# TBH Questions



## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

There are no dumb questions.

For a newbee, I like to recommend Christie Hemenways' book The Thinking Beekeeper, as it gives the basics of keeping a topbar hive. I own a few more, but that one will get you started.

We like to recommend that your hive be about 4ft in length, so the bees are not constantly swarming. Most tobar hives do not have supers, although there is a horizontal hive that holds frames, not just the topbars that you can super if you want. The beauty in a topbar hive is that the bars all push together to form the "ceiling" so you aren't really opening the full hive each time you take a peak. The bees tend to be more docile that way, but you can't super UP.

There are a few different types of feeders you can use. I have division board feeders, mason jar feeders and the ones that attach to a soda bottle. You can get more ideas of the stuff I have tried with my topbar hives by going to my bees facebook page that is referenced below in the signature area.


----------



## Ennui (Jun 6, 2013)

In new hives which haven't fill the hive(which tends to be the only ones I feed), I use the baggie feeder. It's cheap, easy and requires nothing more than the stuff most of us have sitting around.

Just take a ziplock bag, fill it with 2-1 syrup. Put it in the hive laying on it side (in place where the bees won't build comb into it). Take a razor and slice a couple 1inch slits in the top of the bag. The bees will find it and drain the bag through the slits.


----------



## Eric Crosby (Jan 4, 2015)

I use inverted jars with small holes drilled into the lid and have them shimmer up 1/2 inch off of the floor. No plastic waste. Other good books on TBH are by Wyatt Mangum and Les Crowder.


----------



## remist17 (Sep 29, 2014)

thank you all


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Can anyone advise on a good book on TBH?

A lot of detail on management and how to feed in empty bars to get them drawn well, with nice digrams as well as a lot of good beekeeping advice:
http://www.amazon.com/Top-Bar-Beeke...F8&qid=1429018656&sr=8-1&keywords=les+crowder

Probably more basic and certainly well written:
http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Beek...8&qid=1429018618&sr=8-3&keywords=top+bar+hive

For the person who wants to know everything you can get about top bar hives, you'll need to add this one. Wyatt has done a lot of experimenting. This may not be a beginners book but has a lot of information for the person who wants to understand as much as possible about top bar hives:
http://www.tbhsbywam.com/


----------

