HORIZONTAL TOP-BAR HIVE PLANS
What are Horizontal Top-Bar Hives? (free, easy DIY plans below!)
Top-bar hives have been used since ancient Greece, offering a simple, no-nonsense, effective approach to beekeeping.
Today’s Horizontal Top-Bar Hives are a modern take on this time-tested method.
Thanks to their horizontal design and thick walls and bars, these hives perform well in all climates, from the freezing winters of Nebraska and Vermont to the intense heat of Texas.
Because they don't use costly frames and foundation, they are arguably the most cost-effective, the easiest to manage, and the most bee-friendly hive option there is today.
Bees build 100% natural comb on removable bars, optimizing cell sizes based on their needs, without exposure to chemical-laden foundation. This freedom is critical to hive health and resilience.
The designof these Horizontal Hives is ergonomic and back-friendly, making them super accessible to all: inspections are done horizontally one bar at a time at waist level, with no heavy lifting or stressful exposure of the brood, limiting interference with their natural organization. With the brood nest near the entrance and surplus stores in the back, it's easy to keep track of where everything is at all times. Minimally invasive inspections keep the colony calmer, healthier, and the beekeeper more comfortable.
Top-bar hives also align closely with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles. They support natural bee behaviors, cultural and mechanical strategies, greatly reducing the need for treatments, and offering a strong defense against pests like Varroa.
Why am I making the Les-Is-More hive plans below available to all for free?
Because I can, as this is my redesign of Les Crowder’s plans, created with his blessing to serve as an international standard for Horizontal Top-Bar Hives!
But more importantly, because I want everyone to have the chance to try at least one without breaking the bank. I know that once they do, they’ll fall in love, and not just because these hives support healthier bees and free beekeepers from the burden of expensive gear and supplies.
I offer these plans below free of charge, because I want to encourage more people to build and use them, and even start a business of their own selling them and/or selling Top-Bar NUCs of bees for their customers (in Texas, those sell for about $350 each for 4/5 bars of brood/food/bees/queen!).
Please note I also invented the Flex Hive (see my blog), an easy way to adapt Langstroth colonies and frames to Top-Bar Hive format.
Yes, I do realize I could monetize these plans for my own profit...
However, my overarching goal is instead to promote horizontal top-bar beekeeping as a sustainable option for most beekeepers around the world, and to make these plans available to people of all backgrounds and means, so that anyone, including those who would not otherwise have the means to access these plans or hives, still can start keeping bees in top-bar hives as easily and cheaply as possible. I am making these plans accessible to all to remove friction to adoption, because Together we rise!
But that's not my only motivation: from working with many different types of hives over almost 2 decades, including Langstroth, Layens, Long Langs, Apimaye, Warre, Flow, Barrel, AZ/Slovenian, and 17in top-bar hives, I know these 20in horizontal top-bar hives don't use expensive, hard to make, constraining frames, and are simpler, cheaper, much lighter and more practical than most other hives, making them ideal for most urban or backyard beekeepers, hobbyists and side liners. They make for calmer, healthier bees and happier beekeepers. A lot of beekeepers around us are switching or starting with these because they make so much more sense than those other complicated to manage, expensive, and hard to build options.
My plans and instructions are free, but if you'd like to support me in my mission and my community outreach efforts, I do welcome your promotion of these plans and Horizontal Top-Bar beekeeping thoughout the bee world.
Whichever way you decide to help, I will be eternally grateful for your support and will use it to continue our efforts of democratization of Natural, Easy Beekeeping as a source of pleasure or income.
Because together, we can make the world a better place, for people of for bees.
Thank YOU!
Nathalie B.
Below are plans for the newly revamped and improved Les Crowder/Bee Mindful designed 19" top-bar hive, which the popular podcast The Hive Jive calls "The People's Hive Of The Future"
Click to listen to the Podcast Episode to hear all the reasons why it is getting so popular :
The "Les-Is-More" Horizontal Top-Bar Hive Plans:
FREE HIVE BOX PLANS:
The "Les-Is-More" Horizontal Top-Bar NUC BOX Plans:
FREE NUC BOX PLANS:
WATCH OUR FRIENDS BUILD THEM!
Nathalie B. assembling hives on a Texas roof:
Our friend Darin filmed a video on how to assemble the hive body and the underside legs for 3-in-1 hives:
Our friend Duane filmed a video on how to assemble the hive body and the underside legs for 3-in-1 hives:
This is what the hive looks with our "HINGED ROOF":
(we simply used two pieces of 2x4s cut at a 30 degree angle and attached the lid to them with roofing screws)
This is what the hive looks like with our "DELUXE ROOF":
(dimensions for the top of the hexagon are the same as those for the bottom of the hexagon, except the top one is made up of 2x4s)
How to repair cross combing with repair bars:
(Video technique + how to make the repair bars)
Why build (or buy) a Bee Mindful Top-Bar HiveTM?
In 1985, Les Crowder had been beekeeping professionally for already over 20 years, using heavy commercial Langstroth hives.
Tired of the back breaking lifting, the endless equipment building/transporting/storing, and the flimsy, expensive cumbersome frames used in those, he decided to use an ancient concept to design his very own horizontal frameless hive so that it was cheap, simple to make/assemble, and easy to manage. The Les Crowder Top-Bar HiveTM was born.
With over 35 years of field testing building and managing his no-nonsense top-bar hives, he partnered with Nathalie B. to revisit and refine his original concept for a truly no-fuss, simple, budget savvy version that respects the natural angles of hexagonal cells (30 degree) and the catenary curve the bees naturally follow when building comb, while making the hives super simple, cheap and easy to manage, turning it into the People's Hive Of The Future: the “Bee Mindful Top-Bar HiveTM” was born.
This Top-Bar Hive features standard 20in” bars that have the tremendous advantage to feature longer comb attachment surface and shallower depth than 17” TBH, which means a higher center of gravity for the combs and much less risk of honey heavy comb collapsing in the heat. They also seem to better promote bee health.
The elegance of this hive resides in its utmost simplicity, accessibility to all, and versatility (can you say double, triple top-bar hive? Langstroth to TBH conversion? Maximum airflow? High customization options? Increased insulation and thermal mass?)
95% of Beekeepers in the US are backyard/homestead beekeepers that do not need to keep their bees the way commercial beekeepers do, and have the luxury to use a more robust, easier to manage hive (commercial hives are best for migratory beekeepers to stack and transport on semi-trailer beds to pollination contracts).
Today, Bee Mindful, LLC provides these free plans for stationary heavy duty top-bar hives so everyone somewhat crafty can make them at home with basic materials, tools and woodworking skills: it only takes a few simple cuts, 5 parts and 30 bars, a few screws and very little time to make.
COMING SOON: our detailed Easy-Peasy Lang to TBH adapter hives (4-in-1 TBH) (see an intro above)