Long hives have no support and generally do fine if you handle them correctly, so a lot depends on your intentions and handling skills.
... and workload. For the back garden beekeeper with a couple of hives, great care can be given to handling, but those with large numbers of hives simply do not have time to handle frames like that. And quite often I need to view combs at an inclined angle - to catch the light - or even lie them flat for cell-punching.
Then there's transportation - I like to ensure that a customer gets their nuc home with the combs still attached, and not on the floor of the box.
Wiring is a hassle - it takes time and patience, and I'd love to be able to omit that extra job if it were feasible - but on balance I think it's a job worth doing, for it only needs to be done once in the lifetime of a frame ... that is, providing that you don't put that frame in a solar wax melter.
Seems to me that if you're not going to support the comb across the side bars, then you may as well run Top-Bar only, and save yourself a heap of money.
The following is an extract of the opening comments re: the KTBH by the guy largely responsible for it's invention:
G.F. Townsend - Beehive Designs for the Tropics, 1984
In Kenya a modification of the Greek basket hive with movable top bars, which is now called the ?Kenya Top Bar Hive,? is successfully replacing the traditional log hive with fixed combs. The hive was tested on an extensive scale by Mr. Jim Nightingale, of Njoro, Kenya, and proved to be quite successful for Kenya conditions.
With this hive it is possible to remove the frames which contain only honey. The major drawback, which restricts its use to stationary-type beekeeping, is that the combs will break away from the top bar quite readily. The combs must be suspended vertically at all times; if the bar is rotated so that the comb is horizontal, the weight of the comb may cause it to break from the bar. To harvest the honey and beeswax, remove the combs that contain fully capped honey but no pollen or brood.
Mr. Jim Nightingale has found recently that if three small holes, about 2.5 - 3 mm in thickness, are drilled through the top bar, the center one being at a 90 degree angle with the top and the other two sloping inward, then three 2.5 mm strips of wood or bamboo can be passed through these as depicted. When the comb is drawn out over these sticks, the comb will be strong enough to withstand transportation.
LJ
