Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: Holycow on November 15, 2008, 09:28:53 pm

Title: Is there one primary reason to go with a Top Bar Hive?
Post by: Holycow on November 15, 2008, 09:28:53 pm
Maybe I'm not with it.. I can't really understand the reason to go with building a large one of a kind hive. I've been digging thru many websites that are pro-TBH but I still have not really been able to understand why. The only things I can think of is a situation where you have abundant materials you can use to build a box but don't have the tools needed to fit everything the way you would with a Langstroth Hive. Or is it so you don't have the stack of supers? Is there a philosophy I'm looking through, like one of those weird posters you see in the store at a mall.. where you stare at it for a while and the blobs form into some weird 3-d art thing and then you are amazed. What am I missing?
--Jeff
Title: Re: Is there one primary reason to go with a Top Bar Hive?
Post by: Michael Bush on November 15, 2008, 09:37:03 pm
The object of a Top Bar Hive (TBH) is to be easy and cheap to construct, easy to work and having natural sized cells and eliminate lifting of boxes.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

BTW it's Langstroth.  You're not the first to call it a Langstrom, but I've never understood where this came from.  L.L. Langstroth is the guy who it's named after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Langstroth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive

Title: Re: Is there one primary reason to go with a Top Bar Hive?
Post by: BjornBee on November 15, 2008, 10:21:48 pm
Most do not keep bees because they are making money, producing much of this or that, or doing anything but enjoying the bees. Its a love affair, it's a hobby, it's something they enjoy, regardless of what happens through the years.

I think TBH's for many just adds a new twist of interest. It's something to enjoy.

I find the natural comb interesting. I like to try everything in beekeeping once. When I have nothing new to experience, nothing new to build, and nothing else to gain, I'll probably look for something else to fill my time.
Title: Re: Is there one primary reason to go with a Top Bar Hive?
Post by: Holycow on November 15, 2008, 11:07:33 pm
Ha! Yes, I caught myself. I actually came back to see if I had typed "Langstrom" or "Langstroth." You guys found it before it could be fixed.
Title: Re: Is there one primary reason to go with a Top Bar Hive?
Post by: Cindi on November 16, 2008, 12:19:49 pm
I find the natural comb interesting. I like to try everything in beekeeping once. When I have nothing new to experience, nothing new to build, and nothing else to gain, I'll probably look for something else to fill my time.

Mike, you gonna spend the rest of your life before you have nothing new to experience with the bees, hee, hee, so just face it, you be under that spell of the honeybee, and addicted, we all are, some just haven't realize it.....yet, smiling  8-) :-D  Have a most great and wonderful life and day, great health.  Cindi