# News from Kenya



## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

I run a few kenya hives for a wile. 
If you want production, do not deviate from the normal langs.


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## beehonest (Nov 3, 2011)

No, I prefere langs any day. I am going to play around with a top bar so I can understand it also. If end up on the mission field the kenyas are mostly what they have because they are so cheap to make. Thats why I want to know more about them.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Welcome to the site!


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## Baldursson (Nov 22, 2011)

beehonest said:


> How do you feed them syrup and stuff with a top bar?


For myself I am going to build a follower board feeder. The syrup will actually be down in the box with the bees.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Just because you go to Kenya, does not mean you have to use a kenya TBH LOL!

Beekeeping in Kenya used to be primitive in the extreme. Log hives were broken open and robbed. An aid team from Canada happened to have a beekeeper in it, who noticed the wastefulness of the way bees were managed. He was used to langs, but the people he was working with had little resources, so he designed a hive they could take honey from without having to kill the bees. At first it was made by laying top bars across 1/2'd 44 gallon drums, of which there were many laying around. The idea was adapted by other Kenyan beekeepers using whatever materials they had available, the KTBH was born!

If you are going to Kenya as a missionary, I'd try taking beekeeping there to the next level. A lang may be out of the question, but if some way could be devised to super the hives, ie allow the bees to work upwards, this would increase honey production. Problem being it would involve more skill, which may be a negative. The super could not be put on foundationless, or the bees will be reluctant to move into the empty void suddenly above them. But if a comb or two were moved into the second box as a "ladder", the bees would move up.

But all that may be too complex for people to whom beekeeping is just a small sideline to their subsistance farming, I don't know.

Just a few thoughts.


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## cpm (Mar 8, 2011)

beehonest said:


> How do you feed them syrup and stuff with a top bar?


I put a boardman feeder inside the hive. 
I also have a small topbar where I cut a hole in the lid to accomodate a syrup jar - it's too small to put a feeder inside. The lid is shimmed to be slightly above the top bars, so the bees can access the jar.


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## Bush_84 (Jan 9, 2011)

I don't any reason why a Warre wouldn't work in Kenya. They are a nice mix of a vertical boxed hive, but don't require the use of foundation/frames. You can use foundation if you wish to super the hives, but isn't required. It's a hive that can be easily made by somebody who has a few tools.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Good thought!


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## beehonest (Nov 3, 2011)

Thanks CPM, that's what I was thinking. I don't want any part of a warre, he had his own ideas. I guess to each his own. I would love to fill the country with langs but as spoiled Americans we don't understand. Things aren't readily available there and the money to buy them sure isn't. You go as cheaply as possible and spread out as far as possible thats why the top bar is popular.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

What's applicable from a Warré, is the undersupering, (being french they call it nadiring), which get's around the problem of how to put a foundationless box on the hive, the bees can easily start building comb from the top bars of the new box because their cluster is right there.
To use that principle the hive does not actually have to be a Warré, it can be done with any supered hive.

But yes, the Warré method is not always the best way to get a good crop of honey. But at least it's verticle and should beat a "long" TBH.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

I was in Kenya about 12 years ago.

I didn't see any Lang's or TBH's ... 

I saw some Tuskers... 


JAMBO!


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## SteveBee (Jul 15, 2010)

I cut holes in the ends of my TBHs sized to fit the end of a Boardman feeder. The bees can get to the syrup only from the inside. I can see the jar and fill it from the outside. There is a picture on my site address below.


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## gjd (Jan 26, 2011)

I followed the exploits of a guy who went to Uganda for a few months via a development organization, to promote better beekeeping. He wasn't particularly experienced, but enthusiasm counts for a lot. The idea was to give some classes, educate them about bees, and have them build a KTBH-- basically end boards with straight sticks/reeds as side walls, plastered with mud/dung (I think). The problem was getting precise top bars-- they finally decided to pay someone to cut them with power tools, and hadn't gotten it done by the time he left. Point here is that this was hand tool/salvage/natural materials beekeeping. No milled materials-- Langs were simply not an option for these people. He explained a bit about the local bees-- they swarm constantly and build hives everywhere, including in the open. They are vastly more robust than the Italians struggling to survive in my backyard sub-freezing KTBH. It's just a completely different environment, and completely different bees. Fortunately. Read http://karlgoethert.blogspot.com/ and never complain about your bees again. Great pictures, also.

I made a feeding chamber containing a mason jar with a 2nd follower board, and a 1" hole to access it. Winter emergency feeding is the more interesting problem.


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## beehonest (Nov 3, 2011)

Thanks GJD, finally someone who understands. When you leave the US you aren't in Kansas anymore. I have been privelaged to go to Russia, Mexico,Honduras and the Bahamas on missions trips.My favorite was Honduras because when I was in college, I wanted to give a box to angel tree. I did not have the money then, when I finished I got the opportunity to go to Honduras, little did I know I would be handing out those boxes. What a blessing, to see a kid get a gift so simple and appreciate it. But most of all a chance to tell him about Christ and give him life eternal.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Telling someone in the bush they should just buy a Langstroth hive, is like saying "let them eat cake" when you hear the poor have no bread...


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## beehonest (Nov 3, 2011)

It could not have been said any better Micheal Bush. You have a topbar dont you? How do you feed your top bar?


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Michael Bush said:


> Telling someone in the bush they should just buy a Langstroth hive, is like saying "let them eat cake" when you hear the poor have no bread...


Well when I was young I lived in the bush for a few years, the cooking was done on a fire outside, stuff like that. 

However by people in the bush, I'll assume you mean subsistence African farmers, at the poor end of the scale. If so, I doubt anyone would tell them to go and buy a langstroth.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>You have a topbar dont you?

Yes.

> How do you feed your top bar? 

I either put some dry sugar on the bottom and wet it slightly or I pour a little bit of very thick syrup on the bottom in the evening before sundown. But very seldom feed them. Usually only when installing a new package and they have nothing yet.

>However by people in the bush, I'll assume you mean subsistence African farmers, at the poor end of the scale. 

Yes.

>If so, I doubt anyone would tell them to go and buy a langstroth. 

Several people on here over the years have said it is a total waste for them to be using top bar hives and that they should be teaching them to use Langstroths...


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

The Warre might be a possibility in Kenya. I'm betting the quilt wouldn't be as important in a tropical climate. Maybe a bigger entrance for better ventilation and locating the hives in the shade.
Ernie


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## oldreliable (Jan 29, 2011)

Love my TBH...as for so called honey production goes..no less then langs....and bees are a lot healtier...most are just lost without a extractor..
Seems we Amercians are so caught up on PRODUCTION AND PROFIT...as with most natural resources so goes the honeybee inch: 

My topbar hive is the only hive I have MITE FREE...not one mite found this year...hmmm let nature be?


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