Editing Beehive (section)

==== Top-bar hives ====
[[File:Ruche horizontale dans un jardin.JPG|thumb|Top bar hive]]
{{main|Top-bar hive}}

Horizontal hives often use top-bars instead of frames. Top bars are simple lengths of timber often made by cutting scrap wood to size; it is not necessary to buy or assemble frames. The top bars form a continuous roof over the hive chamber, unlike conventional frames which offer a bee-space gap so that the bees can move up and down between hive boxes. The beekeeper does not usually provide foundation wax (or provides only a small starter piece of foundation) for the bees to build from. The bees build the comb so it hangs down from the top bar. This is in keeping with the way bees build wax in a natural cavity.<ref name="TBH Bee Culture">{{cite web |last1=Carr |first1=TJ |last2=Bradford |first2=John |title=Standard Top Bars For The Beekeeper |url=https://www.beeculture.com/standard-top-bars-for-the-beekeeper/ |website=Bee Culture |access-date=18 February 2020 |date=January 28, 2016}}</ref>

Because the unsupported comb built from a top bar cannot usually be centrifuged in a honey extractor, the honey is usually extracted by crushing and straining rather than centrifuging. Because the bees have to rebuild their comb after the honey is harvested, a top-bar hive yields a beeswax harvest in addition to honey. Queen excluders may or may not be used to keep the brood areas entirely separate from the honey. Even if no queen excluder is used, the bees store most of their honey separately from the areas where they are raising the brood, and honey can still be harvested without killing the bees or brood.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blackiston |first1=Howland |title=Beekeeping for Dummies |edition=4th |chapter-url=https://www.dummies.com/home-garden/hobby-farming/beekeeping/harvesting-honey-top-bar-hive/ |chapter=Harvesting Honey from Your Top Bar Hive}}</ref>
* '''Cathedral Hive''': Modified top bar. The top bar is split into 3 equal parts and joined at angles of 120° to form half a hexagon.