Jamaica Beek

So, I have been in Strawberry Fields, Jamaica at the Yerba Buena Farm for 4 full days and have a whirlwind teaching experience across the country through the Farmer to Farmer Program.

I'm here teaching top bar beekeeping techniques in a country desperate for a change in hive style since beeswax has been banned for importation. No cheap beeswax means the already expensive langstroth hive is even more expensive to maintain. They are looking to top bar to increase their beeswax production. In fact, if you have a beeyard, it is recommended that you have 10% top bar hives to help make the foundation.

I can't begin to tell you how exciting it is to begin an "Intro to Top Bar/ Treatment Free" class with an audience of dubious beekeepers, and leave with those same beekeepers pulling out measuring tapes to start making top bar hives when they get home.

Here are a few pics of transferring a langstroth hive into a top bar body.

Kwao cutting a langstroth frame and adding it to a "comb saver" to transfer a Lang hive to Top Bar

The New Lang in the St. Barton Bee Association Bee yard in Jamaica

Beekeeping in paradise