1. PART ONE
   1. A Brief History
   2. Designing a starter Top Bar Hive
   3. Observation of the First Starter top bar Hive to Ascertain Some of the Problems
   4. Changes to the design based on findings from the first Top Bar Hive
   5. Manipulation of the First top bar Hive
2. PART TWO
   1. Thoughts on the FInal Design
   2. Feeders
   3. Tools
   4. Stands for Top Bar Hives
   5. Where to from here?
3. PART THREE
   1. (Update - Summer 2013)
   2. Honey from Top Bar Hives
   3. Swarm Control
   4. Creating Additional Colonies by Means of Nuclei

Reviewed by David Heaf The Beekeepers Quarterly No. 113, September 2013

If the title gives the reader the impression that the author is on the back foot about topbar hives, then the following sentence in the Introduction quickly dispels that impression: ‘Top bar hives are the most wonderful way of keeping bees, as the bees are in a structure closest to their natural environment, and one in which they can be easily managed and observed.’

The Foreword by John Phipps, founding editor of The Beekeepers Quarterly, emphasises probably the most important aspect of more natural beekeeping, namely its aim to promote first and foremost the health of colonies. This is where all beekeepers should be able to find common ground.

This booklet is clearly the result of direct practical investigation by a beekeeper with more than sixty years experience of keeping bees in frame hives. He explains how he arrived at his top bar hive design, how he made it from easily sourced materials and how he manages it. The result, partly influenced by features of the National hive, is reminiscent of Tony Herbert’s National deep, drop-down, top bar hive (see The Beekeepers Quarterly issues 91 (2008) and 100 (2010)).

Slade departs from the usual horizontal top bar hive design by using top bar spacers and consequently a crown board, actually two crown boards side-by-side. To improve manipulability of combs – which he refers to throughout, somewhat cumbersomely, as ‘drops of comb’ – he lets the bees embed in each one a vertical centre rod, fixed to the top bar. What can be seen in the excellent colour photos of comb manipulations is that the centre rods divide the brood nest and interfere with the laying pattern. This accords with centre-rod top bar comb photos on the internet. A similar snag arises in the Warré hive, a top bar hive that is expanded vertically rather than horizontally, and one in which the top bars themselves interrupt the integrity of the brood nest. In the case of both types of top bar hive, the problem arises from the need to compromise on naturalness for the sake of manipulability.

An attractive feature of the book is the author’s willingness to experiment. Indeed, in places it reads like a development project in process. For example he raises the issue of whether from the point of view of temperature control, narrow top bars, with spacers, covered with a bee-spaced crown board might be a less acceptable top-of-cavity configuration than wide top bars abutting each other and with no crown board. Here is a chance for beekeepers to join in a research project and share their findings.

Other topics covered are stands, feeding, ventilation, comb renewal, swarm control, splitting, and honey harvesting; not covered are varroa control, diseases, robbing, raising queens, or hive/apiary siting, all of which can easily be found in larger books on beekeeping.

As Jim Slade has so much beekeeping experience behind him, we can attach much weight to his discovery that bees in top bar hives are noticeably less defensive compared with other hives. This is my own experience with the Warré hive, and is repeatedly confirmed by other beekeepers who try more natural combs after some years of frame beekeeping.

I let Jim Slade conclude: “Top bar hive beekeeping is by-and-large all about letting the bees do what they want to do. The natural way is to let them swarm and hive the swarm into a new top bar hive or nuc box. From the beekeeper’s point of view this may not be the best way, as the possibility of losing a swarm is great. However, I believe that with or without managing to get the swarm, the donor hive always builds up more rapidly than when a number of drops of comb are taken and replaced with new top bars. Similarly a swarm builds up to produce a better new colony.”