P-BAR HIVES by Wyatt Mangum, Virginia, USA
Top-bar hives were designed for use in tropical Africa, but a few beekeepers in the USA prefer them to Langstroth hives. oe
know a couple of top-bar hive beekeepers in the south-western part of my country who use them |
for honey production. They sell chunks of honeycomb (cut-comb
honey) in plastic containers directly to their consumers. As an extra benefit, they do not need to buy an expensive honey extractor.
have kept 200 honeybee colonies in top-bar hives for crop pollination, package bee and queen bee production, and for my For many years
|
do not produce surplus honey. Farmers in my area pay me
bee research.
|
costs: about half of the wood for
building my hives is discarded by other people and get it for free! load my hives by hand on to a truck and trailer and move them to farms
increase the combs’ strength and
for pollination. During loading and unloading handle the hives gently,
My hives are not as long as most other top-bar hives. They are just 60 cm
but otherwise they receive no special
long holding 14 combs. This makes
treatment.
a good-sized pollinating colony.
|
|
reduce breakage during transport.
Transporting these hives over rough roads results in very little comb
breakage, even though the combs hang from top-bars and with some
attachments to the walls of the hive.
US$49 per colony for my bees to pollinate cucumbers Cucimis sativus, cantaloupes Cucumis melo and
the spring, bees become crowded
in these smaller hives. Instead of
pumpkins Curcubita spp. Bee pollination greatly increases the yield and quality of these crops.
Top-bar hives are cheap and easy to build therefore can make more |
pollination profit than beekeepers buying expensive Langstroth hives. And there is another way
In
|
reduce
losing the swarms
|
sell the surplus
bees by shaking them off the combs into screen wired boxes called
packages. To shake a comb
always hold and move it vertically. When the |
comb comes to an abrupt stop, the bees fall off. Beekeeping & Development 58
