Kenyan Top Bar Hive
There are many web sites which detail
construction of the Kenyan Top Bar Hive and one of the best which
Skeptic Bee frequently returns to is
www.biobees.com Here are available all manner of information
and plans on top bar hives plus an interesting downloadable book by
Phil Chandler. If you wish to compare 
your experience with other like minded
beekeepers from around the world there is also a very comprehensive
forum where you can discuss the finer points of top bar hives with
experienced top bar beekeepers.
Skeptic Bee sez it would not be a good idea for Mr Crumbly to hold
forth in great detail as to how you should make a top bar hive as he is
not much of a woodworker. The following pictures and notes are more of
a blog than an instruction. This shows the bottom of the hive which
incorporates a wire mesh for the varroa floor together with a frame to
hold the sliding tray which receives hive debris. The side of the hive
is weather proofed with 6 mm wire mesh which holds roofing felt in
place. The felt keeps things dry and the mesh will hopefully give the
woodpeckers a nasty shock in February.
Inside the Top Bar Hive
Inside the hive you can see that the
walls of the hive slope at an angle down towards the floor. 
This is
characteristic of the Kenyan Top Bar Hive and helps to minimise the
amount of brace comb attached to the wall of the hive. You will find
that in this kind of hive there will often be some brace comb
but this should not be too
much of a problem. Two top bars are at the front of the hive and then a
follower board with a section cut out. Phil Chandler from biobees
recomends the use of a follower board for manipulations in the long
hive and you will see a little later why a piece has been chopped out
of this one. At the bottom of the hive you can again see the varroa
floor. The mesh size for this eventually turned out to be too
big and the bees squeeze in and out of the hive via the debris trap
which is meant to hold the varroa. When time is available
this hive will be modified with a different kind of varroa floor.
Keeping a Top Bar Hive Level
Thar she blows in all her glory - the
Skeptic Apiary top bar hive is beginning to take shape and some black
tar has been applied to the joins at the base 
of the hive to keep the damp out. Since bees
hang from the top bars whilst drawing comb, and there won't be any
foundation in this hive, it is important to keep things level and the
Skeptic Apiary is on a slope like an Alpine Meadow so adjustable legs
have been added to the design. This will enable the hive to be kept
level on the roughest of surfaces and the bees, hanging vertically
beneath the top bar will have less opportunity to join neighbouring
comb together with brace comb. This is one of the greatest weaknesses
of a topbar hive.
Here the prototype hive stands in place
with a partially constructed roof - (again wire mesh and roofing felt).
The legs it turns out were a little bit on 
the short side and bricks had
to be used to
level hive. In this sort of hive it is very convenient to have quite
long legs so that the bees can be inspected without the beekeeper
having to bend over. It is easy to get backache when working bees in
hives on the ground.
Detail of Adjustable Leg
This is a close up on the adjustable
leg. Although butterfly nuts are used a spanner is really required to
get sufficient purchase to tighten the washers down. These should
really be a bit wider but are adequate for now. Some vaseline has 
been applied to keep them
from rusting badly. Apart from keeping the hive level the legs are a
great way of lifting your bees above mouse eye level. Skeptic Bee sez
mice wont be able to climb up there, but if they do he's going to wrap
razor wire around the legs as well. For the hive stand foot Skeptic Bee
filled some empty baked bean cans with concrete. Actually there is a
tendency for rain water to collect in the top 
of the can and some small ants have found
their way up one of the legs and are washing their sticky fingers on
the way home. During the winter the tops of the cans will need to be
bent over and the legs will need weatherproofing. The ants have now
gone.
Some Bees Which Need Rehousing
Here are some bees that need rehousing.
This nucleus hive has been used for a number of years to hold overflow
from the Skeptic Bee longhive. Despite its tatty appearance I've never
lost an overwintered colony in this small hive. 
This is the hive which Nick found the hive
tool at the bottom of in April 2008. Skeptic Bee remembers dropping it
there when feeding and treating with Apiguard. As things were tight and
sticky he decided to overwinter the hive tool with the bees rather than
damage their winter preparations and get badly stung for intefering.
Note that there was an amount of chalk brood in this colony at the time
the picture was taken - you can just see the chalk pupae outside the
entrance to the hive. The mouse guard is kept in place with mastic...
no alright - chewing gum. 
Skeptic Bee took the front off the nucleus
hive and here you can see the bees on a selection of frames which sit
on the floor instead of hanging from lugs. These are not a good
expample of this type of frame being of random size and not well
fitting here and there. You can see a nice piece of natural comb right
in the middle of the hive. This was another good reason for retiring
the nucleus hive and frames. It was decided to try and coax the bees
out of the front of the hive and into their new home in the top bar
hive.
Nucleus Installed in Top Bar Hive
Here the nucleus hive is installed in
the top bar hive behind the follower with the section cut out. The bees
were encouraged to expand from 
their original home and to start constructing
comb from the top bars, which they did. Once established, the remaining
comb was cut from the frames and fixed to top bars which were hung in
the hive. Round the hive has been packed dried allisum, (an annual
plant with white flowers) to cut down the drafts and keep the bees cosy.
Tying Comb into Top Bars
It is not usual to tie comb into top
bars but in fact its its quite easy. The Skeptic top bar has holes
drilled in the underside into 
which are glued bamboo kebab skewers. These
provide a framework for the bees to construct their own comb and
prevent the comb from breaking when it is inadvertently held
horizontally for inspection - (Skeptic Bee doesn't do that anymore but
its still a good idea). If you want to tie comb into a top bar glue two
rows of skewers along either edge of the underside of the bar, insert
the comb between the skewers and secure them around the bottom of the
comb with garden wire. The bees have incorporated this comb very nicely
into their own natural comb.
Here is a detail of the kebab skewer holding the main comb securely to
the top bar. The strength of combs top bars suspended from 
top bars is definitely an
issue for Skeptic Bee and there is nothing worse than a mess of bees
and honey collapsed at the bottom of the hive. This prevents that
problem quite nicely for the time being. The fragility of combs in top
bar hives is a weakness from which hives equipped with frames and
foundation do not suffer. Older comb incorporating pupal cocoons will
not be so fragile but Skeptic Bee does not want to keep brood comb until it is old and dirty.
Natural Comb from Top Bar
This is a nutural comb constructed by
the bees now that the colony is well established. It is slightly
emptier than the other frames in 
the colony being on the outside of eight
frames constructed since the transfer. You can clearly see the kebab
skewers woven into the comb and strengthening it. There is worker brood
comb towards the bottom right of the comb amd drone cells bottom left
hand side. Capped honey stores are towards the top of the frame but it
has been a very poor year for honey. Although no honey has been removed
from the hive it still needs feeding before the winter arrives.
There have been no more signs of chalk brood since the bees moved and
very few varroa have been found on the floor. These bees will be
treated with Apiguard in September and with Oxalic Acid in December.
Currently they are being fed and Skeptic Bee is quite pleased with this
first experiment with top bar beekeeping. As always the end of the
season has arrived and as the bees are being fed their winter syrup
there are many more ideas which will have to wait till next year. In
the meantime there is much preparation to do of hives and equipment and
thinking and reading. Skeptic Bee hopes to return to the top bar hive
next year with some new ideas.