Melissa Bees – Pollinating the Earth with Gardens and Hives
Top-Bar Langstroth with Kenyan style Top-Bar in background.
‘What type of hive should I buy?’ asks the beginning beekeeper riddled with indecision, wanting to do the right thing for the bees. ‘I want to keep bees as naturally as possible and not interfere with them too much. I’ve heard the Langstroth hive doesn’t allow the bees to make their own comb and that a Top-bar is better. Is that true?’
This is a common question that receives my frustratingly straightforward answer: Pick one and get started! The truth of the matter is- if you get into bees just to ‘have’ them, or for honey, or for products of the hive-you will want and need at least two hives, of the same order perhaps, just to keep your operation going. One is never enough. If you want ‘the perfect hive’ and perfection in beekeeping, forget about it. Another hard fact is that one-third of colonies are lost to lethal and sub-lethal chemicals brought into the hive from the landscape and to disease. If you ask me it doesn’t matter what you keep your bees in- as long as THEY like it- and if they don’t like it, they will tell you by absconding or dying. To take better care of the greater container of which we are all a part is the bigger issue I think, than the ‘right’ hive- but I digress…
I teach both Langstroth and Top-bar keeping. Every hive type has its pros and cons. The Langstroth is nice for beginners because the frames move easily without disturbing the comb much. I think beginners need to have contact with the bees to see the eggs, brood patterns, nectar and honey etc.. to understand what’s going on within the brood nest. Though you can see into top-bar hives through windows or screens, I’ve noticed that beginning students are less inclined to disturb the brood nest in a Kenyan once the comb is fixed…which is a perfect situation for the bees, of course- but not so great for a beginner’s comprehension.
Once you’ve spent a season or two working inside a hive, you get a good idea of bee cycles and patterns and fall into their rhythms and timing. Observation coupled with participation and making mistakes are keys to becoming a good beekeeper. You will learn how to disturb them less over time. You will begin to ‘learn the bees’ -what is necessary and essential to them- and what is not. You will have more time to devote to growing an organic Eden full of mellifluous plants for the bees. Perhaps in that garden you will dream up an even more perfect hive for them, one even better than the Langstroth, Kenyan, Warre or Weissenseifener haengekorb!
Look ma- no foundation. It's a Langstroth Top-Bar Hive!