Dear Tom,
 
I am a hobby beekeeper who is planning on building some top-bar hives for
this spring.  I think they have several advantages.  The first is cost.
Since all that is required is a few boards easily fashioned this is much
cheaper than a standard box hive.
 
More importantly, I believe it is a hive better suited to the bees.  The
hive is one unit, not broken up as in sections of supers.  With only strips
of comb to start - the bees are allowed to build their own comb.  This I
believe is an essential part of bee life.  The wax process is something
bees NEED to do.  The resultant comb is also more natural and in my mind
better than furnished foundation. The bees don't naturally produce square
comb - they like hanging down and prefer a parabola shape such as the
top-bar hive allows.   Of course getting copius amounts of honey easily
extracted may not be as easy as in the standard box.
 
 My feeling is that we live in a time when we need to start caring for the
bees first and the honey second.  These hives are well suited to this
purpose.  Good luck and I look forward to hearing what you decide.
 
    Jim Jensen         Atlanta, GA         [log in to unmask]
 
               The BioDynamic Honeybee Symposium
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                From beekeepers to beekeepers.
                    Contact me for copies.
 
 
At 02:28 AM 11/7/97 GMT, you wrote:
>Hi All
>
>Tonight I attended an interesting talk on Top bar Hives here in Dublin
Ireland.
>As a first year beekeeper I really cannot decide on the merits or otherwise
>of what I have heard. I must confess that I am somewhat dubious of the
>claims and wonder why if the idea is so good, why has it not caught on.
>
>Has anybody anything to say about Top Bar Hives one way or the other. Is it
>a type of hive worth considering?
>
>Thanks very much for any input.
>
>Sincerely
>
>Tom Barrett
>49 South Park
>Foxrock
>Dublin 18
>Ireland
>
>e mail: [log in to unmask]
>