Frequently Asked Questions

While you can absolutely enjoy all the benefits of beekeeping with a single hive, all experts, beekeepers, books, and classes will tell you that it is best to start with at least two hives. This is not so that Skookum can sell more hives, mind you; it is so you can compare hives and colony performance. It is nearly impossible for a new beekeeper to be able to tell if their colony is doing well or not if they only have a single hive to look at. With two or more hives, you can compare one colony to another to see if one is doing better than the other. This will provide critical information for you as the beekeeper.

Sorry, no. We sell only the hives. If you are looking for an excellent source for bees for your Skookum Top Bar Beehives, check out Sweet Mountain Honey.

The short answer to this is no, yes, maybe, and it depends. Researchers and experts have found some ways in which Top Bar hives could be better than other types, but they have also found ways in which it is not as good as other hives. For example, Top Bar hives have a smaller volume (Skookum's hives are approximately 58 liters in volume), which researchers say is more in line with wild bees' preferences (30-60 liters) and may aid in maintaining a healthier colony (maybe). On the other hand, bees tend to build vertically, with brood at the bottom (closest to the entrance), pollen and nectar directly above and around the brood for direct use by nurse bees, and honey storage at the top (and fringes) of the nest structure; this matches more with a traditional hive setup, which is vertical. However, wild honeybees have also been found in horizontal nest cavities (such as in downed tree trunks), and they have been found in bigger and smaller nest cavities than the 30-60 liters cited above. The better question is not is a Top Bar hive better, it's if a Top Bar hive is better for you, as the beekeeper, and your desired management style.

Top Bar hives are lower impact than traditional Langstroth hive inspections and management. Traditional hives require that you disassemble the entire hive box by box, but Top Bar hives are inspected one top bar at a time, so the main structure remains intact. This also means that, instead of lifting 50-80 pound honey super boxes off of a traditional hive, you only lift a single 5-8 pound top bar at a time. 

Top Bar honey is harvested by cutting the honey filled comb from the top bar, putting it in a fine-mesh bag, crushing it by hand, and then forcing the honey through the mesh and into a container. You can also place the comb in a modified cider press to force the honey out of the comb.