55 Gallon Top Bar Barrel Bee Hive

FPS combines my passion for hunting and wildlife conservation with the overall need for self sufficiency.

Step 1: This 55 gallon drum will be the foundation of the bee hive.

Comments

[RushFan]

I love this. I want to start bee keeping, and I have a cheap source of plastic barrels. Thanks!!

[deekelleybeelover]

Very excited to find this. Thank you so much for documenting the process and sharing your work with us! We are helping to save our planet one recycled plastic barrel at a time... filled with bees!

[rippa700]

If you drop a wooden dowel vertically down from the centre of the top bars it encourages the bees to build straight and it makes the combs easier to lift should you have to inspect them. Makes the combs less floppy.
Otherwise great project I love it. A plastic drum might give better temperature stability to the hive. At least make sure that one is in the shade.

[mjohnson84]

attached to the top bar?? brad?

[rippa700]

Yes, drill a hole in the top bar and insert the dowel vertically downwards. I have seen a successful queen excluder built in wood. It is basically like a vertical hanging frame with wooden slats like a venitian blind. The bees propolysed up most of it bu continued to work through it to store honey leaving the brood in the first half of the hive.

[mjohnson84]

curious - could you also use 3 dowels the same way - to stabilize?

Do you have a picture of the queen excluder built as you say?

[mjohnson84]

drill hole for the dowel - use wood glue to hold it?

[rippa700]

Yes. My friend who does this has just one dowel in the cenre and it works fine. No need for 3. I'll see if he has a picture of his queen excluder as it is a beautiful bit of work.

[mjohnson84]

Yay, I will look forward to seeing it. I no nothing about bees, except that they love the borage I have in the summer. I am putting in a few blueberry plants, and 3 fruit trees. I have the suit - smoker - and almost have the hive. lol - and "want" the bees. I got my frame made today for the barrell top bar hive. got round post for the legs - too bad I didnt check out that pic again - cause he used landscape timbers. Advantage - two flat sides. ;/ guess I may have to chisel out a spot to flush the brace. ;/ live and learn. btw - are italian bees more agressive than the carolinas? I'm from the south - so of course, I'm partial.

[rippa700]

I'm in UK - and I use local bees, but so called Hawaii bees are popular here for being docile and good honey producers.

[mjohnson84]

I saw a man online that said he would never use a queen excluder because it damaged the bees wings... ? I need to do more homework.

[rippa700]

Possibly a cheap zinc one might but I have used one in all my hives for some years and all the friends who keep bees use them and I have never ever heard of damaged wings that way. Varoa mites cause wing defects and he might be confusing that...

[mjohnson84]

thanks for your replies - I appreciate any and all info -

[foodplotsurvival]

Thank you for the dowel idea!! I will try it.

These hives will be slightly shaded... cooler in the summer and heat absorbers in the winter when the leaves have fallen.

[BushkillFarms]

Here is one that I made in 2007. Biggest issue is that you have to keep on top of them when building comb. Bees, by instinct, will curve comb on top bars that are longer than 12" or so, so you must cut and straighten as they build, otherwise by the time they get to the edge of the barrel the comb will be attached to the adjacent top bar. If you don't stay on top of it, you can end up with a huge problem/mess when all the top bars are attached to multiple combs.

More details can be found at http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/barrel-top-bar-hive/

It was also features in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Backwoodsman Magazine.

 I would also recommend http://www.beemaster.com for any new or hobbyist beekeepers, great community, ad-free, and geared towards hobbyist

[mjohnson84]

awesome - one for me ;/ ^^

[mjohnson84]

what about keeping the queen from making brood in the honey cells?? No bee keeper - just want them.

[mjohnson84]

nice house.

[mjohnson84]

it's not the level - it's the "pink shoes" ^^

[mjohnson84]

beautifully done.

[mjohnson84]

here's to ten fingers AND ten toes! lol

[finton]

Excellent Instructable foodplotsurvival!
One question though: given that the ends of the barrel curve inwards (thus making a smaller diameter), doesn't that mean that fully drawn comb from the middle wouldn't fit in the ends? I'm thinking of brood nest manipulation and so on.
Otherwise, I have one of these barrels and am considering following your very clear directions to make two of these.

[foodplotsurvival]

The brood nest should stay at the front of the hive. The bees leave plenty of room around the comb for all the farther you will slide the top bars in order to make room for more as you expand your hive.
Since the comb laden with honey is destroyed for honey extraction the size of those combs no longer becomes an issue.

[finton]

Okaayy, I think I'm with you. Couple more questions then, if you would:
1 Do you have problems inspecting such large combs, especially given they are unsupported
2 How have you gone with apiary inspectors checking your hives? For my Langstroth hives they've always done the inspections while I wasn't there - I'd be reluctant to let them do that with a topbar hive.

I have been a conventional beekeeper for years, and have read a lot about topbar hives, but would like your experiences in these questions. Thanks.

[fretted]

The bees that swarmed in the wall of my home started hanging their hive from the top cap of an inside wall i had to cut out a wall and suck them into a bee box and then they were transfered to a hive a couple miles down the road .

It was neat being that close to a swarm of bees and they didn't even act like tey were mad i had them all over me just walking around and as soon as the queen was in the box they all settled down for the short ride to their new hive .

I tell you i have a new respect for hives and bees they are amazing creatures this Ible will make for a great project on my little place i have enough room for a couple of these .

Great job keep up the great work ...

[lucek]

Your neighbors must love you.

[aje127]

lol why? for the free honey or the bee stings. lol

[lucek]

From my experiences you get the honey (maybe a few neighbors to each side) They get the sting. You are literally bring a biblical plague un to your street to have honey.

[FrozenIce]

Am i the only one around here, that expected to read something funny in the bottom line of the main picture's caption?

[LeumasYrrep]

I seen the thumbnail of this Instructable and was expecting a meme or demotivational poster.

[antoniraj]

nice project... I have a few doubts..

I did not see any brood chamber in your design. Did I miss it?

Secondly, how are you going to extract honey without damaging the honeycombs?

However good project

[foodplotsurvival]

Please google top bar hives. it is not my design, top bars have been around much longer than commercial hives. the bees create the brood chamber naturally without interference from us.

[caracal]

Great instruction and I love the way it looks. We are new to bees. I got alot of good tips as well. I found 3 bee homes on our property, 2 in the ground and 1 in a tree. Joined the local bee organization for additional help. They got to run out of room sometime. Right?

[caseymo50]

In what climate do you live? I am concerned about the bees keeping warm enough through the winter in this hive.
This is a simple, durable, and elegant design, however.

[Corvidae]

As a warning if apiculture is big business for you area you may have restrictions on hive types. Top bar hives do not have easily removed and inspected frames so they are illegal to use here in Florida. We have to use frameed hives. You can go foundationless in a hive type that uses frames if you want a more 'natural' hive. Your apiculture inspector may make you change out your top bar hives for something else if you go that route. I reccomend getting inspected because your inspector is usually a really helpful person when you are getting started or have a problem. Don't worry inspection is cheap. In FL its $10 for up to like 25 or 30 hives. You can probably get more help learning to keep bees if you use the same style hive that everyone around you uses. You may have a local bee club where all the keepers in the are get together. They are a treasure trove of info. Check with your local county extension office or ag office to see if they know about where the club meets.

[hsteinbe]

That statement is incorrect, "Top bar hives do not have easily removed and inspected frames" I have two top bar hives and in both of them all of the bars are easily removable.

[hlanelee]

Corvidae has a point. Bees have a tendency to build across the bars so that combs are not removable for inspection for foulbrood without destroying them. As a result a hive like this would not be legal to keep in South Carolina.

[hsteinbe]

I have two top bars hives and neither of them have comb build across the bars. All of the bars come right out for inspection.

[karl w becker]

My only concern is the use of pressure treated lumber,it has Arsnic and othe toxins in it. Otherwise it's brilliant! I raised bees as akid in West Virginia and you have me exieted about it all over again.

[hsteinbe]

Pressure treated wood is no longer made with arsenic, it is made with copper. Only the legs and frame need be treated wood, all of the wood that the bees contact can be untreated.