Tim Evans says that UK beekeepers should swap their frame hives for top-bar hives if they want to avoid chemical interventions and sugar feeding

The photograph accompanying your piece (How Liberia’s killer bees are helping to rebuild livelihoods, 4 December) shows a Liberian beekeeper holding curved comb from a top-bar hive, not the oblong combs of the frame hives generally used in the UK. Top-bar hives, traditional in Africa, allow bees to build comb in the shape they wish, and to structure their nest according to their natural instincts. These hives are usually managed without constant intrusive inspections, chemical interventions and sugar feeding.

A significant minority of UK beekeepers have adopted these methods. We find that they keep bees healthier than conventional systems, and our experience is borne out by the work of Cornell University’s eminent Professor Thomas Seeley, among other scientists.

Unfortunately the British Beekeepers Association frowns on our pioneering spirit, and since they control most funding for training new beekeepers, we remain as little known to the general public as organic growers were a few decades ago.

Tim Evans

London

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