Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: mcassidy2004 on January 15, 2017, 03:48:09 pm

Title: natural bottom on a top bar hive
Post by: mcassidy2004 on January 15, 2017, 03:48:09 pm

I have seen a couple of videos on youtube where a guy makes a top bar hive with a bottom that is comprised of dirt, twigs, grass and dead leaves, dead tree branches all that he collected from around the hive,  He claimed that the dirt and stuff contained bugs that have a natural co-habitate ability with bees that will take care of any varroa mite possibility.  Has anyone seen this before?

Title: Re: natural bottom on a top bar hive
Post by: little john on January 16, 2017, 11:50:31 am

Yes, I've also seen these sorts of claims being made ...

Such eccentric belief is all very entertaining - but it would be nice to see some kind of evidence to back these sorts of claims up.  Otherwise it's no different than a belief in the healing power of crystals ... or snake oil.
LJ

Title: Re: natural bottom on a top bar hive
Post by: Michael Bush on January 18, 2017, 12:10:18 pm

I've played with it since back around 2002 or so.  I never figured out how to make it work the way I would like.  In a natural tree the bees can just expand down and they can drive out whatever they want.  If you don't restrict the bees access they will build comb down there.  If you do restrict the bees, the ants and small hive beetles and wax moths will move in...