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Top-bar Bee Hives
This unique bee hive provides a more natural way for the bees to live. The hive consists of a rectangular box that usually has slanted sides and no top (half of a hexagon). The top is made up of bars that go across the width of the box. On the bars, the bees attach the honeycomb and fill with eggs, pollen, and honey. With a top-bar hive the yield is not only honey but bees wax as well. Bees that need to make their own honeycomb, off load toxins from their bodies and live healthier lives. Fewer of the recent troubles with the bee populations have been observed in top-bar apiaries.
For the small farmer, the set up cost to keep bees with top-bar hives is much more attainable than traditional Langstroth box hives. All you need to do is make the box, a bee veil, and a smoker. Some kind of hive tool (a scraper type tool) is a good investment. We use white large work shirts and bee veils as our bee-suit. Gloves are handy but not necessary. I use goat-skin gloves purchased at my local hardware store. For harvesting the wonderful honey, all you need is a knife, a covered bucket, a colander, a bowl, a rolling pin, and jars to put in your honey. After cutting the honeycomb from the top-bar, leaving about 1-inch on the bar, put the comb into your covered bucket. Continue doing this until all the honey is harvested. Take your bounty inside. With the rolling pin crush the cells of the honeycomb until you have a soupy honey-wax mash. Put the colander over
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