The Barrel Hive

This is a new idea, invented by Mr G. W. Hayes, while working at the Agricultural Technical Institute in Ohio, USA. It occurred to Mr Hayes that the design of a Kenya top-bar hive could be copied using empty barrels, cut in half lengthwise and laid on their rounded side. The shape of the barrel then allows bees to build their comb in the natural elliptical pattern, hanging down from the top-bar as in the more familiar designs of top-bar hive.

Not all countries have steel or plastic barrels cheaply available, but in some areas these may be more easily obtainable than timber and wood-working tools. Preparing the barrel-hive requires equipment to cut a barrel in half (either an acetylene torch, Sabre saw or hacksaw), and some means of making holes in the barrel for an entrance. The barrel must be thoroughly cleaned until there is no trace of the previous contents. Wooden top-bars like those used in other top-bar hives must also be prepared, with each end made flat to rest on the sides of the hive, and the inside edges of the bars coated with beeswax as an enticement for the bees to start comb building. When top-bars are placed on the hive their width and spacing is critical so that bees have enough space to build one comb from each. Bees have been found to live successfully in such hives and build comb from the top-bar just as in a more conventional top-bar hive.

Additional points:

1. Some form of lid is required and, to protect the hive from strong sunlight, the exterior can be coated with cow dung.

2. Queen excluding devices are not required as the queen isolates herself, usually to the front ⅓ to ½ of the barrel hive. This leaves the remaining portion of the barrel hive for storage of honey without brood being incorporated in the same comb,

3. A stand can be built for the hive, or it could be suspended with wire like other top-bar hives.

4. If supplemental feeding of sugar syrup is necessary, one or two quarts may be poured on to the bottom of the barrel hive, and very little, if any, drowning occurs.

5. Remember that one barrel can provide two hives!

* Please see the original journal article to see a diagram of a barrel hive.