Kenyan Top Bar bee hives

Well I learned something the other day when I first saw this bee hive on Australian River Cottage.

https://www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au/natural-beekeeping/the-kenyan-top-bar-hive/



I had to investigate more. I was so impressed with the way Adrian Iodice (on right in this photo with Paul West of ARC TV show fame) handled his bees. They seemed so docile.

I have always felt the box type bee hives never seemed 'natural' & the bees seemed to get really upset because of the way the hive had to be broken apart for any sort of treatment.

Here Adrian & Paul are transferring a wild hive they found in a nearby town from the borrowed hive into Pauls new hive.



This is my sort of bee keeping! I probably could make one of these hives, I have the same sort of natural timber they used to make this hive below. It looks really special treated with natural bees wax.




https://www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au/adrian-iodice-bio-courses/


The thing that struck me about this style of hive was the shape. After 3 yrs of never ending wet season here between 2010 & 2013 I found many wild hives dead on the ground under huge gum trees across my property. They all had that triangular shape where they have been attached under a big thick horizontal branch. The hives were about 600-800mm long & around 250mm deep at the pointed part. Obviously the branches got so wet, the 'glue' that held the hives onto the underside let go so they fell off.

So to my mind that is way bees should be housed so they can make their natural shaped hive. It would be good to have more bees here. A bonus would be some honey.

 

Haven't finished watching this episode yet.

Looks good.

 

I saw one of these about a year or so ago when they had like a street fair to open up a new beautification project (in Alderley) but didn't talk to he guys that much as they were pretty busy and my son was restless - the show was great for giving me more info. I think I'd like to trial 1 of each hive type (at least) when we do get property - with this leaning towards my favourite. Also wanting native bees, possibly a flow hive and a traditional bee hive - oh and of couse a bee hotel for the individual bees

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_top-bar_hive

This wiki info about top bar hives is quite informative.