That hive set outside in the elements for three years like that with no top cover/roof on it?? Wow, just wow!!!!!

Great video, thanks Phil

Thank you for this video!! As a new top bar beekeeper without a mentor, videos like this with your running commentary are invaluable! 🙏 please keep them coming

This was a good video and a great example of how well a top bar hive can do. Thanks for sharing my friend.

You are the Divid Attenborough of the bee world,, we are about to get into the bee hives and for sure like this design. You say winter however , winter in north central Alberta, CANADA is a lot colder. I need to find a good set of build instructions, or find someone near to build a couple of these top bar hives. Have fun save the bees

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. We have a top bar hive which has not been tended for a couple seasons and we are about to attempt an investigation. We are beginners so this was perfect timing to watch and learn how to do it properly. Cheers!

Great video! Love the apis kardasiania! Vwey stylish

Thank you very very much for this - informative and entertaining! I love your nonchalance, serenity, wit and humour. I'll be watching lots more :D

4:26 I love the "sentry" that was posted to the snail shell as well!

Love that you included your mistake. It makes me feel a little better about all the times I screwed up too when I should have known better. If Phil can break a comb then I won't feel so bad when I do it again. Thanks for the videos, you are just enough ahead of me that you are giving me something to do while we wait for our season to start. Plus I am running out of things to do while we are shut in. Keep it up.

long but interesting 3 years untouched kept me watching

Great vid Phil. Just what I needed. I'm into my third year with 2 top bar hives and it's great to see a detailed inspection like that.

It's interesting to see and hear those attacks on the camera lens, which seems to be their main target. I assume that this is because defensive bees mistake it for an eye, and evolution has taught them that eyes are a good target. There are similar repeated attacks on a row of black disks on a shed door near my hives if I upset a colony.

Thanks Phil, that was very helpful and a great lesson.

great advise i have made 4 top bar hives not sure that they overwinter that well but they are a great idea thanks torquay dave

Another fantastic video Phil thank you

Nice video :) Greetings from Croatia!

I have thought about drilling holes or doing cutouts to have a place for fondant or sugarboard. I may actually do it now that I have seen this video. Thanks Phil!

I use fondant frames from goldstarhoneybees.com. They are very convenient to make up and store. One can even put them in a freezer for long term storage. I put them at the end of the honey stores during the winter. So if the hive consumes all the honey stores they have two bars of fondant to see them through. Nice video, thanks.

Thanks Phill, as always lots of helpful info. Our season here in Orkney is way behind yours in the tropical south, but good to see you in action before I do my first inspections of the year. I am using Smith hives but have a couple of horizontal top bar hives and some quadratic hives I want to get occupied this year. So if you are running any colonies in quadratic hives (like a small Wharre) I would be interested in any videos or suggestions. Cheers Robin

If I lived in a perfectly controlled temperature environment and someone sprayed water on me I think I would pause for a moment also.

would really like to learn more about the eco floor in this hive, i guess the mesh has been attached the bottom and then the matters put over the top of it, is there a solid wood screen there too? to support the mesh in anyway? how do these eco floors work with the varroa mite?

Great video! How do those bees survive without any intervention on varroa for 3 years? Take care

Thank you for this brilliant video. I am on my 2nd year of Top Bar bee keeping. I am still building up my confidence but seeing your calm and relaxed way with them as well as your mistakes is very reassuring. Can I please ask about not checking for diseases or treating for varroa? Are we 'allowed' to leave the bees completely alone in the UK? I bought your book and chose top bar for the bees rather than producing honey, so I would love to let them bee!

I like the look of these hives and the easy way you can work them .but my certain is honey extraction how do you do that and dose that involve removing the coning

Yep it was interesting and useful. I'm watching all your top bar videos. It might be a pain to make but could you make a frame shaped like your comb? It would give your comb support? As I'm watching I'm designing a hive in my head, to have ready for next spring. Winter where I am is brutal some years. Wet spells interspersed with cold others. I too want to have this as not particularly a honey producer but a bee producer. To just leave alone mostly so the bees could learn their own way around the various things that come their way

Another very good video, I'd stick to a dedicated mic though I think. Those ladies were loud. I'm looking forwards to more top bar and zest hive video's. Have you had a gander at the slovenian az hives? Thoughts?

A very informative video, but I am surprised that there are no old queen cells from previous years. Is this the original queen? Have the bees never swarmed (leaving behind queen cells)?

What is the spray, and are you using it in place of a smoker? Thanks for the excellent video.

The reason why there not interested in the comb honey in the container was because they were to busy attacking the camera knocking themselves out lol.

Hi Phil, great video. I tried to download the free book and "how to make" but there's a broken link and I can't seem to add anything to the cart or download them. Is there anywhere else I can get the book & plans?

Many thanks Phil... But how are you able to hold your frames horizontal and they not break off at the tope like mine if I get them too far off the verticle. Seems you are breaking one of your own rules yet the consequences are not apparent :-)

Phil, the small "spacebars" aren't necessary at all ??

QUESTION : WHY DINT YOU USED SMOKE TO PACIFY THE BEES ??

What is in your spray???

If the camera was on the other side it would see the frames with the light of the sun instead of the frames you are showing are in the shadow, that may be why you are tempted to hold the more horizontal as you've done a few times, a broke one comb was sure to happen. Not being nasty, I understand how distracting it is to film/talk/teach/ and do everything perfectly, its got to be hard at times, I was just trying to point it out for next time. I am interested in what you say and I want to see what you are showing as I;m interested in a top bar hive and you have a lot of experience

Lol at the Kardashian dig, its a shame that our society makes those sort into millionaires. BackYardHives makes an interesting right angle hive tool for cutting burr comb that you might look into. By your comment, I assume that you are skeptical about commercial foundation cell size vs natural comb is creating unnatural sized workers?

wow, 3 years and then someone comes in and starts breaking up the place. what could be done different - smoke maybe?

Deformed wings are a sign of what? The only stupid question is the one not asked because you can't learn if you do not ask.

Apparently leaving the bees alone is no good for honey production. I would have expected a massive harvest if I had left them untouched for 3 years. The message I got from this video is if you want honey you need to do something about it. Leaving the bees alone, as suggested by many natural beekeepers, is not productive at all.