I have before me a book entitled"HOME HONEY PRODUCTION by W.H. Bielby that
describes a catenary hive. It is a top bar hive thathas the ends and the sides
curved in the shape that a hanging chain would make. The idea is that the bees
will not attach comb to ends and bbottom of that shape.
I built a couple of those hive a dozen years ago with the intention of putting a
swarm in them but other things happened and I didn't get the swarms. I was out
of the business at the time. Has anyone experience with catenary hives? The
author was a Britisher but the book was republished in the USA in 1977.
I don't temember seeing any top bar hives in Ethiopia but a couple of beekeepers
tried homemade hives with sloppy bee spaces. The trick theree was keeping bees
from abscounding.