Hi Sam

Very interesting site - I have been keeping bees for 20 years but top bar beekeeping only 1 year. I doubt I will ever use foundation ever again - and am noting that you don't need to wear any protective gear around your bees. This year I was able to look through all the top bar hives without smoke or gloves and from my previous experience of beekeeping this is not usual. I think bees kept on foundation are cramped and have nothing to do, no wax to draw anyway, so they go out and sting. You wouldn't be handling some of the national boxes I used to have without gloves and veil.

Interested to hear you have met Dee. I visited two of her apiaries on uTube one night when I was unable to sleep. What is her opinion of natural cell as against small cell foundation. To my mind foundation is at the base of a lot of the problems and people just won't admit it.

This season I will gradually replace all my comb and let the bees build new colonies, as though they were prime swarms. Interested in your assertion that cell size will gradually diminish and will be looking carefully at the combs that are withdrawn this year and making measurements.

Good beekeeping
jcrosskey@skepticbee.com

Hi Sam - good to see we are singing the same song! I look forward to hearing more from you in the chatroom. I hope you can spend some time on our top bar forum, too.

Best wishes from the Barefoot Beekeeper - www.biobees.com