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Kenya Top Bar Hive | KTBH | Top Bar HiveThe Kenya top bar hive (KTBH), was developed for beekeepers in Kenya and has also been used in Uganda. The KTBH or TBH combines simplicity, economy and efficiency. Go here to see a real KTBH built by an enterprising Kenyan Eddie Muigai in Nairobi.
Unlike most common designs of modern hive, it does not use frames, rather it uses slats of wood called top bars, which is of course how the hive received it's name. Instead of filling out frames, the bees build comb from the top bars down. The bar is the only means of support that combs have in this type of hive. Also, unlike most other hive designs, the KTBH does not impose artificial segregation of the colony by physically dividing honey from brood by use of separate hive bodies, rather the entire hive is made of a single chamber. It's said, by the converts, that Kenya top bar hive beekeeping is a more healthy and sustainable method of beekeeping, it allows bees
to make their own pure, natural beeswax which means they can make it in the way that suits them best. They make the honeycomb cells the size that they need them to be. In a top bar hive, they do it by building their comb straight down from the bars which rest across the
top of the interior cavity of the Kenya Top Bar Beehive.
All that is required for a Kenya top bar hive to be successful are a water and wind tight cover, defensible entrances and healthy bees. It is also important to note that the design of the parts does not need to be precise; as long as they fit into the hive, the bees are happy to use them. They are not usually suitable for migratory beekeeping, moving bees in a top bar hive is considerably more difficult than the Langstroth. It is often said that there is no such thing as a beekeeper without a bad back - due to all the heavy lifting involved with conventional beekeeping equipment. The Kenyan Top Bar hive stands on legs at counter-height, eliminating awkward bending and heavy lifting. The hive is a complete, self-contained unit and honey is removed from the hive one 'top bar' at a time, avoiding the lifting of 40 to 80 pound boxes. However unlike the Langstroth style of hive, the Kenya Top Bar Hive does not require heavy lifting of hive bodies or supers. It has been said by people that manage both KTBH and Langstroth hives that managing TBHs is more pleasant, as the bees are less stressed when worked and less likely to exhibit defensive behavior. This type of hive is better for bees, but it’s also better for the beekeeper. The combs on a TBH can be manipulated a few at a time instead of one by one. Less disturbance means that inspections expose a much smaller segment of the hive at any given time. Bees in and on the unexposed portion of the hive tend not to notice the beekeeper's intrusion and as a result seem not to become particularly aggressive. The result of honey production in a Kenya top bar hive is, by default, honeycomb which is often considered more valuable than extracted honey by honey connoisseurs. If desired however, a honey press can be used to produce liquid honey, such as that produced by an extractor. 
Because they are managed differently to framed hives, inasmuch as honey tends to be harvested a little at a time rather than all at once, top bar hives are less attractive to the commercial beekeeper, who wants to maximize profits by minimizing time spent in harvesting. Other than that, top bar hives have no real disadvantages over framed hives, especially for the smaller-scale beekeeper. During seasons with heavy nectar flow, beekeepers may need to harvest honeycombs more often to prevent the hive from becoming honey bound. 
There exist no real standards for top bar hives, because of this the beekeeper must be responsible for construction of the Kenya top bar hive. However, the existence of standards has frozen the development of beekeeping sometime in the nineteenth century, so this is hardly a disadvantage.
On the contrary, the fact of there being no standards has encouraged creative experimentation among top bar beekeepers, who many now regard as being at the leading edge of beekeeping development. |
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