Top bar beekeeping offers a solution to Colony Collapse Disorder PDF Print
by Will Gottlieb
Coastal Journal staff
BATH -- Christy Hemenway of Gold Star Alpacas in Bath is one of a number of beekeeping revolutionaries who are starting to change the way humans interact with bees. Her contribution to the beekeeping world is the Gold Star Top Bar Beehive Kit, which retails for $425 and is manufactured here locally.
According to Hemenway and beekeeping experts like P.J. Chandler, the need for change in beekeeping practices is crucial. Most people have heard of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which in recent years has offered North America the specter of a world without bees -- no bees, no flowers; no flowers, no vegetables, etc. A terrible thing to contemplate.
The chief suspect in the CCD chain is the Varroa mite, a parasite that weakens and sickens bees in various ways, and which is becoming more prevalent in hives in this country and elsewhere.
And the key to breaking that CCD chain, says Hemenway, is to change the way we house and nurture bees. In her own words:
“Let's start with what we call conventional beekeeping equipment, which is probably what you're conjuring up in your mind's eye when we're talking beehives. It's a white, rectangular with what they call frames in them. And the frames have a top bar and sides and a bottom. And what they put inside there in the bottom is a sheet of wax, which they call foundation. In a top bar hive, all you have is a top bar. It sits in a box with sloped sides. There's no foundation in it, the bees make all of their own wax.
“It's not aimed at forcing bees to make more honey than they normally would. Bees make honey anyway, as a matter of course. But a lot of conventional beekeeping is focused on honey production at all costs, whether to the bees or the beekeepers. And they end up using a lot of chemicals to treat for mites, as opposed to letting nature take its course and being healthy and treatment free, and keeping the whole thing in balance.
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“The reason top bar beekeeping is better than conventional beekeeping is the bees have to make their own wax. If they're not put on foundation, then they, the bees, make it the size they want it to be. It doesn't come already pre-impregnated with chemicals, which is something that has been going on for about 100 years with conventional hives.
“They put this wax foundation in, the bees draw that out, and then [the beekeepers] treat them for mites or other diseases. And the chemicals that they use -- which the mites have become resistant to, by now -- are wax-soluble, so they get into that wax, and that same wax is melted down and made into foundation again, so it comes to you already 'pre-treated' with a bunch of junk in it, and then they treat it again. And so what they end up doing is using, in essence, poisonous wax for bees to draw out, fill with honey and lay their eggs in. So we're asking them to use this poisoned, pre-printed wax.
“So a couple things go on when you do that. First of all, you have the obvious accumulation of chemicals. And a sub-lethal dose is one thing, but multiple copies of a sub-lethal dose are, apparently, building up and becoming harmful. The other thing that goes on with pre-printed foundation is, it's all one size. Whereas bees come in different sizes: Worker bees are little bitty girls, drones are bigger, chunkier guys. And when you look at a comb, you can definitely tell the difference between a worker cell and a drone. So what they're kind of causing to happen is, if you look at a printed foundation, they've all got hexagons on them that the bees try to draw out. And they're forcing all the bees to use all the same-size hexagons. The problem with the size their using is, A. they're all the same size, and B. the size they've pre-printed is not the size that a regular bee would make.
“So what happens is it increases the gestation period of bee larvae by one 24-hour period. And that 24-hour period is before the cell is capped over by the nurse bees, and that 24-hour period is when the Varroa mite gets in there just a little extra early and starts munching on that little guy before it even turns into a bee.”
In top-bar beekeeping, said Hemenway, none of the above applies. The bees are not over-treated, leading to resistant strains of parasites and diseases, and since the top-bar hive is “opened” only one stick at a time, they're not being stressed by being periodically exposed to smoke and then having the roof of their warm, cozy world removed to admit harsh light and cold air.
And there's good news for the beekeeper, who no longer has to lift 80 pounds of hive in order to accomplish basic maintainance -- and, oh yes, the beekeeper is exposed to fewer, less irate bees in the process. Very important for those of us who do not enjoy getting stung.
