The Barefoot Beekeeper

Bottomless Beekeeping

The top bar hive in the video is a pattern known as a 'Kenyan Top Bar Hive', which means that is has sloping sides, forming a open 'V' shape but with a flat bottom. The floor is usually covered, either with mesh or wood, but this particular hive is bottomless, as part of an experiment to find the best conditions in which bees can thrive and look after their own needs, with minimal interference.

These bees are well into their second season in a bottomless hive, and appear to be quite happy and healthy.

This is not a practice I would recommend to beginners, but it does show that - at least in a mild climate - bees can get by with relatively little in the way of creature comforts. While the bottom of the hive is open, the top is effectively sealed and thus moisture-laden, stale air moves down the sides and out the bottom, drawing fresh air up through the middle. Because there is no 'chimney' effect, as there would be if there was top ventilation, this process happens slowly and does not cause disturbing draughts for the bees.

2008 SECOND EDITION NOW AVAILABLE: 'The Barefoot Beekeeper' - A simple, sustainable approach to small-scale beekeeping using top bar hives. Now available as a printed book or downloadable PDF - click here for more about the Barefoot Beekeeper

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• Introduction to The Barefoot Beekeeper by P J Chandler (free PDF)


• How To Build a Top Bar Hive - free, downloadable ebook that gives detailed, fully-illustrated, step-by-step instructions for building the top bar hive described in The Barefoot Beekeeper. (This is the PDF version - see top menu for other download options.)


• Towards Sustainable Beekeeping - articles that appeared in the 2007 Beekeeper's Annual and in Beekeeper's Quarterly

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• If you wish to send a message to the author of this site, Phil Chandler, please use the 'contact us' link on the top menu.
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"For the bee, honey is the ultimate reality. It represents the fulfillment of her life mission, the triumph over her enemies, the continuity of the hive, the justification for working herself to death. Honey is to bees what money in the bank is to people—a measure of prosperity and well-being. But there is nothing abstract or symbolic about honey, as there is about money, which has no intrinsic value. There is more real wealth in a pound of honey, or a load of manure for that matter, than all the currency in the world. We often destroy the world's real wealth to create an illusion of wealth, confusing symbol and substance."
Wm. Longgood, The Queen Must Die

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