Top-bar hive
Top-bar hives are a style of beehive used for beekeeping. They are especially useful in areas where technology is limited, but are also increasingly popular among hobby beekeepers in industrialized nations.
A top-bar hive has bars from which the honey bees hang wax comb, an array of hexagonal (six sided) cells. These cells may be used for storage of honey, pollen, or for the enclosure of brood (the egg, larval, and pupal form of this insect).
Top-bar hives have a long history as the concept is believed to be several thousand years old. Most modern top-bar hives are found in Africa. Almost any container may be used as a hive, provided appropriate bars are placed across the top and a weather tight cover and entrance are provided. Usually protection against ants, hive beetles, and other predators (such as honey badgers in Africa or bears in North America) must be provided.
The simplicity of the top-bar hive allows use of salvage materials and even boxes and containers such as drawers and packing crates. Unlike the Langstroth stacked box hive, there is no heavy lifting involved. Inspection of the combs can be carried out with far less disturbance to the bees than is the case with Langstroth hives. Since no seasonal storage of honey collection boxes ("supers") is needed, nor is a centrufugal extractor used, the storage requirements are also greatly reduced. Hobby beekeepers using specifically designed top-bar hives have been able to successfully keep bees without any medications, important since the medications are dangerous to humans and their use must be carefully managed.
The two basic forms of top-bar hives (named after their countries of origin) are the Kenyan (KTBH, with sloped sides) and the Tanzanian ("Tanz", with vertical sides). The Tanzanian is easier to construct, while bees in a Kenyan hive will have much less tendency to adhere comb to the sides of the hive. Once adhered comb is freed from the side (leaving a beespace) the bees tend to not rejoin the comb, so this is not a significant problem for either hive. It is important in either type that end access or some free space without comb is available so adhered comb may be freed. An open, screened bottom providing both ventilation and varroa mite ejection appears more hygenic than a closed bottom. With all hives a dry, sunny location for wintering combined with good ventilation appears to reduce the incidence of nosema while regular culling of dark comb after two year's use appears to eliminate american foul brood. The culling of old comb is easier in the top-bar hive as a part of the managed progression of bar use.
It is not necessary to exclude the queen from the honey stores as is necessary using the Langstroth stacked box hive. Keeping a full bar of honey next to the brood plus appropriate introduction of bare bars adjoining the brood in early spring will keep the brood localized.
Raw (uncooked) honey is extracted by removing several bars containing honey filled comb. These are replaced with a single empty bar. The removed bars are then crushed in a screen and the honey drained into a pot or bucket. Additional honey (of lower grade) can then be extracted from the wax by careful heating. The wax may further clarified by heating in water and may then be used for candles or as a lubricant for drawers and windows or as a wood polish. As with petroleum waxes it may be softened by dilution with vegetable oil to make it more workable at room temperature, whence it may be used to create sculpture and jewelry models for use in the lost wax casting process.
Raw honey will have a much more complex flavor than the usual pasteurized commercial honey found in supermarkets. It will also have distinct flavors by season and location. Many people believe that raw honey from a local producer or a mixture of honey and pollen from a backyard hive will help to reduce pollen allergies.
Raw honey, corn syrup and other sweeteners should not be fed to infants until they are weaned, as sweeteners when mixed with non-acidic digestive juices of an infant can be an ideal medium for botulism spores to grow and produce a toxin that can sicken or kill them. Once a child is eating solid food, the digestive juices are acidic enough to prevent the growth of the spores. Honey is sometimes cited as a source of the spores, which it can be, but the spores are everywhere, even in household dust.
