Top-Bar Versus Frame Hive Economics Over a Working Life: Cost per Kilogram, Labour Valuation, and the Break-Even Bounds Between the Two Systems

This study is simulated, not measured. Costing a frame hive at a capital cost of 320.0 dollars and a top-bar hive at 110.0 dollars, with net yields of 25.0 kg per year for the frame hive and 15.0 kg per year for the top-bar hive after a wax-rebuild charge of 3.0 kg, the cost per kilogram over 5 years at unpaid labour is 4.16 dollars for the frame hive and 1.87 dollars for the top-bar hive, while at a labour value of 20 dollars per hour it is 8.96 dollars for the frame hive and 9.2 dollars for the top-bar hive. Over 10 years at unpaid labour the figures are 2.88 dollars and 1.13 dollars, and at 20 dollars per hour they are 7.68 dollars and 8.47 dollars. The break-even labour value is 18.11 dollars per hour over 5 years and 13.79 dollars per hour over 10 years: below those values the top-bar hive produces cheaper honey, and above them the frame hive does. At unpaid labour the frame hive would need a yield ratio of 3.7143 to win over 5 years, far above the assumed ratio of 1.6667, whereas at 20 dollars per hour it needs only 1.6232, which the assumed ratio exceeds.