Top Bar Hive

[Joules]

A design I did a few years ago and decided to publish it on Grabcad.   It's best made from wood than 3D printed.   The challenge was to do a design that could be ripped from 6" wide boards, the roof is boards split in half, dowels can be made or purchased.  It uses no metal in the construction.  I never got round to making one, but did enjoy the designing.

The link :-       https://grabcad.com/library/all-wood-top-bar-hive-1

[naffsharpe (Nathan)]

Nice design ! Do you still have to fit frames etc before they can use it?
Nathan.

[Joules]

Yes, but they are just wood bars with some starter comb for the bees to build off, hence top bar hive.

[raynerd]

Hi Joules, amazing you have posted this as I've started with bees this year! Why go with a top bar hive instead of a National?

[Joules]

The top bar hive is aimed more at the Hippy (need spaced out smiley) casual bee keeper.  They are supposed to be Bee friendly and not geared for intensive honey production, cheap and simple to make.  I did some alterations in the garden removing a rockery and without realising dug up an underground bee hive.  It was only small but felt pretty bad about it and remembered the Top Bar I designed some years back so decided to post it.        My apology to the Bee's      Suppose I should build a hive too, and see if any of the locals fancy moving in, as I enjoy watching the bee's in the garden.

I'm not a Bee keeper, but I did take a course on Bee keeping.