Quote Originally Posted by Calum View Post
Good business for beekeeper suppliers, they get to sell beginners a topbar in the first year, then get to sell them what they actually need a year or two later.

They are cheaper, but candles are cheaper than energy efficient lightbulbs too...
LOL. Good to see I am not alone in the cynics club.
I think top bar hives are a viable option if you are on a really low budget and are into happy clappy save the bees thinking, although come to think of it losses are often high. Mind you, there is the option of correx if you want to make a hive for next to nothing. The main problem with the TBH is the baggage which comes with it re. leave alone beekeeping and swarming themselves to oblivion. The great master and author of the barefoot beekeeper admitted on his own forum that he had been ´wiped out´and lost all his bees 3 times in the last 10 years due to non treatment of varroa in his top bar hives.