The Top Bar Hive: A Different Way to Keep Bees

Part of Take Wing Week!

Traditionally, raising bees has been quite an involved process. In this program, Donald Enemark will demonstrate a simpler way of raising bees, called Top Bar, which is used widely in countries such as Kenya.

The traditional way of raising bees in this country is to use wooden boxes with removable honey frames for inspection and for harvesting. These are called Langstroth hives, in honor of Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth, who invented the contraption in 1851. This style is ideal for honey production, but it requires rather precise woodworking, beyond many people's capabilities and means.

A simpler style, called Top Bar, is used widely in other countries such as Kenya. It can be easily made from scrap wood and at very little cost. Of late, this method has been of more interest to those that want to raise the number of pollinators, rather than collect honey. Even the harvesting is low cost, actually just crushing and straining, which helps to avoid the high cost of an extractor. In this program, Donald will look at how top bar hives are made and managed, including some video of one in operation. 

Donald Enemark is 81 years young and has been a hobby beekeeper for over 40 years. This hobby started for him in Iowa, where he lived until 1985, when he took a job as electrical design engineer at LANL. There he was involved primarily in instrumentation for satellites, including the Curiosity Mars Rover and more recently in the design of the small, 10x10x15 cm, low cost CubeSats. Donald has had as many as 10 hives at a time, but he has never considered it as anything more than a hobby.