard top bar with a main body that is 1912 inches long by 112 inches wide by 34 inches thick. Our top bar beekeeping kit comes unassembled, so its a great way to learn the basics of building a top bar beehive. All hive types are supported, including langstroth poly langstroth, wbc, beehaus, national, warre, tbh top bar hives. Welcome to the beekeeping forum,if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Adobe reader software is available for free downloads and use from. This top bar hive comes with 26 top bars that can be divided into two separate hives. More and more organically minded beekeepers are now using topbar hives, in which the shape of the interior resembles a hollow log. Top bar hive beekeeping is far less costly in the construction of the hive for the right beekeeper, depending on your viewpoint. The main focus of this book is the proper management of a top bar hive for healthy bees, with honey and wax being excellent benefits but not the main focus of the venture. Beekeepers use many objects for this purpose, including goose or turkey feathers, draftsmens brushes, and the commercial brushes sold by bee supply houses.
Whether you are outdoors on a nice day, inspecting your hive, or indoors on a rainy day, using our healthy hive management software, you will find our top bar beekeeping system full of educational experiences for the whole family and all your neighbors. This bar should be 34 bars from the entrance of the hive. Software makes performing hive inspections and keeping logs easier and faster. The kenya topbar hive ktbh offers affordable intermediate technology with yields. Beetight beekeeping software and online hive records. Everything you need to get started keeping bees right away. Best top bar hive top bar beekeeping system features. Shop beepods beekeeping supplies for top bar beekeepers. All hive types are supported, including langstroth, wbc, beehaus, national, warre, top bar hives. Beekeepers use many objects for this purpose, including goose or turkey feathers. Combs in a top bar hive simply hang from the top bar, and are not supported by a frame, thus they cannot be extracted.
Each beekeeper gets the opportunity to optimize the care for his beegarden and control the. Of course, there have been a number of installable programs available over the years to beekeepers. Wyatt magnum top bar hives need a hanger for a protein patty. This top bar hive comes with 26 top bars that can be. In this class we will cover the honey bee life cycle with an emphasis on understanding why management decisions are made rather than memorizing specific steps to perform.