I am happy just watching your bees. You will get a thumbs up and a full watch from me. I love your videos buddy. I may even get a top bar next year.

Always a pleasure to see what you and your bees are up to! Thank you Mike!

Hi Mike, I see so many of those top bar hives and your right they make crazy cone seems to much trouble for me and if I was a beginner beekeeper I would t start with one I’m with you either langstroth or British standard for me saying that I wouldn’t mind a tree log hive to just play with . Thank you Mike cool vlog mate.

Hey buddy, I have Top Bars and love them. Cross comb is avoided by having bar no less than 38cm in width and also giving the girls a starter strip straight across under the top bar to build on. You also have to inspect them the same as all the other types and if you do that, you can starighten any comb that is not straight. Simply, as you said it. you should have inspected it and corrected it... Its not the fault of the design... I love them.

Thank you, you just saved me 250$. I have already had problems with cross combing in my langstroth hive. I finally got the bees to draw it right.

I wouldn’t mind having a top bar hive but that is down the road. Thanks for sharing I appreciate it hope you have a great evening.

I started with top bar hives in 2008, and last year was my first year with langstroth equipment. I caught swarms from my top bar hives and installed into foundationless 8 frame mediums. Lost all hives last year but one of the 8 frames, so I'm building back up this year in all langstroth equipment. The top bar hive design I used for here in Central Alabama was Les Crowder's plan, and it worked fine, really simple and no starter strips or comb guides, just place emptys between two straight ones and they'll build it straight. I changed to langstroth mostly because if I get into selling nucs and such, people will want standard stuff. I really enjoy the vids.

It’s very important to inspect a top bar hive regularly to avoid this type of situation

Wow… You really let your top bar hive just go like there’s nothing you can do now. I’m astonished that you would let it go for a whole year without checking on them once. Top bar hives require a bit more maintenance I would say then your standardized Langstroth hives, and in my opinion are probably a great one for beginners because they teach you a lot in a short amount of time. Beginners need hands-on experience and need to know how to correct measures like cross comb, they need to be active in caring for the bees and be able to keep up with inspections and notetaking. You really shouldn’t be too surprised at your results.If you’re just gonna let your hive go like that for a whole year without an inspection on it, you must not be “that into it”. (Maybe you don’t really like beekeeping). Just some things to consider. I think your video would’ve been a bit more informative by demonstrating what you’re gonna do about the mess since you’ve opened it up now. I think it’s a little disheartening to make the claim that you’re going to do more damage by doing something about the situation such as “removing the comb” and letting them start a fresh,.... than the alternative which sounds like you’re just going to “let them alone “and when they die off then you go clean it up. Doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a very strong hive by neglecting it, nor a very positive or rewarding experience. At this point it would probably be a good idea to go get a Langstroth hive and try to dump what you can into there and maybe do a hive split and start doing some maintenance on that top bar. And just like everything else in this world, you let things sit and collect dust and tarnish and rust and become moth eaten and grow mold... and something that you had valued before - now becomes nearly valueless. I hope you get back to it in instead of just letting this one die off. I don’t think it’s a total loss. Honestly, I think there’s probably a lot of capped honey in there you should probably do your crush and strain, melt down some of your wax. Give them some more room to start building on get more organized and then you can work yourself out of the hole that you dug. Remember neglect is what got you to this point. If you’re just gonna neglect it some more until they die off - you might as well try to give it to somebody who wants to go fix it up , and care for them.

I'm convinced when I finally get to get me some bees I'm going with the standard boxes.

Mike, do you have fall flow in that part of the country? I scared the lady in the single deep is going to run out of a place to lay and swarm. I’m not telling you how to run your show but if it was min I would add another deep with 5 or 6 frames of drawn comb and put 3 of those on the bottom and move 3 full frames up. Then the little lady could lay and might not pack her bags. With no flow maybe you wouldn’t be so honey bound. You need a machete to run down between the bars on the top bar hive, cut the crazy comb. Just a thought,

What i like and is easy on the back is the Horizontal hive made to use deep frames like in a normal nuke. Also can put tray on bottom and a screen and like one i have still has wood bottom under trays. Works good unlike a top bar. Can swap frames between the Horizontal and regular box always for the win. Cheers Mike Sir have a great weekend

The long hives with standard langstroth deeps make sense I think. Particularly for people with dodgy backs. Uses standard processing gear. Take splits. Etc The tapered ones with a starter strip look like hard work.

I like Mr Ed's "top bar". As I recall, it uses the regular langstrom bars on a long box. It makes it so you dont have to lift boxes, but I am not sure he has an excluder.

Hate to see what happened with the top hive, but it sure saved me. I have been thinking of doing one in a few more years when I have some more experience, but I think I will try horizontal hive with regular frames. Thanks for the video Mike.

I have a top bar. The bees all left back in April. Not a swarm but a "let's pack up and move" moment. Not a live bee left in it. When I opened it up I mashed 12 wax moths going through it. One big worm in the honeycomb. They are too much trouble.

yea mike let that be your swarm hive. speaking for myself to much time and materials for me to even build it and takes up to much room but im glad you opened it up for us. and as always another good video thanks for sharing

I agree with you on the harvesting part. Taking all the combo they can't build it back till the next year.

Thanks for sharing

Hey Mike, I agree I wouldnt recommend this type of hive for a beginner. I would love to build a couple langstroth-top bar combination though!

Good video Mike !!!

Thanks for the video! What did you use to check for eggs? Some kind of lighted magnifying glass?

Enjoyed this video, don’t know how you can work in that heat!

Very interesting. My education continues. I have lots of ladies in the park on bee protection. Now to get them on KZfaq. And joining your site. Most don’t know where the on button is for the IPad. Think they like the bees because it is a all girls club. They keep asking about the kitchen Queen. Any updates?

Top bar perfect for this beginner, The importance of getting into your hive every week cannot be overstated. During April and May I was in the hive sometimes twice a week to checkerboard top bars in the brood nest. It needs to be in your backyard not in your out-yard. My two hives both have 20+ bars of perfection with no cross comb. It may just be beginners luck though. Everything I have read got me scared for this winter, they are going to die because bees don’t move horizontally. 😬 reason I went with top bars I made them for less then a starter hive with one deep.

This is a great bee hive , it’s not a great people hive and they definitely aren’t beginner hives , there is just more that can go wrong in my opinion over a tried but true langstroth, my opinion, to far south you have to be careful in the heat, and too cold in the north , this would be suited better for a place like central California , again , my opinion 😜

Hi Mike. Have you seen the horizontal hives from Dr. Leo. He has all his plans on horizantalhive.com and they use deep frames. They are still on our to build list but have heard from many other UTubers how great they are. Love your videos.

Here is kinda like plans for what i was talking about only use 1 enterance hole not all 3 horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/long-langstroth-plans.shtml

LOL tried 4 times to shoot one today, never did get it, maybe tomarrow. never understood a top bar, they look like a pain

Top bar hives need more maintenance Visits I bring a bread knife with me to cut comb from sides ,

Looks like the top bar is going to be a March 2021 project.

Can’t manage a horizontal hive in the same way as a vertical hive. That is the main problem of most people who « try » a horizontal hive.

Well thats different havent seen a hive like that

I have never been impressed with a top bar hive. To me it's just a step above a skep. I made my second pull of honey today to extract tomorrow and lost 5 lbs doing it. LOL.