# need some top bar hive plans



## MartinW (Feb 28, 2015)

Hello Dan,

a few options...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm
if you want to invest in a book - http://www.tbhsbywam.com/
I recall Les Crowder's book has plans - http://www.amazon.com/Top-Bar-Beekeeping-Organic-Practices-Honeybee/dp/1603584617

just perform a google search and you'll find plenty of free plans

good luck


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## DanC57 (Jan 31, 2016)

Thanks I will take a look


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

Just Google it


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## DanC57 (Jan 31, 2016)

i did ,some time its quicker to ask some one on here ,


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

My advice is "make sure you don't have to cut boards to width". Make it so your hive has one solid board on the bottom and two solid boards on the sides, and you only have to cut those 3 boards to length, and not rip them to width on a table saw or band saw. when I first started following plans, I was slavishly gluing up and cutting down boards so they would be exactly the same as the plan; on my third hive I realized "not cutting is better" and that a 9.5 inch board not cut beats a 10 inch board I'm ripping from a 1x12. This makes a 4 hour hive building project suddenly take about 45 minutes.

I settled on a variation of Les's plan, using 1 X 10 lumber. Remember that 10" lumber is really about 9.5" wide. So, my hives are now 9.5 on the bottom and both sides, and 18" across the top (where a 19" top bar lies).

If your plan is to only make one hive and make it as pretty possible, all the advice above falls apart. One pretty hive can have all sorts of dovetail or box-joint joinery, observation windows, and gabled roofs, and you can spend $200 and two weeks on it if you want to. My advice is geared towards "how do I make a hive for $25 in 45 minutes, with the fewest cuts possible?"

Thanks!


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## DanC57 (Jan 31, 2016)

that sounds good ..I was thinking on the same order,use what u buy,,i am also thinking about going 19 in on top so a person can drop the bars in a langs,box which that's what I have now,,but wanting to try a top bar or to ,,


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## Duncan151 (Aug 3, 2013)

AvatarDad said:


> If your plan is to only make one hive and make it as pretty possible, all the advice above falls apart. One pretty hive can have all sorts of dovetail or box-joint joinery, observation windows, and gabled roofs, and you can spend $200 and two weeks on it if you want to. My advice is geared towards "how do I make a hive for $25 in 45 minutes, with the fewest cuts possible?"
> Thanks!


I could not agree more with that part! I will add, bigger is better, unless you plan on moving them a lot!


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## Pale Rider (Apr 14, 2016)

I used this one only I adjusted it so that I didn't have to join boards. I used 1x12 sides and kept the same angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6klnaM68XMk


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

Duncan151 said:


> I could not agree more with that part! I will add, bigger is better, unless you plan on moving them a lot!


:thumbsup: I agree. They fill up fast.

My normal production hives are 4 feet long. That's about 80 liters. I have a 9 week Italian package which has filled one 80% full... a few bars past the 3 foot mark. (I have about 10 bars of space left at the back of the hive). I would be pulling my hair out right now if that hive were any shorter; I'm already thinking about harvesting honey on a hive I had not planned to touch this year at all. Or a split. Or both. (I'm using follower boards to compress the bees slightly, so from their perspective, they always have only 3 empty bars of space).


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## DanC57 (Jan 31, 2016)

why cant a person take out some, say 1 or 2 full bars and put them in a sealed container and keep for a later date ,,keep for winter food ,and if the bees don't need it u can bottle it,that way it keeps them working and building comb and honey,,its a thought.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Or instead of plans, you can buy the kit from Beeline Apiary for $170 and use it as your template to build others. They also sell the hive ends and bars if you don't want to make them. I use the boards that are supposed to go in the "roof" and make a second hive out of them. I do add windows to all mine. Their kits have the 19" bars and are 45" long. I love everything about them. You can see some pictures on my bees' FB page listed below.


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## Duncan151 (Aug 3, 2013)

AvatarDad said:


> :thumbsup: I agree. They fill up fast.
> 
> My normal production hives are 4 feet long. That's about 80 liters. I have a 9 week Italian package which has filled one 80% full... a few bars past the 3 foot mark. (I have about 10 bars of space left at the back of the hive). I would be pulling my hair out right now if that hive were any shorter; I'm already thinking about harvesting honey on a hive I had not planned to touch this year at all. Or a split. Or both. (I'm using follower boards to compress the bees slightly, so from their perspective, they always have only 3 empty bars of space).


All my hives are a full 48 inches, inside measurement, long. Two of them are 75% full, 10 days ago I made them queen less. Today I pulled 28 queen cells and made up 6 mating nucs. Will split up the second one on Wednesday and see if I can fill 4 to 6 more nucs. I am running two five foot long hives, with 23 in bars, for this summer, just to see if that helps with that filling up thing!


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## Duncan151 (Aug 3, 2013)

ruthiesbees said:


> Or instead of plans, you can buy the kit from Beeline Apiary for $170 and use it as your template to build others. They also sell the hive ends and bars if you don't want to make them. I use the boards that are supposed to go in the "roof" and make a second hive out of them. I do add windows to all mine. Their kits have the 19" bars and are 45" long. I love everything about them. You can see some pictures on my bees' FB page listed below.


I think you would be better off taking that $170 and buying lumber to make your own hives. I am sure you will end up with 2 to 3 hives that way. If you are not very good at wood working, building TBHs will be a good start to fixing that, and even if they are a little rough around the edges, they still work! LOL


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## Chuck Jachens (Feb 22, 2016)

I use phill Chandlers plans, barefoot beekeeper, they are free. Easy to adapt to 19 inch bars. Make a template for the inside side slopes. Actual make three. Two ends and one follower board.


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## dixieswife (Apr 15, 2013)

Michael Bush's top bar hives are very simple to make, even for us carpentry-challenged/budget-minded types. Don't have to rip any boards. Just a couple 1x12s, for sides and ends, a 1x6 for the bottom and some 1x2s + moulding for top bars. Plus whatever you come up with for a roof. 

They are about 4 feet long. Nothing fancy but bees don't care about fancy. 

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm (Martin W also had the link in his reply)


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## bentonkb (May 24, 2016)

Do you all make your hives square sided, or sloped? I read that the amount of side attachment is similar either way, so I made mine fit a Lang deep frame. The bees mostly attach the comb to the sides in the top half of the frame.


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## ethanhogan (Jun 1, 2016)

I am no magician wood worker and I only have a circular saw and a drill. I used Michael bush plan. Cut the boards, angle them, cut some bars, slap some 99 cent chamber molding on the bars with Brad nails. BAM. TBH $45 tax and all, and that is using pine from a big box store. 2017 I will be going to the saw mill and getting cheap miss cut lumber. With the $170 mentioned above you could make a five 48in hives and prolly a few TB nucs


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

ethanhogan said:


> I am no magician wood worker and I only have a circular saw and a drill. I used Michael bush plan. Cut the boards, angle them, cut some bars, slap some 99 cent chamber molding on the bars with Brad nails. BAM. TBH $45 tax and all, and that is using pine from a big box store. 2017 I will be going to the saw mill and getting cheap miss cut lumber. With the $170 mentioned above you could make a five 48in hives and prolly a few TB nucs


I had a friend that made her TBH from on-line plans, while I bought mine. We compared notes in the end and she spent $125 with materials from a big box store (pine boards) and that still didn't include her husband's time to build. If someone has access to free wood, it makes sense to build your own TBH, if you want to. Otherwise the kit from Beeline is the only one I have seen that is a standard 19" long bars. It is very easy to copy once you have one in front of you.


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## ethanhogan (Jun 1, 2016)

Either pine is really expensive where you live or she bought to much material. I also dont have tops on mine just a piece of chip board. Mine are not nice. Just boards nailed together and bars, but I have not heard the bees say they hate it yet hahaha. Thats the beauty of top bar keeping. I got into bee keeping and noticed real quick boxes, frames, etc were expensive and then I read Les crowders book and loved it. Also, like sam comfort


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## crmauch (Mar 3, 2016)

ruthiesbees said:


> I had a friend that made her TBH from on-line plans, while I bought mine. We compared notes in the end and she spent $125 with materials from a big box store (pine boards) and that still didn't include her husband's time to build. If someone has access to free wood, it makes sense to build your own TBH, if you want to. Otherwise the kit from Beeline is the only one I have seen that is a standard 19" long bars. It is very easy to copy once you have one in front of you.


IMO, the big box stores are *not* the way to go. If I'd had more money, I'd found a sawmill on Craigslist that wasn't too far and their prices seemed reasonable. But I decided to go even cheaper (money-wise) and have collected pallets and am making my hives (and swarm traps) from mainly these. Note this has a cost - *time.* You can't buy your already dimensioned lumber and start working - you have to deconstruct the scrap lumber. Some of the pallet slats are only 3/8" so either they'd have to be doubled or used for swarm traps. My first pallets were made w/ straight nails, but some of the recent ones have nails that are 'twisted' (don't know the proper term) and they can be devils to get out. I've finally gotten a little smarter. Rather than try to pry the end nails out, I'm just running my circular saw along the runners so I only have to pry the middle runner nails out of the slats. Plus w/ pallet wood you have to 'piece' your sides together. All what you can afford and how much time you're willing to spend. 

I did also explore purchasing a TBH, and the prices seemed very high.


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## Chuck Jachens (Feb 22, 2016)

To construct my top bar hives I use 
22 1" x 6 " x 6 ft dog eared fence cedar or redwood boards. Which ever is cheaper.
8 1" x 2" x 8 ft pine for the top bars, and 
2 2" x 4" x 8 ft for the legs. 
Add glass for an inspection window. 

Cost is about $60 plus my labor.


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