>Thanks, I found the info on your site helpful.I did come across another hive style on another site. It is a box divided in two by a five mesh hardware cloth so the queen could only be on one side,but the workers could go back and forth between the sides.
This is a common hive in Africa. It is not legal anywhere in the US or any other "developed" country that I know of because it does not have movable frames. The "coffee wire" queen excluder (#5 hardware cloth) isn't the easiest on the bees. The smooth metal queen excluders are much less hard on the bees wings and will let pollen through.
> It also hade removable sides for easy harvesting.
In this case "easy" is a very relative term. I have tried box hives for short term experiments to see how it works. Yes, you can harvest. Mine you could flip upside down and remove all the sides, which is about as much access as one can get without movable comb. No, it's not easy. It is very messy and you will drown a lot of bees doing the harvest.
> Do you know if this really works
It "works" to some extent.
> or should I still use the top bar hive?
Yes, you should have movable comb even if you were not required by law to do so. It allows you to be a good steward of the bee's resources.