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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> I am starting in bees. Any experience to share on Top Bar?

I have kept bees for 30 years and the last eight years I have kept top bar 
hives.

The main thing I would share is that it takes a very great deal more bee 
sense and experience to succeed with TBH's than with Langstroth hives.  I 
know it 
looks deceptively easier, no expensive equipment, costly foundation, etc.   
But it's not easier.  It requires much more frequent examination of the hives 
and subtle interventions.

Of all the homestead enterprises, says I, the quickest way to blow a pile of 
cash is to get into beekeeping too quickly or to extensively.  I'd highly 
recommend setting up one and no more than two Langstroth hives the first year 
and 
do a lot of observing.

I only have TBH's now.  I no longer sell any honey, only produce some for our 
own use and a little for barter.   TBH's are good for that.

If you do go for TBH's, I highly recommend the Kenyan type hives over the 
square bottomed hives and to keep the hives rather small, much smaller than 
most 
examples in the literarure, more like 20 bars than the usual 30.

Here are my older larger  hives:

www.geocities.com/nogomain/hives.jpg
www.geocities.com/nogomain/bees.JPG
www.geocities.com/nogomain/attach.JPG

There are some pictures of the newer hives but I can't find them.  They are 
made entirely of 12" commercial dressed shelving boards (from Lowes).  The 
new 
hives are much, much easier to manage and the survival rate is much higher.