I have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this book since I first heard about it. The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives
Towards the end of last beekeeping season, I read Phil Chandler’s book, The Barefoot Beekeeper (full review here) which introduced me to the concept of top bar hives and what it means to be an intervention-free beekeeper. While Chandler’s book is wonderful, and highly recommended, I found that Hemenway’s book, The Thinking Beekeeper, provided a more complete explanation and breakdown of becoming a top bar hive beekeeper from scratch.
This is a perfect book for a beginner beekeeper and may actually become one of my top recommended books for anyone that is new to beekeeping and wants to approach beekeeping as naturally as possible.
The book begins with a history lesson on beekeeping and offers a look at some of the most common beekeeping practices – such as the use of wax foundation – and the impact that these practices may have on bees.
Further into the book is a full instructional guide to getting up and running with your first top bar hive. Aside from full plans and instructions on constructing your hive (which are regularly available for free on the Internet), Hemenway breaks down everything that you need to know as a first-time, top bar hive beekeeper. From installing your bees to collecting honey, overwintering, and then even managing your hive the following spring to ensure you’re left with the strongest colony possible.
One of the best parts of this book are the top-down (bee’s eye view) diagrams of the hive at specific stages along the way. These diagrams are extremely helpful for understanding how you manipulate the bars and follower boards throughout the season. I now have a much better understanding of how to have a middle entrance in a top bar hive and still allow the winter cluster of bees to move in a single direction consuming honey. Pure genius.
Towards the end of the book, Hemenway briefly describes the most notorious pests and diseases that every beekeeper should be on the lookout for, and finishes the book with a few of her personal thoughts and stories.
If you’re even remotely interested in top bar hives, or learning more about intervention-free beekeeping, I highly recommend this book to you.
Order this book from Amazon.ca:
The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives
By Christy Hemenway
Published Jan 1, 2013
For a beginner apiarist, what type of hive would you recommend? Would a top bar hive be a simple option for someone without any beekeeping experience?
Hi Katie! Others may have different opinions than me, but I think they’re a fine choice for someone beginning beekeeping. The cost of building or obtaining a top bar hive is quite low compared to a Langstroth hive, which can be a big hurdle for a lot of people.
Bees are slightly harder to obtain for top bar hives however, since in Canada, most breeders will create a Nuc box, complete with bees in all stages of life. The frames from a Nuc won’t fit in your top bar hive. You’ll need to find a breeder who sells package bees or top bar colonies. Alternatively, you could capture a swarm of bees, or modify the frames from the langstroth nuc to fit the top bar hive, but these are tricky and could be overwhelming for a beginner.
Top bars are simple and cheap, and I would recommend for anyone keeping bees as a hobby for their own personal reasons.
I would recommend Langstroth hives to someone who may want more than a few hives for business reasons.
Both types of hive have lots of support on the internet, so either one you choose should be fine.
Hi Chris, thanks so much for your helpful response!
I poked around the internet a bit and it seems like a top bar hive would be a good choice. I’m going to be keeping bees for fun, to help pollinate my fruit trees, and to hopefully get a bit of honey!
And simple and cheap works for me!
Thanks again for taking the time to respond 🙂