posted 12 years ago
they're certainly not the first folks to try something like that out. it isn't terribly appealing to me, not for purist or aesthetic reasons, but for more practical reasons. why not keep Langstroth and top bar hives instead of mashing them up into one that requires all sorts of fudging?
the general nature of horizontal top bar hives is that they need fussing over. when the nectar is flowing and a colony is large, honey needs to be harvested to prevent honey-binding. that doesn't personally strike me as a big deal. these hives are also designed so that frequent harvest is not nearly as invasive as it would be in a Langstroth hive, because the nest environment is largely maintained even with the roof off. the standard design also avoids empty space above the colony, which is not something the bees are adapted to encounter and reliably affects their wellbeing negatively.
a goofy and maybe fun experiment, and no egregious harm is being done, but it's not something I would recommend adding to your management strategy.
