More the Same Than Different – Discussing Top Bar and Standard Hives, Part 2

Reader Contribution by Christy Hemenway

Hello, Kim — 

Nice job – that’s a very neutral start for a blog about a subject that still occasionally seems to hit some beekeeper’s hot buttons.

There were definitely times in Gold Star Honeybees’ earlier days when I was referred to as “that top bar whacko”, and it seemed to me like I was everybody’s favorite target, but I have to say now that much of the… what would I call it… animosity?  hostility?  heat?  Whatever it was, it has mostly faded away, or at least cooled down several degrees.  

People eventually got curious and started asking questions and finally, it seemed like they began to worry a little less that they might lose their beekeeper badge if they investigated the features of a beehive other than the good Reverend’s stack of rectangular boxes.  Not that everyone’s changed their mind or made the switch – but it’s definitely a saner world today.

Of course, while we’re on the subject of hot debates – one could actually take both terms “Natural” and “Traditional” and toss them out the window.  There’s not much natural about asking bees to live in boxes where we can manipulate the very structure of their nest – and 158 years really isn’t all that long in the world of tradition.  

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