In the last couple of months, there has been a big kerfuffle over Top Bar Hive (TBH) beekeeping in New Zealand. Honestly, you’d be shocked at how high emotions have been riding. There have been bully boy tactics and even threats by some commercial beekeepers to trespass on people’s property with the intent to BURN Top Bar Hives owned by hobbyist beekeepers. I wish I was kidding about that. Most beekeepers aren’t that way inclined, obviously, but things have gotten a bit out of control here and there.
What’s the fuss about, you ask? Inspection for American Foulbrood (AFB). You can see in the two videos in this post that it is perfectly feasible to inspect for AFB in TBHs. People do it all the time. There are TBHs all over the world and commercial and hobbyist beekeepers rarely come to blows or commit arson on each other’s property.
Janet Luke of the Save Our Bees Charitable Trust, a Top Bar Hive advocate who runs classes on Top Bar Hive beekeeping, had a meeting with Associate Chairman of the National Beekeeping Association Franz Laas on 15 June 2011 to speak for Top Bar Hive beekeepers. When Luke asked him “Am I breaking the law by having a Top Bar Hive in my garden?” His response was “No, you are not, but there is some confusion over the law. It is all about how you interpret the letter of the law or the intent of the law.”
According to the Hawkes Bay Today article below, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry senior policy analyst Paul Bloger said a test case in court would be needed to determine the legal statues of top bar hives. I suspect that such a case would bring a lot of negative publicity that the government would rather avoid.
Given the dire state of bees world wide, most countries are ENCOURAGING hobbyist beekeepers, not making it harder for them. Top Bar Hive beekeeping is much less expensive to get into than Langstroth beehive keeping, so attacking it can also be seen as elitist-something else the government doesn’t want to touch with the proverbial 10 foot pole.
So, what will happen next? The National Beekeepers Association is suggesting a working group of major stakeholders to discuss the issues and find some resolution. They want to use Janet Luke of Save Our Bees as the contact person for any discussions on Top Bar Hives. As far as I’m concerned, this is fantastic. Janet is a great advocate for TBHs and would love to hear from any folks who have questions or concerns about the issues. You can contact her through Save Our Bees. But let’s not leave it all up to Janet! Address your constructive (yes, constructive!) thoughts on Top Bar Hives to Rex Baynes at email@example.com.
Meanwhile, make sure that all your hives, TBH or Langstroth are registered. Hive Rego forms available at your click.