It may never be known just how long mankind has
been using top bar hive principles. The sticks
and the straw have long since disintegrated.
There are drawings of beekeeping in Egypt
 . Early beekeepers are depicted blowing smoke into
hives of the
or Neuserre Izi or Niuserre Isi and sometimes
known as Rathoris), before 2422 BC.
Thomas Wildeman, 1768/1769, describes an early
straw hive or skep "so that there are in all
seven bars of deal" [in a 10-inch-diameter (250
mm) hive] "to which the bees fix their combs".
Wildeman suggests to the readers a less
destructive form of beekeeping over the old skep
and killing the bees for the honey.
Wildeman even thought to include a straw top at
a later time similar to modern supers.
Sir George Wheler, accompanied by Dr. Spoil of
Lyons, published “A Journey into Greece in 1682.
Sir Wheler studied many ancient artifacts in
Greece including a
Greek hive—an inverted skep with wooden bars 1
1/2″ (38 mm) wide across the top to which bees attached their comb.
The sloping sides of which reduced the bees
tendency to attach combs to the sides allowing
the beekeeper to manage the colony with minimal
The Honey Bee; its Natural
History, Physiology, and Management,
published in 1827 by Edward Bevan details a
multi-story top bar hive. Lorenzo L. Langstroth
frequently references Bevan’s work in his “Hive
and the Honey Bee”. Edward Bevan made his top
bars 1 1/8″
wide, with a 7/16″ gap between center combs (1 1/2″
between combs) and gradually increasing the gap
to 9/16 (1 5/8″
Eva Crane, founder of
International Bee Research Association(IBRA),
documents seeing top bar hives in various
cultures starting in 1949
Eva traveled to such places as Greece, Turkey,
Iraq and Iran. Mrs. Crane compiled 60,000 works
on apiculture currently housed at the National
Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. It is no wonder
so many cultures discovered the bees propensity
to attach comb to any horizontal surface.
The present day
top bar hive, with sloped sides (Kenyan) was
developed in the early 1970’s by a Canadian,
Maurice Smith. It has sloped sides, about 30 to
40 degrees, similar to Dr. Whelers Greek
findings. The original top bars were of wood 1
3/8 inches wide. Vertical guides with wax were
suggested to promote straight comb building. Top
bar length was 15 to 24 inches. Langstroth used
the same 1 3/8 spacing for his frames almost 150