Top Bar Hive Ideas For You To Try

[@LinasJu]

These are really informative videos. KZbin content at its best..Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. Your passion inspire, including me.. All the best Phil and Phil's bees. .

[@georgemorgan1344]

Hi Phil I was very inspired by your videos. My friend and I have both built top bar hives from your plans and have put swarms in both. Thanks for your work in producing these videos

[@MegaDavyk]

If the entrance is on the end bees can defend it against robbing because the guards can stop robbers getting past the first comb. also queens prefer to lay near the entrance so if you want the brood up one end instead of at the bottom of most of your combs keep the entrance at the end.

[@bjduvall227]

Thank you for sharing your common sense (and what I believe are more natural) methods of Top Bar beekeeping.

[@pma190]

Thank Youuu!!! I've Just discovered You and your generous way of Bee keeping. I am based in north east Italy and I will start using top bar. Thanks again. Pasquale

[@ralfputz6076]

Thanks Phil from Australia, always love your videos and I glean a lot of useful information from them . 👍

[@Majorme2]

It’s been ten yrs now since I was introduced to KTBH by you… ..thank you I still very active and have been introducing KTBH as an usable option…

[@youcefarchi7547]

A great and wonderful Idea to get best design barre hivebee

[@davecavana1031]

I'm buying you book Phil thank you

[@OG-Everthing]

Thanks from France !!

[@Bessere_welt]

Thank you Phil from Germany 👍🐝

[@theconstitutionalist5617]

We American call that galvanized wire hardware cloth 😂… I like how you compared the different standard for both of us. Nice video

[@MargoKruczek]

Such an Amazing video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Priceless.

[@rsrawat1947]

Excellent. I will make one. Starting today. Thanks.

[@holzsmsf]

Thannks Phil from Australia and happy international bee day :-)

[@Ethelred966]

Thanks for all of the great info.

[@spudgn]

This one will work. Fewer parts, could use split bamboos bars and small enough to place about the groves.

[@houstonsheltonbees814]

Great job man 👍 thanks many good tips👍 thanks

[@katieeibert415]

Hoping to start a couple of top bar hives in the spring. Thank you for your videos!!!

[@alexanderilinskiy9926]

Hi, Phil. Great video. You promisssed to make an update on your version of ZEST hive. Please....

[@rickmcgregor5936]

always enjoy your videos rick australia

[@907heart]

Fantastic! I love all the ideas and testing. Your Cathedral hive idea is the reason I have a cathedral hive right now. The bees are enjoying it and so am I. Enjoyed video and information, Phil. Thank you.

[@tomgillespie195]

Thanks Phil I’m making a top bar hive for my collage project and these are great ideas!

[@WG4831]

Interesting ideas concerning TBHs. Like your way explaining all the aspects and details. Almost as interesting as videos showing your ideas "in action".

[@nicholasjordan1697]

Very interesting ideas 💡

[@alanbernard9080]

Best Bee Keeping uTube channel as you know what your talking about and also like that you try to reproduce how bees live in nature. Like the idea of a natural floor and also the cathedral hive you have shown on a few of your programs. I can’t keep bees unfortunately as I’m sure my neighbours would have something to say about it. But I still like watching your channel and how you go about Bee Keeping. Perhaps if I win the lottery and can get some land to keep my bees I’ll be a bee keeper one day. I was wondering if you could maybe say in a future program what kind of wood you use for your hives and where you get it from. I assume you can’t use treated wood. And from looking on the internet it seems difficult to purchase none treated wood at a decent price.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

I use Douglas fir because it is durable, not too expensive and locally grown.

[@beeornottobee4507]

Wow! Nice! Hope you get a good honey crop. Best wishes from Belarus bee's forests! 👍👍👍

[@ericsafran6108]

This is perfect! I've been pondering ideas for building a top bar hive lately and a small swarm/nuc hive was exactly where I wanted to start! Thanks so much, Keep the videos coming....Its always exciting to see what you've been up to!

[@spudgn]

This hive looks correct for Apis Cerana. I may try this on my farm. I need inexpensive and DIY equipment in the province. My staff are ignorant and poor. An easily duplicated and farm standard hive would be great. My other option was the pile hive used by Japanese beekeepers.

[@magicvalleybees]

Love your videos. Trying out the periscope entrance and the 1.5" top bars vs 1 3/8" top bars. Also added hinged lids and always use the eco floor. Please keep them coming.

[@grahamhughes2025]

appreciated

[@bluelab5019]

I live in the UK and work with wood all the time. Guess what we call 4x1 in our workshop? 4x1. Guess what we call 12x1? Oddly 12x1 too.

[@laziacoff503]

Great post.

[@RichardGordonBruce]

Hi Phil. You inspired me years ago to build a TBH and I have had a few colonies. After some experience, I find 1-1/2" wide top bars to be too narrow. How wide can I go? Thanks for all of the work that you do!

[@thucar]

Thank you so much for these videos. You've been a great source of information on my TBH journey. I'm in my 5th season now, started with TBH built from your books. Would you consider enabling the option for viewers to add closed captions to your videos? I'd love to share many of your views and videos with beekeepers in Estonia but most of the old timers are more likely to know Russian rather than English. I'd be happy to add translations now and then.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

I would be happy to do so, if I can figure out which button to press...

[@thucar]

@@BarefootBeekeeper I just went looking for the option and discovered that KZbin has discontinued Community Captions feature at the end of last year. Looks like currently the only available options would either mean a paid subscription based service for you as the creator. Or alternatively quite a bit of time, effort and coordination from your part again to create English CC files, which you could share, have volunteers translate them and then upload to your videos. Unfortunate and disappointing move by YT...

[@Rucher.de.la.maison.des.terres]

Hello Phil, I love your video. I am always looking for good ideas to improve my TBH, on yours are excellent. 👍 Eco floor is the next thing I will try this season. Cathedral Top bar is also seducing. Greetings from France.

[@TheWisendorf]

Hi phill, I am thinking about building a top bar but I see on your model here it has a wire mesh on the bottom? How do you keep wax moths and beetles from just flooding into the box? Plus I live in a place where it gets very cold in the winter.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

The purpose of the mesh is to retain the floor material and should be fine enough to keep out all invaders. The floor material is a pretty good insulation, but you need to add insulation above the bars.

[@hannadrechsler2302]

I appreciate your videos very much! I appreciate the sensibility and respect toward the bees, great inspiration for a beginner top bar hive striving to be balanced beekeeper. So thank you for that and keep up the good work! Interesting to hear where the cathedral hive idea originated... I started beekeeping here in germany last year with a Golden Mean hive that was given to me. First season with a swarm last year everything worked according to the book, with a neat brood nest and only honey beyond the spacers. This year the hive is exploding! I will be building a longer hive according to your plans, the 70 cm of a Golden Mean seems underdimensioned ( I plan for at least a meter). My bees made themselves a new queen in spring and she seems fabulous and has filled the hive with brood, using the wider bars in the back for plenty of drone comb. So thankyou also for your recent video on drone brood - that gave me peace with that. I have experimented with a Dadant super, it has not worked out yet. Obviously the bees know better that I the beekeeper. I plan to make a split the next days, we have another new hive waiting. Unfortunately the same length as I already have, but maybe I have to think about it more like a nuke box or a first season hive. Best greetings!

[@hannadrechsler2302]

correction: nuc hive

[@davinderc]

@@hannadrechsler2302 Hi Hanna, I intend to get started beekeeping this year or next (I am ordering a top bar kit from oekobeute.de, but the shopowner has not responded yet). I would prefer to purchase a swarm from oekobeute.de, but they are in south Germany and very far from me (near Hannover). Do you know any beekeepers in north Germany that use top bar hives and practice non-commercially oriented beekeeping? I have been reading oekobeute's site and it seems a bad idea to purchase bees from traditional beekeepers, as they are commercially oriented.

[@slrw82]

Thank you very much Phil! Invaluable information and enjoyable viewing as always. I’ve just finished Balanced Beekeeping I and am now gathering materials for my first TBH.

[@pauldray793]

Hi Phil I am a back yard beek and I have switched over from langs to a combination of traditional Warre hives and one of your horizontal hives. Lifting heavy hive bodies is a factor for me. I have been loving the ease of the horizontal hive. My question is do you have any thoughts about differences between their deployment in the U.K. vs. the Mid-Atlantic U.S. with our *humid* summers and cold/wet winters? Thanks and keep up the good work 🙂

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Top bar hives were originally designed for use in Africa, where heat is the enemy, but they can be adapted to most climates by adding suitable insulation, particularly above the bars. If you avoid opening hives in temperatures higher than 40°C or lower than 15°C you should be fine.

[@attilaelekes5534]

Hi, what would you use in the winter time in NE USA to keep the bees warm where the mesh floor is?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

I don't use open mesh floors as I think they allow too much cold air into the hive. The eco floor acts as a pretty good insulation.

[@carolinecrolla2097]

Thank you! You have excited my nearly non-existent carpentry skills, and I have attempted to convert one of my Layens frames to have a feeding slot. My jigsaw work is not yet very pretty, but with practice I hope to improve. I like the idea of putting a screw into the excised piece of wood so that the slot can be sealed up. There I was, thinking of using gaffer tape... 🤭😏

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Gaffa tape has its uses, but bees really don't like walking on it for some reason - maybe it's too slippery.

[@rosehebrewable]

Love your videos....thank you! Do you know of any very easy plans for this type of long hive that can be built with just a circular saw and drill?

[@PaulyPaulPaul]

I've watched this video a few times. As a back garden beekeeper, beekeeping with National kit is really expensive, I'm looking for an alternative that's less faff with less stuff and the opportunity to do a little DIY. Do you have the plans for that Top Bar nuc? I'd love to make it. Thank you.

[@simplytopbarbeekeeping2107]

Phil enjoy your channel. Built my first top bar hive from your design. Question about your eco floor, in the U S hive beetles are a problem. Do you have any beetle problems? I wondered if it would give the beetles a place to hide and their larvae a place to grow? Thanks

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

We don't have SHB (yet) in the UK, do I have no experience with them. My hope would be that any larvae in the floor material would become lunch for earwigs, and that would solve the problem - but honestly I have no idea. Maybe worth an experiment?

[@Richardofdanbury]

What is the angle of the side walls? 30 degrees?

[@RustyStrings1]

Hi Phil, Great batch of recent videos, some good ideas/thoughts to take on board. Re your lightweight top bar, and I was curious as to why they hadn’t worked out too well? I have a nuc box like yours and have often wondered about stacking supers on the top

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

I may try it again. First time around, I used a colony that was not particularly strong, and they weren't keen to use the super. Next time, I would use thicker wood for the ends, and maybe drill it for a dowel, if you follow me...

[@69ten]

haha that end comment :D god show :)

[@Eng.FlorestalMichelPedroso]

Thank you very much for the teachings, I am applying it to native bees in Brazil. I'm trying to produce ecological boxes for stingless bees, do you have any suggestions? Thank you for this incredible knowledge!

[@simonmunn-yk2ou]

Love this, phil, great food for though, thank you, but missing your general informative content, where have you disappeared to over the last couple of years?

[@Ogur1981]

I made the ecofloor like you demonstrated here. Just one question. What is an appropriate size for the hive's entry holes?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

About 20-22mm seems to work well.

[@dionisiobenedicto4165]

hi good video very informative. if you mind can you share the dimension drawing details of the top bar bee hive . thank you

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Free plans on my website!

[@richardwhite2736]

Hi Phil, I'm building a top bar and just crating an eco floor, have you used composted Wood chips/bark that you can buy from a garden centre, just wondering your thoughts on this product? Cheers I am gaining a lot from your tutorials.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

I have so far always used woodchips sourced locally, and composted close to where I installed them. I suspect that garden centre chips may have been sterilised, which is not what we want!

[@richardwhite2736]

@@BarefootBeekeeper thanks for the reply, I did wonder about that. I have a friend who is the gardener at a local market garden, I noticed he has a large pile of wood chips for mulching, he also has hives in the garden so will scrounge some from him, cheers

[@WoolieBsApiary]

Talking to a few removal specialist the feral or free living as Roger Patterson calls them come into a full comb covering the entrance. My theory is that it does 2 main things 1 easier to defend the hive not straight in access 2 blocks the cold draft during winter. The other possible reason as I watch my observation hive ventilate through 1 entrance it looks to me to be easier.

[@grahamrdyer6322]

I made my first hive from your idea 's but I'm tending to want to build a long national hive using your breeze block idea, not a deep deep one.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

The ZEST hive? That's not my idea, but it does seem to work well. Another video needed...

[@robeccs]

Did anyone have good results having eco floors installed in the hive?🍻👍🏼

[@alexanderikechukwu2679]

Good job. How can I contact your sir, I am an architect, but loves beekeeping.

[@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594]

“Hardware cloth” in America. TIA

[@memdass747]

What is the purpose of the angle or v shape … rather than a box shape.

[@teacher_of_the_arcane5399]

In the USA .... hardware cloth.

[@rezganger]

why is it calle top-bar hive?

[@moebees3060]

Americans would call it 1x12. Not 12x1

[@viscache1]

What keeps the bees from attaching the comb to the sides of the bee house? Sad to hear about the Cathedral Hive idea. Though Shakespeare held a minimalist’s view of lawyers they are invaluable if you are posting intellectual property to the Internet and you should probably ignore his advice.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Bees leave a passageway free from comb to enable them to travel freely from comb to comb. We call it "bee space" and it is usually reckoned to be about 1/4" or 6mm. I think this was discovered by L L Langstroth and was incorporated in his original hive design.

[@danielcollins9628]

Metric much