# superable topbar plans



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Welcome to Beesource!


Not exactly plans, but photos and a description ...
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshorizontalhives.htm

If you need dimensions for standard Langs so you can build to match, they are here:
http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/


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## Life is Good! (Feb 22, 2013)

Try searching this site for 'long langs' or 'horizontal hives'.....different folks call 'em different things - but in essence, they are the same!
Good luck on your build!


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

There is a term for a superable topbar hive.....they 're called warre hives


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## Cabin (Nov 30, 2014)

Harley Craig said:


> There is a term for a superable topbar hive.....they 're called warre hives


Is it a 'super' if it goes on the bottom???:scratch:


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Y'all be nice. 

This is what I put together last year; well actually, it was my dad who built it for me. I can't tell you if it will work or not as I had queen issues spring 2014, so my overwintered hive with comb did not get put in here as planned. I ended up putting a package in this one April 2014, and they drew out all the comb in 2014. We will see if it works in 2015. I really didn't do it for the honey supers, but I wanted to try getting them to draw comb in the mason jars and I needed a way to shield the jars from the sun.

Taking Michael Bush's advice that the bees need to be started on a top entrance in order to work the supers, I made the space between the super and the brood box a periscope entrance. So the bees march up about an inch and then back down into the brood nest. I made the last topbar to have lots of holes along the length so it's not wide open. Bees don't seem to mind the arrangement in the slightest. It still gets the same amount of hive beetles as the other topbar hives. The colony was strong enough that I was able to attach the yellow plastic pollen trap to it in the fall.

I don't have any plans as my dad did it free hand based on the brood box below. It just happened to be that the periscope entrance was 3/8" when he finished it. I think there also might be another beesource posting in the topbar hive forum from Aug 2013-Dec 2013 when I was asking questions about supering a topbar hive. The brood box is about 34" long. The wood for the super is an 8" board. And I'm guessing it's about 15-20 bars long (I have 2 different size bars)

Here are some picts.


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## AugustC (Aug 7, 2013)

I don't think much in the way of plans are necessary and it depends on your setup.
I take it you are wanting to use langs supers on a top bar hive sporting the same bar width as a lang?
Are you intending to use frames in the langs super?
If you are intending to use frames, are you intending to use foundation?
Seems like somantics but it doesn make a difference on how you are "offering" the bees the opportunity to move up to the super.


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## burgeoning farm (Jan 28, 2015)

Thanks for all the input and pictures. Ideally I want to be able to put Lang boxes on top of a topbar ( with frames and naturally drawn comb) so I can then get liquid honey without having to always crush the comb.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

just use your top bars and go slow..... will work better with older comb. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4lwVgHTja0


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Cabin said:


> Is it a 'super' if it goes on the bottom???:scratch:


you can super a warre....it's wasn't Emile's way, but it can be done.


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## AugustC (Aug 7, 2013)

burgeoning farm said:


> Thanks for all the input and pictures. Ideally I want to be able to put Lang boxes on top of a topbar ( with frames and naturally drawn comb) so I can then get liquid honey without having to always crush the comb.


If you have already drawn comb there is less of an issue. You have three main options:
1: Top bars with holes in. If you can stick a cork in them when not in use so much the better.
2: Space the top bars. Easiest but most problematic. You will have to fill the gaps generated along the edge and your comb spacing would be different. 
3: Make top bars with replacable strips. Lots of messing about but most useful.
You main problem with whichever route you take will always be the roof. You have to make sure the hive is as protected and stable as it was. Best of luck. A.


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## Greenride (Jul 7, 2013)

I have some top bar hive plans on my blog. My hives are 36 inches (26 top bars) long. The top bars are 18 inches long. In my opinion 36 inches is too short. I had overpopulation problems with both of my top bar hives in the second season. Here is a link: link
I supered my hives both for splitting and then later in the season for honey storage.
Rather than drill holes in my top bars, I rotated a couple top bars 90 degrees and notched the ends so that all the tops of the top bars would be flush. I also tried just spacing “normal” orientation top bars but I don’t think it worked as well.



I moved a couple of bars of brood into the super using drywall screws in the ends of the bars to bridge the gap (from my 18" bars to the 19 inches of a lang frame). After getting very little traffic to the super, I added an inner cover and placed a feeder on the center hole. Another deep was used to cover the feeder.
This it worked, I had to add fresh open brood frames (from both topbar hives). This was late March. 
My main flow comes from linden/basswood in mid to late June. At the beginning of June these hives were both “boiling” with bees. Brood on almost every bar! I had a single spare deep lang at this point (having made 2 splits). I decided to super one of the hives. I made a couple more rotated top bars and put the deep on top of the top bar over them. I pulled two top bars with honey out of the hive and put them into the “super”. I filled the rest of the spots up with lang frames with foundation.

The bees drew (foundation) and filled the deep in approximately 3 weeks, as well as drawing and filling the 2 new rotated top bars below the super.

The top bar hive that did not get supered swarmed, it must have been a big one.
Both hives died during the following winter (one in Nov. and one in Dec). I think the mites overwhelmed the bees as each hive only had a small cluster going into the winter. The good news is that one of the two splits is doing well. They are a couple of miles away in an out yard.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I don't know how it is going to work but I used the plans from beesource for the medium lang and just made it 48 inches long and put foundationless frames in it. I don't why I couldn't pull the cover forward and set a medium on it with a telliscope cover no the medium. I don't know if you could call this a top bar when using lang frames but the bee space should be good for moving up. I haven't got bees yet so can't tell you how it worked. Just throwing my thoughts out.
gww


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## Eric Crosby (Jan 4, 2015)

If your real goal is to spin off honey and not to crush and strain why not make framed bars for the honey storage section. If u r handy u could even put in plastic foundation and spin. just another idea.


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