About Us

Hello, my name is Joey. I started keeping bees in 2000 and soon became interested in Top Bar Hives. I have a background in construction so I decided to build a Top Bar Hive. After looking at several of the free plans offered online at the time I found at least one thing about each design that I didn't like. After much frustration I finally decided to design my own hive. This was the beginning of a long and enjoyable journey. The first hive was my favorite even though it didn't work very well. I installed a package in it and watched it like a hawk that first summer. I opened it every day and made notes on how the bees reacted, how much progress they had made and anything else I could think of to make notes on.

As time went on I made many changes to that first hive. I tried every bar style I could think of and finally found the secret to successful bars. That first hive also taught me the correct angle for the sides of the hive. In short, although my first hive was a failure it was truly a success because it taught me so much about what the bees want and how to build a hive that they are happy in.

Over the following years I made many changes to my hive design depending on what I saw after each change in hive design and how the bees reacted to these changes. The hive design I offer today is the result of many years of changes and bees approval or disapproval of these changes. So in reality my current design is bee approved.

About our hives

Our hives are the result of many years of research. Many of the hives found online today are built by folks who don't have bees or know nothing about beekeeping. These may be fine hives but it just seems to me that a person would want to buy a hive from someone who has actually kept bees in the same design as they are offering for sale. I wouldn't take my truck to a brick mason to have the engine rebuilt. Our hive design is the result of many years of testing. Each time I had a new idea for the hive I would build a completely new hive with the upgrades or changes and put bees in it. I would observe the bees in the new hive to see how they reacted to the changes. The bee's reaction to the changes would prompt new changes and that would of course require a new hive with the changes. This process went on for a number of years until I had a hive design that worked for the bees.

Bees that are happy in a hive are more productive and much less aggressive. My main goal in the beginning was to come up with a hive design which would be comfortable and stress free for the bees. Stress in bees causes two things, death and aggression. As the beekeeper we don't want aggressive bees, and we certainly don't want our bees to die.

Over the course of my research I discovered that bees are very particular about angles. It took a good amount of research for me to figure out what angles they wanted. Once I figured that out things started coming together for me.

Our current design is built with all of the secrets that I worked so hard and long to figure out. Over the years a lot of bees communicated to me what they wanted and needed in the design. The hive we offer today is the direct result of all the hard work and efforts put forth by myself and my bees over the years.