I have been following the KTB thread with interest.  I have worked with KTB
hives in Sudan, Malawi, and Ethiopia and agree with Honeycare's stance that
KTB's are not good.  In Malawi they call them 'coffin hives' since they
look like coffins and the coffin makers turn them out too.  Coffins are a
hot item due to HIV and they are commonly on display on saw horses on the
sides of the road in Malawi.  I have seen some first rate carpenters in
African turning out well made furniture with simple hand tools, though
often the KTBs are crude.

The big problem with KTBs is honey quality.  I have worked on 3 honey
processing projects in KTB countries and honey brought in from the field
was almost always high in moisture and full of dead bees and debris.  It
turns out the African beekeepers I worked with  'work' their hives at night
to avoid stings.  So they go out after dark and rip combs out of the top
bar hives.  The combs are then pressed, bees and all frequently. Oddly
enough, I don't think the bees are terribly aggressive.  They are
unpredictable and flighty, but with a good smoker and bee suit it is no
problem to work them in daylight.  Most beekeepers are convinced they are
deadly, and that is in part due to lack of good quality protective
equipment for the beekeeper.

 Honeycare advocates for Langstroth style frame hives so A. an excluder can
be used to separate honey from brood and B. if the brood is left alone the
hive is more likely to survive or not abscond and C. so the moveable frames
can be extracted as it is virtually impossible to extract a top bar frame,
thus the pressing of top bar combs.

It is also very common to see traditional log hives in use too, and they
are not much different from KTBs in terms of end product.  The traditional
hives are easier to handle in trees however.  I was in Ethiopia summer
before last and we were taken to visit a traditional beekeeper outside of
Addis Ababa. This guy lived out on an open plain with one huge Eucalyptus
tree in his yard.  He has 8-10 moveable frame hives in his yard but had 16
log hives in the tree.  He had a set of spike steps in the tree and with no
prompting he ran up into the top of the tree to show us how he lowered the
log hives with a rope.  He said the tree and log hives attracted swarms
from miles around and he could easily collect new swarms with his log hives.

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

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