I just discovered, through Anita at Beverly Bees, a (new to me) beekeeper, Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries. He's a big proponent of the top bar hive and treatment-free beekeeping. After seeing Anita's post I found a series of videos where he gives a talk about his origins, learning experiences, and benefits of a top bar hive (posted below).
While he states early on that there is no right or wrong in his world view, he does seem to have a strong distaste for the Langstroth hive and the frames that go with them, claiming "they tend to cause the disease." A statement that I fail to understand. Particularly because his argument is mainly against foundation and not the frame itself. However, he makes some very good arguments in favor of treatment-free and foundationless beekeeping.
Although I'm not using top bar hives currently, I'm not really against them either. I think they have their good and bad points, just like Langstroth. Maybe in another year or 2 I'll give the top bar hives a trial and see how I like them. Some of his points in favor of the top bar are certainly very appealing to me.
Unfortunately the video series cuts off the talk. I'm not sure how much longer he goes on, but it's still worth the watch. So here you go:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
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