“New And Improved” Top Bar Hive

“New And Improved” Top Bar Hive FARM HOME Miscellaneous We recently got a call from long time bee keeper Roland Reed in North Carolina who says his new Modern Top Bar Hive is a big improvement over traditional top bar hives on the market The patented Modern Top Bar Hive is a horizontal/vertical top bar hive designed for beginning beekeepers as well as experienced bee keepers “It produces up to 3 times more honey than traditional top bar hives and lets you use 90 percent of the standard deep super equipment that most bee keepers already have ” says Reed who has 45 years experience in beekeeping “You never have to lift more than 9 lbs once it’s installed which makes it ideal for both young and old people The 76-year-old Reed says over the years he has found many problems with traditional top bar hives “They use a freestanding bar with no horizontal or vertical support other than the bar at the top The problem is that you can’t harvest a lot of honey easily and every time you cut the comb off the bees have to make that back ” says Reed “My system doesn’t force the bees to work horizontally It reuses drawn frames so bees don’t have to waste 9 lbs of honey to replace each comb Honey can be extracted efficiently and the frames can be easily reused as they’re totally interchangeable within the hive and with any other standard beekeeping equipment There’s no need to make new ‘size to fit’ equipment as many people do with traditional top bar hives ” The structure shape and layering system of the Modern Top Bar Hive increases the number of bees by allowing more permanent space for brood or bee larva says Reed “By putting a lot of young developing bees onto a single level you’re allowing the bees to put a lot more honey into other places - not next to where all the brood is but on top of the brood ” The Modern Top Bar Hive employs 90 percent of the standard deep super equipment bee keepers may already own says Reed That includes deep frames deep supers foundation inner covers outer covers telescoping/migratory drone comb frames queen excluders and inside or outside feeders “The system comes with a fully integrated undercarriage consisting of a bottom board with a Varroa mite/small hive beetle trap system a box or brood chamber a lid which has a special size outer cover and a series of divider boards or baffles You can purchase everything else including all internal workings from your local beekeeping supplier ” says Reed The mite/beetle double trap system is unique says Reed “The insects fall through a grid and land in a bath of cooking oil on a pan where they can’t fly out and drown in the oil ” says Reed “Any insects that don’t fall through are caught in a second trap that contains drone cells The drone cells attract Varroa mites more than worker cell bees by a 10 to 1 ratio The trap will significantly reduce the number of mites and beetles all summer long ” The hive is manufactured with premium quality Cypress wood that lasts five times longer than conventional pine beekeeping equipment says Reed The hives range in price from $329 for the basic model which is for beekeepers who already own the internal hive part inner covers frames foundation etc The Educator version sells for $645 and includes a fully assembled color coded hive including a collection super It has a viewing window to allow beekeepers children and other interested parties to watch the bees in action without opening the hive The Producer sells for $622 Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Roland Reed ph 910 327-9600; reedrolando@gmail com; www moderntopbarhive com

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