So I decided to get bees . . . now what?

In Maryland, anyone who wants to keep bees is required to have a hive with movable frames. A frame is the foundation on which the honeybees will build their wax comb. Traditionally, these have been wooden frames nailed together with a piece of wax (or more modernly, plastic) foundation put in the middle.

The frames are placed in a box (what is known as the Langstroth hive) with enough space between them for a bee to maneuver, make honey, drop off pollen, and raise brood. "Bee space" is approximately 3/8". It was discovered by the namesake of the Langstroth hive, Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth, that bees would not build comb if they did not have at least this much space.

Top bar hives are more primitive than this, for better or worse. While the Langstroth frames work great for honey production, it is theorized that the foundation used does not allow the bees to make the hexagons in the honeycomb the appropriate size for preventing disease and controlling mites. Natural combs are built different sizes for different tasks and the bees are able to chose to build what they need when they need it. In a top bar hive, the bees are allowed to do this. The top bars are simply a bar resting across the top of the hive that the bees are able to build their comb on. The comb is suspended perpendicularly to the ground in a "U" shape. While this tends to mean less honey production, it also allows the bees to manage themselves a bit more by building how they prefer to build.

Upon discovering that people use top bar hives as an inexpensive, less intense way to keep bees, I decided to start a hive of my own. I had worked with the Langstroth Hive in college and know a good bit about the life-cycle and needs of a bee colony. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about building things, nor do I have the tools necessary. So I began surfing the web for suggestions.

There are plenty of folks out there who make top bar hives for sale. There are not enough folks, however, competitively drive down prices. While the hives offered are pretty, I'm not about to drop $300-400 on a beehive that people in Kenya are making out of re-purposed materials. In fact, this is one of the great advantages of the top bar. You can make it out of virtually anything so long as it is sturdy, holds the bars flat, and is made out of materials that won't poison the bees or honey (e.g. pressure treated lumber).

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a "beginning beekeeping" website that mentioned a bloke name Philip Chandler, the Barefoot Beekeeper. Mr. Chandler has written a book on the subject of natural beekeeping as well as plans for a top bar hive. I had a starting point!

I browsed many other websites, but Chandler's plans were the best laid out for free. I liked the idea of a golden mean hive as the golden mean does seem to pop up a lot in nature, so I slightly altered the dimensions. Basically, I made my hive the lower portion of a pentagon.

Next up: Finding the right materials and tools.