I’m glad you enjoyed the video, it’s great to hear from commercial KTB users! Where are you located?

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 Thank you. I am based in the Western part of Kenya called Kakamega. Started off with 5 hives a year and a half ago and now I have 52 hives. They're doing well. We have very favourable climate. My target is to have 100 hives by the end of this year. I use some of the income generated from there to help support the community.

Thanks for your positive comments. The Kenyan Hives are very well suited for older folk and people in wheelchairs. I've taught many elderly experienced beekeepers who have decided to move away from the stackable Langstroth hives. I use to run a few Warre hives years ago and had one of the tools your describing, I can see the advantages of using it to detach comb in a Kenyan. Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can find it somewhere or get my son to make me one, he's 15 and has gotten into blacksmithing recently so it would be an easy project for him.

Hi Victor, thanks for the positive reply, I'm glad to hear that its clear. The Kenyan Hive is a fantastic design, so simple to use. I'm happy to share my plans with you if you want to build your own hive?, just email me at www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au and i'll email you the plans. All the best with your bees. Long Live the Swarm!

G'day Nick, I'm glad to hear your bees are thriving, its been a fantastic season so far. The messmate will do them well this time of the year, you should be able to harvest some honey in a few weeks. All the best

Thanks Ian!

You’re welcome Damian I’m glad you’re enjoying the video

The honey was delicious I have posted the honey processing video, take a look

your welcome!

Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it

Thank you. Yeh I love using Kenyan hives’, I don’t understand why people would want to use something else

Thanks Rickey. Yes they really went for it this season. I had three colonies all started with swarms early spring in the same town and we harvested from all three after 4 months!! A mixture of lots of rain and lots of sunny days.

Thanks so much for your positive reply, Kenyan hives are fantastic!

Thanks for watching

Thanks for watching Tom. Regarding your concerns, the knife i use is blunt, the honeycomb is quite soft and easy to push a blunt knife through also the top bar acts as a stop between my hand and the blade if i were to slip.

I’m glad it is helping you. all the best

Thanks mate

Yes it was a great season

Thanks, I’m glad you like the video and it has inspired you to work your hive. Cross combing isn’t fun for anyone. All the best with it. Going forward You should try using starter strips of wax foundation.

Thanks for that tip. I'll get some.@@beekeepingnaturally4580

Thanks for your positive feedback. Sorry I hadn’t responded earlier. I have other videos on my KZfaq channel that shows how I reattach comb. You could contact Les Crowder, he is in the US and knows all about Kenyan Hives.

Thank you

Thanks J

Hi Pablo, i'm real happy you enjoy the Kenyan hive, they are a fantastic hive to use. I like to make my first inspection just 3 days after introducing a swarm because if the bees start to build comb across the top bars and not along them I can redirect the combs at this early stage before it gets out of hand. if I know that the combs are straight then I do a second inspection about 10 days later. further inspections will be determined by the amount of comb the colony has built in the last 10 days. So about 2 weeks after the swarm was introduced. So if they have built comb on all 10 bars in the first 2 weeks I can determine how often and how many top bars to add. In this scenario I would add 4 top bars, 2 on either end, be sure to add them using the chequer board method in my other video. Q.2. I prefer smoke, I always have a smoker lit and ready to use but often I wont need to use it. I have it on hand if the bees start to fire up, then I can give them a small amount of smoke and start to pack the hive up and leave them alone. Q.3. In Canberra I suggest to leave a full size colony 8 full bars of honey to over winter with. A three quarter size colony i would leave 6 bars and half size colony gets 4 to 5 bars. I'll be teaching in Canberra again at some point, and will send you some information on my courses if your interested in attending. Go slow and have fun Long Live the Swarm!

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 Hi Adrian - thank you so much for you reply. I will put your advice into practice. What an adventure! I attended your course before COVID and it was very informative and enjoyable.

@@pabloshopen4172 Thanks Pablo

@@pabloshopen4172excellent. Subbed! How much is one hive please?

Thank you bos

Thanks for watching. When I first moved over from conventional Langstroth hives, I started using Warre hive’s. I found them great for the bees but after a few seasons I decided to try a Kenyan hive and that’s the direction I went in. I find them so much easier to use than the Warre hives although I still have a soft spot for them. They are great hives! I still have a few empty ones and im thinking of getting them going again this spring

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 Thanks for the reply. It is the tool I was recommending, not the hive. It would make detaching comb from the walls much easier! I design and build my own hives. Currently I have a couple which are based on the warre, but next spring I will be trying a long-hive built out of hay bales.

You answered my question at the end of the video ;)

Hi Sergui, thanks for your positive feedback. I use a method called 'checker boarding' you can see an example of it on my video called "Checker boarding" Its really important to use this method, makes life a lot easier!

I have Small Hive Beetle in all my hives but in 10 years I personally have never lost a Kenyan Hive to beetle attack! I have lost many framed hives to beetle but due to no frames in the Kenyan hives, beetle have a hard time finding places to hide from the bees. The bees are constantly harassing the beetles and herding them away from the brood nest and towards the honey area where they chase them out under the follower boards. I dont use and never have used any type of beetle trap or devise in any of my hives, the bees do all the work!

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 oh that’s comforting news, thanks for sharing, I feel much better now 👍 When I refurbished my top bar hive I did something wrong in fitting the trap in the base where the tray with vegetable oil slides in and found that bees were getting in there and dying so I removed it. Jason

Hi Aryan, in this style of Kenyan Hive the entrance is in the centre of the hive body so the colony will naturally keep their nest close to the entrance to help regulate the temperature around the brood. The bees place the honey stores towards the ends of the hive which makes harvesting so much easier. The bees tend to be less defensive during harvest because we stay away from the brood area and only work in the honey area. No queen excluder necessary.

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 Thank you for clearing my doubt 👍

I don’t have a video but I’m more than happy to email you my plans for free, email me at adrian@beekeepingnaturally.com.au and I’ll send them.

We use the crush and strain method or a food press to squeeze the honey from the combs. You can see it in another of my videos.

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 thank you

I don't know the answer to that, In Australia the temperature gets down to about -5 C where i live in winter so I cant offer any experience with colder climates. The Kenyan hives are popular in the United States and I have seen them in Holland and Germany where it gets cold in winter -20 and the bees manage to get through. I suggest you contact Bee Mindful Honey Farm www.bee-mindful.com/honey in the States, they specialise in the Kenyan Top Bar Hive. All the best with the Kenyan, they are a great bee hive to use, I really love their simplicity.

You can email me at adrian@beekeepingnaturally.com.au and I’ll email you the plans

I’m in Australia, I don’t ship out of the country sorry.

The bees are Apis Mellifera

Hi Harry, this is how we harvest the honeycomb from a top bar, I think what you're looking for is a video showing how to 'process' the comb? I have made a video showing how I process the comb. Have a look through my channel for that one. All the berst

Hi Joseph, thanks for watching. I'm not in Kenya, i'm in Australia, the type of bee hive in this video is called a 'Kenyan Top Bar Hive'. I wouldn't like to be working with bees in Kenya, I've seen the way they beehave!!

@@beekeepingnaturally4580 ooooh, OK. Been wondering. The bees here are crazy, unprovoked attacks are a common occurrence

Yes, Kenyan. Made in Kenya where i come from. Our brilliant innovation😊

The hive is Kenyan, but they're maybe in US or something. Our hived are in use worldwide 😊

Badass bees 😂😂😂 you're quite hilarious! Yes African bees are very badass. One must wear full bee suit when dealing with them.

thanks for your comment, its refreshing to hear that the bees you keep are so tolerant. Keep up the good work and keep pouring on the smoke, your bees must really enjoy that! Just out of curiosity, how many bees do you think you crush whenever you close up your hives?

Work on grammar and spelling.